Google is getting ready to add social-networking features into Gmail as it attempts to jump-start its social Web strategy.

Gmail users can already set their status within the service, but Google plans to expand that into a stream of status updates found in services like Facebook and Twitter, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. Users will also be able to share photos and videos through the service, which is expected to launch shortly.

Google has doubled down on its social Web strategy in recent months, with new hires and plans to devote more energy to understanding the social-media phenomenon. The company has tried to get momentum behind its ideas for several years, but hasn't gained much traction to date.

Google doesn't tend to show itself off. Why would it need to? It's a household name, often synonymous with search, the go-to search engine. Even if Google didn't flood the news on an almost daily basis, at this point, it'd be impossible to ignore its influence. Yet still, Google dug deep into the television advertising gambit on Sunday, airing a heartwarming spot during the be-all, end-all destination for ads: the Super Bowl.

The ad, called "Parisian Love," aired during the third quarter of the big game. In 53 seconds, "Parisian Love" tells the story of a budding romance that leads to marriage. Even the most cynical viewer had to find something sweet within the clip, which relied on Google searches and cutesy music.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China plans to crack down on the online gambling industry, including the banks and websites that support it, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website.

The campaign will "concentrate on investigating major and important cases of online gambling, knock out domestic and foreign groups that organize online gambling, and severely punish the criminal elements," the statement said.

The crackdown, to be conducted between February and August, was agreed to by eight government bodies including the Supreme Court, Propaganda bureau, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor David Paterson on Monday restated his intention to run for governor and denied rumors he might resign over potentially scandalous allegations in a forthcoming news report that fueled new speculation about his political future.

Paterson, already facing a probable challenge for the Democratic Party nomination from state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, took over as governor in 2008 after then-Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal.

Editors' note, 4:30 p.m. PST: Netflix now claims that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 development road map. A Netflix representative has clarified that the company plans to bring 5.1 surround and closed captioning to its streaming HD videos later this year, though 1080p Watch Instantly is not on the books for this year. The text below is the original story, based on earlier conversations and e-mails with this Netflix representative.

Netflix subscribers with HDTVs and streaming boxes have something big to look forward to in the coming months. CNET has learned that the company plans to roll out 1080p streaming with 5.1 surround sound later this year.

Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal report Monday that Google will be adding hooks to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter via Gmail.

While interesting, a Facebook and Twitter plugin wouldn't exactly be game-changing. In fact, my early suspicion was that this might be a Gmail Labs plugin.

But this also sounds very, very similar to Google's recent real-time search efforts, where Google Social Search provides real-time updates from people that you know. It's not that far from an active search for those updates to having them pushed, now that Google has a real-time framework for those updates.

It also seems reasonable to assume that Google is stealing a page from startups like Threadsy, which tries to take feeds, streams, tweets, and other elements of your social networking life into one easy, manageable stream. If so, more power to Google. And that's exactly what you'll be giving the company if you sign on, unfortunately: the ability for Google to sniff a collection of inbound communications and updates, rather than just the Gmail and Google Reader feeds it previously only had access to.

Mac peripheral maker ZoomMediaPlus is attempting to knock a hole in the Apple "walled garden" approach by turning the connector interface in the iPhone, iPod touch – and, soon the iPad – into a peripheral storage slot.

The zoomIt is what the company describes as "an application-enabled accessory," a smart SD card reader that can take a number of files that are stored on an SD card and make them accessible to the user.

According to Chris Fisher, the president of ZoomMediaPlus, the technology will work on all existing iPhones and touches – good news, he said, for early adopters who bought first-generation devices and then filled them to the brim with music and apps. "This is going to extend the real-time usability of the iPhone," Fisher said.

Barnes & Noble said Monday that its popular nook e-book reader is back in stock online and will be rolling out in the majority of the bookseller's U.S. stores this week. Customers also will be able to enjoy exclusive Valentine's Day-themed online content this month, the company said.

The nook differs in several ways from many of the e-readers announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, which suffer from either high prices or little access to consumer channels, said Forrester Research Vice President James McQuivey.

"The nook, despite its slow start, is priced right, targeted to book readers rather than skipping off to focus on magazine or newspaper readers, and, most importantly, the nook will be featured in front of millions of book buyers every month as they walk through the store," McQuivey said. "You can't underestimate the power of that."

TEHRAN (Reuters) – With their paths through the Internet increasingly blocked by government filters, Nooshin and her fellow Iranian opposition-supporters say their information on planned protests now comes in emails.

They say they don't know who sends them.

Internet messages have been circulating about possible rallies on February 11, when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. But the climate in the Islamic Republic is much harder than before last year's post-election protests.

Last June, social media sites were hailed in the West as promising opposition supporters an anonymous rallying ground -- especially when they were accessed via proxy servers that could mask participants' actions and whereabouts.

We recently stumbled across a hack that allowed the Nokia N900 to run Mac OS X. Now another mod has surfaced, but this time it's all about gaming.

Polish developer Tomasz Sterna has succesfully managed to get the PlayStation 3's Sixaxis controller to talk to Nokia's Maemo 5 smartphone, which is handy considering the N900's growing emulation scene.

The Bluetooth mod, which can be seen in action below, pairs the N900 and PlayStation 3 controller, allowing owners of both gadgets a unique way to control their mobile games collection.