GOOGLE DOODLE LETS YOU PLAY AND RECORD A GUITAR RIFF

Have you been to Google's home page recently? Do it, you've got less than 24 hours to check out its guitar-inspired doodle celebrating the birthday of Les Paul. The "Google" script is highly interactive thanks to a combination of JavaScript, HMTL5, CSS, and even Flash (providing the audio). Click the compose button at the base of the second "g" and begin recording your own 30 second tribute to one of music's most innovative pioneers using your keyboard to play specific notes or mouse for virtual strumming. Unfortunately, the recording and sharing aspect appears limited to US Googlers. Impressive stuff from a typically impressive company.

AUSTIN MOVIE THEATER MAKES EXAMPLE OF TEXTER; USES VOICEMAIL AS PSA

We’ve all been to the movies and seen the message beforehand telling us to turn off our cell phones. It’s basically common sense at this point, but some people need to be reminded. Recently, a woman visited the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, and chose to send texts during the movie. The theater, which has a strict no-texting policy, did not take kindly to the text-happy woman and decided to make an example of her.

The woman was asked to stop texting twice during the movie but was kicked out when she refused. For some reason, the irate woman decided to leave the Drafthouse a voicemail giving them a piece of her mind. The Drafthouse in turn decided to make the woman’s embarrassing voicemail into a video that it now plays before films start.

The video transcribes the entire call in a rather comical way. The very angry woman is a little hard to understand at times, but, thanks to the transcription, it’s clear that she calls the U.S. the “Magnited States of America,” and pronounces the word “regular” as “reglear.”

In the voicemail, the woman said she has texted in “all the other theaters in Austin,” and that no one cared when she did that. She obviously has a warped perception of things, as I’m pretty sure fellow movie goers would be a little bothered by the light of her phone.

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH OWN TABLET NEXT YEAR

According to a report on Wednesday from DigiTimes, Microsoft is hard at work on a tablet. The Redmond-based software company is said to be cooperating with Texas Instruments and multiple Taiwan-based manufacturers in an attempt to push a Microsoft-branded Windows 8 tablet out to market by the end of 2012.

Outside of the Xbox gaming console, Microsoft has not had much luck with consumer hardware in recent years. The company’s line of Zune media players were never widely adopted and its KIN line of messaging phones were cancelled shortly after their release before later returning to Verizon shelves with barely any fanfare. DigiTimes’ sources suggest those failures won’t stop the company from trying, however, and the buzzing tablet space is an obvious next point of attack.

APPLE CHANGES POLICY ON IN-APP SUBSCRIPTION PRICES

It looks like Apple has decided to make some pretty major changes to its App Store Review Guidelines and, in particular, to its controversial in-app subscription policy. Under the new guidelines, publishers will be able to offer subscriptions to content outside of the App Store, as long as their apps don't include a "buy" button that directs users away from Apple's marketplace.

Under the previous version of the policy, which was set to go into effect at the end of this month, app owners offering subscriptions outside of App Store were required to sell equivalent, in-app services at the "same price or less than it is offered outside the app," while giving a 30 percent cut to Cupertino.

Now, however, they can price these in-app subscriptions as they see fit, or circumvent the system altogether, by exclusively selling them outside of their apps. Apple will still receive 30 percent of the revenue generated from in-app subscriptions, but won't get any money from purchases made outside of its domain. Theoretically, then, publishers would be able to offer in-app subscriptions at higher prices, in order to offset Apple's share.

TODAY IS IPv6 DAY! EVERYONE GET YOUR INTERNET ON

Described as a "test flight" of IPv6, today marks the biggest concerted effort by some of the web's marquee players to turn us all on to the newer, fancier web addressing system. Internet Protocol version 4 has been the template by which we've addressed everything connected to the web so far, but that stuff's now nearing exhaustion, so the future demands a longer, more complex nomenclature to tell our smartphones, tablets, printers, and other webOS devices apart.

For end users, June 8th won't really feel too different from June 7th -- this will be a change that occurs mostly behind the scenes and there's an IPv4 fallback option if you can't connect in the modern way -- but Google does warn that a very limited subset of users may experience connectivity issues as a result.

EXPLOSION AT INTEL ARIZONA PLANT INJURES SEVEN

Yesterday afternoon, a blast occurred at Intel's Arizona plant just outside Phoenix, injuring seven people with one suffering from severe burns. According to Phoenix Business Journal, the incident took place in a solvent waste treatment room at Fab 22 -- not far from Fab 32 which will be manufacturing 22nm chips -- but Intel Vice President Josh Walden assured us that "there was no damage or release of chemicals to the community," and production has already resumed in both facilities. The company is currently looking into the possible causes of this accident

STEVE JOBS SHOWS OFF NEW APPLE SPACESHIP HEADQUARTERS CAMPUS

Shortly after taking the stage at WWDC, Steve Jobs made an appearance before the Cupertino City Council to pitch the local governing body on Apple's ambition to build a new campus. The site for the curvaceous, four-story, "human-scale" building to house 13,000 employees is the original home of HP's computer systems division, land that was recently sold to Apple.

The property is currently covered by a series of big asphalt parking lots. Apple's plan would increase the landscape coverage from 20 to 80 percent with the help of a senior arborist from Stanford who will help restore some of the indigenous plant life to the property, including the apricot orchards. Apple plans to make the campus' energy center the facility's primary power generator using natural gas and other "clean energy" sources, the city would simply provide backup power when needed.

Of course, what would a Jobs presentation be without a few choice superlatives? In this case, Jobs claims that the new curved-glass facility will be the "best office building in the world," luring in students of architecture anxious for a peek. Apple plans to break ground in 2012 with a 2015 move-in date.

To see Jobs at the council meeting click play below.

NINTENDO CAUGHT USING PS3/XBOX 360 FOOTAGE IN E3 KEYNOTE

Nintendo's E3 2011 keynote yesterday gave the world its first official look at the all-new Wii U hardware plus (we thought) a glimpse at the graphical capabilities of its next console. As it turns out, the impressive list of upcoming games for the 2012-bound console was just that, a list, with the visuals we saw on screen coming from PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of said titles.

