AT&T has said today that Windows Phone 7 devices like the Samsung Focus will need special MicroSDHC cards, as removable storage is not yet supported officially by the new mobile OS.

However, Microsoft is certifying certain cards that are set for release soon, each of which will have a "Certified for Windows Phone 7" sticker that means they can be used in WP7 devices.

The cards will each have "optimal performance" and current cards on the market do not qualify.

Because the Focus and other WP7 devices do not have expandable storage, you need to replace the on-board storage, which requires a full wipe of the device.

Users who try to replace the storage on their Focus are greeted by a Stop! message from AT&T, warning them that they might brick their device.

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NTT DoCoMo has announced this week the launch of Xi, the first LTE (Long Term Evolution) data service in Japan.

The carrier will begin the rollout on December 24th.

Xi should offer download speeds as high as 75 Mbps, ten times faster than the carrier's current FOMA 3G.

While it will not immediately be available for smartphone owners, the company will start selling USB dongles in December that will allow computers to connect to the lightning fast data service.

Phones with Xi support will start shipping in April, 2011.

Initial cities to have the service are Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

DoCoMo will offer two billing plans, each with contract. The first is for up to 5GB per cycle, but pricing is unavailable. The unlimited plan will cost 4935 yen, or about $60 USD.

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Intel has slashed the prices on their range of SSDs today, as well as adding a new, larger 120GB version to the line.

The line of X25-M maninstream drives will each see a solid discount as the holiday season approaches.

Starting with the 160GB model, the MSRP will drop to $415, the 80GB model will drop to $200 and the small 40GB will drop to $100.

The new 120GB model will sell for $250. The new version will offer the best per/GB value of the entire line.

For now the new prices seem effective only in the U.S., but expect it to be extended to the U.K., as well.

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In May, UK citizen Paul Chambers was convicted of sending a 'menacing' tweet via Twitter, with the British Court fining him £2500 and slapping him with a criminal record.

In early January, the airport in South Yorkshire was closed due to excessive snow and Chambers was so mad that he wrote: "Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your s*** together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

Airport security officials saw the tweet and then passed on the complaint to the local authorities.

Chambers lost his job after being arrested, and was the first person to ever be convicted of a crime just for tweeting.

This week, a judge has refused to overturn the conviction, effectively ending Chamber's appeal.

The judge then yelled at the courtroom as a number of those sitting in the crowd were tweeting updates as the case progressed.

Thousands of Chamber's supporters took to Twitter after the decision, using the "trending topic" #IAmSpartacus to post menacing messages, with some threatening to blow up the White House, Downing Street, "everyone" and all other types of nouns.

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The D-Link Boxee Box set-top has launched in 33 countries this week, with the company promising Hulu Plus and Netflix support in the near future.

Boxee's first set-top is a streaming device which also has support or a plethora of codecs.

The device sells for $200, more expensive than the rival Apple TV but cheaper than the Google TV-supporting Logitech Revue.

Additionally, the Box has expandable content through apps, and can also read content from external drives or wireless networks.

Besides Hulu Plus and Netflix, Boxee has also promised premium subscription apps for VUDU, MUBI, OpenFilm, IndieMoviesOnline, EZTakes, MLB TV, NHL GameCenter, Flickr, and Pandora.

All videos are viewable at 1080p and the Box comes with a complete WebKit browser, including HTML5 support.

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Google has teased this weekend that Android 2.3 Gingerbread is likely to be officially launched in the very near future, taking to Twitter to pass on the message.

The company's Tweet reads: "Our cafes are baking something sweet."

Attached to the Tweet was the picture to the left.

Many had believed Google would launch Gingerbread last week, but now most expect an announcement at the upcoming Web 2.0 conference next week.

Google has already placed a gigantic Gingerbread statue, alongside Eclair and Froyo, on their on campus.

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A new Chinese supercomputer has blown away the competition, easily taking the top spot in the semi-annual Top 500 Supercomputers list.

The Tianjin National Supercomputer Center's Tianhe-1A system ripped 2.67 petaflops (quadrillion floating-point calculations per second), beating out the former leader, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Cray XT5 Jaguar system, benchmarked at 1.75 petaflops.

U.S.-built systems had topped the list for the last six years, after an IBM BlueGene/L system overtook the spot from Japan's NEC Earth Simulator system.

The U.S. has 275 systems in the Top 500, beating out China which is in second at 42.

"Governments around the world are recognizing the deployment of this technology is a prerequisite to sustaining economic competitiveness," says Dave Turek, vice president of deep computing for IBM (via CW). "It lets you do better product designs, basic research, life sciences, fundamental research in materials."

The DOE has already said earlier this year that it is building an IBM Sequoia system for 2012 that should hit 20 petaflops.

Intel processors are in 406 of the top systems, followed by AMD at 57.

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Saudi Arabia has restored access to social networking giant Facebook, just hours after it blocked the site from its population of 27 million.

Officials in the country say Facebook "crossed a line" in regards to the nation's conservative values.

Hours later, the country reversed its stance, restoring access. For those hours, anyone trying to visit the site were given a "content restricted" error screen.

Earlier in the year, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey banned access to the social networking site, in an attempt to block certain pages that did not fit within government or religious policy.

While Arabia's ban only lasted a few hours, the other bans lasted as long as a week.

It is unclear what pages caused Arabian officials to block access.

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