In the latest string of arrests against the two hacker groups, a homeless man is being accused of hacking. Is hacking while homeless the “in” thing to do in San Francisco? The homeless man is accused of taking part in an attack against Sony while the other, Cody “recursion” Kretsinger of Tempe, AZ, is accused of being part of LulzSec.

Some news sources are reporting that there are more warrants being executed in three other states so there is a good possibility that more arrests are on the horizon. One semi-legitimate Anonymous spokesperson claims that there are now no more LulzSec members left but LulzSec honcho Sabu claims there are still two more to go.

Linus Torvalds in Helsinki released the first Linux kernel by uploading it to an FTP server for sharing. He had been working on the code since April of 1991 but the release date was actually yesterday. When released, the code only contained 10,239 lines of code while today it has 13.5 million lines of code.

You would be surprised if you knew how many gadgets Linux actually powers. Everything from the Android and TomTom GPS to the Kindle and the TiVo runs on Linux. Oh, and don’t forget this writer’s laptop! Follow the source link to read a list of ten cool devices that still run on Linux.

The controller shared 12 pages worth of information that, perhaps he shouldn’t have. The secret coordinates he shared were supposedly undecipherable by laymen but they were still apparently impressive to his friends. He is being questioned by authorities and it’s possible President Obama may receive an official apology from the Japanese Prime Minister.

Among the information he blogged was also the coordinates of an unmanned U.S. drone. As a man who sees no qualms with sharing information that would almost certainly put someone into harms way, especially as a figure as important as a U.S. president, we wonder how long he will be holding onto his job.

It’s happened several times before where the North has disrupted signals in South Korea. North Korea currently has mobile jammers (vehicle mounted) it has acquired from Russia in the 2000’s which it deploys in the demilitarized zone. Earlier this year they were able to mess with some of the South’s equipment which used commercial GPS equipment but they were able to get around it be reverting to radar and inertial navigational systems.

Sometimes it’s good to remember just how fragile technology we rely on can be. Electronic warfare is being deployed all over the world as countries deploy systems for surveillance as others work on blocking the technology. Electronic warfare regiments are currently stationed in Pyongyang, North Korea.

However, there are some people who call the amount of cameras and license plate readers to be over the top and site privacy concerns. The New York Police Department now has what they call the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI) which has the goal of having access to 3,000 camera feeds and 100 license plate readers. The LMSI now has access to 1,850 security cameras owned and operated by, not only the NYPD, but also private businesses.

This amount of surveillance has upset many (evidenced by ACLU’s lawsuit looking for the release of the location of all these cameras and plate readers) while many other people have just chosen to live with it, barely even noticing how closely they are being watched in public.

You may be familiar with Project Gutenberg, a collection of free literature on the Internet containing some of mankind’s greatest literary works. In an obituary for Mr. Hart, Project Gutenberg had this to say:

The invention of eBooks was not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.

Digitized text has definitely changed the world as we know it, making it possible to email or download whole books and libraries and driving need for new electronic devices such as e-Readers and the iPad. Hats off to an invention with that much influence.

The idea is hard to swallow because AOL needs to both work in a way that benefits those companies involved in the venture capital fund without using TechCrunch if the blog is to remain objective. Because of this dicey relationship, Michael Arrington is no longer the editor of TechCrunch. It is confusing how it actually came to be, but apparently he is still working for AOL in their business development division.

The question still remains though whether or not AOL can own both ventures while still claiming objectivity in its reporting.

Digital shifting is taking content in one format (maybe on CD or DVD) and transferring it to another (MP3s and other digital media formats). In the past this had been illegal, or at least dubbed a gray area. Now business secretary Vince Cable is introducing modifications or exceptions to these laws to accommodate distribution among the family and parodies of copyrighted material.

So soon you can go ahead and rip those CDs and DVDs for personal use without fear of prosecution. Would the parody exception make Weird Al’s life a whole lot easier not having to get permission from artists anymore? Mr. Cable is on record as saying: “Allowing people to create parody or satire without fear of copyright infringement has the potential to boost the creative industries and expand their freedom of expression.” Have fun Al!

Apparently back in 2007, when Android was a fledgling project, the CEO of Sun Microsystems was actually flattered that Java code was being used in the Android operating system because he wrote a blog post stating so. Here is some of what he wrote:

I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of others from Sun in offering my heartfelt congratulations to Google on the announcement of their new Java/Linux phone platform, Android. Congratulations!

Since the case is based on Google infringing on copyright concerning Android’s code including Java code, this type of information could prove to be important in the case. Recently the before-mentioned blog post has found to have been removed allegedly by Oracle,”covering up” the evidence of their approval of the use of the code. As it so happens, everything online is backed up and can come back to haunt, this time thanks to Wayback Machine’s caching of the article.

Oracle has been in quite the ugly court battle with Google over patent and copyright infringements.  Google says the lawsuit is a direct attack against the open-source community but Oracle doesn’t see it that way.

The latest in the saga is that a judge is suggesting the Oracle goes back to the drawing board.  First, he’s telling them that instead of $2.6 billion in damages, they ought to use a figure closer to $100 million as a starting point.  What a blow, right?  To add insult to injury, the judge also believes Oracle ought to turn its focus from all of Android to very specific infringements.