Nintendo of America chief Reggie Fils-Aime has confirmed that to be the case in an interview with GameTrailers, where he also points out that the eventual Wii U games will look at least as good as their PS3 / 360 counterparts. Which is why, in his eyes, it's okay to show us those games being played on the competition's (current-gen) hardware. He does remind us that the Wii U will be delivering graphics at a 1080p resolution, and points to the garden tech demo that also graced E3 as an indicator of what can be done with Nintendo's next console.

iOS 5 TO GET IMPROVED VOICE COMMANDS

Citing a source claimed to be reliable, tech blogger Robert Scoble says enhanced voice commands will be included in iOS 5 when it launches this fall. Apple acquired Siri last year, presumably with the intention of enhancing the lackluster voice command support found in iOS. It has been rumored for quite some time that Apple would be making enhanced voice commands a major part of iOS 5, but Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote came and went with no mention of voice commands.

Scoble claims that his source — one who spoke accurately of the deep Twitter integration Apple showed off on Monday weeks ahead of WWDC — said Apple’s voice command integration wasn’t ready to show off at the show. The feature will be a part of iOS 5, however, and will perhaps be unveiled this fall when Apple is expected to announce its next-generation iPhone.

SAMSUNG SAYS 90% OF US CONSUMERS WANT TABLETS

Samsung on Tuesday released the findings of a recent survey intended to determine just how desirable consumer tablets are in the U.S. According to the survey, which was commissioned by Samsung Mobile and conducted by Kelton Research, 90% of U.S. consumers either already own a tablet or would consider purchasing a tablet. Of the current tablet owners among the 1,000 people polled in the survey, 76% said they use the devices to read news or books, 64% said they watch TV shows or movies, 61% use tablets to listen to music and 56% say the update their social network profiles with their slates. Also of note, 53% of respondents said they would rather play games on a tablet than a PC or dedicated game console, and 41% said they were interested in video chat.

GOOGLE CHROME 12 AVAILABLE

Google's Chrome browser has been updated to version 12. This stable version brings expanded malware protection. In addition to Chrome’s existing phishing defenses and Google’s Safe Browsing integration, Chrome can now warn users before malicious files are downloaded. Another handy security-related update in Chrome 12 is that its built-in file clean-up tools can now delete Flash cookies (Local Shared Objects) in addition to standard browser cookies.

And since updates are always about adding functionality, it’s worth noting that Google Chrome 12 has finally done away with the Google Gears plug-in.

Chrome 12 has hardware accelerated 3D CSS enabled by default. To check out the capabilities head on over to the Chrome Experiments site and play around with some of the fun demos.

If your using Google Chrome you can wait for it to update automatically or click the wrench and then About Chrome. If you need to download Chrome, click here.

NINTENDO UNVEILS NEXT GENERATION Wii AT E3

Nintendo just announced the new Wii U at its keynote presentation from the annual E3 conference. As the rumors suggested, the Wii U controller features a 6.2-inch touchscreen centered between a d-pad and an analog stick on the left side and a second analog stick and buttons on the right side. The controller also features a microphone, stereo speakers, a camera, an accelerometer, and even a gyroscope — in fact, the controller can act as a console itself!

Moreover, the controller becomes a second window into the game being played, showing different views of the current scene, plays and options in sports games, items in a players cache. The device looks like a tablet and allows users to play games either on a television or on the controller itself.

Nintendo also stated that all current Wii games will work with Wii U and the new Wii U controller. The console supports High Definition gaming, online gaming much like the solutions offered by Sony and Microsoft, and even social networking integration. Nintendo states that the goal of its Wii U console is to serve the avid gamer and casual gaming communities alike, with a single console. From the look of things, they might just be able to pull it off. The Wii U console will launch in 2012 and pricing has not yet been announced.

RSA ADMITS DATA STOLEN, OFFERS TO REPLACE TOKENS

RSA Security is offering to provide security monitoring or replace its well-known SecurID tokens—devices used by millions of corporate workers to securely log on to their computers—"for virtually every customer we have," the company's Chairman Art Coviello said in an interview.

In a letter to customers Monday, the EMC Corp. unit openly acknowledged for the first time that intruders had breached its security systems at defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. using data stolen from RSA.

Mr. Coviello didn't specify what happened to the tokens at Lockheed. But as a precaution, he said RSA will offer to replace nearly all tokens—millions of them used by government agencies and businesses ranging from Rolls Royce Motor Cars Ltd. to PokerStars.com.

APPLE INTRODUCES iCLOUD, REPLACING MOBILEME

Apple today introduced iCloud, a breakthrough set of free new cloud services that work seamlessly with applications on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all your devices. When anything changes on one of your devices, all of your devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly.

“Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it—it all just works.”

The free iCloud services include:

The former MobileMe® services—Contacts, Calendar and Mail—all completely re-architected and rewritten to work seamlessly with iCloud. Users can share calendars with friends and family, and the ad-free push Mail account is hosted at me.com. Your inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all your iOS devices and computers.

The App Store™ and iBookstore℠ now download purchased iOS apps and books to all your devices, not just the device they were purchased on. In addition, the App Store and iBookstore now let you see your purchase history, and simply tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost.

