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Could 'Star Wars: Episode VII' feel like 'Return of the Jediatrics'?

Some would consider Disney's announcement of acquiring Lucasfilm (and the "Star Wars" franchise) for a little over $4 billion epic enough as is. Disney stunned sci-fi fans further with the additional announcement that Star Wars: Episode VII would arrive in 2015, causing many to wonder who would direct the movie, and more importantly, who would star in it.

It might take awhile to find out who the actors in "Episode VII" will be, but at least we know that the most cantankerous of the bunch, Harrison Ford, is onboard with participating in the highly anticipated follow-up to "Return of the Jedi," according to Entertainment Weekly. … Read more

iPad Mini eating into iPad sales?

Apple isn't saying how many iPad Minis it has sold, but at least one analyst estimates the bulk of first-weekend sales were for the smaller device.

That means the iPad Mini may be taking away from some potential larger iPad sales, which could be negative for Apple if iPad Mini volumes aren't high enough to offset the lower selling prices. Apple is counting on the iPad Mini to address consumer demand for smaller tablets that have largely been dominated by Amazon, Samsung, and more recently, Google and Asus.

Apple earlier today said it had sold 3 million iPads … Read more

Facebook stock: Let the insider selling begin

One big question looming over Facebook's stock: How many insiders are going to start dumping their shares?

After more than five months of watching their holdings sink, most employees and early Facebook investors can start cashing in their pre-IPO stock as the so-called lockups expire. Not all at once, however, but the key dates are coming fast and one, in fact, just passed (though the markets were closed because of Sandy). By the end of the year, Facebook's float -- that's the stock that's available to trade in the open market -- will increase by more … Read more

Mark Cuban: An Apple box designed for TV would be game-changer

Apple's plans for television will have nothing to do with killing cable companies and everything to do with playing nice with them, famed investor Mark Cuban believes.

Speaking to Adweek in an interview published today, Cuban said the idea that Apple would invest its bundles of cash in trying to "blow up cable companies" with its own deals with programmers is pure nonsense.

"I think there is zero chance of that happening," Cuban said. "Apple tries to do everything on commission. It's not big on upfront deals, and I don't see that … Read more

Citi fires Internet analysts, pays $2 million fine

Earlier today, Massachusetts fined Citigroup Global Markets $2 million for illegally disclosing nonpublic information. In the aftermath of the report, Citi was reported to have fired Internet analyst Mark Mahaney. Also, I can confirm that Mahaney is no longer with the firm.

Citigroup also fired an unnamed junior analyst reporting to Mahaney last month. The state's investigation did not implicate Mahaney in the leaks.

The report, issued today by William Galvin, Secretary of Massachusetts, does not mention Mahaney by name. It instead refers to a "senior research analyst at the company who had been covering the technology industry&… Read more

Feds charge Paul Ceglia with defrauding Facebook

The man who claimed ownership of half of Facebook is now in federal custody. Paul Ceglia was charged today in New York with single counts of mail and wire fraud. The maximum prison sentence for each count is 20 years.

Ceglia become known for his suit against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that he was entitled to a 50 percent stake in the company. The charges against him filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan state that he falsified records and destroyed evidence in a multibillion-dollar scheme to defraud both Facebook and Zuckerberg.

Read the U.S. vs. Paul Ceglia Complaint … Read more

Zynga CEO takes blame for poor quarter

Give Mark Pincus credit not trying to weasel out when it came to explaining why Zynga posted a lousy third quarter. Instead of blaming an uncertain economy, wandering consumer tastes, or a weird alignment between Jupiter and Mars, the CEO's message to Wall Street was clear: Blame us.

Of course, he was preaching to the converted. Investors have been blaming Zynga for most of the year, driving down the stock to an all-time low today before the company reported a $52.7 million loss during its September quarter.

But as he discussed the results with analysts on a conference … Read more

Mark Zuckerberg's $2 billion day

Facebook's beaten down stock soared today, posting its biggest one-day gain since going public and boosting its CEO Mark Zuckerberg net wealth by a cool $2 billion. Shares closed up $19.13 percent to close at $23.23 after Facebook yesterday posted solid quarterly earnings and showed that it's on its way to making big money from mobile.

The rare rally came as Zuckerberg spent much of yesterday's conference call convincing Wall Street analysts that mobile is not a problem but a monstrous opportunity that he is tackling with full force.

It's only a one-day bump, … Read more

Canon 5D Mark III update to unlock high-end HDMI video

Canon plans to release a notable firmware update to its high-end EOS 5D Mark III in April that will let videographers use the SLR to record uncompressed HDMI video.

As the successor to the 5D Mark II that jump-started the video SLR revolution four years ago, the 22-megapixel 5D3 has big shoes to fill. The new update surely will help professionals who need better quality, even if ordinary folks need not care much. Here's what Canon had to say about the news:

When shooting video, HDMI Output makes possible the recording of high-definition uncompressed video data (YCbCr 4:2:… Read more