The IDC's latest numbers are here and it is reporting that tablet numbers have increased by 6.7% in the quarter just gone, and 49.5% year-over-year. Apple enjoying shipping just over half of the 27.8 million slates across the world, but they lost a considerable amount of market share.

The iPad maker had 65.5% of the market in Q2, but dropped down to just 50.4% of the market in Q3 - a huge drop. IDC says that this is because people were holding off for the iPad mini - but I don't agree with that. There can't be that many people in the market knowing three months out that there was definitely going to be a new iPad on the market.

Samsung were number two, increasing their market share to 18.4% thanks to their Galaxy Tab and Note 10.1 products, with Amazon and ASUS having a great quarter also. Kindle Fires and Nexus 7's helped them ship around 2.5 million of each.

Ah, Windows Live Messenger. How I've loved thee. But, after more than ten years as an instant messaging client (and over the years, much more than that) it looks as though Microsoft is ready to give the application a much needed sleep and let Skype take over.

The Verge has reported according to multiple sources, that Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger would be retired in the next couple of months, but the technology behind it will continue to beat on. The backend of Messenger will be shuffled over to the Skype client, letting users login to their accounts, see their contacts and more, but from the Skype interface.

Microsoft began the transition months ago and already have around 80% of all IMs sent on Skype reportedly being handled by Messenger. This all started with Skype 6.0, which greeted users with the option to log in using a Microsoft, or Facebook account. The Verge says that Microsoft will announce the retirement of Windows Live Messenger before the end of the year.

Bloomberg news is reporting that Apple may be toying with the idea of designing its own chips for use in its Mac line of computers. As technology grows increasingly mobile, the x86 platform pioneered and championed by Intel draws just too much power and produces too much heat. In order to unify the experience between this mobile market and desktop component, Apple may opt to use its own chips.

By using chips that feature similar architectures in both mobile devices and desktop and laptop systems, its easier for programmers to unify the experience. Apps will theoretically have no problems running on the Mac laptops and desktops due to the common architecture and Apple will be able to use iOS on desktop systems--not an idea I am fond of.

This change in processor would take a good while to implement. The Apple team will have to craft their own processor, either through licensing agreements with ARM, or by developing their own instruction sets. Even still, Apple will want to repeat the success they have seen with the iPhone 5's processor.

People may want to stay away from the Kinect if they like watching movies on their Xbox 360. Well, at least if Microsoft decides to implement a patent that was just issued to them last week. The patent in question is titled "Content Distribution Regulation by Viewing User" and deals with adjusting prices based upon the number of viewers.

The Kinect, or equivalent, sensor could monitor the number of people in a room and adjust the pricing for movie according to how many people are there. The system could even, theoretically, detect when more people walk into the room and pause playback until more money was provided or some people left the room.

Another thought is that this could be used to control the owner of content so that the person who purchased the video must be present. This patent could also tie in with one Microsoft received last September, called "Parental Control Settings Based on Body Dimensions," which uses various body shapes and ratios to estimate a user's age.

Ever since I purchased my iPhone 5, the Lightning cable that came with the phone has been attached to me as much as the phone itself seeing as all of my previous charging cables are completely useless. Buying additional cables has been a challenge for me as I don't have an Apple Store in close proximity to me and buying additional cables online is nearly impossible. But my worries will soon be over as Belkin has announced it will be the first third-party company to have Lightning accessories available for purchase.

Belkin announced today it will release two accessories that support the iPhone 5 and 4th Generation iPad's Lightning connector: the Belkin Car Charger for Lightning and Belkin Charge + Sync Dock. Both accessories will retail for $29.99 and will be made available in mid-November.

The Belkin Car Charger is exactly what it sounds like: a car charger with a Lightning adapter attached to the end of it. It'll be MFI certified, will have over-voltage protection and will be made available in black.

Regardless if the majority of people were less than impressed with the new iPad mini and 4th generation iPad, the rule of thumb has always been if there's an Apple logo on it, it'll sell millions. That's exactly what happened this weekend as Apple has announced it has sold 3 million iPads this past weekend.

Friday was the official release date of both the iPad mini and 4th generation iPad around the world and marks the first time Apple has launched two new products on the same day, not counting new releases made available through the Apple Store.

As of now, Apple has yet to release sales data for individual sales of the iPad mini and 4th Generation iPad which we're sure to hear about in an upcoming Apple Event with nothing but praise coming from the company.

The next piece of DLC for Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been announced today by way of the unveiling of its official trailer. Are you ready to meet the first ever Dragonborn?

"Dragonborn" will tell the tale of the first Dragonborn ever to make his way through the Elder Scrolls world who is only known now as the Dragon Priest. The Dragon Priest will be attempting to come back and rule over the land as he did in the past, and we're assuming it'll be your job as the current Dragonborn to snuff him out.

Judging by the debut trailer released today, it looks as though new weapons, armor and enemies will be made available in the Dragonborn DLC, as well as a feature many Skyrim fans have been begging for even before the game was released: rideable dragons.

One of 2012's most highly anticipated first-person shooters that isn't Halo 4 will soon be released next Tuesday, but seeing as gamers absolutely cannot wait for actual release dates, a pirated version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been leaked through various torrent websites.

According to a number of reports, user "BAD 2 THE B0N3" published the leaked version of Black Ops 2 for Xbox 360 onto 360iso. BAD 2 THE B0N3 was also responsible for last month's Halo 4 leak.

A flood of gameplay footage has already started making their way through YouTube that cover much of the game including the game's campaign, multiplayer and zombies mode. If you're the type of person who would prefer not to run into spoilers of a game before its release, it's HIGHLY recommended you don't go looking through YouTube for the next week as Black Ops 2 can easily be ruined thanks to these videos.

In China, game consoles are technically illegal, which has stopped Sony's PlayStation 3 from launching in the country, until now. The company have been approved to launch their now ageing console in China.

Authorities granted the PlayStation 3 a "China Compulsory Certificate" in July, but the PS3 has yet to have launched yet. Considering the PS3 launched in Japan close to six years ago, it is definitely behind the times in China. China pushed in a console ban in 2000 to protect the nation's youth, in turn, creating a booming grey-market for game consoles, and games themselves, pushing piracy numbers up considerably.

Consoles can be sold if they're labelled as home entertainment consoles, and thanks to Sony baking in a Blu-ray player into the console along with its many online capabilities, the PS3 is considered a home entertainment system anyway. Microsoft never released the Xbox 360 in China, and Nintendo didn't bother with the Wii, either.

We all know smartphones and tablets rule our lives now, but just how much do we use them to surf the Internet? Well, according to the latest data from NetMarketShare, it looks like it's a lot.

Their data points out that smartphones and tablets accounted for 10.3% of all web browsing in October, which is the first time it has broken through the 10% barrier.

More interesting is that mobile browsing was at just 7.2% of all browsing in March, meaning that we're seen an explosion of web browsing on mobile phones in the last few months alone. iOS-based smartphones and tablets like the iPhone and iPad account for around 60% of all web browsing in october 2012. Android devices scooped up a little over 27% of mobile web browsing.