The Chronic Dev Team today announced the release of Absinthe 2.0, the second major release of the popular iOS jailbreaking tool. The update brings support for several Apple products, including "the new iPad," running the most up-to-date iOS 5.1.1 software. It allows users to jailbreak "untethered," meaning they won't have to plug their device back into a computer every time it is restarted while jailbroken.

Absinthe 2.0 supports Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux platforms.

Earlier this week, Google announced an update to its Google+ for Android app, bringing several new features and user interface tweaks to the social network app. The first change is the ability to start a Hangout from anywhere in the app.

We think you’ll find today’s app nicer to look at, but we’re also making it easier to use. Improvements include:

• A navigation ribbon that slides in and out, providing quick access to just about everything
• The ability to download photos directly from Google+, and turn them into wallpaper
• The chance to edit posts inline, in case you make any mistakes while on the go

The update is available for download from Google Play now.

These two new ads are relatively simple and show Malkovich in a chair asking Siri specific questions. We've embedded them both below for your viewing:

According to FOSS Patents, Microsoft has won an injunction in Germany against Motorola Mobility that bans the sale and import of certain Android-powered devices in the country. Devices that will be banned violate Microsoft’s EP1304891 patent, which deals with "communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface." The ban, which is still subject to approval and confirmation, will carry a bond of $31.4 million.

Today, Google announced that it has launched in-app subscription support for any app available in the Google Play market. The feature allows developers to earn money when users sign up to receive either monthly or yearly content within the app itself.

All subscriptions are auto-renewing, for every app and game and every type of subscription product. Developers just set the price and billing interval and Google Play manages the purchase transactions for them, just as it does for other in-app products and app purchases.

Today, Microsoft announced an update to the Facebook app for Windows Phone that brings a number of improvements and new features to the social network app. Version 2.5 brings the ability for users to "like" comments, full-threaded Facebook messaging including group messaging, and the ability to tag friends.

Full release notes:

- New in version 2.5: Added ability to like comments, full-threaded Facebook messaging including group messaging, tagging friends using 'with' and ‘at’ formats, delete posts and comments via long press context menu, active links in posts, updates to photo comments and likes pages to match posts comments and likes page.

According to a report from DigiTimes, Google will be officially launching its long-awaited and rumored tablet device sometime this July, with initial production yielding about 600,000 units. The report also claims that Google is developing the tablet alongside Asustek Computer's help, but the company has declined to comment on that matter.

Google's 7-inch tablet PC, which the company co-developed with Asustek computer, is set to start shipping in June with initial shipments to reach about 600,000 units. The machine will be officially released in the market in July, according to sources from the upstream supply chain. However, Asustek has declined to comment.

Today, Facebook announced the launch of "Facebook Camera," a new standalone iOS app from the social network that is designed specifically to upload pictures onto Facebook. The app bears a similar resemblance to Instagram, which Facebook acquired for $1 billion earlier this year.

Full release notes for the app:

Share your photos in a snap with Facebook Camera. Post a bunch of photos to Facebook at once, and see what friends are up to with a feed of nothing but their photos.

• Post multiple photos from your camera roll at a time
• Crop and apply filters to give your photos a new look
• Scroll down a single feed of all your friends’ photos
• Tag your friends, add photo captions and say where you are
• See photos from the different apps your friends use

According to documents (PDF) released by a San Francisco jury today, Google has been found not guilty of infringing upon Oracle-controlled patents. The court has dismissed the jury in the case and removed Google of any wrong doing. Earlier this month, Google was found of infringing on Oracle's copyrighted material in Android OS, however. That trial is set to resume next Tuesday morning.

Today, Google announced the release of version 2.0 of its Google Search app for the iPhone. The new release brings a completely redesigned user interface to iOS users, something that iPad users saw late last year. The update brings heavy emphasis on performance and full-screen capabilities, specifically on picture searching.

• Complete redesign
• Major speed improvements
• Auto full screen: scroll down to hide controls, scroll up to reveal
• Beautiful full-screen image search
• Swipe away webpages to quickly return to search results
• Search within a webpage using the built-in text finder
• Easily switch between images, places, news, and more
• Fast access to Google apps like Gmail, Calendar, Docs and more all from one place

Apple introduced the FaceTime video calling service back in 2010 alongside the iPhone 4. At the time, the company said that FaceTime would only work over Wi-Fi, but it was working with carriers to add 3G network support. Nearly two years later, however, 3G support for FaceTime has yet to arrive, but new evidence in iOS 5.1 may show that Apple is at least making progress.

