Amazon.com Inc. has launched a new Cloud Player music locker service. Amazon has beaten its rivals with the late Monday launch of the Cloud Locker service.

Amazon are calling the service “Amazon Cloud Player.” This is a service that enables users of the service to upload their music library  to a server hosted by Amazon. Users can then listen to their music from any Web browser. They can also play their music from their mobile phones or tablets by using an application.

Reports circulating around the tech blogs say that Apple Inc. and Google Inc. will be launching their own similar service. It is rumored both companies are hard at work developing their services. The service from Apple, which Apple enthusiasts call SkyTunes, will include the current MobileMe cloud service.

The MobileMe service from able enables users to upload their documents to Apple servers and access them from any computer though a web browser. The service however does not currently support music files.

Apple is in negotiations with the major record labels and publishers to acquire the licenses to enable them to stream songs from their servers.

Apples intended introduction of a cloud locker service is viewed by analysts as an attempt to neutralize Google. Google has been in negotiations with record labels for licenses to its own music service for the Android platform. According to those close to the negotiations, the service from Google will be launched later this year.

The launch of Amazon’s Cloud Player music locker service beats both Apple and Google to the start. The service from Amazon will offer 5 gigabytes storage for storing music. The 5 gigabytes service will be for free. Customers who buy a digital album from the Amazon digital store will receive 20 gigabytes of free music storage for a year. We don’t know at this time if Amazon will charge for storage beyond the one year.

Apple’s MobileMe service costs its users $99 per year for 20GB storage. Analysts believe there is an advantage to whoever enters the Cloud Player music locker service first. This is because the uploading of music collections to the locker can take hours or even days and users will be hesitant to switch to a different service.

Amazon’s launch of its Cloud Player locker also beats Google to the service on its own Android platform.

Rumors speculating on the tech blogs this week suggest that Apple has pushed back the release date of its iOS 5 operating system to the fall of this year with a September release date more likely.

During the launch of the iPad 2 earlier this month, there was no talk of iOS 5 by Steve Jobs. This left Apple enthusiasts disappointed. But now Techcrunch is revealing that this might be due to the fact that the product wouldn’t be released anytime soon. According to the report from Techcrunch, the new iOS 5 will be a major revamp and is set for a fall 2011 launch date.

The new iOS will be coincide with the release of the iPhone 5, the report said. The fall release date will be a deviation from Apple’s tendency of launching new versions of their iOS software in the spring. Apple’s consistency of releasing a new iOS version during the spring was the reason many people thought Apple might talk about iOS 5 during the launch of the iPad 2. As there was no such talk, rumors quickly spread that a new event might take place in April to discuss the software and MobileMe. However that seems very unlikely to happen this time.

The is however believed the new version of the iOS will be previewed at WWDC, but will not be launched at that time. Rumors are that the new operating system will be heavily based on the cloud system with the proliferation of new services from Apple to make full use of this new power. One of the services likely to be launched for the cloud based iOS will be a “music locker” service. It is believed Apple will extensively talk about the cloud stuff at their annual developers event, WWDC, in June this year.

iPad 3 rumors and release date

Another hot rumor is that Apple will also release a new type of iPad. It is thought that Apple will release a new iPad 3 in September this year to coincide with the release of the new iOS 5.

Apple is also on schedule to release a OS X in the summer. The OS X will also feature some cloud components.

In previous practice, Apple releases a new iPhone to coincide with a new iOS version release. So our believe is that the new iPhone 5 will also be be released in September this year. the iPhone 5 is likely to be unveiled at the WWDC event in June and might be released a few months after that. This could mean that the iPhone 5 could be released with an iOS 4.X update. We will keep you updated when new information comes our way.

Eastman Kodak Co. has scored a victory in its patent lawsuit against Apple Inc and Research in Motion Ltd (makers of BlackBerry). The lawsuit has the potential of generating over $1 billion in licensing revenue for Kodak.

