Nintendo has said today that the 3DS handheld has sold extremely well since launch Sunday in the United States.

The company says launch day sales were "the highest of any Nintendo hand-held system in our history."

Although they did not reveal specific numbers, they confirmed that numbers would be available on April 14th, when NPD shows off the figures.

Continues the statement:

Nintendo worked hard to get as much product as possible to retailers on day one to meet demand, and we will continue with these efforts moving forward.

Giant retailer GameStop also said they were very "pleased" with the sales of the handheld.

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Microsoft is seeking volunteers for a beta of a new Xbox 360 disc format.

"We are conducting an open call for US based participants for a public preview to help us prepare for an updated Xbox 360 disc format," Major Nelson (Larry Hryb) announced today.

The Xbox 360 currently uses the DVD format for its video game titles. Sony opted for Blu-ray for the PS3, which can hold vastly more content than a standard DVD. Some Xbox 360 games comes on multiple discs due to a capacity limit of about 8.5GB on a standard dual-layer DVD.

"This is an important update as we continually strive to improve our products and we could not do so without the help of our great Xbox community," Hryb wrote. "As part of the preview program, you will receive a copy of Halo: Reach along with other possible rewards."

Of course, the announcement is very light on details so its unclear exactly what Microsoft is looking to introduce at this time. The company is seeking thousands of participants, and will give priority to Xbox Live Gold members (though Silver members can apply too.)

If you are interested, check this link.

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News Corporation is reportedly in talks with Vevo.com over a possible deal involving MySpace.

News Corp reportedly approached Vevo.com with an offer to buy MySpace outright just weeks ago, but Vevo was not interested. Now, Reuters cites sources in reporting that News Corp is discussing exchanging MySpace for a stake in a new venture.

Possibly the most valueable asset of MySpace is MySpace Music, a collaboration with Universal, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music. Vevo is a joint venture owned by Abu Dhabi Media Co., Universal and Sony Music.

Reuters source indicates that the chances of something coming out of these talks for News Corp. is "very slim." MySpace has been bleeding users at an accelerating rate, and an attempt to relaunch it as a social entertainment hub seems to have mostly failed in its goals.

Web analyst comScore reported last week that MySpace lost about 10 million users in a single month. Specifically, it reports 63 million users of MySpace in February this year, down from 73 million just a month before.

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According to reports, hackers have targeted Australia PM Julia Gillard and at least two senior ministers.

According to Sydney's Daily Telegraph, the Australian government was alerted to a security breach by U.S. intelligence that involved the parliamentary computer of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The report claimeds that thousands of e-mails may have been accessed from computers of up to 10 ministers.

Among the computers allegedly breached were those belonging to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith.

The newspaper report citing four unnamed government sources as saying Chinese intelligence agencies were among the list of suspects. It is thought that the hack is limited to Australia's lucrative mining industry.

The Australian government would neither confirm or deny the details in the report, with Attorney-General Robert McClelland just stressing that Australian authorities are constantly strengthening security measures.

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Kingston has announced a new firmware updaye for SSDNow v100 SSDs due to a bug that could lead to data loss.

The company released a statement to the media today, which reads...

"We have learned that a small percentage of our SSDNow V100 sold in the past has experienced a technical issue on the firmware. Kingston strongly recommends that a firmware update be applied to all SSDNow V100 drives to prevent possible data loss.

The firmware update to fix the technical issue is available via Kingston Technical Support. As with any firmware update, we recommend that you back up your data prior to applying the firmware revision.

Customer satisfaction and producing high quality products is the key to Kingston's success, so we want to make every effort to ensure that our customers are aware of this firmware revision and have the opportunity to patch their V100 drive(s).

The firmware update can be downloaded from our dedicated support page: www.kingston.com/support/ssdnow/v100_firmware.asp

Customers can also contact our customer service hotline at 888.484.9125 for more information.

Affected Part Numbers are:

SV100S2/64GZ, SV100S2D/64GZ, SV100S2N/64GZ
SV100S2/128GZ, SV100S2D/128GZ, SV100S2N/128GZ
SV100S2/256GZ, SV100S2N/256GZ, SV100S2N/256GZ

It is important to note that none of Kingston's other SSDNow products -- with part numbers beginning with SNE, SNM, SS, SNV, SNVP and SVP -- are affected by this potential issue."

