According to a new survey commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance, 32 percent of respondents admit to logging into their neighbor's unencrypted Wi-Fi at least once.

In 2008, the last time the group did the poll, the number was 18 percent.

Says Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director at the Wi-Fi Alliance (via USAT):

The reality is that many consumers have not taken the steps to protect themselves.

The risk of leaving a Wi-Fi connection open is neighbors (or anyone really) can use readily available software to steal info, like passwords.

One such tool, Firesheep, is noted by anti-virus firm ESET. Says the company:

With Firesheep, almost anyone can effectively hack into your Facebook, Twitter and other accounts. Almost anyone has the skill to use Firesheep to be a nosy neighbor."

The Wi-Fi Alliance urges everyone with a wireless router to use WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2) security.

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Multiple sources are reporting that HTC's first dual-core Android phone, the 'Pyramid' will be headed to T-Mobile in May.

The 'superphone' will feature a dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 4.3 inch qHD display, and 4G/HSPA+ support.

Qualcomm announced their dual-core offering at CES and implied a Q2 availability, placing May squarely in the expected range.

HTC and T-Mobile have a long-standing relationship with Android devices, dating back to the launch of the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network supports up to 14 Mbps downloads and 5.6 Mbps uploads.

In terms of codecs, the phone will support MPEG-4, MPEG-2, H.264, H.263, VC-1, DivX, WMV-9, Sorenson Spark, VP6, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, FR, EFR, HR, WB-AMR, G.729a, G.711 and AAC stereo encode.

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1UP has confirmed today that 'Bionic Commando Rearmed 2,' purchasable through the PlayStation Store, will come with the dreaded 'always-connected' DRM last seen on Ubisoft titles.

'Always-connected' DRM means the game is unplayable unless the gamer stays connected to the Internet at all times.

In this case, gamers must always be logged into the PlayStation Network so PS3 offline playback is not an option.

Earlier in the year, developer Capcom raised some eyebrows when it released Final Fight: Double Impact with a special DRM that blocked the game from being shared with any other PSN user.

Family members who shared a PS3 but had different PSN accounts were effectively locked out.

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On Thursday, the last top level block of free Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses was assigned, igniting a discussion about the future of the Internet and its rapid expansion to more locations and devices.

IPv4 uses 32bit addressing to route data packets across the Internet, providing for 2³² addresses, or 4,294,967,296 addresses. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is intended to succeed IPv4. Using a 128-bit address, the IPv6 address space allows 2¹²⁸ addresses, or around 340 undecillion unique addresses (1 undecillion == 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). That means an address pool that is a billion-trillion times larger than IPv4.

IPv4's address format uses a Dotted Decimal Notation, such as "209.62.87.157", to enable communication between devices over the Internet. IPv6 addresses are composed of four hexadecimal digits separated instead by colons, such as "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334".

IPv6 certainly has lasting power because of the mind-numbing numbers involved. The IPv4 pool is now technically completely exhausted, an event that has been anticipated for years (although a lot of free addresses still remain in most assigned IPv4 blocks and will continue to be allocated for the time being.)

"This is a major turning point in the on-going development of the Internet," said Rod Beckstrom, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

"No one was caught off guard by this. The Internet technical community has been planning for IPv4 depletion for some time. But it means the adoption of IPv6 is now of paramount importance, since it will allow the Internet to continue its amazing growth and foster the global innovation we've all come to expect."

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Verizon Wireless has confirmed today that it will be "preventing users from downloading entire videos at once to help ease capacity burdens on the network," thanks to the launch of the iPhone.

Additionally, the carrier will "eliminate some colors and other data from videos that it deems to be not visible to the human eye. The loss of information from the input file may result in reduced color accuracy and sharpness."

Furthermore, the top 5 percent of downloaders in metro areas like San Francisco and Manhattan will have their speeds throttled, to avoid "jamming" the network.

The carrier says it will throttle speeds only at "specific high-traffic times of the day."

New customers, or anyone renewing as of today will be affected by the limitations, meaning all future iPhone users.

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CNN is reporting this week that if you have been waiting out to buy an LCD TV, this week may be the right time to head out to the store or check online retailers.

Because of slow holiday sales, HDTV makers will likely discount TVs this week by as much as 30 percent, in anticipation of the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Says Paul Gagnon, director of TV research at DisplaySearch:

Just prior to the Super Bowl is one of the last opportunities for manufacturers to clear out their 2010 models. If they can't sell them now, they're going to have to discount them even more.

Gagnon does say if you are willing to wait a bit longer, 2010 model TVs will get their max discounts by the first week of March.

Overall, average LCD prices are expected to drop 16 percent again this year (as pictured).

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Michael Phelps, the Olympic gold medal winning swimmer has his own Kinect game coming this summer, giving the world possibly their only chance to ever beat Phelps in a race.

Says Phelps in the press release:

I'm really excited to help bring a one-of-a-kind swimming video game to the market that is reflective of my competitive nature and passion for swimming. This definitely isn't your typical video game; much like my training in the pool, Push the Limit is about improving and mastering every race element -- from controlling your adrenaline on the block to perfectly timing your finish. In my world, it takes a lifetime of dedication to get one-hundredth of a second ahead and I believe Push the Limit offers players a unique journey inside swimming that will challenge themselves as much as their in-game competitors.

The game is set for release in June.

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Viacom has announced they have signed a new deal with Hulu which will return content to the video streaming platform.

Last March, Viacom pulled popular TV shows like 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" after a scuffle with Hulu over financial terms.

Today's new deal will give access to Comedy Central, MTV and BET content.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report will stream for free (with ads), the day after they air on TV, but other shows, like 'The Jersey Shore' will only be available to Hulu Plus subscribers.

Hulu Plus costs $8 per month. Most of Viacom's shows will stream with a 21-day delay, but back catalogs will be readily available.

Says Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman (via WSJ):

We didn't feel the revenue model was appropriate at that time. We're going to be getting both ad revenues and subscription fees. That's the kind of model that has worked well in the traditional universe, and one that we think is a positive trend in broadband.

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