According to a report from The Verge, the above error message is new in iOS 5.1, which has been out for a few weeks now, but only discovered recently. With the Worldwide Developers Conference taking place in a few weeks, it seems possible we may see some FaceTime-related announcement coming.

Google announced today that it has finalized its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which was first announced in August of 2011. The deal, worth $12.5 billion, required approval from the European Commission, United States, and China (among other countries) before being finalized.

As part of the deal, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha will be stepping down from his position and will be replaced by Dennis Woodside.

Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, has stepped down as CEO. I would like to thank him for his efforts and am tremendously pleased that he will be working to ensure a smooth transition as long-time Googler Dennis Woodside takes over as CEO of Motorola Mobility.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) announced (PDF) a ruling last week that bans the import of certain Motorola Mobility devices into the United States following the company being found of infringing upon a Microsoft-owned patent. The patent in question deals with "generating meeting requests and group scheduling from a mobile device." The ban will likely go into effect within the next 60 days, unless Motorola Mobility is able to address the issue quickly. Affected devices include the Motorola Droid RAZR, the Motorola Droid 4, and the Motorola Droid Bionic.

According to a report from FOSS Patents, Apple late last week filed for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States, accusing Samsung of infringing upon an iPad-design related patent. Based on other recent rulings in the Apple versus Samsung case, it's actually likely that the motion for injunction will be granted, meaning Apple will have a ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple proposes to give Samsung until May 25 to respond, and would file its reply brief five days later. At any rate, Judge Koh won't grant this motion during the settlement talks that are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. But if those talks fails (which is what I expect to happen), the injunction might come down very soon.

According to a report from The Associated Press, the Chinese government has approved Google's proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, possibly opening the opportunity to close the deal that was initially announced in August of 2011 as early as next week. China was the last country that needed to approve the merger, with both the United States and European Commission approving the deal back in February.

Chinese regulators had one condition for the deal being approved: "That Google's Android operating system for mobile devices remain available to all at no cost for the next five years."

Yesterday, news broke that Verizon Wireless would be axing the unlimited data plan option for existing customers. Last year, the carrier introduced tiered data plan options, but allowed existing customers to be "grandfathered" in and keep their unlimited data plan. The move would force any customer to switch to a tiered data plan.

Today, Verizon Wireless made some clarifications to the upcoming change to The New York Times. The company stated that customers who upgrade their line with a subsidized price will be the only ones forced to switch to a tiered data plan. If a customer doesn't upgrade their line or chooses to buy a new device at an unsubsidized price, they will be able to keep the unlimited data plan.

- Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so.

- When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.

- Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan.

- The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones.

Facebook today began rolling out a new mobile app for its users that allows Page owners to manage their content through the app. The app functions similar to the main Facebook mobile app, but removes everything unrelated to fan pages. Features include:

• Post new updates and photos as your Page
• Get notified about new activity on your Page when it happens, no matter where you are
• Respond, post and comment as your Page while you’re on-the-go
• Manage all your Facebook Pages from one app
• View your latest Page Insights

The app appears to still be rolling out worldwide at this time.

According to The Verge, United States Customs officials have delayed the shipments of HTC's new One X and EVO 4G LTE smartphones into the U.S. as they investigate possible patent infringements on the devices. The patents in question are supposedly the same ones that were involved in a lawsuit Apple won last December. The ruling from the court said that HTC would have to stop importing all affected devices into the U.S. by April.

We've learned today that the One X and Evo 4G LTE are indefinitely delayed at Customs as the agency investigates patent issues with Apple, and sources have further confirmed that some shipments are indeed being held back. The One X is also currently out of stock at AT&T's online store and at most AT&T retail stores we've called — and few had any information on when more units would arrive.

HTC released the following statement:

The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.

According to Fierce Wireless, Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo spoke at a JP Morgan conference, announcing the company's plans to axe the unlimited data plan option for customers. Last year, Verizon introduced tiered data plan options for new customers, but existing customers had the option of being grandfathered in and keep their unlimited data plan at $30/month.

Shammo says that Verizon Wireless customers still on 3G devices will need to switch to a tiered data plan option once they upgrade their line to a 4G LTE device. Those who remain on their 3G device will continue to use unlimited data (for the time being at least).

