AUGUST US GAME SALES PLUMMET 23%

Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the United States continued to slide in August according to new data from NPD Group, again dipping more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Overall industry sales slid 23% to $669.9 million last month from $873.8 million in August 2010. Hardware sales were down 12% from last year to $249.4 million, accessory sales were down just 1% to $134.7 million and software sales plummeted 34% to $264.8 million. ”August 2011 sales saw a decline versus August 2010 in all categories except for portable games hardware,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. “In software, the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September (8/30 release falls within NPD’s September 2011 reporting period).” Frazier continued, “Even though year to date performance of the new physical portion of the industry is down 5%, more than half of industry sales in this channel are still to be realized in the back four months of the year. Given the strong release schedule in the coming months, new physical retail sales could still be flat to slightly up once full year sales are tallied.” Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the seventh consecutive month in August with 308,000 units sold.

JUDGE RULES FOR EMPLOYEES FIRED OVER FACEBOOK POSTS

The National Labor Relations Board has weighed in on the role of social networking at the office, determining that employees can't be fired for what they post on Facebook -- as long as they use the platform to talk about improving their workplace. The NLRB's ruling, announced on Wednesday, stems from an incident last year, when an employee at the Hispanics United of Buffalo non-profit organization went on Facebook to complain about a co-worker who accused her of slacking off at the office. Other colleagues soon chimed in on the woman's wall post with a slew of profanity-laced comments, before the targeted employee noticed the thread and reported it to a supervisor. Citing the agency's zero-tolerance policy on cyber harassment, the boss fired the five employees who participated in the online discussion -- including one who went on to file a complaint with the NLRB. Last week, administrative law Judge Arthur Amchan finally issued a verdict in the case, determining that the employees retained the right to talk about "their terms and conditions of employment," as stipulated under the National Labor Relations Act. Because this particular Facebook thread involved discussion of "job performance and staffing levels," Amchan ordered Hispanics United to reinstate the employees.

The decision marks the first time that an administrative judge has ruled on a Facebook-related workplace case, though the NLRB says it's received "an increasing number of charges related to social media in the past year" -- so it likely won't be the last.

ADOBE BRINGS FLASH TO iPHONE AND iPAD FOR ONLY $4,500

During the IBC trade show in Amsterdam on Friday, Adobe officially took the wraps off of its new Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5 and Adobe Flash Access 3.0 products, which will allow iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users to access Adobe Flash content. Apple, which has long rejected Adobe’s Flash technology, doesn’t need to approve the tech for it to work, either. “With Adobe Flash Media Server 4.5, media publishers now have a single, simple workflow for delivering content using the same stream to Flash-enabled devices or to the Apple iPhone and iPad,” Adobe said in a statement.

Flash Media Server 4.5 allows publishers to stream Flash content to iOS devices, which means support within the iOS Safari browser is not required. Instead of relying on a device’s processor to render the stream, which often degrades battery life and slows a device down, Adobe’s Flash Media Server 4.5 does all the legwork. Adobe Flash Media Server is available immediately to publishers for $4,500.

260% JUMP IN NINTENDO 3DS SALES AFTER PRICE CUT

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata said sales of the company’s Nintendo 3DS device in Europe and the United States were weaker than expected after the portable gaming console made its debut in April for $250. However, Nintendo dropped the price of the 3Ds to $179 after the company reported its first quarterly operating loss. The move quickly boosted sales in Japan and has reportedly resulted in a huge boost of sales in the United States, too. Nintendo sold 50,000 units between August 1st and August 12th before slashing the price of the console. The company then sold 185,000 more units during the rest of August after it reduced the price, a figure that’s up 260% from the same 19-day time period in July according to figures Nintendo quoted from the NPD Group. “Consumers are responding very positively to the new suggested retail price of $169.99 for the Nintendo 3DS,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “With Star Fox 64 3D and the new Flame Red color launching [on September 9th], and Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 arriving later this year, Nintendo 3DS will offer consumers cutting-edge entertainment and tremendous value this holiday season.”

LEAK: SPRINT BLACKS OUT FIRST HALF OF OCTOBER FOR LAUNCH OF "MAJOR PHONE"

An internal memo obtained from Sprint employee indicates the carrier will have the iPhone5 and it will launch the first week of October. The memo states lists blackout dates, during which employees cannot take vacations, from September 30 to October 15 in anticipation of a "major phone" launch. Blackouts are common among carriers for devices expected to be in high demand. It ensures retail stores have enough staff to handle the anticipated crowds. Since no other phone is expected launch, much less any that would require blackouts, it is expected this will be the launch of Apple's highly anticipated iPhone5.

GROUPON SUED BY STAFF

After persistent rumors this week that Groupon was shelving its IPO due to investor and user dissatisfaction, more bad news has struck. In a filing in Chicago federal court this week, former salesperson Ranita Dailey confirmed she will be lead plaintiff on behalf of Groupon employees who seek to recoup overtime that the company allegedly failed to pay. The suit claims that Groupon violated federal and state labor law, and demands three years of back wages and punitive damages for hundreds of employees. Groupon has not commented on the lawsuit.

LEAK: ANDROID "JELLY BEAN" COMING AFTER "ICE CREAM SANDWICH"

It is being reported that trusted sources have revealed the name of the next version of Google's mobile OS, after Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), as Jelly Bean. This naming continues Google's tradition of naming the product after a sweet and in alphabetical order. Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to launch in October or November and will merge the smartphone Gingerbread OS with the tablet Honeycomb OS. Very little is known about ICS and what features will be included.