Google isn’t that new to copyright confusion what with their faux pas concerning Google Books and even the Linux code used for Android.  Google seems to have a reputation now of repeatedly getting into copyright debacles but perhaps they’re big enough to constantly come out unscathed.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram is reporting that 20-year-old Jamal Ibrahim is going to name his new baby daughter Facebook Ibrahim. No word on what Ms. Ibrahim thinks about this. Al-Ahram wrote about this:

The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. ‘Facebook’ received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name-a name that shocked the entire world.

About 5 million of Egypt’s 97 million people have activate Facebook accounts. Early during the protests, President Mubarak “shut off” the country’s internet connections to the outside world, which surely backfired on the regime.

In what’s definitely a sign of the times, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – the military junta currently ruling Egypt in the transition from Mubarak, has set up a Facebook page to further communication between the people of Egypt and the government.

No reports yet on anybody naming their child “Twitter,” though as PC Magazine pointed out in their coverage of this event, a kid named “Quora” would be kinda awesome.

Would TFTS make a good first name? Hmmmm…

Google has the proof – they set up hundreds of nonsense words that came up with specific sites in the search rankings with no rhyme or reason. Bing copied the results, and now Google believes that Microsoft is using some sort of user data from Internet Explorer 8 or the Bing Toolbar to monitor what folks are clicking on regarding search results, even if they’re using Google while in Internet Explorer 8.

Singhal writes:

Put another way, some Bing results increasingly look like an incomplete, stale version of Google results—a cheap imitation.

He goes on to give Bing an ultimatum:

And to those who have asked what we want out of all this, the answer is simple: we’d like for this practice to stop.

And there are legal issues here, too. I mean, on the surface, Google Search is Google’s biggest money maker. Having their biggest product ripped off is quite a dilemma. But, Microsoft also is licensing Bing search to other parties. As I touched on yesterday, Bing provides the search tech for Yahoo while Yahoo gets to sell the ads on Bing. If these ‘stolen’ Google results on Bing are showing up on the Yahoo search that Bing provides – does this mean that Google legally has a claim to some of the cut from the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo?

Microsoft has been frivolously defending themselves. Microsoft’s Frank X. Shaw has been active on Twitter, saying that Google uses clickstream data from Chrome and Android in their search results. So far, Google’s response has been that they don’t use user data from Bing users, whereas Microsoft is using clickthrough data from folks using Google.

Anyway, I imagine this story will just continue and lawyers will be dispatched. Stay tuned, surely.

According to Danny Sullivan’s story at Search Engine Land, Google noticed in May of 2010 that Bing was doing very well at returning the same results as Google when something was misspelled in the search bar. Google became more concerned in October of 2010, when they say that they noticed that Bing was starting to overlap more top 10 search results in various internal competitive metrics that Google uses.

Google suspected that they were being copied by Bing, so they set up a honey trap. They set up three nonsense words: “hiybbprqag”, “mbzrxpgjys” and “indoswiftjobinproduction” – which were specifically coded to go to completely unrelated sites. The first one would go to The Wiltern Theatre website, the second would go to RIM’s website (not Android – make your own assumptions) and the third would go to Sandra Lee’s webpage on the Food Network site (“Hi y’all.”) These results did not come up on Bing and Google would be able to tell if Bing was copying them.

Unfortunately, all three results were matched on Bing (don’t bother searching for them now, the results have become flooded with articles about this story). Google has come out, accusing Bing of cheating off of them. Google’s Amit Singhal said:

It’s cheating to me because we work incredibly hard and have done so for years but they just get there based on our hard work. I don’t know how else to call it but plain and simple cheating. Another analogy is that it’s like running a marathon and carrying someone else on your back, who jumps off just before the finish line.

There are certianly legal questions here too, considering that Bing is ‘selling’ their services as a search provider. Remember that Bing now provides the search engine back-end stuff for Yahoo!, while Yahoo gets to sell the ads for Bing. Now, if Bing is ‘borrowing’ from Google – doesn’t Google deserve some of the income from Bing’s search business. I’m not a lawyer (I do play one on the internet), but it seems like there could be legal trouble ahead for Google and Bing.

Oddly enough, the BigThink conference is going on today in Silicon Valley and there was a previously arranged panel on spam in search engine results. Matt Cutts from Google and Harry Shum from Bing were on the panel, as was Rick Skrenta from Blekko (Blekko, if you haven’t heard about it, is a new startup search engine that’s gaining popularity. I’m no fan of it, though).

Per TechCrunch’s coverage of the BigThink panel, it sounds like Shum had a lot of excuses as to why the Bing results (appear to) copy Google. Shum said:

If you look at how each search engine ranks the results, Matt Cutts is referring to a few outlier examples. It’s not like we actually copied anything. We actually learn from our customers. Do you mean that Google owns the data?

Google’s Matt Cutts responded:

We don’t use clicks on Bing’s users on Google rankings.

That’s all for now. I imagine this story will become bigger and bigger over the next few days.

Some Google insiders have said that Eric clashed with co-founders Larry and Sergei on the issue of Google operating in China. As the story goes, Larry and Sergei weren’t happy with the search engine complying with the state required censorship in China while Schmidt took the businessman’s cold approach of “Hey, it’s the biggest market in the world.” Larry and Sergei won out initially as Google pulled out of China, but they’re back now, which could mean that Schmidt got the ultimate victory.

