Nokia has said this weekend that it has selected Qualcomm as the chipset supplier for its first Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

The company is also negotiating with other chipset makers for future devices.

Says a spokesman:

The first Nokias based on Windows Phone will have the Qualcomm chipset.

Our aim is to build a vibrant ecosystem around Nokia and the Windows Phone OS and with that intent we are naturally continuing discussions with a number of chipset suppliers for our future product portfolio.

Other possible suppliers are ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

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China Telecom Chairman Wang Xiaochu has confirmed this weekend that his company is actively speaking with Apple in an effort to bring a CDMA iPhone to China.

Rival China Unicom, which is the largest carrier in the nation, has had an exclusive contract with Apple but that deal expires this year.

Wang would not comment on the progress of the discussions.

Overall, China has 866 million mobile phone users and China Telecom is the third largest carrier in the country.

Telecom has 103.10 million mobile phone users including 17.84 million 3G smartphone users.

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Earlier this week, Liberty Media offered $17 per share, or $1 billion for giant book retailer Barnes & Noble.

Shares of the company, however, jumped to $18.33 by the close on Friday, as Wall Streets expects a competing bid.

Furthermore, many believe the bid undervalues the company, which has been struggling for years now.

Liberty is bidding for the company in an effort to continue the strong sales and growth of the Nook e-reader and Nook Color e-reader/tablet.

Finally, the offer is conditional on founder and current Chairman Leonard Riggio keeping a stake in his company and staying involved in running the company.

Barnes & Noble has around 30 percent of the e-book market, has 720 superstores, and has been up for sale since August.

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Google has confirmed today that Android users with rooted devices will not be able to rent movies via the Android Market.

The search giant introduced the feature this month at the I/O Conference.

Says the Android support page entry:

I see "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49)" when I try to download a movie.

You'll receive this "Error 49" message if you attempt to play a movie on a rooted device. Rooted devices are currently unsupported due to requirements related to copyright protection.

For now, the issue is not widespread as the rentals are only available to Android 3.1 Honeycomb users (less than 1 percent of all devices) but it will become a bigger issue when the rentals make their way to Android 2.2 devices in the coming summer months.

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Playboy has gone around Apple's "no nudity" App store stipulations and made its full archive of magazines available for iPad users, via the i.playboy.com site and not through the store.

The site will cost $8 per month, or $60 per year, or a highly discounted $100 for 2 years.

In early January, founder Hugh Hefner tweeted that the archive would be available online by March, so it appears the plans saw unforeseen delays.

In addition to the standard photos of naked women, the web pages will also include exclusive videos and content recommendations from a group of "high-profile panel of celebrated individuals from art, design, fashion, media and technology."

Those members will make new suggestions each month starting in June.

The site will be formatted in HTML5.

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According to a new BBC documentary called "Secrets of Superbrands," MRIs of Apple "fanboys" and people who consider themselves "very religious" were very similar, with the same part of the brain being lit up for both.

In short, Apple "fanboys" and religious zealots have the same cranial reactions.

Furthermore, the documentary goes as far as to compare Apple Stores to cathedrals:

Apple stores often feature stone or other types of austere, simple flooring like a church with products mounted on pedestals like individual altars.

Apple Store launches can also be like religious experiences (via BI):

The scenes I witnessed at the opening of the new Apple store in London's Covent Garden were more like an evangelical prayer meeting than a chance to buy a phone or a laptop.

Inside the store, glassy-eyed staff were whipped up into a frenzy of excitement, jumping up and down, clapping and shouting. When the doors finally opened, they hysterically "high-fived" and cheered hundreds of delirious customers flooding in through the doors for hours on end.

The documentary will be released soon on the BBC.

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