Some sources are also indicating that some of the "wow" stuff slated for ICS will now be rolled over to Jelly Bean. Other sources have stated that ICS will have major architectural, functional, and design changes and won't be just a re-heated Gingerbread/Honeycomb sandwich.

INVENTOR GETS PATENT FOR SNOWMAN/WOMAN

With all the patent lawsuit wars happening these days between pretty much every big-name tech company, including Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, HTC, (and the list goes on), you’d think the last thing we’d want to hear about today is another patent. However, this one happened to catch our eye. And, believe it or not, we’re talking about “eyes made out of coal.” Yes, Frosty the Snowman, or more correctly, snowmen and snowwomen as a whole, have been patented.

If you look at the 8,011,991th United States Patent, you will see the “Apparatus for Facilitating the Construction of a Snow Man/Woman,” granted to inventor Ignacio Marc Asperas of Melville, NY. The patent was filed on New Year’s Eve, Jan. 31, 2006 but was just granted on Sept. 6, 2011.

As someone who’s had to try to pick through long and boring patents to understand and extract the most important information, reading Asperas’ patent was actually a delight. It’s conversational and a bit humorous. Asperas says in the patent application that he’s surprised no one has thought of patenting the snowman before.

Asperas says that “as an old pro” he knows what a “pain in the back” it is to roll a snow boulder around a yard. As you all know, the more you roll the boulder around the yard, the larger the boulder grows and rolling it becomes exponentially harder. If you want to make a “real big snowman,” like Asperas does, you “end up breaking your back.”

The 25-page patent details methods for creating the spherical shape of the body, as well as some of the trials and tribulations, including uneven boulders that can make the snowman look like it has a “big caboose.” He also warns us that as temperatures rise, the snowman will melt, compact on itself and deform, possibly falling over. “Happy smiles fade into frowns.”

Asperas even goes into detail about a revolutionary way to build a snowman that would use a type of snow sphere that would make each boulder extremely light weight, but still able to hold snow thanks to static electricity that attracts and holds dry snow onto the sphere. His method of building a snowman is quite interesting, and we suggest you read the full patent for yourself (PDF).

And don’t go thinking this is a joke, because Asperas makes it perfectly clear in the beginning of the patent that it’s not. He includes a warning saying that “the following is not a joke patent.” He assures the readers that it’s completely serious.

NIKE TO UNVEIL BACK TO THE FUTURE SELF-LACING SHOES

Nike is sending out invites to an event tonight where it’s strongly believed that the Nike Air Mag will be unveiled. Several not-so-subtle hints are included in the goodie box received by lucky invitees, including a bottle of Throwback Pepsi, a pair of wraparound shades just like those worn by Doc Brown, some nostalgia-inspiring candy, and the invite itself.

The Air Mag is expected to be a version of the self-lacing shoes worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II. Since 2007 a grassroots campaign has been aimed at Nike to produce the magical shoes and with the invite and a recent patent filing it looks like those grassroots folks have succeeded.

GOOGLE TO INTRODUCE A NEW PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE NAMED DART

Google confirmed speculation on the Goto International Software Development conference website they have been working on a new structured programming language named Dart. Google will officially announce the project on October 10th along with details of what Dart can do. Dart will join JavaScript and Python in Google's bag of coding tricks.

MICROSOFT SHOWS OFF INCREDIBLE SHORT BOOT TIME IN WINDOWS 8

Microsoft's next-gen desktop OS will see a hugely improved boot time thanks to a clever technique. Rather than closing both the user session and the kernel session like in a traditional shutdown, Windows 8 will preserve the kernel session on the disk, thus creating a "hiberfile" that's much smaller than that of the usual Windows hibernation. The result is an amazingly fast system bootup, even with the battery removed as shown in the video, that claims to be 30 to 70 percent faster than most systems tested by Microsoft.

US SENATE PASSES PATENT REFORM BILL, PRESIDENT TO SIGN INTO LAW

Yesterday, the Senate approved the America Invents Act by an 89-8 vote that could bring about the most drastic changes to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in five decades. Under the bill, which the House approved back in June, patents would be awarded not to the first person to invent a technology, but to the first one to actually file with the USPTO, bringing US policy in line with protocol adopted in most other countries. It also calls for a streamlined application process and would allow the USPTO to charge set fees for all apps. The revenue generated from these fees would go directly to a capped reserve fund, allowing the office to retain the lion's share of the money, rather than funneling much of it to Congress, as had become the norm.

Supporters say this extra revenue will give the USPTO more power to chip away at its backlog of some 700,000 patent applications, while a new third-party challenge system will help eliminate patents that should've never received approval in the first place. Opponents, meanwhile, criticized the bill for not eliminating fee diversion altogether (an amendment that would've placed more severe restrictions was ultimately killed, for fear that it would jeopardize the bill's passage), with Washington Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell questioning the legislation's impact on small businesses, calling it "a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the rights of small inventors." But Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who sponsored the bill, argued that yesterday's approval marks a major and historic inflection point in US patent policy.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law very soon.

GOOGLE BUYS ZAGAT

Long before Yelp, there was Zagat, a point-based restaurant rating guide, compiled from the best (or worst, depending) crowdsourced reviews. Today, Google has acquired the brand and plans to integrate Zagat's now expanded shopping, eating, drinking and hotel tips into both search and maps. For gastronomes, travelers and locals, that means crowdsourced tips for superb noms and activity recommendations from around the world.