But, talking to Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky, Schmidt completely denied the speculation that he was leaving the company after being ‘overruled’ by Larry and Sergei. It’s also worth noting that Schmidt is becoming executive chairman of Google – a role which means he will still technically be the boss of Larry and Sergei. Although, according to sources in Google, Schmidt will remain chairman of Google for a year, before leaving for greener pastures (like CNN?).

In the interview, Schmidt also praised Steve Jobs. He said:

Steve is absolutely brilliant. (He’s) the most successful CEO in the world anywhere. [Regarding the iPhone vs. Android] They managed to build an elegant, scalable, closed system. Google is attempting to do something with a completely different approach.

Does that comment lend credence to the (crazy) speculation I’ve heard that Schmidt is leaving to become CEO at Apple?

Researchers at the University of Surrey and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited in the UK may have solved at least a couple of those problems, though, as they’re currently developing a 10 pound satellite that runs on Android. The satellite, which is named Strand-1 and is designed to take pictures of Earth, is expected to launch into low-Earth orbit later this year.

Shaun Kenyon, mission concepts engineer for the project, has this to say about the Android-powered satellite: “The economic implications of this are really exciting. If these phones stand up to the extreme environments we see in space, it’s amazing to think we could eventually leverage low-cost mobile technology to use in satellite production.”

[Source: Geeky Gadgets]

Printing a document from your smartphone is pretty straightforward – you simply need to open a document in Google Docs or an email in Gmail for mobile and select “Print” from the dropdown menu. The document will then be sent to your printer, provided you’ve connected it to Google Cloud Print – something that only Windows PCs are capable of at the moment, but support for Mac and Linux is on the way.

The picture they paint is one that makes it seem like you can’t live without it, too: “Imagine printing an important document from your smartphone on the way to work and finding the printout waiting for you when you walk in the door…”

Of course, you could always use it for less practical purposes, like making sure you have a few paper copies of your reminder to pick up your helicopter from the shop or paint some waterlilies, like the user in the photo above.

[Source: Geeky Gadgets]

Allegedly, the computer scientist held talks with CNN super-producer Liza McGuirk and even filmed a pilot episode with her last year. But, according to the Post’s source, the pilot wasn’t so hot. In fact, they call it a “complete disaster”. So, I don’t know if Dr. Schmidt has a future in television, based on that statement alone. McGuirk is currently the producer of “Parker Spitzer”. Elliot Spitzer is the former New York governor who was ousted after an affair with a prostitute was made public – so McGuirk has a knack for the unconventional host, if anything.

To be honest, it’s hard to imagine Schmidt being a talk show host. Seeing him speak publicly, it’s obvious he is in the Bill Gates mold of a super-intelligent guy whose brain is going 200 mph and talking is just getting in his way. I mean, the man holds a PhD in EECS and worked as an advisor to the 2008 Obama presidental campaign, so he probably has the smarts, political and business, to run a talk show – but he probably lacks the charisma - in my opinion.

Plus, he’s also made some rather blunt and unrefined comments when responding to criticism of Google. Here are some of my favorites:

• One day we had a conversation where we figured we could just try and predict the stock market… and then we decided it was illegal. So we stopped doing that.
• Is there a government that you would prefer to be in charge of this?
• Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it.

Anyway, I think this story has to lend support to the idea that Schmidt is stepping down because he feels disenfranchised after he was (allegedly) vetoed by Larry and Sergei on Google’s decision to leave China. The story goes, Larry and Sergei wanted Google to pull out of China for ethical reasons while Schmidt took the calculating businessman approach of “Hey, China’s the biggest market in the world and growing.” Did Schmidt get embarrassed by Larry and Sergei and start thinking about different employment options (like hosting a TV show)?

Could you imagine Eric Schmidt hosting his own news talk TV program? Would you watch it?

A few things are interesting about this. First, it’s being dubbed an “equity bonus”, which are usually given to incoming CEOs. I guess the idea is that if the CEO holds massive amounts of stock in the company, he might care a little more about how well it does. According to the WSJ, it’s rare that a sitting or departing CEO would get a bonus of this kind.

You’ve got to wonder if Google is calling this an “equity bonus”, not a “severance package”. Although Google and Schmidt portrayed his departure from the CEO role as amicable on all sides. I opined that it was simply the changing of the guard and that Schmidt was giving the CEO role back to co-founder Larry Page as planned. Some, including our executive editor Chris, seem to think that Schmidt was fired – or that he left because he feels/felt depowered after the Google-China fiasco last year.

According to various insider reports, Eric Schmidt wanted to take the business man approach and continue doing business in China – afterall, it’s a huge market. Larry and Sergei wanted to take the white horse approach and leave China for all their hacking and human rights violations and whatnot. Google left China, at first, and so it’s being whispered that Schmidt was unhappy that he was overruled by the Google boys.

Schmidt will remain on the Google board as the Executive Chairman – essentially still Larry and Sergei’s boss (Larry is taking over as CEO, I believe Sergei holds the title of “Senior Vice President” or somesuch). But, according to the New Yorker, Schmidt will remain as an advisor for just a year before leaving the company for good. And he’ll be leaving $100 million richer, thanks to a parting gift from Google.

Of course if you are really on the go in the car you can always get a car charger but what if you are at the office or just at someone’s house and don’t have a plug-in charger with you. The new PowerLift Battery Backup pack can bail you out in a big way.

