Opera Software has pushed out Opera 11, touting some new features to enhance browsing experience for users, and some security enhancements to protect them.

Opera 11 has been released to the general public as a free web browsing solution. It's most touted new feature is "tab stacking", which essentially allows users to group similar tabs together to reduce clutter and better utilize on-screen workspace.

Opera has also gotten support for extensions, an area where it has lagged far behind its rivals in the area. Enhancements made to Opera's under-the-hood security features, geolocation features and its support of HTML 5 bring the browser in line with rival Desktop browsers.

It has an estimated share of the overall market of between 2 and 3 percent, but its success has come with mobile devices and games consoles, being the only available browser on Nintendo's Wii and handheld DS consoles.

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Kyle Machulis, considered one of the world's top experts on sex and video games made the call just two weeks ago that he was surprised that no one had used the Microsoft Kinect motion control system to create a 'sex game.'

Yesterday, ThriXXX Software, the company behind 3D role-playing sex simulation games released a demo of an upcoming game using the motion controller.

The company says (via CNet):

"The open-sourcing of device drivers for Kinect have enabled the...device to be used directly from connected PCs operating on Windows 7...The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways. Controller-free is the next generation of game user interfaces, allowing users to use gestures, spoken commands, or objects to control in-game action that creates a completely new sex game activity and magical experience."

For now, the game just uses hand motions and gestures.

It is unclear whether ThriXXX's game will be even legal given Kinect's license agreement.

NSFW video here (we will not embed it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chiW9X5EXEo&has_verified=1

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The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), besides posting huge piracy numbers for the UK, has also taken shots at Google, claiming the search engine is used just as often as P2P apps for illegal downloads.

Furthermore, the trade group would like Google and other engines to censor their search results and instead push legal services like iTunes, Amazon and others.

Says the BPI (via TF):

"Search engines are as popular as P2P applications as a source of illegal downloads. It's not hard to see why. Key in the name of any popular artist, add search terms like 'mp3′ or 'download' – both neutral terms – and typically the large majority of results that appear are blatant links to illegal downloads."

To test its hypothesis, BPI searched for many of the top pop songs and found that search results almost always included links to unauthorized downloads as top results.

"In a single week in November, BPI test searches were made on Google for the UK's top 20 singles or albums, followed by 'mp3′. On average 17 of the first 20 Google results for singles and 14 of 20 search results for albums were links to known illegal sites," said the BPI report.

The trade group directly names Mediafire, mp3raid and Megaupload as "illicit" sources for music downloads.

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Take-Two Interactive had reached one of its major goals in reporting a profit for a year that did not include the release of a new Grand Theft Auto title.

The published reported a 65 percent rise in revenue to $1.16 billion for the 12 months to October 31. It turned a profit of $49.7 million, in stark contrast to a sharp £130 million loss for the 12 months prior. "We have achieved our goal of profitability in a year without a new release of Grand Theft Auto," said outgoing CEO Ben Feder in a statement.

Two titles carried a lot of weight for Take-Two in the time frame; Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11. Red Dead Redemption is around the 8 million sales mark worldwide, while continuing to sell pretty strong. Helped by EA's cancellation of NBA Elite 11, the NBA 2K11 title managed to move 3 million copies.

"Our better-than-expected revenue growth and margin expansion were driven by strong demand for our diverse portfolio of games, including the hit new titles Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K11, as well as strong sales of catalog titles and digitally delivered content. I am also pleased to report that our 2K Sports division was profitable during the period," said Feder.

Other titles also continue to sell well, including Sid Meier's Civilization V, Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete, and Mafia II.

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The Nikkei business daily is reporting that Sharp Corp will make a sizable investment in production of small and medium sized LCD panels.

The report states that Sharp is planning to spend around ¥100 billion (US$1.2 billion) on production lines for the LCD panels, which Apple Inc. reportedly will purchase the bulk of for its iPhone and iPod touch line of devices.

Sharp will start installing equipment at the Mie Prefecture plant next year. Mass production then will commence in the second half of 2012. if all goes to plan.

Electronics giants are mulling further investments in LCD production as global smartphone demand continues to increase. Toshiba Corp. is planning to build an Ishikawa Prefecture factory to boost LCD supplies to Apple Inc., according to the report.

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Nielsen has released the results of a study into how young teenagers use their gaming consoles as more and more features are added to them.

The survey was conducted on a general U.S. population sample of an unspecified size. It found, for example, that 13 year old PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners spend an average of 49 percent of the time using the device to play video games. It found that 27 percent of the time was spent watching DVD or Blu-ray movies and 13 percent of the time watching movies downloaded and streamed.

Users of the Xbox 360 console spent about 62 percent of the time gaming, 11 percent watching DVD movies and 16 percent watching downloaded/streaming content. Wii users spent 69 percent of the time gaming and 20 percent of the time using the Netflix feature.

