A hacking group named LulzSec made headlines recently for attacking high visibility targets, including Sony and the U.S. government. LulzSec announced earlier this week that it was stopping its operations, and rumor has it many of the members joined up with Anonymous’ “AntiSec” hacking group. Now that group is making its own headlines. On Tuesday AntiSec claimed responsibility for attacks against Universal and Viacom. According to The Wall Street Journal, the hackers released personal data, ...

Apple has completed a cloud-music streaming deal with record label EMI, according to a report filed by CNET. Citing multiple industry sources, the publication notes that Apple, Sony Music Entertainment and the Universal Music Group are working on agreements as well; a previous report claims that Warner Music Group and Apple already signed a cloud service agreement sometime last month. “Apple will finish behind Google and Amazon in the race to the cloud, but Apple now has the freedom to offer a range...

According to a report filed by The Wall Street Journal, peer-to-peer networking site LimeWire and several major record labels may be working on an out-of-court settlement in a copyright infringement case from 2006. “Lawyers for several major record labels have held at least three settlement conferences with representatives of a file-sharing service that they sued for copyright infringement, according to a federal court docket entry, indicating that the two sides may reach an agreement on a financial p...

A report on Wednesday claims European streaming music extraordinaire Spotify is “a few weeks away” from signing a new deal with Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company. Reuters cites people familiar with the talks in reporting the deal, which will give Spotify access to Universal’s massive catalog of music in the U.S. Spotify has already inked a deal with Sony and the company is thought to be getting close to a U.S. launch. Despite the company’s progress, howeve...

If we know one thing about Apple it is this: they like control… and this latest rumor seems to reaffirm that creed. Blog GigaOM is reporting that Apple is planning to release an iPhone with an integrated SIM that can be used on any wireless carrier — partnered with Apple — in the EU. A universal iPhone if you will. As the report explains:Sources inside European carriers have reported that Apple has been working with SIM-card manufacturer Gemalto to create a special SIM card that would allo...

Earlier today, Google posted a quick update on the status of their soon-to-be-released Google TV home entertainment product. The company noted “overwhelming” interest by content providers while announcing several of the viewing modules that will be available when Google TV launches. Google announced that Turner Broadcasting, NBC Universal, HBO, the NBA, Amazon, Pandora, Napster, Netflix, The New York Times, and USA Today will all have content that is optimized for viewing via Google’s inte...

The internet is abuzz this morning with the rumor that a new clamshell smartphone is coming soon from HTC. Evidence of the handset, codenamed LEO, is said to have been found within a TouchFLO 3D 2.5 “Manilla” ROM. Its purported specs include a full-QWERTY keypad, external QVGA display, internal 16:9 WVGA display, support for OpenGL 2.0 and a Snapdragon processor. Mmm, Snapdragon. This rumor is pretty messy though, because there is every possibility that the Leo is actually the Omni — a devic...

Hulu may be getting a healthy dose of new programming content courtesy of Disney. According to sources close to the situation, Hulu and Disney are in serious negotiations to bring Disney programming to the online video portal. The talks reportedly focus on ABC programming content which include the popular TV series  Desperate Housewives and LOST, but may include programming from other Disney assets as well. In exchange for providing content, Disney is requesting an equity stake in Hulu on par with NBC Univer...