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Nokia has responded to a setback last Friday in its patent infringement pursuit of Apple by filing a new complaint with the institution.

Once again, the Finnish handset maker accuses Apple of infringing several of its patents with technology used in iPhones, iPads and other Apple products. The new filing relates to seven patents covering multi-tasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality and Bluetooth.

"Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone," Paul Melin, Nokia's vice president, intellectual property, said in a statement.

Last Friday, an ITC judge found that Apple did not infringe five patents held by Nokia. Unsurprising, Nokia has said it does not agree with the ITC's determination and is waiting the full details of the ruling before it decides how to move forward.

"There is a significant degree of frustration shining through Nokia's announcement ... but more than anything else, Nokia is sending out a strong and unambiguous message that at the end of this epic battle Apple is going to have to send royalty checks to Finland," said Florian Mueller, independent specialist and blogger on patent battles.

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Santa Cruz-based Media Rights Technologies has agreed to pay the Beatle's EMI Group label $950,000 to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Using its BlueBeat.com website, the company sold music tracks containing Beatles content for 25 cents each, before they were ever available on iTunes. The site also sold tracks from Radiohead, Coldplay and many other acts without acquiring a license to do so.

Media Rights had originally denied copyright infringement, saying it wasn't offering the original tracks but instead had re-recorded the music and inserted some new artistic effects based on a technique dubbed "psycho-acoustic simulation."

U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton Tucker dismissed the argument. She described it as "obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language (that) appears to be a long-winded way of describing 'sampling.'" Beatles' tracks first appeared on the iTunes service in November after lengthy negotiations.

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Intel Corporation today announced its third generation Solid-State Drive 320 Series.

The SSDs are based on 25-nanometer NAND flash memory, replacing and building on the high-performance Intel X25-M SATA SSD. "Intel designed new quality and reliability features into our SSDs to take advantage of the latest 25nm silicon, so we could deliver cost advantages to our customers," said Pete Hazen, director of marketing for the Intel Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) Solutions Group.

"Intel's third generation of SSDs adds enhanced data security features, power-loss management and innovative data redundancy features to once again advance SSD technology. Whether it's a consumer or corporate IT looking to upgrade from a hard disk drive, or an enterprise seeking to deploy SSDs in their data centers, the new Intel SSD 320 Series will continue to build on our reputation of high quality and dependability over the life of the SSD."

The Intel SSD 320 Series comes in 40GB, 80GB, 120GB, 160GB and new higher capacity 300GB and 600GB versions, and uses the SATA II interface (3Gbps). The SSD Series produces up to 39,500 input/output operations per second (IOPS) random reads and 23,000 IOPS random writes on its highest-capacity drives.

In addition, the company has more than doubled sequential write speeds from its second generation to 220MB/s sequential writes and still maintains one of the highest read throughputs at up to 270MB/s sequential reads.

Intel SSD 320 prices, based on 1,000-unit quantities, are as follows: 40GB at $89; 80GB at $159; 120GB at $209; 160GB at $289; 300GB at $529 and 600GB at $1,069. Consumer pricing will depend on retailers.

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The Wall Street Journal has reported that Google is working on a mobile payments system for Android users.

Consumers would be able to use their smartphones to pay for transactions at retail stores, simply by holding their Android-powered device near a reader at a checkout. The web giant has reportedly teamed with Citigroup and Mastercard on the project.

Paying for products and services using mobile phones is not nearly a new concept, as it has been rolled out in some areas across Europe. Nokia has been pushing for the technology to emerge worldwide, using Near-Field Communication (NFC).

According the WSJ report, Citigroup customers with credit or debit cards will soon be able to download an Android app that works with one model currently on the market (and several coming soon), enabling them to use their phones to make transactions.

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IDC has released their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker numbers this week, and the firm expects the smartphone market to grow 49.2 percent in 2011.

Smartphone shipments will top 450 million this year, up from 303 million in 2010, says the tracker.

