Apple has banished a whole new set of apps from the App Store, banning any apps that actively scan for Wi-Fi hotspots.

Apps that use a database of hotspots combined with GPS are still allowed, but many of the most popular "Wi-Fi locators" have been taken down.

One developer, Three Jacks Software, of the popualr WiFi-Where app, was clearly frustrated:

"I find it quite ironic that Apple removes these very handy, very useful apps from the app store when there are so many useless gimick [sic] apps that just pollute the App Store pages."

A few of the other notably banned apps are WiFiTrack, WiFiFoForum, yFy Network Finder, WiFi Get, eWifi, and WiFi Analyzer.

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According to the Gigatweet counter, the incredibly popular social network service Twitter has hit 10 billion "tweets," seeing fast growth from past milestones.

1 billion tweets was hit in November 2008, and 5 billion was hit in November 2009.

Given the current pace of tweeting, Gigatweet has projections for when future milestones will hit, with 20 billion coming as soon as 197 days from now, or about mid-September.

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Despite a gigantic lead in the online MP3 market, Apple appears to be playing dirty against Amazon MP3, using its clout with the record labels to try to snuff out Amazon's popular "Daily Deal" promotion.

In 2008, when Amazon MP3 first launched, the Daily Deal was paid for by Amazon, out of their own pockets, as a way to get traffic to the service. In 2009 however, says a label exec, "that promotion morphed into something where the labels make arrangements to provide an exclusive selling window with Amazon for a big release expected to do a lot of business on street date."

In exchange for the Daily Deal promotion, Amazon gets a one-day exclusive window for sales before street date, as long as digital marketing support through the artist's Web sites, or MySpace pages.

The same executive said about that situation (via Billboard): "When that happened, iTunes said, 'Enough of that s**t.' "

Since then, Apple has been "urging" labels to rethink the Daily Deal, while at the same time withdrawing marketing support for acts that were featured as Daily Deals.

Says another exec: "[Apple] are . . . diverting their energy from 'let's make this machine better' to 'let's protect what we got,'".

Apple, Amazon, Warner, EMI and Sony have not responded to the story yet.

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According to a new WSJ report, Sony is finally ready to create a PlayStation-branded smartphone, one that will help it compete against the iPhone, and Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 line.

Additionally, the company will be creating "a portable device that blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable, or PSP," one that it hopes will compete against the iPad and net/smartbooks.

The products have a target launch in 2010, but prices are nowhere near finalized.

Equally as surprising is the news that this will be a Sony-only venture, leaving out Ericsson, its long-time smartphone partner.

PSP and PSP Go sales have been extremely disappointing since the launch of the iPod Touch and the Nintendo DSiDS continues to rack up impressive sales, all at the expense of PSP market share.

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A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of TiVo today in the long-standing patent case brought against them by Dish and EchoStar, with the news sending TiVo's stock shares up over 55 percent on gigantic volume.

The district court had ruled last year that Dish and EchoStar had violated TiVo patents and ordered a permanent injunction on DVRs being sold by the company's that used the infringing technology.

The companies were also told to pay TiVo $300 million in damages, and the latest ruling will finally pave the way for TiVo to receive that money.

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Aten Design Group, a design firm in Colorado has hosted a "funeral" today for the aged web browser Internet Explorer 6, which is quickly being thrown out in favor of faster, safer browsers, including its descendants IE7 and IE8.

The service will have a coffin with a dummy inside with an IE6 logo for its head. Anyone who attends is welcome to eulogize the browser with memories, good or bad.

Some users already posted their thoughts, on the invitation page.

"I feel terrible admitting this, but ... I never really liked him," writes "Eddie Escher," via CNN. "He had so many hang-ups, and he looked awful -- especially in his later years. But... he was always there when you needed him. You have to give him that."

The real nail in the coffin (pun intended) is coming next week when Google pulls all IE6 support from its Google family of sites, including Docs and Gmail. YouTube will drop support within a month.

All I will say on the matter is I hope IE6 dies fast, there is absolutely no reason anyone should be using it, ever.

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Google has released a new Android application called Gesture Search today, which allows users to shorthand (gesture) on the touch screen and jump to a destination, such as a contact or application.

Says Google: "Gesture Search lets you quickly find a contact, a bookmark, an application, or a music track from hundreds or thousands of items by drawing alphabet gestures on the touchscreen. Gesture Search continuously updates search results as you add each letter and improves search quality by learning from your search history."

You load the application, are then given a blank screen, and then you can "gesture" letters until you find what you want.

The main criticism so far seems to be the fact that Gesture Search is a standalone application and needs to be opened each time. It would be better suited as part of the actual operating system.

The second largest criticism is the fact that it only works on phones running Android 2.0 or higher.

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As reported last month as a rumor, Valve has today officially confirmed upcoming Mac support for some of developer's most popular games.

Doug Lombardi, Valve's VP of developer marketing says the first two games to be ported will be Portal and Team Fortress 2.

It is still unclear when Mac gamers will be given access to the popular Steam service, but that day is likely soon given the latest news.

The company adds that current Mac hardware is very similar to the hardware used by current PC gamers, with Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs.

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In what has to be a gigantic embarrassment for the company, Ubisoft's highly criticized "always connected" DRM has been cracked on the first day of release of the game Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic.

The publisher made headlines earlier this month when it announced the DRM which made it so gamers must be always connected to the Internet, or not be able to play the game. If you are ever disconnected from the Internet, you are forced back to the main menu, losing any progress you made between save points. The DRM was confirmed for Splinter Cell: Conviction, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, Assassin's Creed 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the all new Ghost Recon titles.

Yesterday, the pirated release, Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic-SKIDROW, was made widely available, circumventing the DRM easily with a patched executable.

Ubisoft, however, is saying the pirated game is not fully complete.

"You have probably seen rumours on the web that Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been cracked. Please know that this rumour is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete," said the company in a note.

Ubisoft just seems to be denial, as most downloaders are happy to post they are playing and enjoying the complete game, offline, and DRM-free.

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