The shares of Kodak increased by as much as 25% after the news was announced. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced it will be reviewing an earlier decision by a judge to rule in favor of Apple and RIM. According to the ruling in January, Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry did not violate a patent by Kodak. The said violated patent is an image preview technology that Kodak patented. The technology allows you to preview a digital image with the use of less processing power and storage space.

The ITC will make their final decision in the Kodak vs Apple and RIM patent dispute by May 23, 2011.

Kodak CEO Antonio Perez said that Kodak could stand to earn more than $1 billion from the dispute if the ruling goes their way. His assessment is based on the fact that Kodak successfully sued Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics and got $964 million in combined settlements from both companies.

The patent in dispute is a technology that allows previews of low resolution dynamic images while capturing still images at a higher resolution. According to Kodak, the image-preview technology is a part of every digital camera and camera phone.

But Apple and RIM challenged the validity of the patent and denies violating the it. An ITC judge ruled in their favor back in January and Kodak are challenging that ruling.

Kodak, Apple and RIM were all told by a commission in Washington today to argue their case on a number of issues. One of the issues they were asked to argue on was whether the judge who made the January ruling should have considered an the interpretation of the patent in the case against Samsung and LG.

A representative from Kodak said they were very pleased with the ITC’s decision to review the earlier ruling. Although the ITC cannot order Apple and RIM to pay monetary damages to Kodak, they can kick them out of the U.S. market for patent violation. This threat of being kicked out will likely lead them into an agreement of a settlement with Kodak.

In the case against LG and Samsung, Samsung paid $550 million and LG paid $414 million to Kodak. Kodak announced it expects to generate $250 – $350 million annually from patent licensing for the next three years. This figure does not include any royalties they might get from Apple and RIM.

In relation to the case, Apple and RIM have filed lawsuits against Kodak.

New rumors surfacing amongst the tech bloggers is that Apple is planning to release the iPad 2 in the UK, Canada, Australia and some 21 other countries this Friday, March 25 2011. This is despite reports of the units being sold out in the United States.

Apple has planned all along to release the tablet in these countries on this date. However, there were speculations recently that Apple might delay the release of its iPad 2 touchscreen tablets internationally because of the high demand coming from the United States.

A spokesperson from Apple told the TechRadar.com that the release date posted by Apple on its U.K. Website still stands.

Speculations that Apple was going to postpone the release of the iPad 2 internationally were escalated last week when new shipments of the tablet sold out immediately. Also long lines have continued at stores throughout the week.

An analyst from Ticonderoga Securities said Apple might not be able to receive enough iPad 2 units to launch the device in more than 20 countries on March 25 but the statement from the Apple spokesperson seems to put that argument to bed.

There have also been reports of Apple postponing the launch of the tablet internationally because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Last week, there were reports that Apple had several of the iPad 2′s components from Japanese manufacturers. And even though most of the factories that manufacture these components were not damaged by the disaster, they face possible logistics problems in delivering the parts to Apple.  And this might lead to shortage of iPad 2 parts. This was made known in a report by iSuppli.

Last week also saw Apple announced the postponement of the launch of iPad 2 in Japan. The company said this was necessary whiles Apple and Japan recover from the devastating disasters.

iPad 2 release date in 25 countries worldwide

The 25 countries that the iPad 2 is scheduled to be released in on March 25 are United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Czeck Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Mexico, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece.

Other international locations will know about pricing and launch dates at a later date.

In 2010, the launch of the iPad internationally was delayed by up to a month because of strong demands which could not be met.

ICANN, the body to manages domain names, has approved the introduction of .XXX domain extensions to be used for the adult industry.

Any url with the .xxx extension will be easily identified as containing contents suitable for adult audiences only. The move will also make it easier for Internet Service Providers (ISP), system administrators and parents to easily block access to porn on their networks.

Moves to introduce this domain name started way back in 2003, but faced stiff criticism from the industry.

The new .xxx domain names will be available for registering through the ICM Registry. so far, over 230,000 .xxx domain names have been reserved through their website. The move is not a mandatory one. You don’t have to use the .xxx domain name for adult contents. You can still put adult contents on any of the other domain extensions such as .com and .net.