The pack itself carries a charge of 1200 mAh which can give you several more hours of watching movies let alone simply using the phone for game playing or texting and calling. The pack also has a USB adapter so that when you plug the iPhone into it you can then sync with a computer. When the $49 device isn’t being used you can fold it up to something that is smaller than your wallet for easy transportation.

We’ve seen some pretty big CEOs fall in the last year, too. HP is the biggest computer manufacturer in the world, and Mark Hurd left the company in disgrace after an alleged sexual assault claim and expense report fraud. Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was forced out of Nokia after the company has been slow to innovate and compete on the smartphone front. So, did Google oust Dr. Schmidt from the CEO chair, too?

And, you may think it’s been a tough year for Google, too. Afterall, Google Buzz went nowhere. The first edition of Google TV wasn’t that great, and depending on what Android blogs you read, it may seem like the entire world is up in arms over the Android fragmentation “issue”. Oh god, three flops. They must be in trouble, right?

Well, not quite. The stock price is up 32% in the last three months. The search business, despite Bing’s growing success, is still as strong as ever. In Q4 2010, the company made $8.4 billion in revenue.

The fact is, Dr. Eric Schmidt is one of the best CEOs in the technology sector. Larry Page agrees. He said during the Google conference call:

Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him.

So, if Schmidt is such a great leader – why is he leaving? It’s simple. Larry and Sergei have grown up.

Before Schmidt was CEO of Google, Larry Page was CEO of Google. Schmidt was named CEO in 2001, three years before Google went public, though it was obvious that the company had an IPO in their sights. Wall Street hates young CEOs. Steve Jobs had to hire John Sculley (the man who would later fire him) as CEO of Apple because Wall Street didn’t think a 28-year-old Jobs could run Apple Computer.  Jerry Yang wanted to CEO of Yahoo! but they wouldn’t let him. And there are numerous examples of this happening.

In 2001, Larry Page was just 29-years-old. Like Jobs back in ’83, he and Sergei likely were told that they had to find a “grown-up” (IE: Somebody over 35) to run the company. Eric Schmidt was a great choice, a former computer scientist who made a name for himself working at Java, and was later the CEO at Novell.

Even during the 10 years where Schmidt was CEO, the “Google boys” (who hold titles of “Vice President”) and Schmidt ran the company together. An SEC filing in 2009 even confirmed that Larry, Sergei and Schmidt ran the company as a “triumvirate”.

So, Schmidt’s stepping down is simply to let the once and future king (Larry Page – who was CEO before Schmidt, and will be again) take the throne again. Schmidt will remain as Chairman of the Board, and statements by Larry and Sergei make it clear that Schmidt will remain as an advisor to them.

Need further proof that Schmidt wasn’t fired? He wrote a very long blog post on the official Google blog explaining what happened. Ousted CEOs aren’t allowed to write long blog posts. Mark Hurd wasn’t. Kallasvuo wasn’t. If you’re fired as CEO, you’re sent away with a large severance package and told to shut up if you want to keep it.

On his Twitter feed, Schmidt wrote: “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!” And that’s exactly what’s happened here. Schmidt is stepping down so Larry and Sergei can run the company they founded.

Sorry, Apple fans. Google is fine. The house that Larry and Sergei built isn’t collapsing just yet.

Now, we just have to wonder if Schmidt will be asked to be Obama’s Secretary of Commerce during his second term…

In partnership with Panasonic, Lucasfilm announced that the collection was coming in “September” at CES, but without giving us a specific date. Now, the good folks at Amazon.com have listed the Blu-Ray set for pre-order with a date of September 27th.

No cover art or anything is listed on the Amazon listing, aside from a black box with the ominous words “Star Wars: The Complete Saga” and a Blu-Ray logo. That’s actually pretty cool and they should ship it like that, but you know they’ll probably fill it up with studio logos, and big pictures of Hayden Christensen, Jar-Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd.

Price isn’t too bad. The list price is listed at $140 with Amazon selling it at $90. It’s not so bad if you figure you’re paying $23 per each movie – and consider the fact that they probably could get away with charging something like $300 for this movie.

What do you think? Is the price good? Is the release date good? Will you be picking up Star Wars: The Complete Saga on Blu-Ray? It is, as they say, the most definitive version of Star Wars on the best video format currently out there.

Amazon Link

Apple’s cash reserves have been the subject of much speculation. Tech blogs have speculated that Apple could outright acquire a number of companies – including the former consumer electronics king Sony, who’s spot on top of the tech industry you could argue Apple took.

You might think Apple investors would be happy with all that buying power Jobs & the executive team have under their belt, but they’re not. The ‘Journal interviewed several portfolio managers and other heavy investors in Apple, and it seems that some of them are fed up with Cupertino not giving that money back to investors via dividends or stock buybacks. Christopher Bonavico of Delaware Investments told the Journal that Apple “is destroying value.” Apple issued quarterly dividends from 1987 to 1995, but hasn’t since.

Bonavico made it clear he’s happy with Apple’s products, but not so much with their financial strategy on the cash reserves. His firm holds some $700 million in Apple stock, so he gets private meetings with Apple officials. But, he told the WSJ, that Apple officials aren’t talking about what the company will do, or plans to do with the cash.

