We still don't know how much the Galaxy Tab is going to cost when it's finally released. Recent rumors put the price at anywhere between $200 and $1,000. Regardless of the fact that they have yet to announce a price, Samsung believes the 7-inch tablet will be a screaming success. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung's Hankil Yoon said the company predicts it'll ship 10 million Galaxy Tabs and take a third of the global tablet market next year. Yoon went on to confirm Samsung's plans to eventually have a whole Galaxy Tab line, and said it is exploring the possibility of 10-inch or six-inch versions.

Late last week rumors began circulating regarding European pricing for the device. Though it wasn't clear whether the prices being bandied about by retailers were the full, unsubsidized prices, some people were shocked to see numbers upwards of £600. Samsung this week said that U.S. pricing for the device will be somewhere between $200 and $300, depending on carrier subsidies.

_{Source: Wall Street Journal via Information Week via Engadget.}

We've all heard about Bieber Fever, and we know that Canadian singer Justin Bieber has a huge fanbase, but we didn't realize just how big until we heard that at any one time, he commands 3 percent of Twitter's resources.

Gizmodo reports that a Twitter employee recently spoke to designer Dustin Curtis and told him that at any moment, the pint-sized singer and his following of more than five million commands 3 percent of Twitter's infrastructure. In fact, there are 'racks of servers' dedicated to the 16-year-old.

The same Twitter employee later confirmed to Curtis that the majority of popular users on Twitter have dedicated servers, but named Bieber as one of the three things that 'reliably drive traffic'. The other two were bashing airlines and bashing the much-hated Comic Sans font.

_{Source: Twitter via Giz}

Sony takes a jab at Microsoft's Kinect.

What are we, mimes? That's the question Sony's Kevin Butler is asking gamers in the latest PlayStation Move promotion. Located at Yaybuttons.com, the site presents a Flash-based Move controller and entices visitors to press the six buttons.

"See what you did there? You clicked it," the site teases when any one of the six buttons are clicked. "It turns out that buttons are pretty important. Not like 'save the whales' important. More like 'not play games that suck' important. Cuz they help you... control stuff. Controller. Control. Kinda makes sense."

The site goes on to say that some people don't think gamers need buttons, taking an obvious jab at Microsoft. It then offers an example of gaming without buttons, indicating that sniping could be performed by turning your fingers into a makeshift gun.

"Pew! Pew!" Butler teases.

Butler's website goes on to explain the benefits of having buttons, but then rambles on into belly button territory and lint. He eventually explains why voice commands are a bad idea--other players could shout commands that may effect your game simply by passing through. Buttons instead keep the control in your hand.

To partake in the virtual PlayStation Move button mashing, head here. We're actually anxious to see Microsoft's response.

Looks as though the iPhone 3G isn't compatible with Game Center.

Apple has confirmed a list of devices that will be compatible with its upcoming social and gaming network platform, Game Center.

Currently only five non-iPad devices have made the list, and the iPhone 3G--which can run iOS 4--is not one of them. Also not on the Game Center list is the first-generation iPhone and the first generation iPod Touch. That leaves five devices ready to receive Game Center this week: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 2nd generation, iPod Touch 3rd generation, and the latest 4th generation iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch 2nd generation is the only new addition to the list originally posted last week. Although the device shares similar hardware with the iPhone 3G, the iPod Touch has a slightly faster processor--532 MHz compared to the iPhone 3G's 412 MHz processor. Both the iPod Touch 2nd generation and the iPhone 3G hit the market back in 2008.

According to reports, Apple this week reset all Game Center accounts used by developers when testing the "golden master" of the new iOS 4.1 update slated to hit iTunes and iPhone devices starting Wednesday. The new update will reportedly address performance issues that plagued iPhone 3G users after upgrading from 3.0 to 4.0. iPhone 4 proximity sensor fixes and overall Bluetooth improvements are also promised in the update.

Can't get a torrent site to remove files? DoS attack the site.

The movie industry is taking matters into its own hands yet again in regards to fighting piracy. According to reports, "cyber hitmen" are under contract to take down websites hosting illegal movies by using denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. One firm based in India has even come forward to admit that the tactic is used when copyright infringement notices go unheeded.

