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Adobe revealed today that the latest version of its Flash player is heading to major smartphone operating systems, enabling a wide range of mobile devices to support Flash-enabled websites.

"Flash Player 10.1 is available on Android and Google TV today, with BlackBerry platform, HP webOS 2.0, future versions of Windows Phone, LiMo, MeeGo, and Symbian OS also expected to support Flash Player 10.1," an Adobe press release stated.

Since there are quite a lot of Flash websites, it has been a frequently requested feature from smartphone users. Adobe has worked to make its software more stable and more efficient particularly for use with smartphones and other portable devices like slates.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs point blank refuses to add Flash to iOS, embracing the open standard HTML 5 solution instead.

A glitch in Apple's iOS 4.1 software that allows anyone access to potentially sensitive information has been revealed by iPhone owners online.

An easy trick allows anyone to bypass the passcode entry screen and gain access to the iPhone App. To do this, the user must select "Emergency Call" at the passcode screen, then input any number. Then hitting "Sent" and the iPhone sleep button in an _almost_ simultaneous succession will give the user full access to the iPhone app.

This means the user will have access to Contacts, Call History, Voicemail and Dialer. A few further tips include hitting "Share Contacts" and the camera button, which will get you access to the Photos app. It is also possible to send an e-mail or MMS with the device.

The loophole does not exist in the iOS 4.2 beta, which suggests that Apple is already aware of the flaw.

Intel Corp has finally opened its first plant in China several years after announcing the $2.5 billion project. The plant, located in the city of Dalian, opened on Tuesday after being announced in 2007.

"For 25 years now, Intel has been investing and innovating in China with China and for China," Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini said in a statement. "This manufacturing facility helps deliver on our vision to contribute to sustainable growth in China while giving us better proximity to serve our customers in Asia."

Over the past three years, rumors emerged that Intel would delay or even scrap plans for the plant, but the chipmaker consistently denied that anything was amiss. The opening is a nod to the growing importance of China, which has struggled to build a globally competitive semiconductor industry.

Intel said it has already started doing business with as many as 80 suppliers in Dalian but didn't identify them. The opening of Intel's new plant fulfills Intel's total investment commitment in China to $4.7 billion.

Mozilla has paid 12-year old Alex Miller $3000 this week, thanking him for finding a critical buffer overflow and memory corruption flaw in the popular Firefox browser.

The company pays out prizes to security researchers (or kids) who disclose vulnerabilities.

Miller says he became motivated to find a security hole in the browser after Mozilla bumped up its prize from $500 to $3000 earlier this year.

The 12-year old says he spent 90 minutes a day, for 10 days straight, until he found the critical flaw.

His 15-hour crusade netted him $3000.

TechSpot says the "flaw can be exploited to crash a victim's browser and potentially run arbitrary code on their computer."

Mozilla patched the exploit with the release of Firefox 3.6.11.

Sony has finally retired the Walkman cassette player, citing lackluster demand for the outdated device.

The company says they produced their last batch of the device in Japan in April and once that inventory clears out, the Walkman will be retired to the history books.

A Chinese company will still produce some units after Sony's supply is exhausted but it is hard to believe they will continue to produce for the foreseeable future.

Sony began selling the Walkman in 1979 and has seen 220 million units sold over the past 31 years.

Walkman sales have been in steep decline since the introduction of portable CD players and even more so with the launch of portable MP3 players earlier this ddecade.

Sony will continue to use the "Walkman" brand, however, in phones and media players.

The Japanese Nikkei has reported today that Sharp is officially out of the PC business, pulling the plug on their personal computing operations.

Sharp has not put out a new PC in the last year.

Additionally, the report says that Sharp will now re-focus on "marketing its Galapagos tablet devices coming out in December, along with providing content such as e-books, music and video for these products."

Sharp is a big player in the HDTV, LED, LCD and solar markets.

Many major computer makers have shifted their focus away from PCs towards tablets and other mobile devices.

Amazon has revealed today that the latest generation of Kindle e-readers are the fastest selling Kindles of all-time, as well as the top selling products on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

The new Kindles, which saw a significant price drop along with slimmed down hardware, have already outsold all Kindle device sales from the fourth quarter 2009, Amazon's strongest quarter due to increased demand for the holidays.

"It's still October and we've already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year--astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon," says Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "Readers continue to choose Kindle for its all-new electronic ink screen with 50 percent higher contrast, readability in bright sunlight, long battery life of up to one month, light 8.5 ounce form, flexibility to read their books across all major LCD devices and platforms, and low $139 price. It's clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet--by far."

Furthermore, Kindle e-book sales continue to "overtake print," even though print book sales continue solid growth.

"For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1. Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1,000 bestsellers--it's across the board," adds Kessel, via MarketWatch. "This is remarkable when you consider that we've been selling hardcover and paperback books for 15 years, and Kindle books for just 36 months."

According to @AndroidDev, the Twitter account for the team that is working on mobile operating system Android, the Android Market has officially hit 100,000 apps.

Number of apps in the Market have increased 300 percent over the last year, hitting new milestones at an increasingly fast pace.