According to the WSJ, a number of investors are unhappy about this, but many are refusing to speak out considering the astronomical success that AAPL has enjoyed under Jobs’ second reign. The stock price, for example, is up some 300% in the past five years. It’s hard to argue with that kind of success.

So, what do you think Apple should do with their $50 billion in cash reserves? What do you think they will do?

The letter that Jobs sent to Apple employees concerning his leave reads:

“Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve”

Jobs is keeping quiet on why exactly he’s taking a leave of absence, and hasn’t spoken yet on how long he’ll be gone. Jobs took a leave of absence in 2009 to undergo a liver transplant, as well as taking one back in 2004 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

[Source: Geeky Gadgets]

HP’s “hpdeals” Twitter feed writes:

We’re going to miss just about the BEST ELECTRONICS SALE all year! Save $430 off an #HP Pavilion Core i5 laptop! (link to HP store)

There also are other promoted Tweets, we saw one offering a laptop for $350 or something, which HP said was their lowest price ever (I’m sure that’s a real quality computer, too). Obviously, this is nothing new - competitors have been doing this for a while on Google AdSense and what not. Plus, it wasn’t too long ago that Apple was doing this themselves.

As we reported way back in July, if you searched for “Dell Streak” or “HP Slate” on Google.co.uk, a promoted result for the iPad was the #3 finding, and it directed to the official Apple UK store, not some third-party reseller.

The #apple story is a bit interesting because Apple took something of HP’s recently. HP moved out of their Cupertino office, wishing to move the HP workforce closer to the big headquarters in Palo Alto. Apple quickly gobbled up the campus, which is a few miles away from their most famous headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop. Apple was already the #1 taxpayer in the city of Cupertino, and now they’re the #1 landowner in addition. They should just rename the city “Steve Jobs, California” or something. Just kidding, that’s too gaudy for Apple.

For those out of the know, the Beatles aren’t legally available anywhere in digital format online, leaving those who want .mp3 versions of the Beatles’ hits to get them illegally or rip them from a CD. It’s been a glaring omission from the digital era, but it isn’t unheard of. According to the WSJ, the Beatles first made the jump to CD in 1987, years after the format had started gaining traction. The Beatles did, however, recently give their likeness and rights to Harmonix/EA to create video game The Beatles: Rock Band. That agreement, however, was arranged by Harmonix’ owner, music giant MTV.

Apple and the Beatles aren’t friends, as many readers will know. The Beatles-owned music company Apple Records sued Apple Computers after the Apple II became popular in 1978. The legal infighting seemed to settle down for a few decades, but when Apple (Computers) became a music powerhouse with their iTunes stores, the lawsuits started up again. The Beatles and Apple settled things a few years back.

The WSJ hints that the Beatles music are coming on sale as EMI, the record label that owns the Beatles recordings, is in dire financial straights.

Is it too late for the Beatles? I feel like everybody who has the Beatles digitally already has it, either from a ripped CD, BitTorrent, or those “Complete Collection” USB sticks. This would have been huge news in 2003. In 2010, it’s like “Oh hey, neat.”

Tell me your take on the story in the comments section.

The company that will continue to make the cell phones (Droid X, whatever) will be known as Motorola Mobility. The company that makes the infrastructure wireless equipment and other things will be known as Motorola Solutions. Brown told investors at the conference that he expects both companies to be investment-worthy and solvent after launch.

Sanjay Jha, Brown’s fellow co-CEO will head up Mobility while Brown will take Solutions. Back when they announced this split in February, it was said that Motorola Mobility will retain all rights to the Motorola brand, name and logos and will lease them back to the Motorola Solutions company.

Insiders expect both companies to have tremendous growth. Motorola Mobility has their popular line of Android phones (and possible, a Windows Phone 7 coming soon) while Solutions should be busy with all the network upgrades to 4G (LTE, WiMAX, HSPA+) going on with almost all US carriers.

As an executive, Ballmer’s transactions of Microsoft stock are carefully monitored by the public and the SEC. If all the executives in a company start dumping their stock (think Enron), it’s clearly a sign that something is wrong. So, is Microsoft in trouble? No, probably not. Microsoft’s stock has been flat for the last ten years.

Wall Street’s valuations of stock prices are based on growth, generally. Despite some awesome new products (Windows 7, Xbox 360, etc), financial analysts don’t get excited about MSFT products the way they do about Google, Apple, etc. Microsoft’s stock price has suffered, and largely been lethargic after the dot-com bubble burst.

What does Ballmer say about the stock sell-off?

Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion. I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people’s lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success.

Is Ballmer leaving Microsoft? Possible, but unlikely. When Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in the mid-1980s, the hotheaded Jobs sold all of his Apple stock save for 1 share, the story goes, in defiance of the company (while the one share still allowed Jobs to get shareholder reports from the company he helped found). Ballmer, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is likely more level headed when it comes to finances (yes, Ballmer, level headed) and it’s hard to imagine the CEO pitching his Microsoft stock overboard because he was quietly informed by the Microsoft board that he was going to be leaving his chief executive seat?

What about the other rumors? Is he buying the Sacramento Kings to move to Seattle? The city has been without an NBA team for two years since the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. But, the owners of the Kings say the team isn’t for sale. And $1.9 billion is too much for the Kings.