Girish Kumar, managing director of Aiplex Software in India, said that most movies are released locally at 10am on Friday. Later on in the afternoon, those same movies will have leaked onto the Internet, appearing on storage websites and torrent search engines.

"We find the hosting [computer] server and send them a copyright infringement notice because they're not meant to have those links," Kumar said in a telephone interview. "If they don't remove [the link] we send them a second notice and ask them [again] to remove it."

When the second notice goes unheeded, Aiplex Software will then launch a DoS attack. This means that the firm floods the offending website with millions and millions of requests until the site's server is knocked offline.

Kumar admitted that the firm sometimes had to go the extra step to prevent further movie circulation by actually destroying the data. Typically the big offenders are 20 to 25-percent of the current torrent sites.

For now, most of Aiplex Software's business stems from India, however Hollywood is also using their "services" including 20th Century Fox and Star TV.

A new ruling says that--in most cases--government and law agencies don't need a search warrant to track cell phones.

Tuesday a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that--in most cases--the FBI and other police agencies do not need a search warrant in order to track the location of cell phones used by Americans.

The three-judge panel of the Third Circuit sided with the Obama Administration (pdf) in the belief that a signed search warrant--one based on a probable cause to suspect criminal activity--isn't necessary when obtaining logs from wireless carriers that depict the whereabouts of a cell phone.

However the panel also sided with civil-liberties groups and decided that, in some cases, investigators will still need to obtain a search warrant from the lower courts to avoid potentially unconstitutional seizures of location data. The court said that this option would be used "sparingly."

Currently there's still a debate on whether the Fourth Amendment applies to phone records. "This decision does not definitively answer the question of the Fourth Amendment status of cell phone [location records]," said Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston.

Controversy surrounding the original drug-related case sparked when U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan said that the Justice Department could not obtain stored location data without a search warrant, citing federal privacy laws. Lenihan demanded that the Justice Department show probable cause.

The Obama Administration retaliated, indicating that warrantless tracking was permissible because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their location--or at least in regards to cell phone use. The Administration said that it only needs a 2703(d) order to obtain the information--this requires law officials to show that the records are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.

For the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other privacy groups, the ruling is seen as a victory because some cases will still require a warrant. "Although the court did not definitively rule on the Fourth Amendment status of cell phone location information, it made clear that under some circumstances the privacy of such data could be constitutionally protected, and that judges have the discretion to require a warrant to avoid potentially unconstitutional seizures of location data," Bankston said.

LG is priming Optimus smartphones using Nvidia Tegra 2.

The Nvidia Tegra 2 package is a killer solution for tablets and smartphones. It's curious then, why we haven't seen more of them yet.

LG Electronics will help rectify that absence from the market as it announced that it will introduce a series of fast, powerful smartphones starting in the fourth quarter of 2010, called the Optimus Series, utilizing Tegra 2's dual-core CPU and an Nvidia GPU.

Nvidia says calls the GPU unit on its Tegra chips GeForce, but we're doubtful that they share anything with the PC parts other than branding. Still, Nvidia knows how to make graphics and we want to see Tegra 2 provide some tough competition for the Apple A4, Samsung Hummingbird, and hopefully give us a glimpse at the dual-core splendor that'll come with the Samsung Orion.

LG touts that the two speedy 1 GHz processors sharing the workload can provide up to 2x faster web browsing, 1080p video output and up to 5x faster gaming performance over single core processors running at 1 GHz.

“LG is committed to making its Optimus Series smart devices the de facto standard in speed and graphics performance,” said Chang Ma, Vice President of Marketing Strategy Team, LG Mobile Communications Company. “We selected Nvidia because it is the visual computing leader and has a long history of creating amazing consumer experiences.”

 “The ultimate smartphones will be powered by Tegra, the world’s most advanced mobile processor,” said Phil Carmack, senior vice president of Nvidia’s mobile business. “LG is one of the most popular consumer brands, and their Optimus Series of devices with Tegra is further validation of the processor’s ability to deliver an unrivaled, turbocharged media experience.”

When we think of Nvidia and Optimus, something else comes to mind – but we're sure that Nvidia doesn't mind the name sharing with LG in this case.

LG’s Optimus Series smartphones featuring the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor will debut starting in the fourth quarter of the year.