The U.S. Air Force has warned soldiers this month that geotagging services, especially incredibly popular ones such as Facebook Places and Foursquare, can inadvertently reveal the location of a team to the enemy, putting lives at risk.

Posted on the Air Force internal website earlier this month, the military branch says: "Careless use of these services by airmen can have devastating operations security and privacy implications."

Furthermore, Air Force commanders have been instructed to spread the word to their teams.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Army and Navy will receive similar instructions.

Using services like Foursquare, or even Twitter (with geolocating on), whenever a user posts, their location (including latitude and longitude) is posted alongside the note.

There are currently 145,000 American troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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OnLive, the cloud streaming games service, has announced today the launch of the MicroConsole instant-play system, with pre-orders starting now for a December 2nd release.

Users can play video games from the OnLive catalog, on their TVs, using the set-top, eliminating the need for downloads or discs.

The system will sell for $99 and include a wireless controller and a free game.

"The OnLive Game System marks the start of a new era for video games and home entertainment," says Steve Perlman, founder and CEO of OnLive, via IW. "Not only is the OnLive Game System the fastest, simplest way to play, watch, and test-drive top-tier games instantly on the living room big screen, it also opens the door to a new world of options for gaming and entertainment -- from media-rich social networking and massive spectating to game portability across TV, PC, Mac, and mobile devices."

OnLive has 35 games available as of now, including Assassin's Creed II, Mass Effect 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Just Cause 2 and NBA 2K11.

Games can be demoed for free, then rented for 3-5 days. Rentals cost $4-$9. If you want to own the game, you can purchase a Full PlayPass, which can range from $5-$50 depending on how new and popular the game is.

For more info on how the service works, check here: OnLive Cloud Gaming

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According to Bloomberg, Groupon is actively considering an acquisition by search giant Google, which has offered an unknown amount for the daily deal site.

Groupon was recently valued at over $3 billion.

The daily deal giant is also still weighing whether to rebuff the offer, and instead have another round of funding.

Groupon will likely take until the end of the year to make their decision, say the sources.

If the deal goes through, the acquisition will almost certainly become Google's most expensive ever, topping the $3.2 billion they paid for online advertising provider DoubleClick two years ago.

Overall, Google has spent $1.6 billion on acquisitions this year alone, picking up 21 companies. That number does not include the pending $700 million acquisition of travel data aggregator ITA.

Groupon has 300 markets in 29 countries, with revenues expected to top $500 million this year.

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One analyst has said today that Apple's upcoming second-generation iPad tablet will have a dual-mode chip that will support both EVDO and HSPA for 3G data connectivity.

Citing "supplier checks," Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair has said the upcoming model will be a true "World iPad," supporting all carriers.

Current models will cease production by the end of January, as Apple readies the new edition.

The new model will also have rear and front facing cameras, features notably missing from the first generation device.

New models will also be significantly thinner with unibody construction, says Electronista.

For now, the description must be taken as rumor, although the details do directly correlate with supply checks that have cropped up over the past months.

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BGR has spotted today that Amazon has begun selling high-end Verizon Android devices for just 1 cent, as long as you sign up for a two-year contract with the popular carrier.

The Droid Incredible, Droid X, Droid 2 and Droid Pro are all available now for just 1 cent, a hefty discount from in-store and online prices at Verizon.

For example, the Droid X sells for $200 through Verizon online, with contract.

Additionally, the Amazon offer gives you free activation of the device. Verizon normally charges $35 to activate your new phone.

The offer ends on November 22nd.

Check the Amazon sale here

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Chinese site iMobile has posted a pie chart revealing Samungs' smartphone plans for 2011, and surprisingly the company has moved away from its own Bada OS and moved most resources into Windows Phone 7.

Samsung will sell 63 percent Windows Phone 7 devices, 32 percent Android devices, and just 5 percent Bada.

Windows Phone 7 saw its global launch this month, to mixed reviews and sales.

Android has jumped quickly into the second spot in global mobile OS sales, with tons of more powerful devices already promised for next year, including the flagship Nexus S, allegedly built by Samsung.

Regardless, it appears Microsoft's latest operating system fits into Samsung's future plans for smartphone "domination."

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FireCore has announced this week that their upcoming aTV Flash Black software installer for the second generation Apple TV will be ready for beta by the end of the month.

aTV Flash Black adds web browsing to the set-top, as well as a Last.fm app.

The company says the installer is 95 percent complete, "communicating directly with the AppleTV (no wires or USB drives required)," giving fans a chance to install aTV Flash Black on the set-top in a matter of minutes.

"Couch Surfer," FireCore's web browsing app, is 65 percent complete. (Video shown below)

Last.fm is about 85 percent complete, and should be ready to go by the beta launch. (Video shown below, as well)

The company does say they have hit major hurdles with a final component of the software, however:

Additional Video Codecs & NAS Streaming - 15% Complete

Not surprisingly this has turned out to be no trivial task - because of this we've teamed up with a few outside developers to move things along a bit more quickly. We'll have more info as things progress but unfortunately this probably won't make it into the initial beta version. The end goal however remains the same - robust support for non-itunes media (including DVD files).

Couch Surfer Pro for ATV 2G from Fire Core, LLC on Vimeo.

Last.fm for AppleTV 2G from Fire Core, LLC on Vimeo.

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Nordic satellite pay-TV operator Canal Digital announced today that it has signed a deal with TiVo to bring TiVo's PVR devices available to its customers in four Nordic countries, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

TiVo's PVR solutions aren't that much different from any standard DVB-S / DVB-S2 PVR devices (which is a standardized platform where any manufacturer can build compatible set-top boxes), but the main differences between "traditional" DVB-S set-top PVRs and TiVo are the GUI and backend logic solutions -- and the fact that TiVo's devices will also integrate into video material available on the Internet. As Canal Digital already offers on-demand services online, those services will most likely become integrated into Canal Digital's TiVo solutions.

TiVo's devices in Nordic will use the standardized Conax encryption mechanism, meaning that the devices -- theoretically -- should also work with any other Conax / DVB-S compatible TV channel, but it is more than likely that at least all the advanced features are restricted to Canal Digital only.

Canal Digital didn't announce whether they'll ship the TiVo-compatible devices to its existing customers or whether the customers need to purchase the set-top box separately if they want to use TiVo-only features.

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