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In an interesting turn of events, the US Government has filed papers objecting to Megaupload's legal firm choice. Last week, it became known that Megaupload had retained the services of Andrew Schapiro. Schapiro is the same lawyer who led YouTube to a summary judgment in its copyright trial against Viacom.

According to TorrentFreak: "In a new court filing the US government complains that Schapiro's past record in copyright cases, and that of Quinn Emanuel as a whole, present a series of conflicts of interest." Mainly, the government is concerned about a possible conflict with YouTube. Their legal battles against Viacom are back on, and they are also listed as a victim and possible witness against Megaupload.

The government says that Schapiro can't have an interest in both cases. Additionally, Schaprio or the law firm he works for has represented many of the companies that could possibly be called as witnesses against Megaupload. These companies include Google, Disney, Fox, Time Warner, Warner Bros., HBO, and various software companies.

"It is unclear how Quinn Emanuel intends to zealously represent defendants Megaupload Limited and Kim Dotcom while also protecting confidential attorney-client information gained in the course of representing other clients [...] particularly where those clients' interests are directly opposed to those of the defendants," the government writes.

If you want to take your subsidized phone off of the carrier it was made for, you need to a code from your cell carrier. This will allow you to then use any network with the correct technology (GSM/CDMA). Starting yesterday, Wednesday, April 11, customers wishing to unlock their device will now have to wait 30 days and ensure their first payment has been made to Three.

In addition to the waiting, you will have to pay a fee of 15.32 for them to unlock the device. Devices are locked to a carrier because the carrier often subsidize the phone. They need to have the phone active on their network to gain that money back. The fee cannot be added to a customers bill and must be paid with a credit/debit card.

To get a phone unlocked, you have to call in--the stores cannot do it. 3 says: "In most cases, once the payment has been made we can give the unlock code to the customer straight away. Where that isn't possible it may take 2-3 days to get the unlock code processed. Throughout the process we'll text to advise when the code is ready, and if there's a problem we will also text the customer to let them know when to expect the code."

Resident Evil fan? Like collecting Collector's Editions? Well, you might want to put away some of your money, now, because Capcom are going to start waving an insane Resident Evil 6 Premium Edition right under your nose.

The upcoming Premium Edition of Resident Evil 6 will include a copy of the game, four different Resident Evil 6-branded tablet covers (which come in a Chris, Leon, Jake and Secret version), as well as a Leon leather jacket. An actual replica of the in-game jacket that Leon wears, which comes in small, medium, large, and extra large.

But, the pricing here is the kicker - 105,000 or US$1,293. Wow. Just wow. The Premium Edition is being made through Capcom's online site, e-Capcom. There is a sprinkle of good news here before you shut up and give Capcom your money, is that they generously offer free shipping. Thanks, Capcom.

Intel have talked about this before, where they've said that there'll be 75 new Ultrabook designs floating out into the wild throughout the year, but now we have Intel reiterating the fact. Pricing of the new systems should kick off at $699, which is $100 cheaper than the cheapest machine available now.

Intel's general manager for the PC client group, Kirk Skaugen, says that some of the new designs will sport Windows 8 and touchscreens. Yay. This means that a bunch of the new Ultrabooks won't land until after the Windows 8 launch, but with Intel investing large sums of time, effort and most of all, cash, into Ultrabooks, we should only expect good things. The cash injection? Just $300 million.

Skaugen has said:

I think we can deliver the best of a tablet, and the best in what (users) know in a notebook. Intel plans to ensure ultrabooks have a consistent experience. And if it's too thick it won't be called an ultrabook. It won't be allowed to be called an ultrabook because ultrabook is a trademark of Intel and we can protect the trademark.

HP's EliteBook 8460p business notebook is looking to be succeeded by HP's EliteBook 8470p. The new model shares the same 14-inch display, and bead-blasted aluminum/magnesium construction, but the new 8470p is said to have Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor inside.

HP is expected to put on offer multiple Intel Core processors, with one of the prototypes running a 1.7GHz Core i7, according to leaked specs posted on Laptop Reviews. HP's latest business notebook is also expected to sport the 9-cell accessory battery that the 8460p used. This claimed a very, very impressive 32 hours of run time.

Filling out the EliteBook 8470p we have integrated Intel graphics, USB 3.0 ports, up to 8GB of RAM, multiple storage options, and a choice between 1366x768 and 1600x900 display resolutions. No pricing has been set, or launch details.