The questions arise, however, when talking about Verizon's plans to introduce family data plans this summer. The company is reportedly planning to force users hoping to use a family data plan to upgrade their devices to all 4G LTE, thus forcing the move to tiered data plans. It's unclear when this would happen, and whether Verizon will truly force users to switch plans.

As these 3G unlimited data plan customers migrate to 4G LTE, they will have to purchase the company's data-share plan (which Verizon plans to launch in mid-summer) and move off the $30 per month unlimited data plan. "Everyone will be on data share," Shammo said.

Production is set to begin next month for the screens, which measure at least 4 inches diagonally compared with 3.5 inches on the iPhone 4S, the latest phone from Apple, the people said.

Seeing competition from other smartphone manufacturers whose phones feature much larger displays than the current iPhone, Apple has been expected to debut a device with a larger screen. The report is unclear that on the exact dimensions or resolution of the newly ordered display but it is expected to be an Apple set Retina Display.

While the report says that production for the phone will begin next month it does not give a clear launch date with the usual "later this year."

Popular Android photo sharing service Lightbox announced today that it has been acquired by Facebook. The company's team of seven (7) will be joining Facebook, while the service itself will be functioning until June 15. Users have until that date to download their photos from Lightbox. The Android app has already been removed from Google Play, and new user sign ups aren't being accepted at this point.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed to the public.

The memo, in its entirety, is below:

Dear colleagues,

Since the beginning of the year, T-Mobile has stressed that 2012 is a rebuilding year for the company. A vital step in that process was announced in March with the consolidation of our call centers. This week, T-Mobile is taking the second essential step. We are announcing a new structure that further aligns our costs with our revenue realities, enables teams who support our field organization to act and react with greater speed and effectiveness to customer and market opportunities, and better positions us to return to growth.

The new organization required difficult decisions that will impact some of our employees. This week, news will be shared personally with employees and teams who are directly affected by the restructuring. Changes will include some position eliminations and changes to individual roles and responsibilities. It is important to emphasize these impacts to employees result from business decisions. We have tremendous employees here at T-Mobile and we truly wish we could retain all our talent, but our business realities require hard choices. For affected team members, we are providing generous transition support including severance, assistance with COBRA continuation coverage, and outplacement services. As mentioned in the March announcement, customer service representatives in the remaining 17 call centers, technicians in engineering, and frontline employees in our T-Mobile corporate-owned stores will not be affected.

Our rebuilt structure enables T-Mobile to realize significant savings, allowing us to invest in future growth — in particular modernizing our network to LTE, repositioning the T-Mobile brand, and aggressively pursuing the B2B segment where we plan to add 1,000 positions over the next few years. We gain the agility to put resources where the current opportunities are, grow in areas where potential is greatest, and act on emerging opportunities quickly and rationally.

The restructuring provides a sustainable organizational model, centered on our T-Mobile Values, with the following attributes:

A greater focus on driving Customer Delight by reducing the layers between working teams and executive leadership, and shifting and consolidating groups in the field sales regions and the FSC to minimize redundant work — resulting in more effective coordination and communication.

A renewed emphasis on Best Place to Perform and Grow:
Enhanced people manager spans of control (number of direct reports), enabling faster decisions, more ability to execute, and more empowerment of employees at all levels.
Evolution of our leadership model from player-coach, where more time is spent on daily tasks than on planning and guiding, to leader-coach, where time is focused more strategically on coaching, developing, delegating, and motivating.

We approached the restructuring process and decisions with care, rigor and cross-functional alignment. A team comprised of top leaders, with support from industry-leading subject matter experts, worked closely together over the past few months to develop an effective and sustainable structure. We strongly believe the organizational principles we applied are lasting ones. More details on the new organizational structure will be shared in department and team communications this week and more broadly after that.

I want to assure you we will move through the communications this week very thoughtfully, but also as quickly as we can while preserving the quality of the conversations that need to happen. As always, our T-Mobile Values will guide our actions.

Thank you for your patience as we work through what will be a difficult week. Thank you for your continued commitment.

With sincere appreciation,

Philipp Humm
CEO & President
T-Mobile USA

Facebook announced today that it has begun rolling out an update to its mobile interface on iOS, Android, and m.facebook.com that increases the size of pictures by three times (3x).

