Public relations agency Reverb communications, hired by iPhone game developers to promote their App Store offerings, has reached a settlement with the FTC over accusations that company employees posted positive reviews for the games the company was hired to promote. The FTC levied charges against Reverb for violating rules that require the sellers of products and those posting information about the products online to disclose any connection they might have.

The FTC first began looking into practices of "stealth marketing," which seeks to build product buzz via blogs, social media, and word of mouth by quietly paying "ordinary" people to promote the product, . Eventually the FTC imposed new rules in 2009 that require anyone writing about products and services online to , including "payment in kind" of free products or other gifts. These rules also apply to public relations and advertising agencies hired by the seller.

Samus Aran has always been a cipher. We don't get much personality from her in the Metroid games—she's more suit than woman. We know she's capable, deadly, and strong, but the rest of it has been left to our imagination, and what we think of the character says more about us than it does about her. Do you remember the first time you saw the reflection of her eyes from within the visor in Metroid Prime? She's such a compelling figure because we don't know much about her, other than that her life has been plagued with the quest to destroy these parasites, and she's alone. We can make her face mean anything we'd like.

Metroid: Other M changes that. Now she speaks, and she shares her feelings with us. We're introduced to characters and relationships from her past and present; she reacts to them and they react to her. Her voice is interesting, and while she's still a killer, she also shows some vulnerability—she feels human, instead of like the isolated bounty hunter from games past. Some gamers are going to enjoy the look into what makes her tick, while others are going to be bitterly disappointed that so much of the mystique of the character has been stripped away. It's a bold move for such a well-defined property, and it's likely to split the fan base.

Movie studios are extending their efforts to take down sites that offer pirated material, with a new lawsuit targeting an advertising company that provides services to such sites. Warner Bros. and Disney have teamed up to sue Triton Media, accusing the company of both contributory and induced copyright infringement because Triton helps to keep the sites alive by providing them with advertising and referral income.

Warner and Disney say that Triton has relationships with at least nine sites that they consider to be "one-stop-shops" for illegal copies of the studios' work. The list is made up of mostly no-name sites, such as free-tv-video-online.info, watch-movies-links.net, and thepiratecity.org. According to the complaint, Triton and the nine sites basically had a symbiotic relationship—both sides allegedly profited from the distribution of pirated works, and Triton made it possible by offering "material assistance" to the websites.

Sony has been quiet on the subject of the recently announced PS Jailbreak devices. These USB sticks crack the PlayStation 3 wide open, allowing games to be fully installed to, and played from, the system's included hard drive. They also allow homebrew software to be run. The company has won a small victory against those selling the device, as the Australian Federal Court has granted Sony a temporary injunction against the sales of the device, and the existing units must be given to Sony for safekeeping, not to mention analysis.

One of the key characteristics that has contributed to Android's popularity among technology enthusiasts is the platform's flexibility. It's possible for third-party developers to build replacements for many different components of the Android user experience, including the home screen. Among the third-party home screen implementations available from the Android Market, the most functional and popular is arguably LauncherPro.

Created by independent developer Federico Carnales, the LauncherPro home screen offers a multitude of useful configuration options and practical features that are not available in Android's standard home screen. Launcher Pro can be installed at no cost from the Android Market, but the developer also recently began offering a "Plus" version for $2.99 that offers some premium functionality, including a sophisticated collection of custom home screen widgets that are inspired by HTC's Sense environment.

Facebook has announced that it will soon end Internet Explorer 6 support for Facebook Chat. The kill date is September 15—the same day Microsoft plans to release the first IE9 beta. Today's announcement comes just a week after Microsoft launched a beta version of Windows Live Messenger that integrates with Facebook Chat.

Facebook explains its decision by saying that many users have complained about unstable chat sessions, or ones that stop completely. In order to improve the way connections are established and messages are sent, however, the social networking giant must make changes that aren't supported by older browsers.

Microsoft plans to support IE6 along with Windows XP until April 2014; the software giant insists that "dropping support for IE6 is not an option." Instead, the company has resorted to marketing and promoting IE8 while criticizing IE6.

Meanwhile, a growing number of technology firms have taken the problem into their own hands. The IE6 hater is Google: the company has killed off support for the obsolete browser in Google Docs and Google Sites, Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as YouTube. Even Microsoft has taken some baby steps in this direction; the new Office Web Apps don't support the browser either. 

Facebook's decision is reason for IE6 haters to celebrate, but unfortunately it's not going to spell doom for the ancient browser. The majority of IE6 users come from the corporate world, and as we've discussed before, one of the reasons that world keeps IE6 around is exactly because it doesn't work well with social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook's changes may mean fewer IE6 users using the chat feature, but this won't be because the change will spur people into upgrading—they can't upgrade their office machines. It will be because they won't be able to chat at all.

Last month, IE6 had a usage share of just under 17 percent; at the start of the year it had just over 20 percent. Major sites putting an end to IE6 support for popular features is not enough to kill the browser, but the rapid growth of Windows 7 should make slow but steady progress in eradicating it from the Internet.

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