On the Xbox 360, respondents spent 34 percent of the usage time gaming offline and 28 percent gaming online. The disparity was a wider for the PS3, with 30 percent of usage time spent gaming offline and 19 percent gaming online. The disparity was much wider with the Wii console with 57 percent of the time using the system dedicated to offline gameplay and just 12 percent to online gameplay.

While the percentage of time spent gaming on the Wii as opposed to other activities with the device is larger than its competitors, respondents only reported using the device about 1.4 hours per week on average, quite a bit behind 4.1 hours per week for the PS3 and 4.9 hours for the Xbox 360.

While the survey appears to be quite limited, its intention is instead to highlight how games consoles are increasingly taking up the role of home entertainment hubs as new updates add new functionality.

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Just one day after announcing 600 layoffs, portal giant Yahoo has announced it will likely begin shutting down most of its 'underperforming' assets, such as AltaVista, MyBlogLog, Delicious and Buzz.

AltaVista, the search site of choice for many in the 1990s and early 2000s, has seen its market share dwindle to nothing over the past half-decade.

The online news aggregator Buzz and the social bookmarking service Delicious have seen similar results and are considered "non-core" Web properties.

For now, the company is "still evaluating its options" on the sites and services.

"Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond," added a Yahoo spokesperson (via WSJ).

"We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months," she added. "We will communicate specific plans when appropriate."z18LDrioL5

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The National Security Agency (NSA) is working on the assumption that all of the most sensitive computer networks under its guard have been compromised.

Speaking at a cyber security forum sponsored by the Atlantic and Government Executive media organizations, Debora Plunkett of the NSA said that they have to build computer systems based on the assumption that adversaries will be able to penetrate them. "There's no such thing as 'secure' any more," she said, reports Reuters.

She heads the NSA's Information Assurance Directorate which is tasked with protecting national security information systems and networks across the world. "We have to, again, assume that all the components of our system are not safe, and make sure we're adjusting accordingly," she said.

Her comments come as the world's governments and media watch the publishing of U.S. embassy cables and other sensitive information on Wikileaks, but she declined to comment on the website.

In the September/October edition of the journal Foreign Affairs, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn wrote that over 100 foreign intelligence organizations are trying to break into U.S. networks, with some capable of disrupting U.S. information infrastructures.

Plunkett warned that there is no such thing as a "static state of security," and that the NSA must constantly fine-tune its approach to network security.

While the world's media watch the legal battle involving Wikileaks' Julian Assange with interest, the focus for the U.S. Government is Army Private Bradley Manning. While stationed in Iraq, Manning had access to the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNet).

He disclosed to a friend, Adrian Lamo, in an online chat how he had access to classified networks 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. He would bring in music CDs (CD-RW discs) with labels such as "Lady Gaga", erase the contents of the disc and then burn a compressed file filled with information he got from the networks.

Lamo decided to inform the authorities about Manning's activities in "an act of conscience," but Manning had allegedly already passed (at least) two combat videos and over 250,000 cables from U.S. embassies around the world (at least) to Wikileaks. He faces up to 54 years in prison if convicted of the charges laid against him.

The shocking part of his story is how easy it seemed to be for him to gather so much sensitive information in the first place, and suggests that the NSA, as with other intelligence/security agencies, has a lot of work to do.

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Google and MySpace have finally reached a new deal on search and ad services on the social entertainment website following months of negotiations.

Search-giant Google entered into an agreement to provide search and advertisement services for MySpace back in 2006. The deal was worth $900 million to News Corp.'s MySpace service, then the dominant social networking site on the Internet.

The deal gave Google the right to sell advertisements related to user searches on MySpace and some other News Corp. properties for three years from commencement. It expired in June this year, but was temporarily extended as the pair continued talks on a renewed deal. The pair announced a new deal has been reached on Thursday, but did not disclose the terms.

MySpace lost its position in social networking to Facebook over recent years, and has since re-launched itself as a social entertainment site rather than a direct Facebook rival. Due to its decline since the original deal with Google, MySpace was not expected to reach a deal nearly as lucrative as the original.

MySpace has even reached out to Yahoo and Microsoft Corp. since about possibly powering advertisements across the website. In November, News Corp COO Chase Carey revealed to Reuters that the company is open to a sale or partnership agreement with an interested party.

News Corp. acquired MySpace in 2005 for $580 million after Rupert Murdoch successfully outbid rivals such as Viacom.

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The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade group has once against highlighted the level of Internet music piracy in the UK in its annual report.

The group, which represents major and independent record companies in the UK, estimated that Internet users will illegally download 1.2 billion songs this year, and describes the estimate as "conservative." The number is compared to the 370 million tracks (including individual tracks in album downloads) that will be bought legally in the UK during the same time.

"Illegal downloading continues to rise in the UK," said Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive. "It is a parasite that threatens to deprive a generation of talented young people of their chance to make a career in music, and is holding back investment in the fledgling digital entertainment sector."

UK digital single sales could reach 160 million in 2010, up from 150 million last year. Album sales are expected to rise from 16.1 million to 21 million this year.