Here’s the real reason why Ballmer is selling. In 2001, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 was passed by the US Congress. Largely referred to as “the Bush tax cuts”, they cut a wide number of taxes, including the capital gains tax (which is a tax on investment profits). President Clinton had increased the capital gains tax considerably during his time in office, and President Bush had cut them (I’ll let the reader decide if this is right or wrong – we’re not a political blog) in the Bush tax cuts.

The tax cuts were extended by Congress again in 2003, and are set to expire in January 2011. With the Bush tax cuts largely seen as a gift to the upper class and government spending to finance, the largely Democratic Congress (the most recent midterm election notwithstanding) hasn’t been quick to extend them. The Bush Tax Cuts were a (very minor) election issue in the 2008 Presidential election, and President Obama has publicly stated that he will not extend them, either. Some Republican pundits have said that by not extending the tax cuts, it’s a way for Democrats to raise taxes without raising taxes, but again, we’ll digress and let you make up your own mind on the issue.

The tax rate on long-term investment profits (which Ballmer’s preferred MSFT stock is) is going up from 15% to 20% for 2011. If Ballmer had shed the 75 million shares next year, as opposed to this year, he would have to pay the government an extra $98.5 million, by our math.

There you have it. But – there is one small shred of evidence towards something going on at Microsoft. Ballmer’s pal Bill Gates also sold 3 million of his own shares this week. Coincidence? You tell us.

Most sources now are saying that while buyout talks between Apple and Spotify occurred they are very much in the larval stage and specific dollar amounts have not even been discussed yet.  Furthermore Spotify execs have denied the rumors.   More interesting is that this is not the first time Spotify has reportedly discussed a buyout. In 2009 Spotify and Google were reportedly very close to signing a $1 billion deal that would have given Google all of Spotify’s music rights. In the end the deal fell apart because Spotify would not allow a grandfather clause to be inserted into the contract.

Google and Spotify’s deal was being discussed around the same time that Apple was buying another music service known as LaLa.

This plan would actually be a reversal from what Great Britain’s Government had stated last December when they claimed they would be rolling back surveillance of its citizens. While there does not appear to be a formation of a central database it will be a necessity for all data providers to store the information and allow law enforcement to review any phone call, text message, email or website hit if they claim it is in the best interest of the country’s safety.

This particular plan was buried underneath a pile of paperwork that was included in the government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review in a sign that they would have rather no one knew about the move.

SPA!, the Japanese tabloid in question, reports that Jobs was going through security at Kansai International Airport as he and his family prepared to board his private jet (which I dub, iAir One). Airport security found ninja stars in his carry-on luggage and apparently made him leave them behind. Jobs allegedly said things like ‘Why would I want to hijack my own plane’ and ‘I’ll never visit Japan again’.

SPA! apparently learned about it from an unnamed airport official. When asked about the incident, the airport confirmed that something like that did happen, but they were unable to legally disclose who the passenger was that was trying to get the ninja stars through airport security.

Apple issued a statement denying the incident happened. They did confirm that Jobs was in Japan for a family vacation. Here’s Apple’s full statement:

Steve did visit Japan this summer for a vacation in Kyoto, but the incidents described at the airport are pure fiction. Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.

What do you think? Did Mr. Jobs get upset at Airport Security? Or is this all made up by SPA! and further spread by the Apple-hungry tech blog racket? Tell us about it in the comments section.

(Image Credit: Business Insider)

HP is suing Hurd for “breach of contract” and “threatened misappropriation of trade secrets”. According to HP (the world’s #1 computer manufacturer), Hurd was specifically involved in making business plans for the next two years, some of which involved competing with Oracle directly in the enterprise space.

The suit goes on to say that there is no way that Hurd can do his job at Oracle without divulging secret information he learned at HP. He also signed a non-compete contract. As Engadget’s Nilay Patel pointed out in their coverage, California is historically a hard place to defend non-compete clauses, but despite that, HP is sticking to their guns on the contract Hurd signed.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is certainly a very public and outspoken figure, and as you can imagine, he wasn’t quiet about HP suing his pal and new employee. Ellison called the lawsuit “vindictive” and said that the HP board is acting with “complete disregard” for the business partnerships between Oracle and HP. Ellison also said, “The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace.” Uh-oh.

Definitely sounds like things aren’t good between HP and Oracle.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much that organizations like the RIAA can do because every time they shut down one piracy oriented website, 3 more spawn in its wake. Due to loopholes and the argument that websites like Torrent trackers feature no more functionality than Google, it’s going to be extremely difficult for piracy operations to ever be shut down.

While the copyright laws are very strict here in the United States with offenders facing jail time and hefty fines, over seas things get even stricter. Australia, for one, has been known to be extremely proactive in the fight against piracy.

Not too long ago it was announced that Australia had banned the sale and purchase of the R4 flash carts for the Nintendo DS. If you’re not familiar with these devices, they allow you to transfer downloaded Nintendo DS games from your computer to the cart which would then be played ont he portable gaming console. Some could argue that there are ethical purposes for such devices, but it’s no secret that the majority of its users are up to no good.

Today, Australia is at it again, this time banning the PS Jailbreak modchip for Sony’s Playstation 3 home video game console. For just about as long as the PS3 has been available it has proved itself to be resilient to hackage. However, just as we told you, a device known as PS Jailbreak allows consumers to ‘jailbreak’ their PS3 in order to play back up games straight from the console’s hard drive posing an obvious piracy threat.