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up your iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when you charge your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If you replace your iOS device, just enter your Apple ID and password during setup and iCloud restores your new device.

iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs, and automatically pushes them to all your devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple’s Pages®, Numbers® and Keynote® apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage. Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup—which is more amazing since the storage for music, apps and books purchased from Apple, and the storage required by Photo Stream doesn’t count towards this 5GB total. Users will be able to buy even more storage, with details announced when iCloud ships this fall.

iCloud’s innovative Photo Stream service automatically uploads the photos you take or import on any of your devices and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices and computers. So you can use your iPhone to take a dozen photos of your friends during the afternoon baseball game, and they will be ready to share with the entire group on your iPad (or even Apple TV®) when you return home. Photo Stream is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, iPhoto® on Macs, and saved to the Pictures folder on a PC. To save space, the last 1,000 photos are stored on each device so they can be viewed or moved to an album to save forever. Macs and PCs will store all photos from the Photo Stream, since they have more storage. iCloud will store each photo in the cloud for 30 days, which is plenty of time to connect your devices to iCloud and automatically download the latest photos from Photo Stream via Wi-Fi.

iTunes® in the Cloud lets you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices. In addition, music not purchased from iTunes can gain the same benefits by using iTunes Match, a service that replaces your music with a 256 kbps AAC DRM-free version if we can match it to the over 18 million songs in the iTunes Store®, it makes the matched music available in minutes (instead of weeks to upload your entire music library), and uploads only the small percentage of unmatched music. iTunes Match will be available this fall for a $24.99 annual fee. Apple today is releasing a free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud, without iTunes Match, for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running iOS 4.3. iTunes in the Cloud will support all iPhones that iOS 5 supports this fall.

Apple is ready to ramp iCloud in its three data centers, including the third recently completed in Maiden, NC. Apple has invested over $500 million in its Maiden data center to support the expected customer demand for the free iCloud services.

Pricing & Availability
The iCloud beta and Cloud Storage APIs are available immediately to iOS and Mac Developer Program members at developer.apple.com. iCloud will be available this fall concurrent with iOS 5. Users can sign up for iCloud for free on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 or a Mac running Mac OS® X Lion with a valid Apple ID. iCloud includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, Document Storage and Backup. Purchased music, apps, books and Photo Stream do not count against the storage limit. iTunes Match will be available for $24.99 per year (US only).

SONY BRAZIL SITE HACKED

The list of hacked Sony properties continues to grow as Sony Music Brazil finds its website the latest victim in a long line of breaches. The company’s website was the target of a cyberattack on Saturday night and nearly 36 hours later, the site is still offline. Initially, the hackers defaced the site with a single page titled “Hacked The UnderTaker,” which apparently contained nicknames of several people responsible for the attack. More than 12 hours later, the website was finally taken offline. Sony Music Brazil has not commented on the breach and it is unclear if any private data was exposed.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3 ADDS VIDEO ON DEMAND FROM BEST BUY'S CINEMA NOW

Sony planned the PlayStation 3 from the start as a movie playing powerhouse, but it may not have predicted so many would end up using it for Netflix streaming. CEO Jack Tretton hit the stage at the company's E3 keynote to announce it is the leading Netflix streamer, accounting for 30% of the video watched on the service.

While this is somewhat surprising maybe it shouldn't be -- consoles far outpace other TV connected streamers in install base, and between the Xbox 360, Wii, and Sony's box, the PS3 is the only one that lets you watch without an additional subscription and in HD.

Also announced is a new partnership bringing video on-demand movies from the Best Buy-owned CinemaNow service. With any luck, the retail giant will add a subscription element or partner with Redbox and make this interesting, but until then it's just another footnote on the list of providers currently offered on the PS3.

SONY ANNOUNCES NEW HANDHELD SYSTEM...PLAYSTATION VITA

Details about Sony's new handheld, formerly known as the NGP or Next Generation Portable, have been trickling out for months in the form of spec sheets and fantastic footage of its quad core capabilities. All that, and we still didn't know how much she'd cost or when we could get our grubby paws around one. Thankfully for those tuned in at E3, said mystery is a mystery no more -- the Vita will be listed at $249 for the WiFi-only model, or $299 for the 3G version. Sony's Kaz Hirai confirmed will be available exclusively through AT&T, with both models shipping worldwide toward the end of 2011. For those of you camped out overseas, prices are set for ¥24,980 (WiFi) and ¥29,980 (3G) in Japan, while those closer to that other pond will see tags of €249 and €299.

The device, also known as the PS Vita, offers up six-axis motion sensors, dual analog controls (proper ones, with thumbsticks), front- and rear-facing cameras, an OLED touchscreen, and a touchpad on the back, too. The company showed off a number of top-tier titles, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, a hack-and-slash RPG called Ruin, a new ModNation Racers, LittleBigPlanet, and Street Fighter x Tekken, each showing off plenty of motion and touch interactivity... things that we couldn't be more elated to try for ourselves in due time. They're all looking quite good, and honestly a bit more advanced than what the 3DS has delivered so far -- for the same money.

MAC OS X LION COMING IN JULY

Apple announced that the next major update to Mac OS X, Lion 10.7, will be available for purchase and download exclusively through the Mac App Store in July for just $29. OS X 10.7 Lion features over 250 new updates to the OS including Mission Control, Launchpad, full-screen apps, Auto Save, Resume, and much more.

Press Release:

Mac OS X Lion With 250 New Features Available in July From Mac App Store

SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2011—Apple® today announced that Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99. Some of the amazing features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

“The Mac has outpaced the PC industry every quarter for five years running and with OS X Lion we plan to keep extending our lead,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac.”

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations built into Lion let you interact directly with content on the screen for a more intuitive way to use your Mac. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps. All Mac notebooks ship with Multi-Touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Full screen apps take advantage of the entire display and are perfect for reading email, surfing the web or browsing photos, especially on a MacBook Air® or MacBook® Pro. With a single click your app fills the display and you can swipe from one window to another, between full screen apps, or back to your Desktop, Dashboard or Spaces® without ever leaving full screen. iWork® and iLife® apps, as well as Safari®, iTunes®, Mail, FaceTime® and others, all take advantage of Lion’s system-wide support for full screen apps.

Mission Control combines Exposé®, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces into one unified experience for a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a tap.