WD have just unveiled a new, 7mm tall 2.5-inch HDD that will slide straight into your already-thin Ultrabook, and other skinny devices. WDs new super-slim drives are capable of taking a shock of 400Gs, which is impressive as itself, but we're also impressed by the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue drives being made available in both 500GB and 320GB capacities.

The drives still slot into the standard 9.5mm slots, making them perfect for virtually all small machines. Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager for WD client storage products says:

Consumers want thin and light personal computers, but the limited storage capacity of SSD-based notebooks forces them to pick and choose what files to bring from their library. With the release of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm mobile hard drives, WD is able to offer capacity, reliability and data-protection features combined with excellent power management all in a slim form factor perfect for thin and light notebooks.

The new 7mm 2.5-inch drives also set an industry record for the lowest power consumption. WD puts this down to "Advanced power management features and algorithms optimize the way the drive seeks data, which significantly improves power consumption".

If you haven't already heard, Mac-based users have been hit by quite the virus scandal over the last few days in the form of "Flashback". In case you're wondering if you're infected, F-Secure are now offering an AppleScript that you can download, and run.

The tiny bit of software checks your Mac for Flashback, and if it finds it, removes it. Apple reportedly has a tool on its way too, but that's not here yet and F-Secure's is. If you want to check your system and feel a bit more secure, you can grab it here.

I just ran it on my MacBook Pro, and I'm clean. I didn't think I'd be infected, I was pretty confident, but I'm the kind of person who would rather be safe than sorry. Run it even if you don't think you're infected, and pass this news onto any of your Mac-based friends and family. Your enemies, well, I'll leave that devious decision to you.

I love it when companies screw up and release information on upcoming releases. Notably, the GTX 680 was posted for sale several times before the official launch. This time it is EA that screwed up. They posted Crysis 3 artwork on EA's digital download service Origin which gives us a first look at the yet unannounced game.

The image was only published briefly before being redacted, but someone saw, and saved, the image and it has since started circulating the internet. The details on the game are pretty unclear since nothing has been announced, but the image gives us a small insight into what could be in the next game.

Mainly, the image shows a crossbow being used by someone in the iconic nanosuit. This is the first time a crossbow or something similar has been used in any of the Crysis games. It appears to be set in a city, against many people's cries to return to the jungle. I would like to see it return to the jungle as well.

The game is expected to retail for $49.99 and be available for PC, Xbox, and PS. A release date is not set, but an announcement of the game is expected to come later this month. I loved the first Crysis and subsequent Crysis: Warhead but I haven't gotten a chance to play Crysis 2. I look forward to Crysis 3.

Sticking it to the man or sticking up for the consumer? I'll let you be the judge. Nicholas Merrill is creating a new non-profit ISP which he describes as a "non-profit telecommunications provider dedicated to privacy, using ubiquitous encryption." His goal is to create a system that is so encrypted that not even the ISP itself can snoop on its customers.

The system, theoretically, could make it impossible for the ISP to respond to copyright infringement requests or authority requests. You may ask how is this legal. Well, according to Merrill, it depends on a provision in a 1994 federal law called CALEA. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act makes sure that ISPs are not held responsible for decrypting data if they don't have the information to do so.

If Mr. Merrill creates the service properly, not even the ISP would know what's going on in the system. This would allow them to operate directly under the protection of the CALEA law. Merrill dealt with the government and FBI in a legal battle for 6 years over his NYC ISP. That caused him to come up with this plan to protect himself and his users. He is attempting to raise $2 million in the next couple of weeks before the service launches.

This is one of the more ridiculous rumors that I've heard regarding the upcoming Xbox 720/Next, so let's start off with some traditions and superstitions. First, the tradition: get out some salt and throw it over your shoulder. Second, the superstition: knock on some wood, because if this rumor is true, the next Xbox could be one beast of a gaming device.

The latest issue of Xbox World reports that the devkits for the upcoming Xbox were sent out after some secret meetings were held in London. The devkits don't look like the final product, but the hardware included is supposed to be representative of the final consumer product.

XBW's sources suggest that the devkit is powered by a state of the art 16-core IBM Power PC CPU with a GPU that is in the range of the AMD HD 7000 series of GPUs. The 16-core CPU is the interesting piece, and the most curious part of the upcoming Xbox. Most games only take advantage of a max of 4 cores. Additionally, 16-core CPUs are still in the future for desktop gaming rigs.

XBW explains: "It's a ridiculous amount of power for a games machine - too much power, even. But remember, Kinect 2 could chew up four whole cores tracking multiple players right down to their fingertips, so it'll need a lot of power." Both Sony and Microsoft have denied showing the next-gen console at E3. Game makers, however, are looking towards an LA debut for their next-gen software.