Australia taking these steps towards banning PS Jailbreak may be small but they are an integral component to the fight against piracy. Unfortunately, this ban focuses specifically on the PS Jailbreak product so all of those Asian copycats we heard about none too long ago are seemingly free to hit the market until the Australian government bans them as well.

However, seeing how jailbreaking is legal here in the United States, it’s unlikely that our government will do the same as Australia for now, anyways.

Apple is notorious for not allowing live video of their keynotes/press events. They’ll often put up a video hours after the event, but for tech blogger types (like ourselves) and the Apple loyal, that’s too late and we already know the news by that point. So, when it was announced that Apple would be offering a live videostream of the event, quite a few of us were pleasantly surprised. Too bad Apple is restricting it to Macs only.

This has gone under-reported. But I quote directly from the Apple press release:

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

Wow, really? “Open-standards” eh? I guess they’re only open as long as you’re using a Mac. If you recall, Apple also called “FaceTime” based on an open standard and I’m starting to believe that maybe Apple doesn’t understand what the term “open standard” means.

The truth is, Apple lies to create their perfect world, and they use excuses that make it easy for their loyalists to defend them with. In the late 1990′s, when Apple was on it’s knees – Adobe announced it was making Windows version of its Creative Suite products the native version. Steve Jobs had a hemmorhage and hasn’t given up since.

So he bans Flash on iOS, because of his grudge with Adobe. He says it hurts performance on the device. Apple fanboys suddenly start to claim that “Oh yeah, I guess Flash is kinda slow.” Later, when Adobe comes out with a tool that makes it easy for ActionScript (the language behind Flash) developers to publish their apps in Objective-C, Apple blocks it with changes in the EULA. Jobs has never given up his grudge with Adobe, and he’s trying to blow up the Flash empire.

The truth is, Jobs wants us all to live in the Mac World. And a lot of people do. Often, I’ll see people brag about living in an “all-Apple house” and they’re even proud of the fact that they bought the over-priced AirPort WiFi hubs.

In the real world, Apple products are just computers. They’re just tablets and they’re just smartphones. They’re very good ones. But Jobs, the Apple marketing department and every Apple fanboy likes to pretend that they’re more than that. Really, does a $1200 MacBook Pro do anything a $800 Dell laptop can’t? It goes on the web. You can write documents. Sure, Mac OS X is better against malware and viruses – but smart surfers don’t need to worry about those. Let’s cut the crap – people buy Apple products for the white (or black) Apple logo on the back. Some just are too ignorant to admit it.

Somehow, Jobs and company have got the entire world convinced that if you use Apple products, you’re somehow smarter and morally superior than everybody else. Well, guess what – you’re not.

And while the smug Apple flocks enjoy the Apple Press Event tomorrow with their MacBook Pros in Starbucks – those of us who can’t use a Mac, or can’t afford to use a Mac, or don’t want to us a Mac, will have to follow along the old-fashioned way – if you in the Ivory Tower allow us.

As any casual CNBC watcher will know – officers in publicly traded companies are required to notify the SEC when they plan to sell any shares of their own company. It’s to tip off investors that if insiders are dumping a lot of stock – something may be up. The $30 million Hurd sale was tipped off by Washington Service, a company that tracks insider transactions in the stock market.

The 775,000 shares that Hurd is selling are what the HP board gave him as apart of his severance package. So, it’s not like Hurd is shedding HP stock because of some insider knowledge that it’s about to declare bankruptcy or something. The 775k stock options that he was given were due to expire on September 7th.

Remember that Hurd and the HP board are both being sued by a group representing HP shareholders in connection to the Hurd dismissal. The plaintiffs are alleging that the Board should of notified the shareholders to the (then secret) investigation by HP’s legal department into alleged sexual harassment by Hurd. They also claim that Hurd’s severance package was too high.

Do you think Mark Hurd was paid too much? Do you think it was wrong to be fired for expense report fraud? Sound off in the comments section.

Currently, only songwriters are paid every time a radio station plays a song. The music labels and RIAA want radio to pay up to the labels and artists, as well. Radio is fighting back, saying that playing music on the radio promotes album and concert ticket sales.

What does this have to do with mobile phones? A new agreement between the three parties would include a new US federal law that would require all US based manufacturers (Apple, Motorola, Palm, etc.) to include FM radio receivers in their phones. That would include all phones – from the $20 featurephone to the $600 smartphone.

Understandably, some in the electronics industry are upset that they’re being involved in this mud fight. Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association said: “This is a battle that doesn’t involve us.”

For years, FM radio has been fending off attacks from internet radio, podcasting, satellite radio and even the good old MP3 player. Pundit John C. Dvorak said on the ‘This Week in Tech’ podcast: (paraphrased) “This is like requiring Ford to include a buggy whip in each new car”.

While some new phone do include FM radios (the Droid X being a notable and recent example), not all do. We like phones for their slim and sleek profiles – and if they were required by law to include FM radio equipment, it could hurt those curves.

Sound off in our comments: Do you think cell phones should be required by law to include FM radios?

The account in question was titled “uriminzokkiri”, which according to BusinessWeek means ‘between our people’. Similar pro-North Korea accounts have been opened up on Twitter and YouTube. Like on the other sites, the Facebook page had pictures of Kim Jong II and posted links to websites promoting unification of Korea. It had roughly 3,000 followers, according to BusinessWeek.