The Mac App Store is built into Lion and is the best place to discover great new Mac apps, buy them with your iTunes account, download and install them. Apps automatically install directly to Launchpad, and with Lion’s release, the Mac App Store will be able to deliver smaller “delta” app updates and new apps that can take advantage of features like In-App Purchase and Push Notifications.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single Multi-Touch gesture, all your Mac apps are displayed in a stunning full screen layout. You can organize apps in any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps to find the one you want.

Lion includes a completely redesigned Mail app with an elegant widescreen layout. The new Conversations feature groups related messages into an easily scrollable timeline, intelligently hiding repeated text so the conversation is easy to follow, and retaining graphics and attachments as they were originally sent. An incredibly powerful new search feature allows you to refine your search and suggests matches by person, subject and label as you type. Mail includes built-in support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Additional new features in Lion include:

Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
Auto Save, which automatically and continuously saves your documents as you work;
Versions, which automatically records the history of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, revert and even copy and paste from previous versions; and
AirDrop, which finds nearby Macs and automatically sets up a peer-to-peer wireless connection to make transferring files quick and easy.
Pricing & Availability Mac OS X Lion will be available in July as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard® from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (US). Lion will be the easiest OS X upgrade and at about 4GB, it is the size of an HD movie from the iTunes Store®. Mac OS X Lion Server requires Lion and will be available in July from the Mac App Store for $49.99 (US).

Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM. The Lion upgrade can be installed on all your authorized personal Macs.

The Mac OS X Lion Up-To-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge via the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after June 6, 2011. Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 30 days of purchase of their Mac computer. Customers who purchase a qualifying Mac between June 6, 2011 and the date when Lion is available in the Mac App Store will have 30 days from Lion’s official release date to make a request.

APPLE UNVEILS MONSTER iOS 5 UPDATE

Apple SVP of iOS Scott Forstall showed off Apple’s iOS 5 yesterday, and it’s a serious update. Over 200 new features and 1,500 new APIs, but that’s not the most exciting part. We’re talking about redone notifications with Notification Center, a place to combine all notifications; Newsstand, which will automatically download the latest issues of your favorite subscription newspaper and magazines; deep Twitter integration including a system-level sign-on, Tweeting from Photos app and Safari, Twitter contact syncing; and even tabbed-browsing in Safari.

A new app called Reminders which will issue reminders based on time and date. You can also set up a "geo-fence" to have the app remind you when you get back to a certain location, like walking the dog when you get home.

There’s also a lock screen camera shortcut added. Also, thankfully, you can finally use the volume up button as the shutter button, and Apple added an auto-focus and exposure lock, grid lines in the camera app, and editing features like crop and rotate, red eye reduction, etc.

There is now flagging support in email, rich text support, and even S/MIME support for enterprise customers. There’s a split iPad keyboard for people who like to thumb-type… it lets you place half the keyboard on the left side of the screen and the other half on the right, with an open space in the middle to see the app you’re in.

There is no longer a requirement for a PC to use an iOS device — iCloud, it is. Software updates are over the air, and even the initial device setup is done without the need for a PC.

We’ve been told one of RIM’s biggest fears is Apple launching a BlackBerry Messanger competitor, and the company are doing just that with iMessage. The service includes messages, photos, group chat, 3G and Wi-Fi support — and even compatibility with all iOS 5 devices — you can even pick up your conversation where you left off when moving from one device to another.

Almost every gripe with iOS is being addressed in a major way. Developers get iOS 5 today, customers in the Fall (obviously to time up with a new iPhone).

FRANCE BANS MENTION OF FACEBOOK AND TWITTER ON TV TO HELP MARKET COMPETITION

The words "Facebook" and "Twitter" are now verboten on French TV, because France thought it'd be a good idea to follow its own laws. Last week, the country's Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) ruled that TV networks and radio stations will no longer be able to explicitly mention Facebook or Twitter during on-air broadcasts, except when discussing a story in which either company is directly involved. The move comes in response to a 1992 governmental decree that prohibits media organizations from promoting brands during newscasts, for fear of diluting competition. Instead of inviting viewers to follow their programs or stories on Twitter, then, broadcast journalists will have to couch their promotions in slightly more generic terms -- e.g. "Follow us on your social network of choice." CSA spokeswoman Christine Kelly explains:

Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition? This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it's opening a Pandora's Box - other social networks will complain to us saying, 'why not us?

Fueling competition via aggressive regulation may strike some free-marketeers as economically depraved, but it certainly won't kill social media-based commerce. Facebook and Twitter have already become more or less synonymous with "social networks" anyway, so it's hard to envision such a minor linguistic tweak having any major effect on online engagement.

SCIENTIST TRAP ANTI-MATTER FOR ALMOST 17 MINUTES...SCOTTY WOULD BE PROUD

What happened to antimatter? That's the grand riddle that scientists are attempting to piece together, but it takes quite a bit of work to conduct experiments on the elusive mirror image of matter (remember, matter is anything that has a volume and occupies mass).

But CERN scientists have now been able to isolate unstable antimatter for a grand total of nearly 17 minutes. That's a far cry from experiments performed last fall, when scientists were only able to record the presence of antimatter for fractions of seconds. The increased longevity should now give researchers the time they need to perform studies on antiatoms related to charge-parity-time reversal (CPT) symmetry.

So just how difficult is it to trap antimatter for study? Just like in Star Trek, the combination of matter and antimatter particles leads to the annihilation of both and the production of a small flash of energy. Thus, to successfully trap antimatter, researchers use magnetic fields to contain antiatoms. When they turn off the field, the resulting annihilation events–recorded by a special detector–clue the scientists into just how many antiatoms are left after a set period of containment time.

"In the beginning we were turning off our trap as soon as possible after each attempt to make anti-atoms, so as not to miss any," said the University of California, Berkeley's Joel Fajans.
In the case of CERN's research, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research has been experimenting with the creation of antihydrogen atoms. The longer lifespan of these antihydrogen atoms will now allow researchers to perform more precise spectroscopy and comparisons of these antimatter elements against their hydrogen counterparts.