Starting today, we’re rolling out an improved design for posts in news feed on your mobile phone. Now photos are up to 3x larger, and all posts will fill your mobile screen from edge to edge. The new design will be available on iOS, Android and m.facebook.com. Check out some before/after screenshots below.

According to a report from Business Insider (based on a research note from Macquarie analyst Ben Schacter), Google is currently developing a Chrome Web Browser app for use on iOS devices. In fact, the app may already be submitted to Apple for review and could debut in the App Store as soon as the end of this quarter. No specific details about the app were given, however.

While third-party web browsers already exist on the App Store (an example include Opera), a majority of iOS users still use Safari because of the amount of system-level integration the app brings.

We’ve independently confirmed that this is indeed the case. Sources describe the new Maps app as a forthcoming tent-pole feature of iOS that will, in the words of one, “blow your head off.” I’m not quite sure what that means, and the source in question declined to elaborate, but it’s likely a reference to the photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies.

According to a report from Bloomberg, T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, is reportedly in talks with MetroPCS about merging T-Mobile with the carrier. T-Mobile, the fourth largest carrier in the United States, has been struggling over the past couple of years, and has been looking for options ever since its acquisition by AT&T fell through.

Other options reportedly include an outright sale of the company.

Deutsche Telekom is considering a stock-swap transaction that would give the German company control over the combined entity, which would be publicly listed, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Other options include an initial public offering or an outright sale of T-Mobile USA, the people said, adding that Deutsche Telekom is also in talks with other companies. MetroPCS shares jumped 14 percent in New York trading yesterday.

Today, Google released version 2.0 of its Google+ app for iOS (App Store link), bringing with it a number of new features and a completely overhauled user interface. The company notes in its announcement of the update that the "+1" button will now float at the top of the screen to make it easier for use, and that the app sports "crisper fonts, larger profile pics and a friendlier homescreen." Users' streams will now have "overlays, gradients and other visual elements" to make it easier to read as well.

The update is available via the iOS App Store beginning today.

Today, Google updated the Google Maps for Android app (Google Play link) to version 6.7 and with it, brings integration with Google Offers, indoor walking directions, and business photos. Offers allows users to see any deals with businesses close to them, while indoor walking directions (available in the U.S. and Japan) show people around indoor locations. Google Business Photos are panoramic photos of retail stores for users.

With Google Business Photos you can explore panoramic photos of the inside of a business from the palm of your hand. Now you can get a feel for a restaurant or store inside as well as outside using Street View technologies. To access these 360-degree panoramic views, look for the “See Inside” section on the Place page of select businesses.

Rovio announced today that its incredibly popular mobile game Angry Birds has been downloaded one billion times in total. This milestone comes less than three years after the original Angry Birds was released to the public, making the series the fastest growing game in history.

Angry Birds games have now been downloaded more than a billion times – THANK YOU to all of our incredible fans! This is only the beginning of our story, keep your eyes peeled for what’s coming up next from Rovio!

The newest game in the series, Angry Birds Space, was downloaded fifty (50) million times in its first five (5) weeks of availability.

Yesterday, popular third party Twitter photo upload service Twitpic announced the release of its official iOS app for the iPhone (App Store link). The app allows users to take photos, edit them, upload them to Twitter, and see photos taken by other users of the app.

The first ever photo sharing site for Twitter comes to the iPhone! Twitpic is the easiest and best way to share your photos and videos with your Twitter followers.

• Quickly and seamlessly share your photos and videos with all of your Twitter followers
• Edit your photos with beautiful filters and easy to use enhancement tools
• Browse your Twitter photo timeline with photos from people you follow in a beautiful interface
• Browse photos from the most popular Twitpic users
• Manage your Twitpic photos and videos in your own timeline

In addition, Twitpic confirmed that the Android version of the app will be coming out in about a month.

A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch that Google Play, formerly known as the Android Market, crossed 15 billion downloads a few weeks ago. The numbers come as a surprise since Google made no mention of the new number and last we officially heard was Google Play had 11 billion downloads.

Compared to Apple's App Store, Google is far behind but rapidly catching up. Apple says that their store has over 25 billion downloads. In terms of number of applications Google is also catching up fast, Google Play has about 500,000 apps while Apple has 600,000.

Today, AT&T unveiled the Samsung Focus 2, a smartphone powered by Windows Phone 7.5 that comes in at a friendly $49.99 price tag. The smartphone features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a VGA-resolution front-facing camera, and 4G LTE connectivity.

