MIAMI (Reuters) – The NFL has signed a four-year agreement with Verizon Wireless to show live games and highlights on mobile phones in a deal U.S. media reported was worth $720 million.

"We are looking forward to working with Verizon Wireless to deliver our fans the most extensive experience on mobile phones," said NFL senior vice president of media strategy Brian Rolapp in a statement.

"Our fans have an insatiable appetite for football and we will be able to keep them connected wherever they are on game day but also throughout the year."

The Sony PlayStation 3 may be the number-two console now, but one analyst group predicted that the console will be the last man standing. The firm also speculated on when the industry will have to start shifting consumers to next-generation devices.

Strategy Analytics said Monday that it predicts that the PS3 will still be a commercial platform five years after Nintendo replaces its Wii.

Strategy Analytics predicted that Sony will sell 127 million PS3s over the course of the console's life, although the console will still remain runner-up to the Wii in terms of annual sales. Nintendo will sell 103 million Wiis over the course of the console's existence, the firm said; it did not release anticipated Xbox 360 lifetime sales.

Begging trouble, Strategy Analytics forecasts Sony's PlayStation 3 will outsell both the Xbox 360 and Wii by the time things are winding down for all three. That's not all: In a report titled "Taming the Waves: Games Console Life Cycles and Platform Competition," the company offers specific figures, predicting everything from transitional timeframes to life unit sales.

127 million, that's how many PlayStation 3 consoles Strategy Analytics predicts Sony will sell by generation's close. Compare with 103 million Wii units. And the Xbox 360 lifetime sales figure? The press release strangely neglects to provide one.

Sony will begin selling 3D TVs in Japan on June 10 and worldwide at about the same time, it said Tuesday. A firmware upgrade to its PlayStation 3 console that adds 3D support and other 3D-compatible home electronics products will also be available to coincide with the television launch.

Sony's first two sets, which are 40- and 46-inch models, will come bundled with two pairs of 3D glasses and will cost ¥290,000 (US$3,215) and ¥350,000 respectively. In July it will launch six further sets: 52- and 60-inch models that come with 3D glasses and four "3D-ready" models that have 3D circuitry inside the set but require the purchase of glasses and an infrared transmitter.

Final Fantasy XIII goes on sale in less than 24 hours, location depending. Is it any good? Which version--PS3 or Xbox 360--should you buy? What about the midnight launches? Did you preorder the game? Want to know what to do if you didn't?

Answers and tips below!

How many editions are there again?

In the US, just one, which sells for $60, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Square Enix is selling an international (non-US) collector's edition for PS3 and Xbox 360 that includes a slip-cased soundtrack, hardback art book, exclusive art prints, and a decal for ВЈ60 suggested retail (about $91 at the current exchange rate). If you're hardcore, you could always import a copy--PS3 games are region-free, though several Xbox 360 games aren't--but you may pay dearly. The collector's editions are only available in limited quantities, and the secondary market sellers are already price-gouging. (Tip: See eBay UK for the best deals.)

AT&T has finally added the Google Android platform to its portfolio of mobile devices with the launch of the Motorola Backflip. AT&T, the exclusive provider of the Apple iPhone in the United States, now offers business professionals a more diverse array of choices--expanding even further later this year with the expected addition of devices based on Palm's WebOS.

Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the fortunes and pitfalls of AT&T seem to rely almost exclusively on that one platform. AT&T offers a range of mobile devices--feature phones, BlackBerry devices, smartphones based on the Windows Mobile platform, and more. However, it is the iPhone that gets all of the attention--both good and bad

Panasonic, makers of the popular Viera HDTV line, announced that its new 3D TVs will go on sale in the United States later this week.

The new VT25 plasma HDTVs will arrive this Wednesday, as part of a joint promotion with Best Buy. The launch event will take place at Best Buy's Union Square store in New York City, and Best Buy will have demo units at hundreds of stores across the country, according to Engadget.

According to reports, one new model, a 50-inch 3D set (with included Blu-Ray player and 3D glasses), will cost around $2,500 at launch. That's roughly $2,000 less than its price in Japan. The lower price stateside is to help Panasonic reach its goal of selling 1 million 3DTVs this fiscal year.

Remember what life was like before the iPhone? Back when we had to print out maps for trips, do simple calculations in our heads, drive around to find a good restaurant, and watch YouTube videos on a device no smaller than a laptop? Dark times, indeed.

You might even say that some of us have grown dependent on these handheld devicesв”perhaps even addicted. You wouldn't be alone: a Stanford University survey administered to 200 college students claims just that.

On a scale of one to five, where five is full blown addiction and one is not addicted at all, 10 percent of the respondents ranked themselves as a five, 34 percent a four, and only 6 percent were a one. That's okay, but 32 percent of the people who said they weren't completely addicted said that they worry they may someday walk among the iPhone addicted. Join us.

The fervor over March Madness is akin to the excitement over the Olympics: even if you're not a typical sports fan, you can't help but be interested. В Me,В Iвll watch maybe one college basketball game during the regular season, but come tournament time I can't help but refresh scores and update my bracket like any other diehard. This year, two versions of CBS Sports Mobile's March Madness iPhone app should make that easier than ever.

