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In an attempt to evade U.S. prosecution, Julian Assange’s investors are said to be in the process of moving Wikileaks’s servers offshore, according to Fox News. Multiple unnamed sources spoke with the news network and said Assange’s financial backers have been going through the logistics of moving the servers to international waters. “They can keep running Wikileaks and nobody can touch them,” a source told Fox News. “If you get a certain distance away from any land then you’re dealing with maritime law … They can’t prosecute him under maritime law. He’s safe. He’s not an idiot, he’s actually very smart.” Read on for more.

Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s head of emerging payments, sat down with Austin Carr of Fast Company to discuss the future of credit cards. “We’re rapidly moving to a world beyond plastic,” said McLaughlin. “In many ways, plastic is just convenient packaging.” The future of on-the-go payments may lie in the hands of near-field communication but unfortunately, adoption and availability have been extremely slow and limited. While NFC technology has been featured in a number of Android devices, MasterCard seems to think it won’t go mainstream until an iPhone is equipped with the mobile payment solution. Read on for more.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has opened a formal investigation into Samsung’s competitive practices. The Commission will assess whether the Korean manufacturer “used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules.” Samsung has used a collection of its patents to launch a series of lawsuits against rival companies, such as Apple. The technology giant maintains, however, that these patents are essential to implementing European mobile telephony standards. Samsung may now be in violation of a promise it made in 1998, when the company gave its “irrevocable commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.” Read on for the Commission’s full press release.

Research In Motion’s newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins said during his first day on the job that hiring a new marketing boss and revamping the company’s marketing strategy was among his first orders of business. If some of us were unsure why finding a new CMO and revamping RIM’s marketing efforts are such a priority, this new campaign should help clear things up. RIM on Monday introduced four new cartoon superheroes who will help the company spread the word about its products. Gogo Girl can save the day with her “brilliant strategy, a smile or a spatula,” Max Stone is “tough, proud and a little wild,” Justin Steele is “always ready to stick up for his friends and Trudy Foreal is “not afraid to call it as she sees it.” We’re not afraid to call it like we see it either, and we sincerely hope this new cartoon superhero campaign dies on the vine. RIM’s super infographic starring The Bold Team follows below.

UPDATE: RIM posted a note to its blog on Tuesday to clarify that The Bold Team is not a part of its new advertising campaign.

HTC’s upcoming smartphone code-named the HTC Ville just stared in a leaked video ahead of an official announcement, which is expected to come at next month’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. BGR exclusively reported this past November that HTC will unveil the Ville at MWC. We said the device would be thinner than Apple’s latest iPhone and would feature Android 4.0, Sense 4.0, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon Series 4 processor, an 8-megapixel display, HSPA+ and a 1,650 mAh battery. This new video confirms much of our report — HTC Hub’s footage shows Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0 running on a sleek and slender smartphone with a gorgeous display. HTC is also expected to announce the quad-core flagship HTC Edge at the show next month according to our sources. The HTC Ville video can be viewed after the break.

Global smartphone vendors including Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are expected to launch new smartphone models in the second quarter to avoid competing directly with the iPhone 4S, according to Digitimes. “Mainly due to hot sales of the iPhone 4S, Apple recorded the largest global smartphone market share of 23.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by Samsung with 23.5% and Nokia with 12.6%,” the publication’s supply-chain sources said citing data from Strategy Analytics. “Based on previous experience, sales of iPhone 4S will remain at peak in the first quarter of 2012 and then begin to decline.” Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are all expected to unveil new smartphone models this year’s Mobile World Congress on February 27th, but devices supposedly won’t begin rolling out until the second quarter.

Apple has hired Dixons Retail chief executive officer John Browett to run its retail business as senior VP of retail. Browett will assume his new position in April and will be responsible for Apple’s retail strategy and on expanding Apple’s presence around the globe. “Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.” Browett has been the CEO of Dixons Retail since 2007 and has also served as the CEO of Tesco. He earned a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. Apple’s full press release follows after the break.

ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone — which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one — was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-inch handset that has the ability dock inside a 10.1-inch tablet, which in turn can be docked into the Transformer’s (or possibly Transformer Prime’s) keyboard. When the device debuts next month, it is rumored to be redesigned with a slimmer form factor, and the the physical buttons seen on a PadFone prototype have reportedly been removed in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich’s on-screen controls.

Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) currently offers support for 35 different languages, however Microsoft may be planning to add an additional 85 languages in the next Windows Phone Tango update. The new version of Windows Phone, codenamed Tango, is expected to better cater to emerging markets, which will help Microsoft and its Windows Phone partners expand the platform globally. WPSauce, the source of the rumor, said that Microsoft announced the added language support during an event in India where the company also noted that future Windows Phone updates will support C++. It remains unclear when the Redmond-based company plans to release Windows Phone Tango.

Motorola promised that a bootloader unlocking solution would be made available for its recent phones in late 2011 but as the year came to a close, the company’s self-imposed deadline came and went with no release. To make matters worse, the manufacturer launched the RAZR with an unlocked bootloader overseas while the American version was locked and encrypted. Motorola blamed Verizon, claiming the carrier requested the device be locked even though other companies were offering unlocking solutions. On Monday, Motorola announced the RAZR Developer Edition on the company’s community blog. The device is essentially the same as the current RAZR, but with one special feature: an unlockable bootloader. The European handset is priced at €499 and will be sold without a warranty, while a U.S. version will become available through MOTODEV “in the coming months.” Read on for the announcement.

Aneesh Chopra will step down from his position as the United States chief technology officer. The move is expected to be imminent and, while it’s unclear what Chopra’s next step will be, Fedscoop says sources have speculated Chopra is interested in running for political office or working as the head of a major technology firm in the Washington, D.C. area. Chopra was appointed U.S. CTO in April 2009 by President Obama. Fedscoop said possible replacements for Chopra’s position include Veteran Affairs CTO Peter Levin, Homeland Security chief information officer Richard Spires or Department of Health and Human Services CTO Todd Park.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty believes Apple will partner up with both China Telecom and China Mobile over the next year, and will eventually make the iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers, reports Apple Insider. The move could bring sales of the popular handset to as many as 40 million units in 2013 alone. The iPhone is currently only offered by China Unicom, the nation’s second largest carrier. Through this partnership, Huberty believes Apple can only reach 10% of the 150 million “high-end Chinese subscribers” in the country. China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile carrier, holds the majority of the country’s high-end subscribers with an estimated 120 million customers, with the final 10% of high-end subscribers carried by China Telecom, the third-largest carrier in China. Huberty also believes Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone is likely to be compatible with China Mobile’s upcoming 4G TD-LTE network, although she notes it is “still too early to know for sure.” Morgan Stanley expects the next-generation iPhone to launch in the third quarter this year — BGR reported last month that Apple will launch a redesigned iPhone this fall — and the firm believes China Mobile will release the new iPhone in late 2012 or early 2013.

Third-party companies that stored Megaupload’s data may delete all user files on Thursday. Megaupload customers, even those not guilty of piracy or using the service illegally, have been unable to access their files since the website was shut down on January 19th. So far, seven men have been charged for illegally allowing Megaupload users to store and share music, movies and other copyrighted content, among other things. The issue, however, is that millions of Megaupload users used the service legally to store family photos and other personal data. Megaupload doesn’t store the data itself, the AP said Monday, instead it hired Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications Group to store its data. A letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia explained that both companies may begin deleting the data as soon as this Thursday. 50 million users could have their personal photos, videos and music erased; Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken said the company is currently speaking with prosecutors in an effort to save the data.

UPDATE: Megaupload lawyer Ira Rothke on Monday confirmed that Megaupload’s hosting companies have agreed not to delete user files for two weeks, TVNZ reports. “Carpathia and Cogent agreed to preserve consumer data for additional time of at least two weeks so Megaupload can work with US on proposal,” Rothke posted on Twitter.

The bathroom is a popular place to use a mobile phone according to the results of a new study. ”The writing is on the stall,” says Nicole Burdette of 11mark, the firm that conducted the survey. ”This study confirms what we all know – that the last private place is no longer private. And, that the ‘mobile-everywhere’ phenomenon is flushing out a host of new opportunities for savvy communicators.” 63% of those surveyed said they have initiated a phone call while using the bathroom and 38% have surfed the Internet. Android owners admitted using their smartphones in the bathroom more than any other group of smartphone users; 87% of the Android users responding to the survey said they have used a phone in the bathroom while 84% of BlackBerry users and 77% of iPhone users admitted the same. The full press release for “IT in the Toilet” follows after the break.