People can start registering the .xxx names from the second quarter of 2011.

Some advocates against porn will see this as a victory of some sort. It will make it easier for anyone who does not want to come into contact with porn to steer clear of a site with the .xxx domain name. The move will make it easy for companies and individuals to block any domain with the .xxx extension as they can be sure it has adult contents.

The registrars of the domain name said strong measures will be put into place to make sure the sites using the .xxx domain names will comply with strict rules. These rules have been set to prevent fraud, spamming and child pornography.

ICM hopes the new domain names will increase traffic and profits for webmasters as the extension will become a trusted name in the adult industry.

International Business Machines (IBM) has revealed it will pay the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an amount of $10 million to settle accusations of foreign-bribery being leveled against it.

IBM are the worlds biggest computer-services provider.The company is being accused by the SEC of paying $10 million to Asian officials in order to secure over $54 million in government contracts.

The SEC has today filed a lawsuit against IBM in connection with the bribery allegations. The company has not admitted to or deny the accusations but revealed today it will pay a sum of $10 million to the SEC to cover various charges and penalties.

According to the SEC, IBM paid out these bribes during a ten-years period from 1998 to 2009 and included the provision of travel and entertainment. This it said, violates the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act.

The lawsuit stated that improper payments were made through IBM’s subsidiaries and joint ventures to take advantage of some inefficient internal controls. The bribes were allegedly paid out to Chinese and South Korean government officials.

The SEC said that, during the period from 1998 to 2009, IBM made cash payments to the tune of $207,000 to South Korean officials. This was in connection to a $54 million government contracts.

According to the SEC, portions of the money paid out to the Koreans was placed in shopping bags and dropped off at restaurants and car parks.

The SEC said IBM employees also paid bribes in China in connection with government contracts. It said employees of the company set up “slush funds” at local Chinese travel agencies that were used to finance luxury holidays abroad for Chinese government officials. The SEC also said gifts, such as consumer electronics and Laptops were also given to the officials as bribes.

It was however not stated what IBM got in return for given these bribes in China.

The terms of the settlement filed in court today and signed by IBM attorneys on January 6. According to the terms, IBM will not pay the $10 million from iny insurance policies.

iPad 2 was released just a week ago but already, reports say Apple might have to face parts shortages for the iPad 2 due to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that occurred on the same day the iPad 2 was released.

According to a report released on Thursday, Many of the iPad’s key components, including the battery and the flash memory storage unit in the device, are made in Japan. This was made known in a report by the research firm IHS iSuppli.

According to the report, the battery of the iPad 2 is manufactured by Apple Japan, which is an Apple subsidiary, and most likely uses a manufacturing technology that is only available in Japan due to the unusually thin nature of the battery.

The reports indicate that Apple will not be able to ask a different manufacturer other than the Japanese one to supply the batteries. It said the Japanese manufacture of the battery is likely to face difficulties following the earthquake and tsunami.

Many of Japan’s manufacturing plants have stopped productions after last week’s earthquake and tsunami.So far over 5,000 have been confirmed dead and the death toll is set to top over 10,000.

The iPad 2′s flash memory units are manufactured by a number of companies. Toshiba, which is one of the flash memory manufacturers for the device, closed one of its flash memory production plants in Japan and has warned that it will face logistics difficulties in distributing the memory devices.

The report also said that, companies that supply other components in the iPad 2 whose plants were not damaged by the earthquake and tsunami will also likely face logistical difficulties like the procurement of raw materials and the distribution of their parts.

The iPad 2 was released last week and demand has since been very high. Industry analysts project the number of units sold that weekend to top 1 million.

Currently if you order the device from the Apple online store, you’ll have to wait 4-5weeks for delivery. But this might become longer when manufacturing slows due to lack of parts.

Apple said on Tuesday it was delaying the release of the iPad 2 in Japan. This, Apple says has nothing to do with any component shortages but was a decision to enable to wait as the country and their team make a recovery from the disaster.