LEAK: GOOGLE DOCUMENT DISCUSSES GIVING MOTOROLA ANDROID TIME ADVANTAGE

An internal document released to Judge Alsup, in the Oracle v. Google lawsuit, indicates Google will give, or has been giving, certain partners a lead time advantage with their Android OS. The document specifically states:

Lead device concept: Give early access to the software to partners who build and distribute devices to our specification (ie, Motorola and Verizon). They get a non-contractual time to market advantage and in return they align to our standard.

Now that Google has purchased Motorola this might be viewed as illegal by some, mainly the US Justice Department who is looking into the acquisition for a possible monopoly issue. Other Android OEM's, like HTC, while saying everything is fine, are probably starting to look at other OS'es available...Microsoft's Windows Phone anyone?

HTC COUNTER SUES APPLE WITH FORMER GOOGLE PATENTS

There's a fresh new twist in the never ending Apple / HTC patent battle. The Taiwanese handset manufacturer is hitting back against Apple using newly obtained firepower: nine patents picked up from Google last week. The patents, which began life under Palm, Motorola and Openwave Systems, were transferred to HTC on September 1st.

Apple has sued HTC for patent infringement as well over HTC's use of Android.

GOOGLE'S SCHMIDT SAYS ICE CREAM SANDWICH COMING IN OCTOBER OR NOVEMBER

Google's own Eric Schmidt revealed in an interview with Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff that Ice Cream Sandwich, the highly-anticipated update to Android that will merge elements of Honeycomb and Gingerbread into one universal OS, can be expected to arrive in October or November. This matches up with rumors saying the Nexus Prime will be released in the tenth month, but it's the first time we've heard anything official

BARTZ OUT AS YAHOO CEO, COMPANY UP FOR SALE

Following recent rumblings surrounding discontent atop Yahoo’s executive chain, the struggling Internet company fired its CEO Carol Bartz. In the same stroke, Yahoo! also revealed that it is for sale. News broke Tuesday night that former chief executive Carol Bartz sent an email to the entire Yahoo organization. In her brief note, she stated that Yahoo’s chairman of the board had fired her, over the phone, no less. Yahoo confirmed the news, stating that Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse would step in as interim CEO while the company searches for a new chief.

Following the news, a Yahoo employee speaking with The Wall Street Journal also confirmed that the company would be open to selling itself. “Yahoo is open to selling itself to the right bidder,” the Journal wrote. No additional details were provided.

GAMESTOP STARTS iOS TRADE-IN PROGRAM, MIGHT SELL iPHONE 5

GameStop is hopping on the mobile bandwagon. The company announced it will begin selling iPhones, iPods, and iPads as well as offer a trade-in program for those old iOS devices you want to upgrade. Starting this week, GameStop stores will start taking your old iOS devices for in-store credit.

The game selling store will be up against some fierce competition in the trade-in program department. Over the past few years companies such as Verizon, Amazon, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble have all created such programs with varying degrees of success.

GROUPON IPO ON HOLD

Groupon, which is expected to fetch a $20 billion valuation upon its stock-market debut, canceled its investor roadshow and is reevaluating plans for an initial public offering in the face of stock-market volatility, said a person familiar with the matter. While the Chicago company isn't pulling its IPO, it is reassessing its timing on a week by week basis, this person added.

Groupon had originally been aiming to go public after Labor Day and to price its shares in mid-September, this person said. The roadshow had been planned for next week. A Groupon spokesman declined to comment.

EMAIL TAKING TOLL, US POSTAL SERVICE ALMOST BANKRUPT

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.”

The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs. As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.

Missing the $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30, intended to finance retirees’ future health care, won’t cause immediate disaster. But sometime early next year, the agency will run out of money to pay its employees and gas up its trucks, officials warn, forcing it to stop delivering the roughly three billion pieces of mail it handles weekly.

Mail volume has plummeted with the rise of e-mail, electronic bill-paying and a Web that makes everything from fashion catalogs to news instantly available. The system will handle an estimated 167 billion pieces of mail this fiscal year, down 22 percent from five years ago. It’s difficult to imagine that trend reversing, and pessimistic projections suggest that volume could plunge to 118 billion pieces by 2020. The law also prevents the post office from raising postage fees faster than inflation.

SONY DEVELOPS 3mm THICK SHEET THAT ALLOWS FOR GLASSLESS 3D

A new lenticular sheet has been unveiled at IFA 2011 by Sony that allows for 3D viewing without the need to wear glasses. Sony will be using this 3mm thick sheet in its Vaio S series laptops, but it will also be offered to other laptop manufacturers. The sheet is 15.5-inches in size, suggesting it could be used in laptops up to that size while adding only a little extra thickness and weight to the overall machine. The one stumbling block is the price, which Sony has set at $183. That’s a high price to pay for just adding 3D to a laptop, so it will be reserved for high-end, and therefore expensive machines.

In order for it to work the sheet needs to be combined with a webcam and software. The webcam tracks the position of the user’s face sitting at the laptop while the software handles that face tracking and adjusts the output to be optimal for the position of the user. Clearly it’s not a system that works well if you and a friend want to watch a 3D movie on your laptop.

RUMOR: INTEL BAILING ON MEEGO

Intel plans to discontinue development of its MeeGo operating system for the time being due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform, DigiTimes reported on Friday. Citing multiple anonymous industry sources, the report claims Intel will instead focus on “handset platforms to be paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012.” Nokia had initially been Intel’s premier partner on the MeeGo platform, but the company recently announced that it was dumping MeeGo in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. Nokia did unveil one MeeGo-powered phone this past June, the Nokia N9, but the Finnish vendor simultaneously confirmed that the N9 would be the first and only MeeGo smartphone Nokia produces.