The Samsung Focus 2 will be available for purchase from AT&T beginning on May 20, 2012.

According to a report from Reuters, a jury ruled today that Google has infringed upon some of the copyrighted content owned by Oracle regarding the Java programming language. The ruling comes as part of a high-profile lawsuit filed by Oracle that claims Google illegally used Java code in its Android mobile operating system.

The jury, however, was unable to decide whether Google had fair use of the copyrighted content. Google lawyers are moving toward a mistrial at this time, according to the report.

Oracle, which initially filed the lawsuit back in 2010, is seeking roughly $1 billion in damages from Google.

Today, Verizon Wireless unveiled the HTC DROID INCREDIBLE 4G LTE smartphone, which touts a 4-inch super LCD qHD display, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, front-facing camera, and Android OS 4.0 (a.k.a. "Ice Cream Sandwich"). The phone also sports HTC Sense UI 4.0, a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and 4G LTE connectivity. It also features Beats Audio integration and up to 32 GB microSD card.

The HTC DROID INCREDIBLE 4G LTE will be available on store shelves "in the coming weeks."

Earlier today, Apple released the iOS 5.1.1 software update to iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users. The update addresses issues with HDR photos, AirPlay video, syncing of Safari bookmarks and Reading List. The full release notes are below:

This update contains improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where 'Unable to purchase' alert could be displayed after successful purchase

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

The update is available for download either via iTunes or over-the-air on devices already running iOS 5.

According to research conducted by Ovum, smartphone shipments will surpass the 1.7 billion unit mark in 2017, with Android being the dominant mobile platform as vendors try to make it their primary OS.

Smartphones will outperform the overall market for mobile phones, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.9% for the period 2011–17 to reach 1.7 billion units, according to Ovum. Predictions show Android as the dominant operating system over the next five years as handset vendors rush to make it their primary smartphone platform.

Smartphones based on Android accounted for 44% of the smartphone market in 2011, significantly up from 17% in 2010. However, its share will reach 48% in 2017, as Android-based smartphones are expected to grow at a CAGR of 26.8% over the forecast period. Apple’s iOS will be the second most widely deployed software platform in 2017, accounting for 27% of the smartphone market, a slight increase on the 23% share of the market it reported in 2011. Sitting some way behind the Android/iOS duopoly will be the remaining smartphone players.

The update also adds in the ability for users to see how their friends sent a message. For example, the app now shows whether the message was sent via Facebook.com or a mobile app. Read receipts will allow Messenger users to see whether their friends have received the message(s) they sent. There isn't any way to turn off read receipts at this time. The Messenger app is also the only Facebook interface that provides the option of using read receipts at this time - neither Facebook.com nor the official Facebook mobile app have this feature.

This version 1.7 update does not include the recent leaked features of an upcoming version of the Messenger app, including video calling and native iPad support. It's expected that these new features will come in a future update either later this Spring or sometime in the Summer.

As noted by The New York Times, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spoke at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference earlier this week and discussed his time as CEO of the company. Stephenson says that his "only regret" so far as CEO of AT&T was offering an unlimited data plan with the original iPhone.

“My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat,” he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Wednesday. “And it’s a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.”

According to a report from iLounge, Apple's next-generation iPhone, being dubbed the "iPhone 5" by the press, will indeed sport a long-awaited 4-inch display. The size difference, however, will be achieved by making the device taller and thus, thinner as well. The phone is rumored to be up to 20% thinner than the current-generation iPhone 4S.

What we’ve learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm—a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic. Our artist’s rendition provides a rough idea of what this change will look like; it echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

In addition, the report claims that the next iPhone will receive a smaller dock connector port on the bottom. It's expected that Apple will provide some sort of adapter to connect the new port to the current 30-pin dock connector because of the amount of accessories already on the market.

Today, Samsung officially announced the Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, sporting a 4.7-inch HD display, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of up to 1080p HD video recording, 1 GB of RAM, and 4G LTE connectivity. The phone comes in a package that is a mere 8.6  The Galaxy S III will be launching in Europe on May 29, 2012, and other countries internationally in the coming months. It will be launching in the United States sometime this Summer.

A video walkthrough of the Galaxy S II is included below:

A deal fell apart between Twitter and developer Tap Tap Tap because the company didn't want to relocate to San Francisco.