We suspect South Korea may of had something to do with these accounts on Facebook being closed. The South Korean government has been cracking down on North Korean Twitter accounts. As a state-of-war still exists between the North and the South, South Korean law orders all South Korean citizens to inform the government when they’re contacted by a North Korean. As you can understand, Twitter and Facebook pages make this line blurry. Another South Korean law prohibits citizens from supporting “anti-state” or “pro-North Korean’ groups.

When BusinessWeek contacted Facebook about why the North Korean accounts were closed, a spokesperson told them:

If a person poses as a person or entity that you don’t officially represent, that becomes a violation of our policy. Facebook is based on real people that are on there making connections and people are going to get the most value of the site if they’re using real identities.

That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t explain why the ‘Uriminzokkiri’ account was banned. By our estimation, it seems that Facebook is taking South Korea’s side on the issue.

Due to such a high loyalty rate with everyone wanting their team to win, referees and their calls are put under a lot of scrutiny. The NFL has done everything they can to combat bad calls such as instant replays and the like but just like any other sport, they are going to happen. In extreme cases, a bad call can cost the team a game, leading to very unhappy fans and questioning of referees’ authority.

However, according to recent reports, the NFL is looking to do away with bad calls almost entirely by actually utilizing official balls with a built-in tracking chip. These reports say that the NFL is in talks with a German micro-tracking system manufacturer by the name of Cairos Technologies. Of course, actual implementation into an official game is most likely far off considering these are just talks over whether or not the system would actually be plausible.

However, it seems that Cairos is no stranger to tracking competitive sports play as they were responsible for tracking chip touting soccer ball that made the rounds back in 2007. Unfortunately, it failed to really catch on so Cairos is surely looking to make a comeback if picked up by the NFL.

If/when the NFL does implement these chips it is going to be interesting to see how they are used in the heat of the moment. On the flip side of things, a football referee’s job is about to get a whole lot easier and a lot less stressful.

Unfortunately for those purists, it’ll just be the special editions (IE – Greedo shooting first). According to Lucas, remastering the original cuts into 1080p for Blu-Ray would be too expensive. You’d think that with the fanbase of Star Wars, such a thing would sell enough copies to make it profitable – but alas.

Star Wars fans are also getting some extras. As you’d expect, the Blu-Ray collection will be loaded up with all sorts of special features and extras. But, Mr. Lucas is once again going back to the editing tablet and adding a deleted scene to the special edition of “Return of the Jedi”. A new scene added to the beginning shows Darth Vader attempting to contact Luke Skywalker through the Force, as well as Luke constructing his green lightsaber and putting it inside R2-D2.

The scene was shot and even finished in post-production, but was cut from the theatrical release and had never made it into any of the special editions. This scene has been discussed from time to time by Star Wars fans – and its inclusion on the Blu-Ray collection will be a special treat.

“2011″ was all that was mentioned as a release date. Nothing has been confirmed on a price, but you know it’s going to be expensive. I just hope it comes a big plastic model of Darth Vader’s helmet or something…

(Image Credit: Engadget.com)

The NY Times cites “people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans”, and says that Lab 126 is currently researching other tech gadgets that it could possibly sell. However, Amazon doesn’t want to become a hardware company al la Sony or Apple. Don’t forget that the Kindle eReader was a means to sell Kindle eBooks. Future products from Lab 126 would be the same, this source says.

The Times gives the examples of perhaps something that would enable customers to watch their Amazon digital movie purchases and rentals on the go. It’s hard to imagine how exactly this would work – maybe some sort of limited PMP device or maybe an internet connected set-top box. That’s just speculation on our part, though.

According to the people familiar, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ original goal when starting Lab 126 was to create devices to cater to Amazon’s digital offerings. “Music players and other electronics” were specifically said by this person.

The source told the Times that Amazon had toyed with the idea of building a mobile phone to compete with “Apple and Google”, but it sounds like that plan is on the backburner at the moment. While Lab 126 isn’t pursuing that, they haven’t written it off completely.

Interesting stuff. We’ve had discussions here at the TFTS offices regarding “digital media” and “eMedia”. Such content is becoming more and more prevalent, even in the mainstream – and Amazon may want to take advantage of that.

While previous versions of Internet Explorer have been flawed in one way or another be it security, speed or stability issues, Microsoft is looking to change all of that with the forthcoming release of Internet Explorer 9. They hope to do this by incorporating new technologies into IE 9 like HTML 5, CSS3 and more along with dramatically beefing up the browser’s security, stability and performance when compared to previous versions.

In fact, if you’ve been with us through June, you’ll remember that we showed you an HTML 5 speed test that pitted Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera and Chrome against one another in an all out battle. Surprising results showed that Internet Explorer 9 (along with Firefox) ran train on the competition when it came to raw HTML 5 rendering speeds. This test, along with claims from Microsoft, proves that Internet Explorer 9 is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with.

However, while Internet Explorer 9 has been recieving a lot of hype from the PR department, consumers wont’ be able to accurately judge the software until they get their hands on it. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t given us a solid release for when we will actually be seeing the newest version of their web browser but today they gave us some promising information.

On September 15th Microsoft will officially be releasing the Internet Explorer 9 beta to the public. As if that wasn’t enough hype, they will also be holding an event in San Francisco that will celebrate the beta’s launch.

Anyone out there actually planning on switching to IE9?