In response to DigiTimes’ claims, Intel commented that it “remains committed to MeeGo and will continue to work with the community to develop and help meet the needs of customers and end users with open source.”

iPHONE 5 UP FOR PRE-ORDER SOON

Artist rendering of possible iPhone 5

Apple has yet to announce it’s fifth-generation smartphone, but that apparently won’t stop German carrier Deutsche Telekom from selling it. Bloomberg reported on Monday morning that it has confirmed with Deutsche Telekom that, beginning today, DT subscribers may begin reserving Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5 smartphone. The carrier will hand out coupons to customers who reserve the device, despite the fact that no confirmed details surrounding the next iPhone are available.

In a leaked document Best Buy will begin pre-orders in the next few weeks with delivery the first week on October. Also of note in the leaked document is that Sprint will be the third US carrier to get the iPhone.

CONFUSION AROUND HP CAUSING CUSTOMERS TO FLEE

The ongoing confusion over HP's future plans is causing customers to abandon ship, according to reports. The company has been sending out mixed messages since its shock announcement to quit the PC business, as well as stop production of its webOS TouchPad tablet. It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where they are going.

HP's dithering is already causing customers to look elsewhere, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper cited engineering company Fluor, which generally spends $25 million a year on new hardware and software, and was planning to buy high-end design computers and a fleet of tablets from HP. "I've put that all on hold and won't buy from HP,” said Fluor chief information officer Ray Barnard in the report. "It appears that they're lost right now."

And Fluor was not alone, with the WSJ also citing education customers with doubts over spending money with the world's largest PC manufacturer, amid confusion over its plans and abrupt announcements.
"This appears to just come out of the blue without a really good explanation," Frank Cervone, a vice chancellor for information services at Purdue University, told the paper. "It makes you wonder what the strategy really is and where it is going."

GOOGLE CELEBRATES FREDDY MERCURY'S 65TH BIRTHDAY WITH 98 SECOND DOODLE

Google is celebrating what would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday on Monday with its second longest doodle to date.

The 98-second-long animation shows the lead singer of the British rock band Queen navigating through a crazy world inspired by his own lyrics. In one scene that looks like an old-school video game, Mercury bounces off clouds, flies on a tiger and shoots at aliens from a spaceship, all to his hit song "Don't Stop Me Now."

Doodler Jennifer Hom was the brains behind the elaborate doodle, which was a team effort. She and other illustrators spent about three months putting the whole thing together. They even studied a bunch of old Queen albums and videos to pick out visual cues. "My obsession with Freddie Mercury affected everyone else around me," she said. They decided to go with the song "Don't Stop Me Now" because it's one of Queen's top 10 hits of all time, plus Mercury actually wrote it. Mercury also wrote such classics as "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions." He died of bronchopneumonia resulting from AIDS in 1991, just one day after announcing he had the disease.

"Considering how colorful Freddie's career was, we wanted to create a doodle that was just as colorful," said Hom, who tried to squeeze in as many humorous and respectful references that she could.

Viewers may notice references to "Bicycle," "A Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "I Want to Break Free," "Flash" and more. The Mountain View-based search giant published the Mercury doodle worldwide on its homepage Monday, except for in the US, which will be celebrating Mercury's birthday on Tuesday because of a conflict with Labor Day.

"We're all really excited because it is such a big doodle," Hom said. "It's definitely not our normal doodle."

LEAK: AMAZON & 7-ELEVEN JOINING TOGETHER TO BRING DELIVERY CONVENIENCE

The Daily is reporting that Amazon and 7-Eleven convenience stores have joined together in a trial for a new delivery option for customers. The Amazon customer will be offered the option of having their purchase shipped to a 7-Eleven of their choosing. The customer will then receive an email with a bar code that can be scanned by a machine at the 7-Eleven to reveal a pin number which will access the delivered goods. The Daily further reports some of the convenience stores in Seattle already have the machines and are beginning tests on the concept.

SAMSUNG PULLS GALAXY TAB 7.7 FROM IFA DUE TO APPLE INJUNCTION

Apple's ongoing patent battle with Samsung has taken yet another twist, now that Cupertino has won an injunction blocking German sales of the recently unveiled Galaxy Tab 7.7. According to FOSS Patents, Samsung pulled its new Android tablet from both the IFA show floor and its German website on Saturday, in compliance with a Friday decision handed down by the same Düsseldorf Regional Court court that banned sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month.

The 7.7-inch slate had previously been on display with a sticker that read "Not for sale in Germany," but, as we noticed yesterday, all demo models, posters and other promotional materials have since been removed. Samsung spokesman James Chung told Bloomberg that the new injunction "severely limits consumer choice in Germany," but confirmed that the Korean manufacturer "respects the court's decision," and vowed to do everything it could to defend its intellectual property.

RUMOR: BARNES & NOBLE NOOK COLOR 2 COMING THIS MONTH

The successor to the Barnes & Noble Nook Color will launch this month, DigiTimesreported on Friday. There is no mention if the Nook Color 2 will run Android, as the original did, although we hope Barnes & Noble considers using the more tablet-friendly Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) operating system this time around instead of a the Froyo build, which was designed for use on smartphones. Inventec and Pegatron will assemble the eReaders and supply as many as 2-3 million devices by the end of this year, the report says. TPK Holding will provide the 7-inch color touchscreen panels. DigiTimesalso said that the Nook Color 2 E Ink will supply “e-paper backplanes,” which suggests there will be a new E Ink component to the Nook Color 2, although it is unclear what its role will be at this point.