Says Kevin Restivo, IDC senior research analyst:

Overall market growth in 2010 was exceptional. Last year's high market growth was due in part to pent-up demand from a challenging 2009, when many buyers held off on mobile phone purchases. The expected market growth for 2011, while still notable, will taper off somewhat from what we saw in 2010.

The most notable prediction is that Windows Phone 7 will overtake iOS and BlackBerry by 2015, while Android remains the clear leader.

IDC says Android will move to 45.4 percent share by 2015, followed by WP7 at 20.9 percent. iOS has peaked, says IDC, and will remain at 15.3 percent in 4 years. BlackBerry will lose share, but remain relevant at 13.7 percent. Symbian will lose all of its current 21 percent share, following Nokia's move to WP7.

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Acer, one of the top PC companies in the world, has lowered its forecasted PC sales for the Q1, revising an expected 3 percent year-over-year growth to a 10 percent loss.

Furthermore, Acer's net operating profit margin will fall to 1.95 percent, from just under 3 percent.

Analysts following the company claim the reduced outlook is thanks to strong media tablet sales from Apple, Samsung and Motorola.

Acer continued the bad news for investors by saying it did not think it would see PC sales growth in the Q2 either, despite expectations that notebook sales will increase 10 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Last week, Asustek made a similar announcement, showing off just how powerful tablets are becoming in the industry.

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Imax has announced they have sold eight theaters to Russian exhibitor Cinema Park.

In July 2010, the company sold 10 theaters to the Russian company.

Cinema Park will build the Imax theatres in multiplexes in Kaliningrad, Ulyanovsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tula, Penza, Stavropol and Irkutsk starting in 2012.

When completed, Imax will have 46 screens in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (including previous deals that may be completed by 2014).

Imax will collect royalties on the Russian theaters, unlike its massive 75-theater deal with China's Wanda Cinemas, which is a revenue-sharing agreement.

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Netflix has confirmed today that the company has been forced to cut bandwidth to Canadian subscribers by over 65 percent, due to data caps imposed by Canadian ISPs like Bell and Rogers.

Says the streaming and rental company:

We made these changes because many Canadian Internet service providers (ISPs) unfortunately enforce monthly caps on the total amount of data consumed.

Netflix opened for business in Canada in September 2010, offering unlimited streaming for $8 per month.

Because of the cut back, Netflix says that users stream, on average, 30 hours worth of programming per month, but only use 9GB of data, enough to keep most users under their draconian caps. The company says before the throttling, some Canadians were using 70GB per month watching the same amount of programming in 720p.

Concludes the company:

While there is some lessening of picture quality with these new settings, the experience continues to be great.

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Amazon has launched their anticipated CloudDrive today, offering anyone with an Amazon account 5GB of free cloud storage.

You can access your account here: Amazon CloudDrive

Says Amazon:

Amazon Cloud Drive is your hard drive in the cloud. Store your music, videos, photos, and documents on Amazon's secure servers. All you need is a web browser to upload, download, and access your files from any computer.

Your Cloud Drive comes with 5 GB of free storage—enough space to store up to 1000 songs. This space is yours to use as you like and you will never be charged for it.

Use your Amazon Cloud Drive as the go-to location for all your important files. At work, at home, during your commute or while on vacation—you'll always have access to everything you've uploaded to your Cloud Drive through your Amazon account.

If you need more space, Amazon offers a number of paid options, from 20GB up to 1TB. For each option, each GB is $1, meaning the 1TB option costs $1000 per year.

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The Oxford English Dictionary has added a number of popular Internet slang terms to its pages this week.

LOL, BFF, IMHO, and OMG (that's laugh out loud, best friends forever, in my humble opinion and oh my God) are now included in the Dictionary, legitimizing the terms used by millions in texts, emails and instant messages.

Additionally, the Dictionary added its first ever symbol, <3, which represents a heart or love.

The terms were among 900 words added to the OED during a quarterly update.

Says Graeme Diamond, OED's principal editor for new words (via MM):

Things people think are new words normally have a longer history. The OED is quite cautious about which words make the cut.

Among other terms that were added are "muffin top" and "WAG." "Muffin top" is the slang for a fat stomach which hangs over the side of the waist of pants, and "wag" is a tabloid term for the wives and girlfriends of famous athletes.

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