RUMOR: MICROSOFT TO LAUNCH PREMIUM TV SERVICE

Multiple reports have Microsoft unveiling a premium subscription television service at this years E3 and that seems to support the claims Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president for corporate communications expressed on his company’s blog earlier this week. Shaw stated that 40 percent of all Xbox activity didn’t involve gaming at all and that the average gamer watches 30 hours of video on their Xbox each month. While gaming might be the main activity for the majority of 360 owners right now, Shaw expects that to soon change. His claim may warrant merit if adding more content to the already plethora available on Xbox Live (Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, Last.FM, etc) in the form of a television service is true.

The premium TV service has been reported on in the past and isn’t actually a secret but it seems that Microsoft may actually pull the cloth from over it and unveil it at this years Electronic Entertainment Expo. With Microsoft focusing to market it’s Xbox platform as an entertainment brand much like Sony markets it’s Playstation 3; Project Orapa is a bit more ambitious than anything Microsoft’s competitors are showing. Project Orapa is the codename used by Microsoft that would combine Xbox Live and Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV. Theoretically it could allow Microsoft to offer TV to Xbox Live customers and possibly even Windows Phone owners through use of an application.

LEAK: iOS 5 TO OFFER OVER THE AIR UPDATES

While searching for updates in iTunes, a MacRumors reader stumbled upon the page above, which alludes to an "Automatic Download" feature that allows for wireless syncing. Also, the fact that Apple went out of its way to say "...if your device has Automatic Download enabled for apps" makes us wonder what else we'll soon be able to update over the air. The company has since pulled the tattletale page in iTunes, but MacRumorsgrabbed a screenshot while it was still live.

ANDROID AND iOS CONTINUE TO GROW; RIM FALLS AGAIN

On Friday comScore released its latest mobile subscriber market share report, which suggests that both Android and iOS are increasing their U.S. market shares at the cost of RIM’s BlackBerry OS. ComScore surveyed 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers during a three month period ending in April 2011 and found that Android’s U.S. market share jumped 5.2 percentage points to a 34.6% grip of the industry. Meanwhile, Apple’s iOS market share grew a marginal 1.3 percentage points to a 26% share. RIM’s BlackBerry OS share fell from 30.4% in January to 25.7%.

Things don't look good for RIM, the once mighty titan. While RIM continues to rely on enterprise integration, most enterprise are making way for the more nimble and cheaper iOS and Android devices.

YOUTUBE GOES COMMON...COMMON CREATIVE LICENSING

YouTube's recent addition of the Creative Commons licensing option just made it a whole lot easier to make mashups without stepping on anyone's stiletto-sporting toes. Users are now given the option to choose between YouTube's standard license or the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which, when selected, automatically adds the video to a library of similarly appointed videos, now available for your cutting and captioning pleasure. An attribution is placed beneath any video sourcing material from the Creative Commons library. Among the more professional outfits adding their videos to the CC pool are Al Jazeera and C-SPAN. You can now access the Creative Commons library through the YouTube video editor.

AT&T'S LTE NETWORK 2 - 3 YEARS BEHIND VERIZON'S SAYS CEO

Speaking during a D9 press event in California on Thursday, AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said it will take AT&T between 2 and 3 years to bring its LTE network coverage up to a par with Verizon Wireless’ 4G offering. AT&T has already announced that it plans to deploy its 4G LTE network to five cities this summer, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

However, Verizon’s network is already available in 55 markets, it plans to deploy in 23 more this month, and the carrier has promised full 4G LTE coverage across its current 3G network by the end of 2013.

According to CNN, Ralph de la Vega said AT&T “can’t say when” its 4G network will match Verizon’s but said “in the next two to three years they will probably be indistinguishable.” The carrier also reaffirmed that if its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile is approved, customers should see a large improvement the in overall quality and reliability of AT&T’s service.

RUMOR: iPAD3 WITH 4G LTE LAUNCHING BEFORE HOLIDAYS

Apple will release a new 4G LTE-enabled iPad tablet later this year according to Hong Kong-based research firm CLSA. The firm cites channel checks in stating that Apple’s iPad 3 will launch ahead of the holidays this year. CLSA also alludes to a Retina Display being on board alongside the new 4G LTE radio.

“While most vendors appear fixated on matching the specs and features of iPad2, our checks suggest Apple will release iPad3 in time for the holiday season, sporting a better display and LTE capabilities,” the firm’s report says. CLSA added that it does not expect Apple to launch a 4G LTE-enabled iPhone this year.

NO DELAY IN ANDROID 3.1 FOR SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 10.1

There were rumors floating around earlier today that Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 tablets in Europe running Google’s Android 3.1 Honeycomb OS were delayed until August, but Google has confirmed to us that that isn’t true. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will launch next week with Android 3.1 and the Motorola XOOM has already received the Android 3.1 update. Verizon Wireless is also close to launching the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with LTE which is set for a “summer” launch running, you guessed it, Android 3.1.

GOOGLE BUYS POSTRANK SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS COMPANY

Google has acquired PostRank, a Web company that measures the effects of social networking on online content. The announcement was made on PostRank's blog. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal appears to be an indication of the effects of social media on Google's long-term strategy, if not its immediate business. PostRank (a play on Google's own PageRank term) measures how many comments, bookmarks, tweets, and other social interactions a given piece of content generates, exactly the type of analytics a Web giant needs as it slowly grows its own social strategy.

So far, Google seems to be orienting itself around +1 icon and social search, as it slowly evolves a presence in social networking.

MICROSOFT IN ACQUISITION DEAL WITH NVIDIA

Microsoft and Nvidia have an agreement in place that spells out terms relating to a possible acquisition of the graphics and mobile processor manufacturer, regulatory documents indicate.
The deal gives Microsoft the exclusive right to match any offer for 30% or more of Nvidia's outstanding shares by a third-party, according to an SEC filing reviewed by InformationWeek.