AUDI A2 ELECTRIC CONCEPT REVEALED, INVOLVES LASERS, LEDs AND MICROREFLECTORS

Lasers make everything better, including (but not limited to): microphones, kidneys and Audi's electric A2 concept. This newest flight of fancy uses a laser diode as the rear fog lamp, which projects a red triangle onto the road to let other drivers know you're there. The German car-maker has tricked out the rest of the EV's lighting system as well by implementing matrix beam technology using LEDs and microreflectors -- giving it high resolution, non-glaring beams and intelligent tail lights that change in intensity based on weather conditions. Claiming other state-of-the-art features like gesture controls instead of keys, and brake lights that glow brighter the harder you press, it sounds like this would be a pretty sweet ride -- if it ever makes it to market. No word on the other, insignificant details, like what actually powers the thing.

APPLE ACCUSED OF IMPERSONATING POLICE DURING SEARCH FOR MISSING iPHONE PROTOTYPE

According to SF Weekly, six investigators claiming to be members of the San Francisco police department descended upon one Bernal Heights, San Francisco man’s home in search of a lost iPhone 5 prototype that CNEToriginally reported had been left in a bar. The scary part? The SFPD confirmed the investigators weren’t police officers at all. Instead, it appears as though they may have actually been members of Apple’s security team allegedly impersonating police officers. The officers in question claimed that they had traced the iPhone 5 to the man’s house using the device’s GPS feature. “They threatened me,” Sergio Calderon, the 22 year old man whose house was searched, said. “We don’t know anything about it, still, to this day,” he toldSF Weekly. “They made it seem like they were on the phone with the owner of the phone, and they said ‘The person’s not pressing charges, they just want it back. They’ll give you $300,” he added. Reportedly, the police force that did investigate Calderon offered him a number to call if he found any more information on the device. SF Weekly called the number and Anthony Colon, an Apple employee answered the call. Colon is currently employed by Apple as a “senior investigator,” and he once worked for the San Jose police department. Earlier on Friday, it was reported that San Francisco’s police department did not currently have an open investigation into a lost iPhone prototype, despite CNET’sclaims to the contrary. ”This is something that’s going to need to be investigated now,” Lieutenant Troy Dangerfield of the San Francisco police department told SF Weekly. “If this guy is saying that the people said they were SFPD, that’s a big deal.” It’s unclear where the story will turn from here, but it sounds like Apple certainly played a role in the incident. The San Francisco Police Department stated that it would only launch an investigation into the matter if Calderon decides to speak with them directly. UPDATE: The SFPD is now saying they did "assist" Apple in the search, however it is still no clear if the Apple investigators portrayed themselves as police officers.

CONFIRMED, MEDIA CENTER WILL BE IN WINDOWS 8

Steven Sinofsky, the President of the Windows Division has confirmed in a blog post that Media Center will return for yet another go 'round in Windows 8. There's no word on any possible changes, only that the company has "work to do" concerning the quality and compatibility of add-ins. Wondering why it hasn't been in some pre-release builds? Between the potential for multiple SKUs (no details until closer to release, but it seems like you'll be looking for an Ultimate pack or something similar again to get everything) and simple engineering decisions as features are added and removed that's just the way it is. Another factor is that WMC isn't exactly mass market, as he cites stats indicating only 6 percent of Windows 7 users launched the app in July, with over half of those sessions lasting less than a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, IE apparently pops up on 88 percent of Windows 7 desktops.

RUMOR: AMAZON TABLET COMING IN NOVEMBER FOR $250

TechCrunchhas apparently gotten some time with Amazon's forthcoming slate, and reports that it has a 7-inch, backlit color capacitive screen and is bereft of physical buttons. Word on the web is that the hardware is already good to go, and Amazon is making the last few software tweaks before it goes on sale this November. The tablet is running a heavily skinned version of Android that was developed without any help from the folks in Mountain View. It apparently has a Cover Flow-esque UI, and is deeply integrated with all of Amazon's services (Cloud Player, Instant Video Player, Appstore, and of course the Kindle app). Best of all, it will reportedly cost a scant $250 -- not quite TouchPad territory, but well underneath the iPad's $500 price.

RUMOR: DISH NETWORK LAUNCHING BLOCKBUSTER STREAMING SERVICE

Dish Network already has its DishOnline streaming service for its own paying customers, but it looks like it's now set to take direct aim at Netflix with a standalone subscription service that will be open to everyone. According to Bloomberg, that will operate under the company's recently acquired Blockbuster brand and, in what's surely a bitter pill for Netflix to swallow, it's said to include titles from Starz (which also handles movies from Disney and Sony). As you'll recall from yesterday, Starz announced that it will be pulling all of its titles from Netflix in February of next year after it failed to reach an agreement with the company. Details on the service otherwise remain a bit light -- including any word of a possible subscription price -- although Bloombergsays it "may" also include on-demand Blockbuster movies that Dish customers will be able to watch on their TVs.