Reads the status, simply: "One hundred thousand apps in Android Market."

During a recent interview, vice president for engineering at Google Andy Rubin said there are now 270,000 developers writing software for the operating system.

Including apps that have been pulled by their developers over the course of Android's history, Rubin confirms the number is over 100,000, as well.

For comparison's sake, Apple's App Store has just hit 300,000 apps available while the BlackBerry store has just over 10,000.

Pioneer and Buffalo have introduced the world's first Blu-ray writers with BDXL support, the standard that was approved by the BDA in June.

BDXL discs are quad-layer 128GB Blu-ray discs. The standard also allows for triple-layer BDs with 100GB capacity.

Available soon, the companies have shown off the external BRXL-6U2 and the internal BRXL-6FBS-BK.

Both writers can handle up to quad-layer discs at 4x speeds for the higher capacities.

Support for BD-R/BD-R DL and BD-RE/BD-RE DL are standard.

On the downside, there are no mainstream players that support the standard with only Panasonic and Sharp even introducing players, all of which cost over $2500. There is no word on pricing for the writers.

Citing multiple sources, Kotaku is reporting today that the much anticipated PSP 2 handheld will reach consumers in the fall of next year.

The updated console will sport a touch panel on its back, along with dual analog sticks, the most-wanted PSP feature since its inception.

Sources describe the touch panel as "looking like a big mouse trackpad." It is still unclear how it will be used in-game, but developers are already in early stages of developing games that incorporate it.

Furthermore, the display will offer a higher resolution and sharper picture whilst being about 1-inch larger, as well.

Sony has called the screen "HD" during internal meetings although it is also unclear what is implied there.

The main issue, according to the site, is that system is overheating, thanks to the ramp up in power from past models.

Sony has announced today that is slashing the price of the PSPgo handheld in the United States and in Japan.

The move comes as the holiday season approaches and on the heels of even more PSP 2 rumors.

Rival Nintendo is set to launch their highly-anticipated 3DS handheld before the summer of next year.

In the U.S., Sony will drop the price of the "go" to $200 from $250 and in Japan the price will drop to 16,800 yen ($207 USD) from 26,800 ($330 USD).

Overall, Sony has sold 60 million PSP units, although it is widely expected that the PSPgo has sold very poorly, no matter what market.

Microsoft has begun offering an annual pay option for its Zune Pass, after over a year of only offering a monthly option.

The monthly pass was $15 per month but now subscribers can pay for one year upfront for $150.

Ars asked Microsoft for comment: "It went live yesterday in the US, UK, France, Italy and Spain. The monthly subscription is for $14.99 in the US and €9.99 or £8.99 in European markets. The annual Zune Pass subscription is the same monthly offer, at a discounted price of 12 months of music for the price of 10 months."

The updated Zune Pass subscription option comes right on the heels of the release of Windows Phone 7, which integrates the service.

A Microsoft Zune Pass gives you unlimited access to 10 million songs while you are subscribed whilst also getting to keep 10 songs as free downloads per month.

itrans has posted a supposed leaked picture of Samsung's upcoming (but still unconfirmed) Galaxy S2 smartphone, along side a spec sheet that should impress everyone.

Please note that the picture may just be a mock up and the specs are all speculation so take this as rumor for now.

The new Galaxy smartphone has a tentative release date of the Q1 2011.

Spec sheet:

4.3” 1280x720 resolution Super AMOLED 2 display
Android 2.3 (at least)
2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM/4GB ROM
32GB of built-in flash memory, 32GB expandable microSD card slot
8MP camera with FullHD video recording
A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n
3.5mm audio jack
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and ambient light sensors

Engadget has posted this weekend that Netflix is already testing a streaming-only plan for U.S. subscribers.

For $7.99, the streaming-only plan will give users a chance to watch 15,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix's "Watch Instantly" catalog.

Users will not get any physical media rentals in the mail, however, if they choose the plan.

Mixed plans that offer unlimited streaming and 1-disc-out at a time currently cost subscribers $10 per month.

CEO Reed Hastings had implied that the streaming-only model has been very successful in Canada and so they have accelerated plans for the U.S. version.

Amazon has confirmed that they will be introducing a 14-day lending period for Kindle e-books starting later this year, matching a feature the rival Barnes & Noble Nook has had since launch.

Kindle e-book owners will be able to lend out books to friends and family for two weeks, and just like with the Nook, users will not be able to read their books while they're lent out.

Not all books will have the feature, however, as it is completely at the discretion of the publishers to enable it.

Amazon offers their new Wi-Fi-only Kindle for $139, slightly undercutting B&N's Wi-Fi-only Nook which retails for $149.

Says Amazon:

"Later this year, we will be introducing lending for Kindle, a new feature that lets you loan your Kindle books to other Kindle device or Kindle app users. Each book can be lent once for a loan period of 14-days and the lender cannot read the book during the loan period. Additionally, not all e-books will be lendable - this is solely up to the publisher or rights holder, who determines which titles are enabled for lending."