"Under the agreement, if an individual or corporation makes an offer to purchase shares equal to or greater than 30% of the outstanding shares of our common stock, Microsoft may have first and last rights of refusal to purchase the stock," Nvidia said in the filing, dated May 27.
The pact puts Redmond in a position to effectively veto attempts by any of its rivals to snap up Nvidia, which makes key components for the red-hot tablet market, which includes forthcoming Windows 8 slates.

Nvidia produces the ARM-based Tegra chip, which is widely used by a number of major mobile device manufacturers. It's employed in Google Android-based tablets and smartphones from Samsung, Motorola, and others. Microsoft itself earlier this week demonstrated Windows 8 tablets running on the new, quad-core "Kal-El" version of Tegra.

There's also been rumblings over the past couple of years that Apple views Nvidia as a possible takeover target. Apple's A5 CPU for the iPad 2 uses ARM's system-on-a-chip design, an architecture in which Nvidia has considerable expertise as Tegra also relies on ARM.

Microsoft and Nvidia negotiated their acquisition deal as part of a broader arrangement under which Microsoft licensed Nvidia graphics chips for use in the Xbox entertainment and gaming console.

MAYLASIAN MAN ORDERED TO APOLOGIZE 100 TIMES ON TWITTER FOR DEFAMATION

The punishment, the saying goes, should fit the crime. When working within the legal system, however, it can be pretty tough to come up with a truly appropriate sentence. Settlements, on the other hand, offer a little more room for creativity, and after a Malaysian political aide / social activist used Twitter to air a grievance about a pregnant friend's employer, the publishing company turned to the social network for inspiration.

Fahmi Fadzil tweeted an apology shortly after, but BluInc Media wasn't satiated. The two parties finally reached an elementary school-esque out of court decision, requiring Fadzil to apologize for his initial statement 100 times on the microblogging service. He began the apology today at 9:00AM his time, and will continue on until June 4th, as per the rules of the agreement.

LIGHTSQUARED SPRINT READY TO SIGN $20 BILLION DEAL

According to Bloomberg, LightSquared, the USD7 billion Long Term Evolution (LTE) open-access mobile network that will utilise satellite spectrum acquired by New York investment firm Harbinger Capital, is close to striking a USD20 billion deal with Sprint Nextel to share network construction costs.

The report, which cites two people familiar with the talks, indicates that the two operators are hoping to finalise terms on a 15 year contract which will allow LightSquared to roll out its network faster than expected. According to Bloomberg’s sources, who declined to be named, if the deal goes through, Sprint would initially receive as much as USD2 billion annually from LightSquared, to help pay for network equipment and construction costs. Subsequent payments would vary annually, based on the number of users on the LightSquared network and usage patterns. However, conflicting reports from Reuters indicate that the agreement with Sprint is more likely to cover an eight-year time-frame, rather than the 15 year period stated elsewhere.

The news comes just days after LightSquared reportedly held talks with AT&T regarding a deal to buy additional network capacity from the mobile carrier. Two people with knowledge of the discussions stressed that the initiative was still at a preliminary stage and may not result in a deal.

UBUNTU HITTING Eee PCS; TAKING ON MICROSOFT

Think ASUS netbooks threw Linux out the window? Think again: the Eee PC 1001PXD, 1011PX and 1015PX are about to get Ubuntu configurations. Harking back to when the famous netbook line launched running Xandros, these Ubuntu loaded machines could help Linux reach a larger audience.

Canonical representatives are pitting the new netbooks against Windows-powered machines, telling The Inquirer that Ubuntu is competing with Microsoft, not other Linux distributions.

That's quite a goliath you picked there, Ubuntu. Are a trio of Atom notebooks enough to win the war on Windows? Considering Dell abandoned their love of Linux over a year ago, we're guessing no.

ADOBE CEO ENDS FEUD WITH APPLE, SIDESTEPS POOR ANDROID FLASH PERFORMANCE ISSUE

Speaking at yesterday's D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, Adobe head Shantanu Narayen confirmed that he and Steve Jobs have reached an unofficial armistice, bringing an end to their prolonged war of words. According to the CEO, Apple's Flash issues stemmed from the company's "business model," rather than any legitimate concerns over quality. "It's control over the app store that's at issue here," Narayen said, implying that Flash's wide-ranging platform compatibility may not have jibed with the Cupertino ethos. He went on to remind moderator Walt Mossberg that developers can still use Adobe's AIR software to get their products to the App Store, adding that his company is looking forward to the rise of HTML5 and "actively contributing" to its development.

Mossberg, meanwhile, seemed to blindside Narayen when he brought up Flash's poor performance on Android devices. "I have yet to test a single one where Flash tests really well," the columnist claimed. "I'm sorry, but it's true." Narayen sputtered a bit, before pointing to the BlackBerry PlayBook as an example of the progress that Flash has made. When Mossberg reminded him that the PlayBook doesn't run on Android, the CEO not-so-subtly sidestepped the question by emptily declaring that Adobe's mission is simply to provide people with the best tools to create content. Apparently satisfied with this non-answer, Mossberg changed the subject back to Apple, allowing Narayen to wax poetic about their new truce.

GROUPON FILES $750 MILLION IPO WITH SEC

On Thursday, Groupon, the popular location-based coupon service, filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The start-up, which alerts 83 million email subscribers in 43 different countries of local deals that range from restaurant discounts to sailing lessons, hopes to raise $750 million in its IPO. “Expect us to make ambitious bets on our future that distract us from our current business,” Andrew Mason, Groupon’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Some bets we’ll get right, and others we’ll get wrong, but we think it’s the only way to continuously build disruptive products,” Mason added.

Groupon launched in November, 2007, has more than 7,000 employees, and reported $645 million in revenues during Q1 2011, however they have never made a profit.

SONY PICTURES WEBSITE HACKED; 1 MILLION ACCOUNTS COMPROMISED

Hackers from a group called LulzSec announced on Thursday that they had breached sonypictures.com, the website belonging to Sony-owned studio Sony Pictures. The group claims to have compromised personal information belonging to over 1 million users, including user names, passwords, home addresses, dates of birth and other sensitive data.