NETFLIX OFFERS STARZ $300 MILLION FOR RENEWAL, STARZ WALKS AWAY FROM TALKS

Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement, but the pay cable channel was insistent on so-called tiered pricing, according to people close to the negotiations but not authorized to speak on the record. Tiered pricing would require Netflix subscribers who want movies and television shows from Starz and other premium providers to pay more than the standard $8 per month. That demand was apparently a key sticking point in talks that fell apart Thursday, meaning the two companies' deal, which began in 2008, will expire at the end of February. Starz wanted Netflix to charge a premium price for its content in order to put the popular online video service more in line with cable and satellite providers. Protecting relationships with multiplatform video programming distributors (MVPDs) like DirecTV and Time Warner Cable is critical to Starz. The MVPDs are wary of Netflix because they fear customers will "cut the cord" if enough fresh content is available online at a lower price.

SAMSUNG CEO SAYS THEY WILL NEVER BUY WEBOS

During the IFA trade show in Berlin on Friday, Samsung Electronics CEO Choi Gee Sung addressed rumors and speculation that Samsung was considering purchasing webOS from HP. Choi said Samsung would “never” make the purchase, according to Bloomberg. “It’s not right that acquiring an operating system is becoming a fashion,” he said. Samsung Mobile already has its own mobile operating system called bada and just released version 2.0. It also sells smartphones running Android and Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. HP, which recently announced that it is ostensibly killing off the mobile operating system, has been working with other technology firms to license webOS. While Samsung may not buy webOS outright, the Korean-based company has held talks to license webOS for new smartphones, Bloomberg said, but it is still unclear how those discussions turned out. Considering the success Samsung is currently enjoying with Android and bada, however, we’re not sure HP will be able to convince Samsung that there is any real value in adopting an OS that it couldn’t even sell to users itself.

AT&T TO MAKE CONCESSIONS TO GET T-MOBILE

Now that the US government has moved to block its merger with T-Mobile, AT&T is gearing up for a long and potentially pricey legal battle with the Department of Justice. According to Reuters, however, the provider is also working on a settlement offer, in the hopes of bypassing the courtroom altogether. Sources close to the matter say AT&T will soon present its proposal to antitrust regulators, who are concerned that the company's purchase of T-Mobile may hinder market competition. Details on the proposal remain vague, though it will likely include promises to keep T-Mobile's low-cost data and calling plans, along with pledges to sell off some of its own assets. But some insiders say the carrier may have to sell up to 25 percent of T-Mobile's business in order to put regulators' minds at ease. AT&T has yet to comment on the report, though one of Reuters' sources claims that its lawyers are "pretty determined that they can find a solution, and they are pretty confident."

ANDROID UP, RIM DOWN, iOS FLAT IN JULY SMARTPHONE MARKET

According to Nielsen, Google’s Android platform gained once again during the three-month period ending in July, increasing it’s share by 1% over second-quarter totals to grab 40% of the U.S. smartphone market. Apple’s iOS stayed flat at 28% and RIM’s BlackBerry OS lost one point from June-quarter figures to fall to 19%. Windows Mobile and Windows Phone combined to take 8% of the market — with Windows Phone responsible for just 1% on its own — and the ghost of smartphone operating systems past is now buried somewhere in the “Other” category. Nielsen also notes that 40% of mobile phone users between May and July of this year owned smartphones, and Android topped iOS in the firm’s survey of which smartphone platform users intend to buy next. From “innovators” to “late adopters,” each consumer group Nielsen polled but one — “early adopters” — found Android to be the most appealing OS for their next purchases.

AT&T PROMISES TO BRING BACK 5,000 JOBS TO US IF GOVERNMENT APPROVES T-MOBILE MERGER

AT&T said on Wednesday that it promises to bring 5,000 of its outsourced call center jobs back to the United States if its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA is approved by the FCC. AT&T also promised that it will not layoff any AT&T or T-Mobile call center employee who is employed at the time of the merger. In addition, AT&T will invest $8 billion in its U.S. infrastructure and the Economic Policy Institute has suggested that move could provide up to 96,000 new jobs. AT&T made its announcement hours before the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the merger. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the Justice Department said. AT&T responded and said that “there was no indication” from the DOJ that a lawsuit was being contemplated. “We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Wayne Watts said, noting that AT&T will continue to fight for the merger’s approval.

APPLE LOSES iPHONE PROTOTYPE....AGAIN!

Apple employees must love a good drink. An Apple employee has, yet again, lost an unreleased iPhone prototype in a bar, according to CNET. The iPhone was lost in Cava22, a bar in San Francisco’s Mission District, late last month and Apple quickly tried to recover the lost device. The Cupertino-based company tracked the phone to a house in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights where investigators spoke to “a man in his twenties” who had been at Cava22 the day the iPhone was lost. The man denied knowing about the phone, despite a cash and “no questions asked” offer from Apple, and nothing was found when the man gave police permission to search his home. The phone was reportedly later sold on Craigslist for $200 to an unknown buyer according to CNET’s source, though it is unclear how the source gained knowledge of the sale. Last year, Gizmodo purchased a lost iPhone 4 prototype and published photos of the handset before it was unveiled.

SPRINT DOUBLING UPGRADE FEE ON SEPTEMBER 9TH

SprintFeed is reporting Sprint's Upgrade Fee is doubling, up to $36 for existing customers wanting a new phone. If the customer has a multi-line contract to renew out of cycle the price cap is $150. There's speculation that these bumps may have something to do with the latest rumor of an Apple acquisition of Sprint, but it may also simply be a routine policy change.

US GOVERNMENT FILES ANTI-TRUST SUIT AGAINST AT&T/T-MOBILE MERGER

The U.S. government sued to block AT&T Inc. (T)’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc., saying the deal would “substantially lessen competition” in the wireless market. AT&T shares fell as much as 5 percent.

