With Microsoft's EU-appeasing browser ballot rolling out across Europe over the next three months, dissatisfaction is growing with its implementation. Last week, flaws in its randomization emerged—a result of ineptitude rather than malice. Today, six Web browsers have petitioned the EU to complain about the overall design of the browser ballot. They argue that the ballot fails to do what it is supposed to: provide European consumers with "information on the 12 most widely-used web browsers."

The complaint stems from the way the ballot is designed. The ballot lists the 12 browsers with the highest market share. The top five browsers—Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox, and Opera—are immediately visible in the ballot. The next seven—AvantBrowser, Flock, K-Meleon, GreenBrowser, Maxthon, Sleipnir, and SlimBrowser—are only visible on scrolling to the right with a horizontal scroll bar. It is this design that is deemed inadequate. The complaint, signed by six of the seven secondary browsers (the exception, K-Meleon, was excluded due to an inability by the other six to find anyone to contact to represent that browser) argues that this horizontal scrollbar is inadequate—an overwhelming majority of people won't notice it or use it.

Toy Soldiers deals with those plastic toys we all grew up with, but places them in the under-used World War I setting. This tower-defense title chronicles the epic struggle of plastic against plastic, and adds some very welcome changes to the formula.

You buy units to place in either round or square spots on the map, and you place barbed wire to slow down infantry. As you kill enemy units for cash you can add more defenses or level up the weapons you have. Allowing the computer to control your defenses works to a point, but to be truly effective you're going to need to take direct control of your turrets and snipers and mortars. Mowing down rows of plastic enemies with your machine guns is truly a joy.

In other levels you'll have to take direct control of planes and tanks to defend your toy box, and the controls on these units are easy to learn and satisfying to put in action. The whole game looks and feels great, whether you're working on your strategy by working out where to place your forces or playing it like an action game by taking aim at the enemy troops yourself.

There is a multiplayer mode where you defend against the opposing side, both of you sending waves of soldiers at the other, and it's a worthwhile distraction from the main game. The boss battles, however, devolve into the player simply building up their forces for that pitched engagement, treating the waves of soldiers in the beginning and middle of the round as an afterthought. There were also moments where it felt like the camera didn't show as much as we would have liked.

At $15, Toy Soldiers feels a little expensive for what you get, but there's no denying how fun this game is. Go check out the demo, and if you like what you see, there are worse ways to spend your money.

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Perhaps stirred by Apple's claim of being one of the biggest mobile device companies in the world, Sony is planning a number of new devices and services to compete with Apple's iTunes Store, iPhone, and iPad. That strategy will revolve around what's currently being called Sony Online Service, along with smartphone and tablet-like devices meant to connect to it, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

Sony plans to launch its online media platform, aimed squarely at Apple's iTunes Store, later this month. The iTunes Store includes the App Store (which offers apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad) and iBookstore (which will offer books for the iPad later this month) in addition to music, TV, and movies. Sony Online Service is expected to offer much of the same music and video content, as well as Sony's back-catalog of PlayStation games.

According to the Microsoft Security Response Center, Microsoft will issue two Security Bulletins addressing eight vulnerabilities on Tuesday, and it will host a webcast to address customer questions about the bulletins the following day (March 10 at 11:00 am PST, if you're interested). Both of the vulnerabilities are rated "Important" and both may require a restart.

The list of affected operating systems includes Windows XP (x86 and x64), Windows Vista (x86 and x64), and Windows 7 (x86 and x64). In terms of the Microsoft Office suites, all supported versions are affected on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Compared to last month's whopper of a Patch Tuesday, this one is quite a small one, especially given that there are no "Critical" patches coming. The exact breakdown of the bulletins is as follows:

• Bulletin 1: Important (Remote Code Execution), Windows
• Bulletin 2: Important (Remote Code Execution), Office

If you're wondering, the IE/Windows Help vulnerability we reported on earlier this week is not yet ready to be patched. There are no known attacks, but Microsoft is still encouraging customers to review the advisory and apply the suggested workarounds where possible. Customers that are running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 are not affected.