It has been over year since apple released its last version of Final cup pro (FCP), the professional video editing software from apple. Video editor who love the software have been wondering if Apple had given up on developing the software further.

Final Cut Pro 8 (FCP release date and rumors

Well you can be rest assured now that final cup pro is still being developed. It is rumored that Apple will release final cut pro 8 or FCP 8 in the spring of this year.

Two leaked emails reportedly from Apple owner, Steve Jobs, talks about an apple product that will be coming soon and how people should anticipate it and how awesome it will be.

Well I have heard rumors that a new release of final cut pro 8 is very close.

Reports say that Apple has already tested the software with a group of pro video editors at its campus. Apple is making finishing touches to the new release and wanted to seek input from professional video editors. Apple’s final cut pro is in the same league as Avid and Adobe Premiere. People who have reviewed the soon to be released version are rumored to have said, “this will be the biggest update of Final Cut Pro since it was first developed some 10 years ago.”

Rumors say the user interface had been totally redesigned and it will look very awesome. It appears to be a total overhauling of the FCP and video editors will love the new FCP 8 when it is released this spring.

Video editing professionals will be happy to know that Apple is not refocusing their attention on mass consumers and neglecting the pros.

Rumors say the New Final Cup Pro 8 (FCP will be launched in spring of 2011 to coincide with the National Association of Broadcasters conference so watch out for that.

Sony can now subpoena the PayPal records of the man it is suing for jailbreaking their PS3 gaming system. A federal Judge made this ruling on Tuesday in San Francisco.

The ruling by the judge said that the information can only be provided on an “Attorney’s Eyes Only basis”. Also only information relating to whether the man has sufficient ties to Northern California to be sued in that district’s federal court can be revealed. The said hacker, George Hotz, resides in New Jersey and believes that the California court does not have the authority to try him.

Sony is suing Hotz and some 100 other people it believes to have enabled unauthorized games and other apps to be run on the PS3 gaming console. A couple of weeks ago, Sony were awarded the right to subpoena the IP addresses of everyone who has visited Hotz’s website in the past two years.

Sony has also been given permission to subpoena Twitter, Google and one other service for any information related to Hotz.

The ruling on Tuesday also ordered Hotz to sign a consent form giving Sony permission to acquire his Twitter tweets from the beginning of 2009 to present. He has also been ordered to make an appearance in California to testify in relation to the case of personal jurisdiction.

Sony is suing Hotz for allegedly violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by teaching people through his blogs and videos, how to run unauthorized games and applications on the PS3.

The subpoena will only cover documents that will be enough to discover the source of money in California that was deposited into the PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com from the beginning of 2009 to February 1, 2011.

Sony is hoping to use the information to prove that Hotz has ties to Northern California and can therefore be sued in that district.

Microsoft will release Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) today, Monday March 14th, at 9:00 p.m. PT.

This will be the first upgrade to the Internet Explorer browser since 2009.

The new upgrade will be made available for download from Microsoft’s download sites shortly after it is launched at an event at SXSW festivals in Austin, Texas. Microsoft will Webcast the live launch at SXSW.

A barebone version of the Internet Explorer 9 was released for preview last year. The new version scheduled to be released tonight will be come two years after IE8 was released. That beats the time between the release of IE7 and IE8 by five months.

You will not get the updates via the “windows automatic updates” feature of your operating system yet. We believe this will be introduced some six weeks after the initial release date.

Microsoft revealed users will be given the chance to reject or delay the installation of IE9. For corporate users, there is a blocking toolkit available for download that will ensure the upgrade is not automatically installed onto company computers.

For users of Windows XP, the upgrade will not be available for download later today because strangely enough, Internet Explorer 9 is not compatible with XP. This is strange because Windows XP is still the most popular Operating System in use today. This is according to stats from Net Applications.

Competitors like Mozilla have been quick to highlight this fact. Maybe they will release an XP compatible one a bit later. Buy why not now?

The Internet Explorer 9 upgrade can be downloaded from the Microsoft download center website or Internet Explorer website after 9:00 p.m. PT tonight.