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Boxee has released the first major firmware update for their recently launched Boxee Box set-top, addressing some of the major bugs in the hardware.

The update will fix video artifacts seen in 1080i content via the Internet.

Networking has seen an overhaul, as well, with Boxes now having a "more accurate signal meter" when connected or trying to connect to Wi-Fi. All encryption modes are now supported, as well, and setup is streamlined for faster access.

Shared media will now work better, especially if you are using a Mac computer.

Scaling issues with the browser are now fixed, also, compensating for TV overscan.

Boxee sells the Box for $200, as a universal streaming device.

Microsoft has said this week that there are now 15,000 registered Windows Phone 7 developers, and a total of 3000 apps in the WP7 store.

The number of developers is jumping at an incredible pace, moving from just 8,000 in September, and 13,000 on November 1st.

Marketplace app count has jumped significantly, as well, moving from 1000 last month to the current 3000.

Says Todd Brix, Group Product Planner for the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division at Microsoft (via WR):

"Clearly we’re just getting warmed up. We know that many Windows Phone developers have gone to great lengths to ensure that their apps and games are in Windows Phone Marketplace this holiday season…We’re heading into one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year and we’re on pace to offer roughly 3,000 apps and games by the end of this week."

Caltech (California Institute of Technology) has sued Nokia, LG, Pantech and a number of chipmakers this week, claiming phones made by the companies have components that infringe on their patents.

The university says the mobile phone makers infringe on nine patents relating to camera technology.

Caltech is seeking monetary damages.

Similarly, last year Caltech sued Canon, Nikon and 4 other digital-camera makers, for infringing on six patents relating to pixel sensors in digital cameras.

Microsoft has posted an official response to the emergence of ChevronWP7, the unlocking software used to "jailbreak" Windows Phone 7 devices.

ChevronWP7 gives WP7 owners a chance to install homebrew and unsigned applications on their smartphones.

Until this week, you had to have a Marketplace developer account, which costs $99 per year to side load apps.

Microsoft has said today that using Chevron may brick your device, so would-be hackers should take note (via WinR):

Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom, the founders of infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay have lost their appeal this week, in a file sharing case that convicted each of helping millions of users break Swedish copyright law.

The Svea Appeals Court upheld the convictions on all three men, but reduced their possible jail time to 4-10 months, down from one year.

However, the appeals court raised the penalty the men will have to pay the entertainment industry to $6.5 million, up from $4.5 million in the lower court.

'The Daily,' the upcoming daily digital newspaper from News Corp and Apple may be delayed until 2011, say multiple sources, as Apple has yet to agree to allow recurring subscriptions.

Rumor has it that Apple was planning an iOS 4.3 update for next month that would add subscription support to iTunes. If the delay is accurate, 4.3 may be pushed back until January, as well.

"The Daily" will be available on the iPad to start, and will cost 99 cents per week. The paper will be updated three times per day and be a mix of "tabloid-style" and broadsheets.

A lot of the content will include videos, or audio.

When it launches, analysts have concluded that the Daily will need 800,000 subscriptions to hit profit and revenue targets.

Toshiba and Vizio will introduce Google TV products at the upcoming CES event, says Bloomberg, adding to the growing number of companies with such products in the pipeline.

CES 2011 begins in early January, and the source says that Samsung may also unveil an HDTV with Google TV at the event.

Currently, Sony and Logitech have released Google TV products, including an HDTV, a set-top box and a Blu-ray player.

The U.S. government has taken down Torrent-Finder.com today, among others, seizing the sites without any prior warnings.

A number of other sites, such as 2009jerseys.com, and Dvdcollects.com, were also seized, because they link to counterfeit goods.

Torrent-Finder offers links to unauthorized music tracks and movies.

The homepage of the sites now say: "This domain name has been seized by ICE--Homeland Security Investigations, pursuant to a seizure warrant issued by a United States District Court."

In the notices, the Department of Justice, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of Homeland Security Investigations are all named.

Torrent-Finder did not have its own tracker, however, and instead acted as a "search engine" for public links to copyrighted material.

BBC Worldwide has said today that their new move back into video games could eventually lead to £50 million a year for the media company.

The company went as far as to say the move is "like growing a new limb."

BBC has just revealed its first self-published games for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad, which include Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time, Top Gear: Stunt School and Teletubbies: My First App.

In 2009, the company explained its want to return to gaming, after a numerous year hiatus.

If the £50 million expected revenue is accurate, the gaming section will account for over 10 percent of the company's total revenue by 2012.

ChevronWP7 is here, the first Windows Phone 7 unlocking tool.

As with tools used to "jailbreak" iOS devices, the purpose of ChevronWP7 is to give users a chance to install homebrew and unsigned applications on their smartphones.

Reads the post from Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh and Long Zheng:

Today we have an exciting breakthrough for the Windows Phone 7 homebrew community - the ability for anyone to unlock a WP7 device without a Marketplace developer account.

Despite their note that Chrome OS would not be available on any hardware in 2010, the search giant has said today that the operating system may still launch next month, in a limited software beta.

The company would "not go into details" on when or in what condition the operating system will launch, but it does confirm a public release is scheduled for this year.

Bugs in the software have dwindled, and a pre-release build is in the works.

The operating system will work on all PCs and tablets, but is designed to run best on netbooks.

Acer has unveiled its latest Android device this week, a smartphone with a massive 4.8-inch display and 1024x480 resolution.

The device runs on Android 2.2 Froyo, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and 8MP camera with AF and LED flash and a front-facing 2MP camera, as well.

Acer's unnamed device will also have HSDPA 14.4Mbps support, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, DLNA streaming, 6-axis motion sensing, and an HDMI-out port.

Security company BitDefender has said today that 20 percent of posts that Facebook users see on their "news feed" are actually malware.

60 percent of those attacks come from third-party apps.

22 percent of the malware apps say they will help you see who has been viewing your profile, 15 percent offer "extras" for games you might have like FarmVille, 11 percent offer a "dislike" button (it doesn't exist) and another 7 percent offer links to games.

Rovio Mobile's blockbuster app "Angry Birds" is headed to home consoles, and soon.

The developer also says they are currently working on an Angry Birds 2 game for mobile users.

Rovio's new version of the game will work on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, opening up the game to a whole new giant customer set.

CEO Peter Vesterbacka says the console version will hit next year, likely in the Q1.

Acer has unveiled their latest Iconia notebook today, one that includes dual touchscreens, with no physical buttons necessary.

Each multi-touch display is 14.1-inches.

Additionally, the gadget has an Intel Core i5 processor, a minimum 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium.

Each display is LED-backlit, with an HD resolution of 1366x768. Both displays also have Gorilla Glass protection, protecting from scratches and smudging.