In December came the first word that the e-book version of David Carnoy's Knife Music was not allowed to be sold in the iPhone App Store because it contained "objectionable content." Now, the book is available in the store for free, but censored.

Censorship of the book was reportedly administered by the author himself to expeditiously get it approved for distribution in the popular mobile shop. Carnoy, an editor and regular contributor at CNET, wrote a column in December about DIY publishing in the information age.

Mobile telecommunications joint venture Sony Ericsson sold 6.6 million fewer phones in the fourth quarter of 2008 than it did the previous year, resulting in profits dropping from last year's €373 million to a loss of €73 million, a €446 million year over year decline.

Mobile handset sales for the holiday season look to have been very weak overall. Sony Ericsson sold some 24.2 million phones during the holiday shopping season, which resulted in a quarterly profit loss of €187 million ($247 million). In 2007, the company reported sales of 30.8 million in the fourth quarter.

Bringing YouTube to the living room television has been a mostly incomplete mission thus far. Series 3 and HD TiVo DVRs can browse YouTube, and Apple TV has been able to play clips from the site since 2007. Yesterday, YouTube announced youtube.com/tv, a new sub-site dedicated to bringing its content to connected devices, namely the PS3 and Wii.

"Very few...devices today contain a Web browser or provide access to YouTube," reads a YouTube Team blog post yesterday, "Our hope is that this site may help to accelerate an industry evolution towards open television access to Web video. Over time, we plan to add support for additional TV devices that provide Web browsers."

NPD group yesterday released its figures representing the video game industry at large, and with total sales up 19% over 2007, Nintendo was responsible for nearly all of that growth.

Nintendo secured the top two spots in number of consoles sold in 2008. The Wii accounted for 55% of all gen7 console sales, moving 10.17 million units in America last year, breaking all previous single-year sales records. The company's handheld system, the DS, fell in just behind the Wii, with 8.52 million units sold. In December alone, the DS sold 3.04 million units and the Wii sold 2.14 million.

In the RIAA's copyright infringement suit against Joel Tenebaum, the defendant's legal council moved to have the January 22 hearing broadcast online via the Courtroom View Network (CVN). Believing the hearing falls squarely within the public interest, especially given the captivation the "Internet Generation" has for these sort of suits, Massachusetts District Court Judge Nancy Gertner approved the motion.

Further, Gertner found the RIAA's objection to the Webcast curious. "At previous hearings and status conferences, the Plaintiffs have represented that they initiated these lawsuits not because they believe they will identify every person illegally downloading copyrighted material. Rather, they believe that the lawsuits will deter the Defendants and the wider public from engaging in illegal file-sharing activities. Their strategy effectively relies on the publicity resulting from this litigation (though it is possible they have changed their minds about the virtue of this strategy.)"

The Apple CEO's health problems are "more complex than [he] originally thought," so today, Tim Cook will be placed in control as Jobs takes a medical leave of absence.

Last Week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs released an uncharacteristic statement to the public regarding his health, and addressing speculation about why he would not be appearing at Macworld.

Sierra Wireless, makers of 3G wireless modems for all major U.S. mobile operators has made a cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of wireless CPU and embedded technology maker Wavecom.

Wavecom is an international company headquartered in France with a specialty in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. The company's technology is found in applications such as automotive telematics, fleet management, GSM/GPS/satellite tracking, wireless alarms, wireless POS (point of sales), WLL (fixed voice), and remote monitoring.

Microsoft has provided a select group of testers early access to an alpha of Office 14 server technologies. With the recent release of Windows 7 in beta, many have begun to look for a beta of the next suite of Office products. There is currently no official word on when a first beta of Office 14 will be released. Alpha testers have reportedly been told to expect an updated release schedule later in the quarter, an initial beta release later in the year, and possibly even a full release by the end of 2009.

Dan Rosensweig, who was Yahoo's chief operating officer until sweeping organizational changes in late 2006, will take a seat on Adobe's executive board.

Rosensweig departed Yahoo "to ensure a smooth transition," into a re-organized Yahoo. Not long after Rosensweig's departure, CEO Terry Semel was replaced by interim CEO Jerry Yang.

Web video site Joost will be offering a live stream of inauguration day festivities on Tuesday when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 56th United States President.

The site already features an extensive collection of video related to the President elect on its Everything Obama channel, and inauguration day will include interviews, campaign highlights, satire, and musical entertainment.

Pandemic's Australian satellite studio opened in 2000 and is best known for creating the 2005 Xbox and PS2 title Destroy All Humans! Kotaku reports that EA, who purchased the studio in 2007, has stopped supporting it, effectively rescinding any publishing obligations it had.

While the fate of the studio is currently unclear, EA responded to the rumor by saying, "In December, EA announced a cost reduction initiative that will impact facilities and headcount. We do not expect to make any more public announcements until our earnings call in early February."

Canadian telecommunications company Nortel announced today that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.

"These actions are imperative so that Nortel can build on its core strengths and become the highly focused and financially sound leader in the communications industry that its people, technology and customer relationships show it ought to be," said Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski.

Nintendo's third incarnation of its popular DS touchscreen handheld game system went on sale in Japan on November 1 with no announcement of worldwide availability. Various reports have pegged US launch for early November.

IGN says "multiple sources close to Nintendo," have pegged the DSi's release in the United States in early April, likely on the fourth.

Blockbuster announced this morning that it has partnered with Sonic Solutions to deliver its video on demand content to a wider spectrum of connected devices.

Sonic Solutions and Blockbuster will bring the streaming video on demand service to PCs, portable media players, Blu-ray players, DVRs, set-top boxes, mobile phones, and connected televisions, including devices already supporting Sonic's CinemaNow. Earlier this month, the company announced that CinemaNow content will be available on LG's network Blu-ray players and on Fujisoft-enabled Nintendo Wiis in Japan. "Everybody's Theater" for Wii is expected to launch in Japan on January 25, and allow users to rent OVA titles for between 300-800 Wii Points.

At the Studio Visionaries panel at CES on Friday, a cast of entertainment industry experts gathered to chat about the challenges that the high-definition era brings to the art of video and movie production, as well as re-production.

"A lot of the displays they're showing at CES this year, OLEDs and others, are in the 1,000,000:1 and some manufacturers are even advertising the 10,000,000:1 contrast ratios. The color reproduction on these screens is higher than anything we've seen in the past," said Chris Cookson, the President of Sony Pictures Technologies and former CTO of Warner Brothers.