Twitter executives held several meetings with Camera+ developer Tap Tap Tap, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. The talks broke down before Twitter could make an offer because the startup’s far-flung workforce was reluctant to relocate to San Francisco, they said. While 10 employees are already based there, Tap Tap Tap has 20 others in Austria, New Zealand, Spain and elsewhere.

According to a report from The Atlantic Wire, popular mobile game "Draw Something" has been losing daily users over the past couple of weeks. People who play the game on a daily basis has apparently dropped from 15 million to around 10 million, but monthly active users continue to remain stable for Draw Something.

OMGPOP launched Draw Something back in February of this year, and the game quickly launched itself to the top free and paid apps on both the iOS App Store and Google Play. The game has nearly 35 million users, and servers around one billion ads every day. Back in March, Zynga announced that it would be acquiring OMGPOP for $180 million.

Hidden code in the current version of the Messenger app, however, reveals that Facebook is indeed testing video calls through the app. An update should be released in the coming months that adds both of these new features.

Today, Motorola Mobility reported its financial results for the first quarter of 2012, announcing a net revenue of $3.1 billion, but a net loss in the quarter of $86 million. The company, which is working on finalizing its $12.5 billion acquisition by Google, shipped 5.1 million smartphones in the period, but total device shipments were actually lower than the previous quarter at 8.9 million units.

“The introduction of RAZR™ MAXX marked another successful addition to the Motorola product family and contributed to our growth in smartphones. Our Home business delivered another solid quarter highlighted by improvement in year-over-year profitability,” said Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer, Motorola Mobility. “We continue to work closely with Google to complete the proposed merger during the first half of the year.”

Yesterday, Microsoft outlined a number of changes on The Windows Phone Developer Blog that it plans to make to the Windows Phone Marketplace as an attempt to improve the mobile app market. The major changes are detailed below:

• Trademarks - Microsoft is asking developers to be more aware of any possible trademark violations in their apps. The company will be stricter on app names, developer names, and feature names in apps from this point on in order to avoid future violations and complaints
• App Icons and Categories - Microsoft will begin removing apps that are placed in multiple categories by developers. In addition, the company reminds developers with multiple apps to make sure the icons/logos of the apps are differentiable and don't have the same design
• App Keywords - Microsoft will begin enforcing its five-keywords-per-app rule. Any developer who exceeds the five keyword limit will have the app removed. This applies to all current and future Marketplace submissions
• The final change also deals with presentability. Apps should function and look good, and refrain from using any racy images

As part of the keynote, RIM released the following video that shows several different concepts that will be included in the next BlackBerry OS. The video shows off display mirroring to TVs, the on-screen keyboard with an interesting auto-complete feature, calendar, email, and more.

The first BlackBerry 10 OS devices are expected to launch sometime late this year.

Last week, news broke of a planned protest in front of an Australian Apple Store where likely paid protestors were dressed in all black and held signs that said "Wake Up." Early rumors pointed to Samsung being the creator of the protest, but after the company denied involvement, Macworld did some digging and now has proof that Research in Motion actually sent the protestors to the Apple Store.

The protestors identified themselves from an organization called "Tongue," and some of the code on their website points to Research in Motion identifier numbers.

Rovio announced today that the newest addition to the incredibly popular game series Angry Birds, dubbed "Angry Birds Space," has surpassed the fifty million downloads milestone in just five (5) weeks. The significant milestone makes Angry Birds Space the fastest growing game in history, breaking all previous records held by Rovio.

Angry Birds Space was released first on iOS, Android, Windows, and OS X on March 22. In 72 hours, the game surpassed three (3) million downloads, and will soon be released on the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Back in late February, reports surfaced that Apple acquired app discovery and search service Chomp. Immediately after the news, many wondered what would happen to Chomp's Android OS functionalities, which includes integration with Google Play. According to GigaOM, Chomp yesterday removed all Android app search features from its website and services, and deactivated its Android app as well.

It's likely that this move is one of the final as Chomp integrates itself into Apple's corporate structure, and begins work on only iOS-related functionalities.

Today, Samsung unveiled its next-generation processor chip that will likely be included in the Galaxy S3 smartphone. The processor touts a 32nm HKMG low power process that allows for improved battery consumption and more power for 3D rendering and general CPU processes. "Exynos 4 Quad shows twice better CPU performance, while consuming 20% less power than the previous Exynos generation developed on 45nm," according to Samsung.