According to the latest figures from market research firm NPD Group, the U.S. video game market fell 1 percent in July, with slow game sales offsetting large gains by the Microsoft Xbox 360.

Year-on-year (YoY), total sales fell to $846.5 million from $850.6 million. However, lead analyst Anita Frazier says if the company were to add PC games, then sales grew 4 percent, thanks to massive sales of StarCraft II.

The much-anticipated sequel sold 1.5 million units in its first two days alone.

On the hardware side, sales jumped 12 percent to $313.8 million thanks to the release of a slimmed-down Xbox 360. The 360 topped the chart for the first time in almost three years, beating out the Wii and PS3 for the first time since the release of Halo 3 in September 2007.

The Xbox 360 moved 443,500 units for the month, followed by the Nintendo DS line at 398,400 units. The Wii sold 253,900 consoles while the PS3 sold higher than expected at 214,500 units.

Almost embarrassingly, the PSP has fallen under triple digits, moving just 84,000 units for the month.

When not including PC games, July software sales fell 8 percent to $531.3 million, due to a lackluster lineup of new games.

Accessories fell 2 percent to $129.3 million.

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Twitter has announced today that they plan to launch their own Tweet "button", giving users a one-click solution to share links.

As the site says: "Despite the high volume of sharing, there is plenty of room to make it easier. Copying and pasting, link shortening, and bouncing between browser tabs just to share a link in a Tweet is too much work."

The new Tweet Button well let users share links directly from Web pages (if they have the button added), with a pre-populated shortened URL, using t.co, Twitter's URL shortener and rival to bit.ly.

Twitter also adds that after you post you will see suggestions of accounts to follow, most likely those of the news outlet or site you are sharing, or the reporter of an article.

For companies who want to add the Tweet Button, the micro-blogging service says it is only a few lines of code.

Most sites already use the "retweet" button created by TweetMeme (including AfterDawn), and Twitter says the two companies have come together to create the new Button.

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Google has updated Android 2.2 Froyo today, adding 10 new voice commands that will help device owners use the phone without needing to use a keypad, virtual or not.

The Voice Actions tool will let users dictate their text messages and emails by translating spoken word into text.

Additionally, the tool can make phone calls after you speak a person's name, or find songs to play.

Google showed off the technology during a demonstration this morning, with the spoken words being translated to written flawlessly. The company said Voice Actions remains accurate even in loud surroundings.

Android devices already had the ability to process spoken requests for Web searches and for the GPS system.

So far, only the Nexus One and Droid 2 have official Android 2.2, but a handful of phones are expected to get the update in the coming months.

T-Mobile Android device owners have had a similar feature for months, dubbed the "Genius" button, although there are no T-Mobile devices with 2.2, yet.

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Oracle has filed a patent and copyright-infringement suit against Google today, claiming that Google's Android mobile OS infringes on the former company's Java technology.

Google declined comment, saying they need more time to review the suit.

Java, and all related technology, was created by Sun Microsystems which was recently purchased by Oracle.

The technology is used as a platform to build applications on smartphones, tablets, PCs and other computing devices.

In its complaint, Oracle says the Android software consists of Java apps and tech which infringe on seven separate Sun patents.

Additionally, the company claims Google knows full-well it is infringing on the patents because seven former Sun Java programmers and engineers have been hired by Google over the past few years.

Oracle is seeking a full injunction on Android, as well as monetary damages for willful and deliberate infringement.

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In early 2007, media giant Viacom demanded that Google take down copyrighted content from YouTube, then and still the world's most popular video sharing site.

Afterwards, Viacom sued the site and its search giant owners for $1.2 billion USD, claiming Google facilitated uploading the copyrighted videos through YouTube while doing little to deter it.

In June Google, won the landmark case over the media companies, with a federal judge throwing out the lawsuit.

"Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough," wrote Judge Louis Stanton at the time. "The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."

This week the conglomerate has formally appealed the decision, filing a notice with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Mahattan.

Says Viacom of the appeal: "We believe this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed. After years of delay, this decision gives us the opportunity to have the Appellate Court address these issues on an accelerated basis."

The media giant is behind such hit channels like MTV and Comedy Central, and also owns the Paramount movie studio. A few of the shows that Viacom alleged were readily available on YouTube, in their entirety, were "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "South Park," and "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Google had argued they were entitled to "safe harbor" protection under the DMCA, and Judge Stanton agreed.

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