World of Warcraft lead designer Tom Chilton has suggested this week that Blizzard may eventually move the extremely popular game to a free-to-play model.

Says Chilton: "At some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee."

That being said, the developer was quick to note that his suggestion was on a very long time frame, if it was to happen at all. "We're not spending a lot of time thinking about it. It's not something that's a reality for us in the near future."

Other major MMO games such as The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online have recently moved to a free-to-play model, choosing to make money off weapon and clothing upgrades for characters as well as other digital items.

When asked about their movies, Chilton responded: "I feel like they're doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at. I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalised some of the other subscribers. I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft. If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out."

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Microsoft has sold 15,000 of the new slimmer Xbox 360 units during launch week in Japan, giving the console its strongest week in the region in a very long time.

Overall, 17,370 Xbox 360s were sold in the nation.

The previous week saw sales of just 2060, weak even by the Xbox's normal Japanese standards.

Because the console went on sale on the 24th, the weekly figure only accounts for four days worth of sales. The slim model sells for ¥29,800, while the Elite sells for ¥24,800.

In Japan, the DS line remains very strong, with the DS Lite, DSi and DSi LL selling a combined 61,141 units.

Full chart via GI:

DSi LL: 41,676
PSP: 23,257
PS3: 19,578
Wii: 19,115
Xbox 360: 17,370
DSi: 17,306
DS Lite: 5209
PS2: 1530
PSPgo: 845

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Since the announcement of iOS 4 earlier this year, millions of iPhone users have drooled over finally being given the ability to multitask their apps.

Today, two of the most popular music streaming apps, Spotify and Last.fm have been updated to use iOS 4 properly, allowing for background listening.

You can now minimize the apps and continue to hear music, while browsing the Internet or using other apps.

Spotify will require a premium account, and the update also adds the ability to "use the headset remote and lockscreen buttons to control playback."

Last.fm is free to download and update.

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The latest mega-rumor, fueled by Digg CEO Kevin Rose, is that Google is quietly creating a social networking site dubbed Google Me that will openly compete with the Facebook behemoth.

Rose tweeted yesterday (it has since been taken down): "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon 'Google Me', very credible source."

Furthermore, former Facebook CTO Adam D'Angelo blogged that he heard from reliable sources that Google has made the project its highest priority outside of Android.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt would not deny the rumor. When asked, he responded: "That would be a product announcement and I won't say."

If accurate, the attempt will be Google's third foray into social networking. Orkut, its first attempt, is extremely popular in Brazil, but nowhere else. Google Buzz, launched in 2010, has received more criticism than praise.

Google could create a monster, however, rolling YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, Maps, Google Profiles and more into a single platform.

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After a more than a week of dismissing iPhone 4 user complaints about reception problems and dropped calls as a non-issue, Apple has announced they're working on an update to the phone's OS.

The announcement follows an interesting report on AnandTech showing the actual difference in Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) for each additional bar of signal displayed on the phone varies wildly. SNR is essentially an indicator of the phone's signal quality.

In the article, published earlier this week, Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi showed that the signal quality increas from 4 bars to 5 is greater than the difference going from 1 bar all the way up to 4.

An update to solve the problem sounds like just what iPhone users were demanding. Except that the fix is only cosmetic.

While it should make the number of bars displayed more meaningful, that doesn't address the actual reception. Also in the AnandTech article is a comparison of signal loss (attenuation) between the iPhone 4 and other handsets when held in various ways.

Steve Jobs has noted in some tersely worded emails to dissatisfied customers that all phones suffer from attenuation when you hold them in your hand. But AnandTech's data shows the external antennas on the iPhone 4 drastically increase the effect.

In fact, the iPhone 3GS showed less signal loss than the iPhone 4 in every position, both with and without a case.

The HTC (Google) Nexus One was also tested, and showed significantly less attenuation than the iPhone 4 with the case removed. With each phone in a case the attenuation was nearly identical.

The good news is you should have a better idea of the signal quality your iPhone 4 is receiving when Apple releases the update in a few weeks. But if you're having reception problems, Apple's message hasn't changed.

The update announcement proudly proclaims, "We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same— the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped." In other words they're denying any reception problem exists.

It ends with a reminder that you can return your iPhone to an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store within 30 days of purchase.

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According to DisplaySearch, global TV shipments are expected to jump 15 percent this year, to about 242 million.

In 2009, shipments stalled, seeing a small 2 percent growth.

LCD HDTVs continue to lead the way, with 29 percent growth expected, for a total of 188 million units. Despite being "aging" technology, both plasma and CRT televisions have seen their outlooks upgraded.

LED-backlit LCDs would have the strongest growth in the market, however acute supply chain shortages are keeping those numbers down. CCFL LCDs have no supply issues.

Overall, LCD TVs are the dominant technology, with shipment share over 50 percent in all regions except for "Asia Pacific" which is in the high 40's, with the 50 percent barrier expected to be crossed within months.

China remains one of the strongest growth area for LCD TVs, seeing 35 percent year-over-year growth in 2010, after a massive 120 percent growth in 2009. Shipments to Japan are expected to rise 36 percent in 2010, as well.

Because LED-backlit LCDs remain on the more expensive side, plasma TVs should see a boost, as consumers search for the "best bang for the buck," says the report.

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The NPD Group has released their latest U.S. video game industry sales figures, and unsurprisingly the industry was down again for the month of May.

Overall sales fell 5 percent year-over-year (YoY), with hardware dragging the numbers down with a 20 percent plummet. Software, on the other hand, rose 4 percent for the period.

Sales of software, hardware and accessories fell to $823.5 million, hardware fell to $241.5 million, and software rose to $466.3 million.

Software was given a big boost by Red Dead Redemption, which sold 1.51 million units for the month. Super Mario Galaxy followed at 563,000 units sold.

On the hardware side, the normally strong DS and Wii sales were sluggish, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 continued their sluggish 2010 pace. The PSP practically fell off the map, having one its slowest months in history.

Says lead NPD analyst Anita Fraizer: "Console hardware unit sales are, in fact, flat to last year. Declines in sales result from a lower average selling price this year compared to last. The portable hardware category contributed the most to the decline in hardware sales for the month, yet the DS is the best-selling hardware system for May."

Numbers via GameSpot:

OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Games: $823.5 million (-5%)
Hardware: $241.5 million (-20%)
Software: $466.3 million (+4%)
Accessories: $115.7 million (+3%)

HARDWARE SALES
DS: 383,700
Wii: 334,800
Xbox 360: 194,600
PlayStation 3: 154,500
PSP: 59,400

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In late April, HP announced it was purchasing the struggling smartphone maker Palm for $1.2 billion, after at least four other companies gave serious bids.

Palm had put itself up for sale in March after it became clear that the company's phones were not selling and it only had enough cash to last the next 12 months.

Today, HP has completed that acquisition, while at the same time confirming WebOS-based tablets, smartphones and netbooks coming in the future.

"Palm will be responsible for WebOS software development and WebOS-based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks," says the company.

In June, Palm shareholders settled, after starting a class action suit arguing they had not received the best price when the smartphone maker accepted HP's bid.

With the acquisition completed, HP now has full control of all of Palm's licenses and patents.

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