In the complaint filed today in federal court in Washington, the U.S. is seeking a declaration that Dallas-based AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), would violate U.S. antitrust law. The U.S. also asked for a court order blocking any arrangement implementing the deal. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the U.S. said in its filing.

Should regulators reject the deal, which would create the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, AT&T would have to pay Deutsche Telekom $3 billion in cash. It would also provide T-Mobile USA with wireless spectrum in some regions and reduced charges for calls into AT&T’s network, for a total package valued at as much as $7 billion, Deutsche Telekom said this month

HP TO CONTINUE BUILDING TOUCHPAD UNTIL OCTOBER

Hewlett-Packard may have killed the TouchPad, but it’s going to continue manufacturing it for just a little while longer.

With demand for the heavily discounted tablet still running high, HP has decided to produce one one last run before sending it off to a final dirt nap. “HP will be manufacturing a limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011, which ends October 31,” the company said in an update posted to its Next Bench Blog.

Presumably, HP’s upstream suppliers are unhappily sitting atop big piles of component inventory. If the demand is there and the inventory is prepped and paid for, why not produce another run — especially if the company intends to continue to update webOS.
So even in death, the Touchpad lives on thanks to that $99 price point which seems to have ginned up the consumer interest that the $499 device could not.

RUMOR: AMAZON'S 10" TABLET NOT SHIPPING UNTIL 2012

Amazon’s second tablet, initially thought to be scheduled for a late 2011 or early 2012 launch, may not begin shipping to users until after the first quarter next year. According to a report from DigiTimes on Wednesday, Amazon will use manufacturing giant Foxconn to assemble its 10-inch tablets, and mass production is not set to begin until some time in the first quarter of 2012. Depending on when production ramps up, this likely means the tablet will not be released until the second quarter at the earliest.

T-MOBILE TO OFFER SIGNAL BOOSTERS TO HELP STEM SUBSCRIBER DECLINE

T-Mobile intends to offer cellular signal boosters to customers looking to switch carriers due to poor reception at home, according to T-Mobile watcher TmoNews. The move appears to be part of a new program intended to slow service quality-related cancellations, which are apparently a significant problem for the nation’s No. 4 carrier. Beginning on September 7th, T-Mobile will seemingly begin offering in-home signal boosters “when a customer triggers for cancellation of service due to poor in-home coverage,” according to a purported leaked internal memo to T-Mobile staff. The memo also warns that signal boosters should never be offered to customers as an incentive when closing a sale. In order to take the signal booster, which will be free of charge, customers will need to sign a new 2-year service contract and it is unclear if they will be permitted to test the level of improvement afforded by the booster before signing.

APPLE RELEASES iTUNES MATCH BETA FOR DEVELOPERS

Apple released a developer beta of the iTunes Match system this evening. The system is described by Apple as follows:

iTunes Match stores your complete music library in iCloud, allowing you to enjoy your collection anywhere, anytime, on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer.

For the $25 yearly fee, iTunes Match will scan your existing iTunes music library and allow you to access it from any of your iTunes-linked Macs or iOS devices. Songs that already exist in Apple's iTunes music store will be streamed straight from Apple's master copy (at 256kbps bitrate) without a need to upload the songs yourself. Songs that don't exist in iTunes will be uploaded to iCloud. Either way, all your music (up to 25,000 songs) will be accessible from your various computers and iOS devices.

What wasn't clear before is the fact that music can be either streamed or downloaded locally to any of your computers or devices. While the video only shows the service on a Mac, we've confirmed it works the same way on iOS devices. So, essentially, you will have instant access to your entire music library from all of your Macs, iPhones, iPads, or iPod touches for only $25/year. This ability on your iOS devices means your music library won't need to take up valuable space on the device itself, as long as you have some sort of internet connection.

iTunes Match is expected to launch alongside iOS 5 this fall

SAMSUNG TO RELEASE CHATON APP FOR iOS, ANDROID, BB AND BADA

Samsung has promised ChatOn for “all major smartphone platforms,” which appears to mean Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Bada right now. With Samsung also developing Windows phones, it wouldn’t be surprising to see ChatOn appear there, too. Users will be able to send messages and photos, as well as share calendar items. Samsung’s also going to release a web client for carrying on conversations from any device with a modern browser.

DARPA'S HTV-2 FAILS

The prototype Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2) failed its second test flight after having failed the first one. The HTV-2 disappeared without a trace during the first flight. A video of the second failed flight has been released.

The HTV-2 is an unmanned, experimental aircraft that is designed to drop a bomb anywhere in the world. A Minotaur IV Lite launch vehicle takes the HTV-2 into space and releases it. The HTV-2 then reenters the atmosphere and follows a path until it lands in the ocean. Its top speed is Mach 20, twenty times the speed of sound. To give a sense of how fast the HTV-2 is, it can fly from Los Angeles to New York City in less than 12 minutes.

The HTV-2′s first test flight occurred last year. The flight lasted nine minutes before DARPA lost contact with the aircraft. Despite the failure, the test flight proved that the HTV-2 is capable of flying 3.6 miles per second while maintaining GPS signals.

The second test flight occurred on August 11 of this year. The flight lasted nine minutes before DARPA lost contact with the aircraft following the glide phase. DARPA had 22 stations set up along the HTV-2′s flight path to collect data.