Along with these patches, Microsoft is also planning to release the following on Patch Tuesday:

• One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Windows Update (WU) and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
• One or more nonsecurity, high-priority updates on Microsoft Update (MU) and WSUS
• An updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services, and the Microsoft Download Center

This information is subject to change by Patch Tuesday; Microsoft has been known to rush patches as well as pull them if it deems it necessary.

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An in iTunes may be a sign that Apple will soon allow developers to offer upgrade pricing for iPhone apps. Developer Fraser Speirs was warned that the "discounted price is only available to customers who own a previous version" of an item when he tried updating all his apps via iTunes.

Developers of desktop software typically offer a discount to users who have paid for a previous version of software when they upgrade to the next major release. On the iPhone, minor updates to apps are free to all users, but there is no mechanism in the App Store to offer current users upgrade pricing on new major version releases.

Some developers have gotten around this limitation by developing a new version and naming it with the major version number—think Rolando 2 or Tweetie 2. However, if users want that version, they have to pay full price. There's no way to offer someone who bought the original versions of Rolando or Tweetie a discount. Many users balked when Tweetie 2 was a full-price paid upgrade, though the improvements were generally compelling enough to .

The dialog box that Speirs encountered could have been an error since he was updating apps he already purchased. Still, it appears to be a sign Apple is testing the capability to offer discounts to buyers of previous versions of apps. Both developers and users have been asking for such a capability since the App Store launched in 2008.

UPDATE: It appears that this dialog box isn't new—9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub pointed us at from 2008 that mentions the same dialog box. We then found that also mentions encountering the dialog box, which appears related somehow to being logged in to the wrong account when attempting to update apps.

However, the wording of the dialog is clearly meant to refer to upgrade pricing of some sort. If iTunes is capable of determining whether you've paid for a previous version and can offer "discounted pricing," that still means someone at Apple at least thought about how to implement an upgrade mechanism for the App Store. We're still hoping iPhone OS 4, along with the necessary changes in iTunes and the App Store, introduces the capability.

Market research firm Gartner is forecasting a much better year in 2010 for PC shipments worldwide than last year, expecting a 20 percent increase year-over-year. However, mobile computing will be the main impetus behind that growth.

Mobile PCs accounted for over half—55 percent—of all PC shipments in 2009, but Gartner expects that percentage to climb to 70 percent by 2012. Apple in particular has seen most of its sales of Macs come from MacBook and MacBook Pro models for some time, leading the industry in this trend for the last three years.

"The PC industry will be overwhelmingly driven by mobile PCs, thanks to strong home growth in both emerging and mature markets," George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, said in a statement. Netbooks will continue to sell well in 2010, but are expected to decline as ultra-low-voltage, ultra-thin laptops and "next-generation tablets"—think iPad—take over this product segment. The iPad has fueled renewed interest in tablets in particular, and the company expects that traditional tablets and iPad-like devices could move 10.5 million units combined by the end of the year.

"We expect mobile PCs to drive 90 percent of PC growth over the next three years," Shiffler added.

Growth will also come from other touchscreen-based mobile devices, such as the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Nexus One. Touchscreens will begin to move down market to midrange devices as well. "As phone capabilities increase, consumers are becoming much more aware of the benefits of touch interfaces, and vendors are responding," according to Gartner principal research analyst Roberta Cozza.

Gartner expects sales of touchscreen-based mobile devices to nearly double in 2010, selling more 362 million units. Over the next three years, such devices will account for 58 percent of sales worldwide, and as much as 80 percent in "developed markets."

However, warned Gartner analyst CK Lu, vendors can't just slap a touchscreen in a device and call it a day. "Touch technology is just an enabler, and ultimately, it is a compelling user experience—which includes good UI design, applications and services—that will make or break a product," he said in a statement. Apple has a commanding lead on this front with its App Store, responsible for an overwhelming majority of mobile app sales last year. Other platforms, such as Android, are beginning to slowly catch up in both experience and app ecosystems.

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