LinkedIn has announced this week that it has reached a major milestone, 100 million users.

The company launched in 2003 as a "business social network," linking together professionals and students.

In 2009, the company hit 50 million users and it has taken just over 18 months to get another 50 million.

The company says it now adds a new member every second.

As part of the milestone celebration, LinkedIn posted interesting figures about its membership base:

-56 percent of users are from outside the U.S. and growth remains stronger internationally than in the States.

-Brazil had the strongest growth, 428 percent year-over-year. Mexico, India and France followed.

-LinkedIn usage peaks at noon for desktop, 8pm for mobile devices.

-20 percent of users are in "service" sector, 9 percent are in finance and another 9 percent are in tech industry. There are also 1 million teachers.

When the company IPOs later this year, it is expected to fetch $3 billion.

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According to VGHQ, George 'Geohot' Hotz has fled to South America in an effort to avoid handing over his possessions to Sony.

Furthermore, Sony has caught Geohot lying on record, outing his PSN account which he claimed did not exist.

Sony's official document in the case, Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC v. Hotz reads:

Though the evidence establishing personal jurisdiction is already overwhelming, SCEA has little doubt that there is much more. However, over the last several weeks. Hotz has engaged in a campaign to thwart jurisdictional discovery at every turn –regardless of whether the Court has ordered such discovery or not.

Most seriously, after Magistrate Judge Spero ordered an inspection of Hotz's devices and ordered Hotz to appear at a deposition in California, SCEA learned that Hotz had deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives prior to delivering them to a third party neutral and that Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral. Hotz's attempts to dodge this Court's authority raise very serious questions.

When SCEA echoed TIG's request that the components of the hard drives be delivered immediately, Hotz's counsel responded that Hotz was in South America.

The situation gets even worse, as Sony proves that Geohot lied on record when he exclaimed that he did not have a PSN account:

On January 12, 2011, Hotz submitted a declaration to the Court (Docket No. 19-1) in which he made unequivocal statements on a number of topics. However, when it came to discussing the PSN account, Hotz equivocated, stating: "To the best of my knowledge and belief, I do not have a PlayStation Network account." Hotz also provided interrogatory responses that he has refused to verify, stating that he has not accessed the PSN. Bricker Decl. ¶4.Hotz identified four PS3 Systems in his possession. Bricker Decl., ¶4, Exh. C. He explained that he had purchased one of these consoles new in February 2010 and provided the serial number for that console. Id. SCEA used that serial number to determine that on February 25, 2010, Hotz purchased the PS3 System at a Gamestop store just miles from his home. Law Decl., ¶6; Bricker Decl., ¶6, Exh. E. SCEA's records show that the same PS3 System was used on March 10, 2010 to create a PSN account under the user name "blickmanic." Law Decl., ¶6, Exh. A. The IP address associated with the registration is located in Glen Rock, New Jersey, where Hotz lives.

Hotz's ownership of the "blickmaniac" account is further supported by the fact that an Internet search of the user name "blickmaniac" reveals a posting discussing the jailbreaking of cellular phones – Hotz's original "claim to fame." Bricker Decl., ¶7, Exh. F ("Just curious what people would pay for exclusive rights to this solution. [Motorola] Tracfone W175g unlocked and debranded. PM me.") As discussed above, to create his PSN account, Hotz was required to first agree to the terms of the PSN User Agreement and thus he is clearly subject to personal jurisdiction in California. It is well established that a valid and enforceable forum selection clause operates as consent to personal jurisdiction in a designated forum.

Sony wants to continue its case against Hotz in San Francisco and not in New Jersey, where Hotz lives. Hotz was sued after he made code available that would give PS3 owners a chance to run homebrew on custom firmware.

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U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd has ruled that Apple CEO Steve Jobs must answer questions from lawyers representing consumers that claim the company created a music-download monopoly with iTunes.

The lawyers in the anti-trust lawsuit will be given two hours to question Jobs, who remains on medical leave while he fights cancer.

In the suit, consumers allege that Apple runs a monopoly with iTunes and iPods, thanks to the Fairplay DRM that blocks music purchased on iTunes from being used on any device not sold by Apple.

RealNetworks, back in 2004, created a software that would let buyers purchase music from Real and sync it to their iPods. When Apple upgraded iTunes, they blocked Real's store, says the complaint.

In ruling that the lawyers could question Jobs, Lloyd says Jobs has "unique, non-repetitive, first hand knowledge about Apple's software updates in October 2004 that rendered the RealNetworks's digital music files once again inoperable with iPods."

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In late 2008, Google reached a settlement agreement with authors and publishers in an effort to make thousands of books available online through Google Books.

Google has scanned 12 million rare, out-of-print books and hoped to have them easily accessible to anyone with a computer, and via academic institutions and public libraries. The eventual plan is to make every book ever written available, around 130 million, as of writing.

By late 2009, Google and all the parties involved agreed on an amended settlement, following input from the Department of Justice.

In February 2010, Google filed for final approval of the amended settlement.

This week, a New York judge has rejected the $125 million settlement, saying the deal would "arguably give Google control over the search market." Judge Denny Chin says the terms of the deal are so favorable to Google that it would give them the "defacto monopoly."

Despite rejecting the agreement, Chin says a new amended agreement could pass, as long as Google implements "opt-in," meaning they are not allowed to use copyrighted material unless the publisher opts in. The current deal would have allowed Google to use the material if the copyright owner did not "opt out" in time.

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In just one day of availability, Mozilla's Firefox 4 has been downloaded 7.818 million times, and will break 8 million likely by the time this article is published.

Microsoft broadly boasted of 2.3 million Internet Explorer 9 downloads in the first 24 hours when it released its updated browser but it seems Mozilla has blown out that number.

You can check the Firefox download tracker here: http://glow.mozilla.org/?loc=interstitialskip

The browser adds App Tabs, better WebM and HTML5 support, "do-no-track" privacy, hardware acceleration and JavaScript improvements.

You can read more about the updates here at AfterDawn: Firefox 4 is here

Download Firefox 4 here: Mozilla Firefox 4 at AfterDawn

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Following a two-week delay caused by the disaster that was the rollout of their February update, Windows Phone 7 users have begun receiving the long-awaited "NoDo" March update from Microsoft.

As part of the update, device owners will get copy and paste capability, CDMA support, Marketplace search and "performance tune-ups."

If you own a WP7 phone, the update began rolling out yesterday and it is unclear how long it will take to reach all customers. Your phone will show you a notification when the update is ready.

All future WP7 phones will have NoDo pre-installed.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft confirmed that the Marketplace had surpassed 10,000 apps, now sitting at just over 11,000.

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Showtime and Netflix have agreed to a new content deal this week, restructuring the current deal which ends during the summer.

With the new deal, two of Showtime's most popular shows, "Dexter" and "Californication" will be removed from the streaming "Watch Instantly" catalog of Netflix.

Episodes of "current originals" will now be available through the channel's "authenticated broadband service" Showtime Anytime.

Not all is lost, however, as the deal will add "The Tudors," "Sleeper Cell" and other shows to Netflix.

Says the premium channel (via reuters):

Current and past seasons of our original series will be available to our authenticated subscribers via our TV Everywhere service Showtime Anytime. A number of Showtime original series will continue to be available and stream on Netflix, including 'The Tudors' and 'Sleeper Cell,' among others.

Netflix has just announced the purchase of their first original series, buying a full two seasons of the David Fincher directed drama "House of Cards."

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