FACEBOOK SHELVES "FACEBOOK DEALS"

Facebook has decided to shelve its Facebook Deals product, a service that was launched to compete with other coupon service providers such as Groupon and LivingSocial. “After testing Deals for four months, we’ve decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks,” Facebook told Reuters. “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses. We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” Facebook will instead focus on Pages, Sponsored Stories and its Ads product. Facebook announced Deals in November and began testing the service in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. It partnered with aDealio, Gilt City, HomeRun, kgb deals, OpenTable, Plum District, PopSugar City, ReachLocal, Tippr, viagogo and zozi to power the service.

GALAXY TAB 10.1 LAUNCH DELAYED IN AUSTRALIA DUE TO APPLE LAWSUIT

Just a few days after suffering a legal setback in Dutch court, Samsung has now decided to delay the launch of its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, amid its heightening patent infringement battle with Apple. In a hearing today, the Korean manufacturer announced that it would refrain from selling or marketing its new tablet within Australia, before September 30th. Samsung made a similar concession earlier this month, agreeing to halt sales of its slates until today's hearing and to provide Apple with product samples at least seven days prior to its Australian launch. The company says it presented the samples on Thursday, but Cupertino's lawyers insisted that the Australian version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 still infringes upon its patents. Samsung, meanwhile, said in a statement that it's preparing to launch a counter-attack down under, telling reporters that it "intends to file a cross claim against Apple Australia and Apple Inc regarding the invalidity of the patents previously asserted by Apple and also a cross claim against Apple regarding violation of patents held by Samsung by selling its iPhones and iPads." The next formal court hearings are scheduled for September 26th and 29th.

TOSHIBA REALIZES THIN IS IN

According to Notebook Italia, Toshiba's expected to announce a new ultra-thin tablet at IFA this week, swapping full-size USB and HDMI ports for micro-USB, micro HDMI, and microSD slots in order to shave off a few millimeters from last year's model, leaving the new device with a sleeker, much more appealing design. The rumored slate is expected to ship with a TI OMAP4460 dual-core 1.5GHz processor, an edge-to-edge screen, and a brushed-metal housing. Other specs, including Android version and screen size are a bit thin at this point.

RUMOR: APPLE LAUNCHING A TELEVISION IN 2012

Apple is almost certainly working on a digital television based on its iOS operating system, according to multiple sources in Silicon Valley.

An Apple-based television makes sense in light of Apple’s continued expansion out of the computer industry into the larger consumer electronics market. But is it real?

Multiple reports, as well as sources interviewed by VentureBeat, support the rumor, which is widespread among the gadget industry.

• Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, a longtime Apple analyst, predicts that Apple will produce a television in late 2012 or early 2013. In an interview with VentureBeat, Munster cited multiple sources, including component suppliers as well as an internal Apple source, to back up his theory. Munster predicts this will be an actual TV, not just a set-top box, and most likely running a version of iOS. (Note: Munster made a similar claim in 2009, except then he said that Apple would have a TV by 2011. He now says “I think the probability is almost zero that it will be this year.”)
• Venture capitalist Stewart Alsop, of Alsop Louie ventures, lent credence to the “iTelevision” theory in an interview with VentureBeat. Alsop sits on the boards of TiVo and Sonos, follows the hardware industry closely, and says he has heard from multiple sources throughout Silicon Valley that the Apple television project is underway.
• The Wall Street Journal mentioned that Apple is “working on new technology to deliver video to televisions, and has been discussing whether to try to launch a subscription TV service,” according to “sources familiar with the matter.” That’s typically code for an inside source.
• And Cult of Mac notes that the time may be ripe for Apple to make a television, as high-end TVs have started to dip below the $1,000 price threshold.
• Even former Apple CEO Steve Jobs turned the wheels of the rumor mill in 2010, saying that it made sense for Apple to integrate its technology into television sets.

Apple has been testing the waters with its AppleTV, a set-top box that provides access to movies and TV from iTunes as well as other online video content. The company has a number of partnerships with movie studios and television networks, giving it an impressive content library. And its lightweight iOS operating system seems ideally suited for consumer devices (the OS is already under the hood in AppleTV).

Alsop figures the only thing holding Apple back is the cost of LCD screens, which has been a limiting factor in all of Apple’s iOS products since 2007.

The company initially planned to make a tablet when it started planning a touchscreen-centric computer in the mid-2000s. But, Alsop says, the cost of the display was prohibitively expensive, so Apple instead focused on applying the technology to a device with a smaller, cheaper LCD: The iPhone.

The price of LCD panels has droped fairly steadily, thanks to increased manufacturing efficiency, so eventually quality screens became cheap enough to make the 9.7-inch iPad economically feasible.

It won’t be long, Alsop predicts, before 15-inch or 19-inch touchscreen televisions running iOS hit the scene, probably in time for the 2012 holiday season. That’s big enough to be a serviceable TV for the kitchen, bedroom or dorm room.

More importantly, iOS will enable Apple to transform the television into something that doesn’t just show videos, but also plays games, runs apps, lets you check your schedule and tweet about what YouTube movie you happen to watching at that moment.

And it could tie seamlessly into other Apple devices, like the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, giving the company an enviable full-circle consumer product line. The vision might look something like what Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass (widely believed to be the glass used for the face of the iPhone and iPad), predicted in a promotional video it published in February, below.

“You look at TVs in Best Buy and they’re the same damn things that they’ve been building for 30, 40, 50 years,” said Alsop. Although the display technology has changed and the screens are flat and high-resolution now instead of huge, low-res cathode screens, the fundamental act of watching TV is pretty much the same: Sit back and flip the channels.

“Apple will do to television manufacturers what it did to phone makers with the iPhone,” Alsop said