The group also claims to have accessed 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons.” LulzSec says it employed a simple SQL injection technique to access the data, and that Sony Pictures’ site was not secure and was therefore easy to breach.

The hackers did not have the resources to download all of the exposed data, but they say they did obtain samples in order to prove the authenticity of the attack.

This is the fourth breach of a Sony owned property in the last two months. The most famous being the Sony Playstation Network. Sony was forced to bring the site down while additional security measures were put in place.

APPLE TO CHARGE $25 PER YEAR FOR iCLOUD

Apple will offer paying iTunes customers a free introductory offer that makes its new iCloud service free for a limited time, Los Angeles Times reports. Apple will then begin charging about $25 per year for the service, the report claims, and it will also serve advertisements to iCloud users.

Apple is said to have signed deals with each of the four major U.S. music labels as well as some larger music publishers, which will reportedly allow the company to store music on cloud servers and stream songs to customers who have purchased them previously.

Apple announced earlier this week that it will unveil iCloud alongside iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion next week during its WWDC keynote on Monday, June 6th.

TENNESSEE MAKES IT ILLEGAL TO SHARE YOUR PASSWORD TO MEDIA SITES

One of the perks of having a friend with a Pandora, Rhapsody, or Netflix account is that if they’re really nice to you they may share their password, giving you free access to movies and music. Of course, these companies don’t advertise this as an option, for obvious reasons, but a new law passed in Tennessee is actually making it illegal to share your password. The consequences for being caught are pretty scary.

The bill, initiated by none other than the Recording Industry Association of America, has been approved by the Tennessee governor. The goal of the bill is aimed at stopping the billions of dollars lost in illegal music sharing. RIAA executive president of public policy Mitch Glazier told the AP that the bill is a “necessary protective measure as digital technology evolves.” He said the music industry has seen its domestic revenue fall from $15 billion to $7 billion in the past 10 years.

The RIAA says the bill was geared more towards hackers who sell passwords in bulk, but admits it could be used against people using a friend or relative’s password. The punishment for stealing $500 or less of entertainment would be a misdemeanor and up to a year in jail, as well as a $2,500 fine. Anything higher than $500 would be a felony with more serious penalties.

The RIAA hopes this bill will spread to other states but targeted Tennessee first because of Nashville’s ties to the music industry. It seems that most people sharing passwords within the same house, say between spouses, would be safe. However, if you’re sharing your Netflix password with 10 of your friends, you may be getting more than a slap on the wrist soon.

GOOGLE ADMITS SOME SENSITIVE EMAILS HACKED; BLAMES CHINA

The Contagio security blog posted evidence back in February of targeted attacks against government and military officials on Gmail. Today, nearly four months later, Google has finally admitted this is true: hundreds of personal accounts have been compromised by hackers it believes to be working out of Jinan, the capital of China's Shandong province.

The accounts include those of "senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists." The hijackers' aim appears to have been to spy on their targets using Google's automatic forwarding function. But unlike the PSN fiasco, Google insists its internal systems "have not been affected." Instead it seems the hackers used a phishing scam, possibly directing users to a spoof Gmail website before requesting their credentials.

Google says its own "abuse detection systems" disrupted the campaign -- but in a footnote right down at the bottom of their official blog page they also credit Contagio and user reports.

China's Foreign Minister, Hong Lei responded with a statement saying "Allegations that the Chinese government supports hacking activities are completely unfounded and made with ulterior motives."

NOKIA CEO DENIES ACQUISITION TALKS WITH MICROSOFT

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop on Wednesday responded to reports that Nokia had agreed to sell its cell phone business to Microsoft for $19 billion. “We have a great plan for our future, and we’re focused on executing that plan,” Elop told Bloombergin an interview. “The rumors are all over the place. There’s no basis for them.”

According to Bloomberg’s report, Elop claims not only that a deal hasn’t been reached, but that Nokia has never discussed a potential acquisition with Microsoft.

SPRINT FORMALLY ASKS FCC TO BLOCK AT&T/T-MOBILE MERGER

Sprint’s already been very vocal about its opposition to AT&T’s planned purchase of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom, but on Tuesday the carrier officially asked the Federal Communications Commission to step in and block the purchase. In its 377-page filing, Sprint argued that the acquisition would make AT&T the nation’s largest carrier with a total of 118 million subscribers and a 43% grip on the postpaid market.

The carrier added that Verizon and AT&T would earn 78% of all wireless revenues and the “Twin Bell” duopoly would have an 82% grasp of the postpaid market, making it difficult for other carriers such as Sprint to compete.

AT&T, meanwhile, has argued that the acquisition will create jobs, will not stifle competition, and will help deliver high-speed wireless broadband to 97% of U.S. residents.

LODSYS STILL GOING AFTER DEVELOPERS AFTER APPLE DEFENSE

A firm called Lodsys has been targeting Apple and Android developers that it believes are using its in-app purchase technology illegally. Despite Apple’s efforts to argue that its developers are covered under the same license, Lodsys doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon — it’s giving developers 21 days to cough up licensing fees before it files lawsuits. In a few recent blog posts, Lodsys explained its position on the matter:

[Apple's] letter was very surprising as Apple and Lodsys were in confidential discussions and there was clearly disagreement on the interpretation of the license terms of Apple’s agreement. Before, during and after these interactions, Lodsys has carefully considered this issue and consulted several legal experts to consider Apple’s claims. We stand firm and restate our previous position that it is the 3rd party Developers that are responsible for the infringement of Lodsys’ patents and they are responsible for securing the rights for their applications. Developers relying on Apple’s letter do so to their own detriment and are strongly urged to review Apple’s own developer agreements to determine the true extent of Apple’s responsibilities to them.

Lodsys is so confident that it has the upper hand in this legal battle that it’s offering developers $1,000 if courts rule that Apple’s license does, in fact, cover them. According to MacRumors, the developers currently being targeted include Combay, Iconfactory, Illusion Labs, Machael G. Karr, Quickoffice, Richard Shinderman, and Wulven Games.