Last season, when I was looking for a way to keep me and my boyfriend updated while we were on the road, I stumbled across CBSвs March Madness on Demand iPhone app. В The program, which delivered scores and live audio over 3G (and video over Wi-Fi), helped keep us tuned in while we trekked across the Northeast,В despite the occasional glitch.

Well, that was quick. After gamers found вњevidenceв that Valve may bring some of its wildly successful gaming products to the Mac, and Valve teased as much last week, we now have official confirmation. Valve is coming to the Mac in a big way.

In a press release Monday, Valve announced that Steam, its вњSourceв gaming engine, and a number of its most popular titles will be available on the Mac in April. Selections from Valveвs library that will be available at launch include Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half Life series.

First, inquisitive gamers found вњevidenceв that Valve might bring Steam, its popular Windows game store, to the Mac, and it was good. Then, Valve seeded some provocative teaser images to Mac press which all but confirmed 2010 to be the year of Mac gaming, and it was great. Now, another piece of the puzzle may be falling into place, showing that one of Valve's new games may be on its way to our favorite platform as well.

Scans from an article in GameInformerвs forthcoming April 2010 issue, posted in this PAL Gaming Network forum thread, list the Mac as a platform for Portal 2 (pictured above). Valve did mention the original Portal (released in 2007) in those aforelinked teaser images, along with a couple other back catalog games like Left 4 Dead (2008) and Half Life 2 (2007), but Portal 2 is a sequel due out later this year. If true, it means Valve could be making an effort to release at least some of its current and upcoming games on Windows and Mac simultaneously.

We're down to the final weeks before the debut of Apple's famed iPad. Even with the sale date set, though, plenty of pressing questions remain about the highly hyped device.

Today, one of those questions appears to be answered.

Apple's iPad and Tethering

Apple's iPad, as we learned back in January, will be sold in two editions: a Wi-Fi-only edition, set to become available on April 3, and a 3G-enabled edition, set to go on sale later in the month with contract-free data plans from AT&T.

NAIROBI (AFP) – Somali pirates raked in an estimated 60 million dollars in 2009 but the Indian Ocean's ransom hunters have also spurred a much larger industry of ship protection devices.

As the 36,000 ships that bottleneck into the Gulf of Aden each year try to dodge marauding pirates and keep a lid on insurance premiums, an astonishing array of inventions has cropped up on the flourishing market.

With obstacles remaining to the deployment of onboard security personnel, a myriad of hoses, nets, lasers, radars -- from million-dollar high-tech systems to gadgets straight out of a Harry Potter wizard shop -- have been developed.

On Thursday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer spoke at the University of Washington supposedly on the topic of cloud computing. But the conversation also wandered into other topics, one that might include the future of the Xbox.

Like fellow reporter Chloe Albanesius, I listened to the speech, but Microsoft also provided a handy transcript a day later, on Friday.

In a question-and-answer session following the speech, Ballmer was asked about the collaboration the company takes with regard to hardware partners, and made the point that some hardware vendors don't offer any diversity, and others do. In the case of the television, Ballmer argued, Microsoft uses both approaches, providing fixed hardware (the Xbox) as well as variety (software). Here's the interesting quote:

"In the case of the TV we've got both strategies. We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows," Ballmer said. "It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here's a piece of hardware that we build, there's no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it's going to [be] important." (Emphasis mine).

To me, that certainly sounds like Microsoft may be considering new implementations of its Xbox technology, although it's difficult to say whether that might additional hardware revisions, or closer integration of Xbox functionality and services with other devices, like the Zune, or with the partnership with the UK's Sky TV that Microsoft also showed off.

Remember, too, that Microsoft at one time intended to place Xbox functionality within a set-top box. Kotaku reported at CES that that effort is still on life support.  So, it seems safe to say that the theme here is "hedging one's bets": treating the Xbox both as dedicated hardware, a service, and as a platform.

Ballmer also called the audience's attention to the "Project Natal" technology due in time for the holidays. "And when you see this Natal camera that comes with the Xbox this Christmas, I think what you'll wind up saying is I'm glad they're doing some hardware, too, because it permits a different kind of innovation, and we want to have both of those muscles working on behalf of you the user and the developer," he said.

Thoughts? Leave your input in the comments section below.

It should come as no small surprise for those still waiting for some kind of tethering option for their iPhones, but Apple's iPad, scheduled to launch April 3, probably won't support tethering either. That's according to Steve Jobs himself, who made the brief--if not curt--announcement in response to an emailed question from Swedish record producer Jezper Söderlund.

It's a fair question to ask, as the tethering situation for Apple's iPhone can be confusing enough as-is. Officially, the iPhone can share its mobile or WiFi connection with an attached desktop or laptop. It's not a question of the phone's technology; it's a question of the phone's carrier. AT&T, the iPhone's sole carrier in the United States markets, doesn't yet support tethering. Though it promises to bring this feature to iPhones eventually, there's been no set date for deployment—just a promise that it'll come "at some point in the future," says AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel.