Fox has said today that it will join its competitors ABC, CBS and NBC in blocking video from playing on Google's new Google TV service.

Last month, the first three broadcasters began blocking streams with Fox being the lone holdout. That has changed, as of this week.

Google responded: "Google TV enables access to all the Web content you already get today on your phone and PC, but it is ultimately the content owners' choice to restrict their fans from accessing their content on the platform."

Google TV gives users a chance to watch web videos and browse websites alongside their regular TV shows.

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Yesterday we reported that Microsoft was suing Motorola over patents relating to the Xbox 360 gaming system.

Today, Motorola has counter-sued, accusing Microsoft of infringing on 16 patents with their Xbox, Windows for servers, PCs, and mobile devices.

Says Motorola (via Cnet):

"The Motorola patents directed to PC and server software relate to Windows OS, digital video coding, e-mail technology including Exchange, Messenger, and Outlook, Windows Live instant messaging, and object-oriented software architecture. The Motorola patents directed to Windows mobile software relate to Windows Marketplace, Bing maps, and object-oriented software architecture."

Continues the company: "Motorola's R&D and intellectual property are of great importance to the Company and are renowned worldwide. We are committed to protecting the interests of our shareholders, customers and other stakeholders and are bringing this action against Microsoft in order to halt its infringement of key Motorola patents. Motorola has invested billions of dollars in R&D to create a deep and broad intellectual property portfolio and we will continue to do what is necessary to protect our proprietary technology. It is unfortunate that Microsoft has chosen the litigation path rather than entering into comprehensive licensing negotiations, as Motorola has mutually beneficial licensing relationships with the great majority of technology companies industrywide."

Microsoft's response: "We are still reviewing Motorola's filing, which we just received. This move is typical of the litigation process, and we are not surprised. We remain confident in our position and will continue to move forward with the complaints we initiated against Motorola in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and with the International Trade Commission (ITC)."

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Wal-Mart has kicked off the holiday shopping season by offering free shipping on online purchases of 60,000 items, with no minimum purchase requirement.

The promotion will run from now until December 20th and is good on most items the company sells.

Says the company: "We want cost-conscious shoppers to save money so they can bring home more for less this holiday season."

Large rivals Target and J.C. Penney have also started free shipping promotions, but those have minimums. Target's is $50 and JCP's is $69.

The company says its offer will save customers up to $25 million during the holidays.

Orders will be in customer's hands within five business days, and if you are unsatisfied, return shipping is also free. You can also return an item to a local Wal-Mart if one is in your area.

Wal-Mart had 2010 fiscal revenue of $405 billion.

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Although the company has denied it exists, pictures of the upcoming Samsung Nexus S Android smartphone have surfaced, leaving very little to the imagination.

Furthermore, Best Buy's Website has let it slip that a "Pure Google" Nexus S will be available "this holiday season."

The site also says the device will sell for T-Mobile.

Rumor has it that Best Buy will be the exclusive retailer of the device, which is still unconfirmed by Google.

The device will be the first to run Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and it may be the first to have native video chat available through an updated Google Talk app.

Furthermore, the phone will run on a 1.2GHz Hummingbird processor, feature a 4-inch Super-AMOLED display, a 5MP camera with autofocus and HD video recording, a 1.3MP front-side camera, 512MB RAM, and 16GB internal memory.

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Earlier this week we reported that just two weeks after LimeWire was permanently shut down by a federal ruling, a "secret dev team" had brought the P2P client back, dubbing it the LimeWire Pirate Edition (LPE).

The LPE has the Ask.com toolbar removed, all need for the LimeWire LLC servers removed, all remote settings disabled, and all LimeWire Pro features activated, for free. There is also no adware or spyware.

LPE has been circulating via warez, P2P and torrents sites for a couple of days now.

Apparently, the real LimeWire is not a fan.

"We have very recently become aware of unauthorized applications on the Internet purporting to use the LimeWire name," reads a notice on the LimeWire site.

"We demand that all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so. We further remind you that the unauthorized uploading and downloading of copyrighted works is illegal."

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