Google has yet to respond to Lodsys’ complaints against Android developers.

RUMOR: CHINESE BOY SELLS KIDNEY TO BUY iPAD2

A 17-year-old Chinese boy living in the Anhui province in China sold his kidney for 22,000 yuan, or about $3,400, just so he could purchase an iPad 2. “I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” the unnamed boy told Shanghai Daily. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.” The child and broker arranged the procedure without his parents knowing, and he underwent surgery at a Chenzhou hospital. When his parents found out, they notified the police immediately but they have been unable to locate the broker, according to the report.

What’s more, the hospital at which the surgery took place was not qualified to perform the procedure, but the administration claims it was not aware of what was happening because the department that performed the surgery was contracted to a Fujian businessman. The child now says he regrets his decision.

PLAYSTATION STORE BACK ONLINE AFTER BEING DARK FOR ALMOST A MONTH

According to the Playstation blog the Playstation store is finally back online. The blog states "You will notice a huge lineup of new downloadable games, demos, add-on content, themes, avatars and videos. Also, PlayStation Plus has been updated with new full game trials, free games and DLC, free avatars and even more discounts."

Also, the free Welcome Back Offer content that was promised by the CEO is not available yet. The blog states it is in the final phase of testing and will be available shortly.

LEAK: EVO 4G GETTING GINGERBREAD FRIDAY JUNE 6TH

After Sprint's website snafu outing its Android 2.3 intentions for the EVO 4G, sources uncovered evidence that points to June 6th as its release date. Better yet, if you're willing to manually check for its availability, you might even find a happy surprise this Friday.

In addition to Gingerbread, users will find SMS and Gmail fixes, along with a tweak to the phone's power management software. Hopefully you've got WiMAX, because this update is coming over-the-air.

LEAK: MOTOROLA UPCOMING DEVICES

Motorola inadvertently went live with an upcoming website redesign on Tuesday evening, revealing six unannounced devices set to be released in the near future, reports claim. Before Motorola was able to pull the test site, cell phone blog Pocketnow.com was able to procure some telling screen grabs.

Devices pictured include Motorola’s upcoming second-generation Android tablet, the XOOM 2, a watch phone codenamed “Tracey XL” after fictitious crime-fighting gadget hound Dick Tracey, and four smartphones: the ultra-thin Motorola “Slimline” and Motorola “Zaha,” the upcoming 4G LTE-enabled Motorola “Targa” and the Motorola “Pearl.” No further information about the devices was made available by the screenshots.

ACTIVISION LAUNCHING SOCIAL NETWORK GAMING EXPERIENCE - CALL OF DUTY ELITE

Activision on Tuesday announced Call of Duty Elite, a new social network-style experience that will allow Call of Duty players to interact with one another in an entirely different way. The social network has three pillars: connect, compete, and improve.

“Connect” will allow users to compete against friends, join groups, find players with similar interests, and enter tournaments. Activision will provide both web and mobile interfaces for managing your Call of Duty information from multiple devices.

“Compete” will allow players to enter events and competitions with other players that have similar abilities, and Activision promises real world and in-game prizes.

“Improve,” will provide users with a strategy guide to help them bump their gaming skills by following their performance and ongoing statistics.

“The average Call of Duty player spends 58 minutes per day playing multiplayer,” Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirshberg, said. “That is more than the average Facebook user spends per day on Facebook. And yet, right now, there are very few tools to unite and super charge that social community. Whether it’s allowing you to connect with your friends, or people of a similar skill level, people who live in your city, people who share your favorite passions, join competitive clans or social groups, or upload, view and comment on the incredible mass of player-generated content, or watch and comment on exclusive created content, Call of Duty Elite will give people more ways to connect with fellow players than ever before.”

Most features will be free, although a premium package will also be available. The service will enter public beta with Call of Duty: Black Ops this summer and will launch on November 8th with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

DANGER SIDEKICK SERVICE COMES TO AN END

It’s been a long time coming, but the day is finally here. The servers that made your Sidekick devices so great — that insanely addictive push email, one of the best AIM experiences, one of the first app stores, and more — are shut down for good.

Since the Danger Sidekick devices were tied directly to the cloud, the devices had limited memory. What this means is that since there will no longer be data on the server, the data on your Sidekick will erase if your phone loses it’s charge. T-Mobile has recommended that Sidekick users go into T-Mobile locations to help get their data backed up, but if you’ve missed the boat, you can hit up your online T-Mobile account at the link below to access and export your data for free.

This does not apply to the new Sidekick 4G, which is Android based.

APPLE CRACKING DOWN ON MALWARE WITH QUARANTINE LIST

Preconceptions aside, Apple products do occasionally spread viruses, and not just the biological kind, which is why Cupertino saw fit to equip Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with a quarantine function to safely set malware aside. This week, however, Apple's kicking those digital white blood cells into high gear, updating that quarantine list daily with a new background process.

The company's primarily got its crosshairs on the recent MacDefender scare, of course, but on the off-chance malware starts coming out of the woodwork, it sounds like you won't have to wait for a formal security update to be forewarned of the dangers. If privacy's your primary concern, however, you can also opt-out

MICROSOFT CROWDSOURCING TO FEND OFF PATENT TROLLS

We've seen the havoc that patent trolls can wreak on tech companies and Microsoft clearly wants no part of it. That's why Ballmer & Co. have joined forces with Article One Partners -- a New York-based research firm that crowdsources scientific expertise to figure out whether or not patented ideas or inventions are as innovative as they claim, based on prior art.

By subscribing to Article One's new Litigation Avoidance service, Redmond hopes "to reduce risk and reduce potential litigation cost" brought by nonpracticing entities (NPEs) -- companies that collect thousands of patents, in the hopes that one may lay a golden egg. No word on how much the service will actually cost, but we're guessing it'll be worth at least a few legal headaches.