In-Stat released a study today that measured the penetration of permanently connected electronics devices in the consumer home. The analysis firm has been doing these studies for years, and it always seems like the public lags behind what experts predicted. With the advent of 802.11b in 2002, the group predicted that "You'll mass-market smart home networks five years down the road." Things still aren't what they expected as it turns out, but video game consoles have provided the best inroad so far.

Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst said, "The primary reasons that more devices are not connected to home networks are: consumer awareness/knowledge, availability of network-capable CE products on retail shelves, prices of network-capable CE products, competition with non-network-capable CE products (like docking stations), and lack of perceived need by some consumers."

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Ericsson and STMicroelectronics have completed their mobile platform merger agreement and will be combining Ericsson Mobile Platforms with mobile semiconductor company ST-NXP Wireless into a 50/50 joint venture. Hardware from the two companies is used in nearly 80% of all handsets globally, and the joint venture will be a supplier to four of the five largest mobile phone companies in the world. These are two companies that have also pledged support for LTE as the next generation communications protocol.

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20 years later, Paul's Boutique is still breaking ground. The album that secured The Beastie Boys a position in the pantheon of "credible" musicians has been re-released in a method that's unconventional even by today's music standards. Sure, it could have been remastered and put up for sale on the front page of iTunes, or be used to launch a viral video campaign, but that just wouldn't seem befitting.

With the help of Topspin and Prod4ever, Paul's Boutique has been made available as a 1.6GB download, remastered in both DRM-free 320Kbps .MP3, and the user's choice of FLAC or Apple Lossless. It comes with interactive 3D digital album art, five music videos, and a full album video commentary track with the Beastie Boys themselves. This package costs $15.99, less than (just randomly selecting something from the iTunes front page) the The Fray's self-titled album "deluxe edition" which was released yesterday for $16.99.

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From February 5 to February 15, G1 users will be receiving an over-the-air update to the Android operating system. This release, known as RC33, adds a number of new features, including Google Voice Search.

In November, Google made its Voice Search available to iPhone users, leaving some G1 owners scratching their heads and asking "Why?!"

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Download Skype for Windows 4.0.0.206 from Fileforum now.

Today, the "gold version" of Skype 4.0 for Windows is available. The latest version of the popular voice chat client has been in development since 2006, and is the team's "most distinctive new release in Skype's five year history."

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Dell's new OptiPlex Thin Client devices will be pre-loaded with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Thin Client. This version of the SUSE Enterprise Linux desktop is optimized for use on the smallest thin client footprints, offering images from 128MB in size.

Linux is the preferred operating system for resource-constrained devices, and IDC in June forecasted that it will reach 30.5% OS market share on thin clients by 2011, totaling around 1.8 million Linux-based units.

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Massachusetts software company NewRiver Inc. has sued financial research firm Morningstar Inc. for allegedly using NewRiver's proprietary technology to amass a database of US Securities and Exchange Commission Prospectuses.

Morningstar is accused of "screen scraping" NewRiver's Prospectus Express, a subscription service that catalogs compliance documents for mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life products. The suit claims Morningstar accessed the service some 130,000 times between May 1 and December 3.

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The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reported yesterday that 2008 global semiconductor sales were down 2.8% from the previous year, representing a $1.2 billion decrease in overall revenue.

SIA's president George Scalise said in a statement that the recession has weakened the demand for all of the major drivers of semiconductor sales, such as Automotive products, PCs, cell phones, and corporate IT products.

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Recent shipping numbers from DisplaySearch showed a 12% year-over-year decline in the demand for plasma panels, yet manufacturer Panasonic bucked the trend and was the only company to see an increase in market share. In light of this, the company has announced that it will be launching new plasma screens that are 75% thinner and 50% as energy consumptive.

Japan will be the proving ground for these new displays in April, followed by a launch in North American markets this summer. Like the displays Panasonic showed off at its CES keynote in January, these one-inch thick displays make use of the NEO PDP technology for energy efficiency. The company today discussed a 50-inch model that is expected to cost $6,685 and consume about 260 kWh of electricity. The average plasma screen consumes 339 kilowatt hours, while the average LCD consumes about 215 kWh.

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Verizon launched its Hub "family communications command center" today, a desktop touchscreen device endowed with VoIP functions and the ability to share information with multiple wireless handsets.

The Hub is similar in concept and design to the Samsung HomeManager which AT&T announced in September. Both devices offer a broadband-connected 7-inch touchscreen computer that manages all incoming communications and acts as portal to various Web services, and both units also act as a VoIP terminal with an associated cordless handset.

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Sagoon is a newly-launched search engine that joins the race to provide a semantic search with the elegant screen layout made famous by Google. The company calls its semantic technology the "Random Vector Model," where traditional keyword searches are paired with algorithms and formulas that analyze content between sites, finding their hidden similarities.

Sagoon is based out of Washington DC, but the underlying technology comes from New Dehli, India's Elixir Web Solutions

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In a crafty bit of coding, TringMe has unveiled a demo of a Silverlight widget that allows outgoing VoIP calls to be made. The India-based IP telephone software company says that Silverlight does not provide microphone support, so this widget uses Flash to access the microphone for the exchange taking place in Silverlight.

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Download the new Google Earth from Fileforum now.

Google today announced new additions to Google Earth which include Ocean, Historical Imagery, Touring, and Google Mars 3D.

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Based on its second-by-second Stop||Watch audience metrics, DVR maker TiVo has released its figures ranking the most watched television commercials during yesterday's Super Bowl.

TiVo found that the highest viewership spikes in the first half of the game actually took place during the commercials; while in the second half it was during crucial moments in gameplay. In descending order, the top ten highest rated commercials were:

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A site celebrating the 40th anniversary of the invention of Pong, pongmuseum.com, has opened. With the museum comes a rare gem: a video directly from inventor Ralph H. Baer featuring himself and chief engineer Bill Harrison playing a demonstration model of their invention in 1971.

In addition to explaining the origin of the home video game console (which even goes into the basic schematics of the General Instrument AY-3-8500 chip, the common "pong" chip), Pong Museum includes a collection of international pong machines, from the breakthrough Magnavox Odyssey to the rare Heathkit GD that required users to open up their TVs to connect the game's wires directly.

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