Figures from the BPI show that in the 12 months to the end of September 2010, digital services accounted for more than 24.5 percent of the UK record industry revenue, up from 19.2 percent in the previous 12 months. The rising sales are still not offsetting the drop in sales of music CDs however.

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LG has unveiled the Optimus 2X today, the first smartphone to use a dual-core processor.

The smartphone will launch with Android 2.2 but will be upgradeable to 2.3 Gingerbread and beyond.

Using Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip at 1GHz will give Optimus 2X users "HDMI mirroring" and no lag on multitasking apps or Web browsing.

HDMI mirroring means full replication of the current display on the phone on an external screen at 1080p.

Adds LG Electronics Mobile CEO Jong-seok Park (via PCM):

"Dual-core technology is the next leap forward in mobile technology so this is no small achievement to be the first to offer a smartphone utilizing this technology. With unique features such as HDMI mirroring and exceptional graphics performance, the LG Optimus 2X is proof of LG's commitment to high-end smartphones in 2011."

The Optimus 2X features a 4-inch multi-touch screen, an 8MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front-side camera, 8GB onboard memory , DLNA support, accelerometer/gyroscope for gaming and a microSD slot.

LG will being selling the device in Korea next month, followed by Europe in March. It is unclear when or if the device will hit North America.

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Finnish mobile phone firm Nokia has filed patent infringement complaints against Apple Inc. in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands.

"These actions add 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts," said Paul Melin, vice president, Intellectual Property at Nokia.

A complaint filed in the High Court in the UK covers four Nokia patents. They relate to the touch user interface, on-device app stores, signal noise suppression and modular structures.

In the Dusseldorf District Court in Germany, a complaint was filed by Nokia against Apple that cites several patents held by the Finnish giant. The patents relate to a touch user interface, antenna structures, messaging functionality and chipsets. Another complaint filed in Germany, in the Mannheim District Court, cites five Nokia patents related to on-device app stores, caller ID, display illumination and the integration of multiple radios.

A complaint filed against Apple in the Hague in the Netherlands, cites two Nokia patents related to signal noise suppression and data card functionality.

Nokia has invested over €40 billion in R&D over the last two decades and claims one of the wireless industry's strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with around 11,000 patent families. None of the asserted patents in Nokia's latest litigation against Apple have been declared essential to any wireless communication standard.

"The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences. For example, using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone."

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Online auction giant eBay Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Critical Path Software for its ventures into the mobile marketplace.

eBay has bought Critical Path Software of Portland, Oregon, for an undisclosed amount. The company had already developed applications for eBay's ticket site StubHub, eBay Classified and for Shopping.com. The main work it has done for eBay however, is the development of the eBay iPhone application.

The company's iPhone app has been downloaded 14 million times by users since it became available. The auction giant is looking to increase its efforts in selling via mobile phones. In 2009, an estimated $600 million worth of goods were sold by mobile at eBay and that figure is expected to rise to $1.5 billion this year.

eBay's PayPal service expects more than $500 million in payments made through mobiles around the world this year.

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French regulators have sent a warning to Google Inc. to avoid exploiting its market position in relation to search advertising.

The French regulator said that Google's market power was not bad or illegal, but that its practices would have to be closely monitored to watch for an anti-competitive impact on the market. A 10-month investigation into Google's activities was carried out by Authorite de la Concurrence at the request of the French economy ministry.

The investigation examined Google's advertisement services that allow firms to buy targeted advertising based on search keywords, or when a user loads a webpage with Google ads that contains related content. These services generate the majority of Google's revenues.

The regulator wrote that while Google's position in the market results from a great deal of innovation supported by continuous investments, its search ads, "represent a specific market that cannot be replaced by other forms of communication, notably because it allows for very fine-tuned targeting, and because no other equivalent alternative offer exists in the eyes of advertisers."

Google argues that it is not a dominant company and that the regulator's analysis is too narrow. "Search ads are one of many options for advertisers. If the price of search ads rises, advertisers can and do switch to other formats, both online and offline. That is the sign of a competitive and dynamic industry," the company said.

The French parliament is also currently mulling a 1 percent tax on all online advertising that has been dubbed by the media as a "Google Tax".

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Social networking giant Twitter has announced that it raised $200 million in new finance.

The micro-blogging outlet received the new investment funds from some of its existing investors, and from venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. The new financing is valuing the social networking firm at $3.7 billion.

Twitter boasts 175 million registered users and currently employs about 300 people. The service is based around 140-character messages, dubbed Tweets, and has caught on very well in recent years, often being used to spread information in times of crisis. One such example is the disputed Iranian presidential election in 2009, where members of the green movement used Twitter to spread information.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams was replaced as chief executive by Dick Costollo in October, with Williams focusing on product strategy instead.

The company said at the time that it was making changes to make itself more profitable, and also announced this week that it is adding two new board members, including DoubleClick boss David Rosenblatt, and Mike McCue, chief executive of digital social magazine application FlipBoard.

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