From PC World: U.S. Customs is holding up imports of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTEAndroid phones because of HTC's ongoing legal battle with Apple. “U.S. availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC (International Trade Commission) exclusion order,” an HTC official told PCWorld. “We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval.”

AT&T began selling the One X on May 6 for $199, but Amazon Wireless is currently offering the device for $129. AT&T currently lists the One X as out of stock. The Evo 4G LTE was set to go on sale through Sprint on May 18. It's not clear when the two phones would resume regular sales in the U.S.

The U.S International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order against HTC and two of its subsidiaries in December after finding that the company violated some of Apple's patented technology. The ITC's import ban went into effect for new devices on April 19. HTC can until Dec. 19, 2013, import refurbished devices using the disputed technology to fulfill warranty replacements and insurance settlements.

Both the One X and the Evo 4G LTE earned four out of five star reviews from PCWorld. The One X features a 4.7-inch display with 1280-by-720 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with HTC Sense 4.

The Evo 4G LTE has similar specs to the One X such as a 4.7-inch display with 1280-by-720 resolution (the Evo features In Plane Switching technology), 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The device also has 16GB of onboard storage, a microSDHC slot, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The new addition to HTC's Evo lineup was set to go on sale through Sprint on May 18 but has now reportedly been delayed. Despite its name, the Evo 4G LTE is a 3G phone as Sprint is still building out its LTE network.

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From DailyTech: Whenever there is a new iPhone waiting in the wings, the rumors of purported features tend to fly fast and freely. One rumor that seems to pop up every year -- but never comes to fruition – is the use a screen larger than 3.5”.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the sixth generation iPhone will buck this trend and will come with at least a 4” display. The move would put the iPhone more on par with its Android-based rivals that long ago went with 4.3” to 4.65” (and sometimes larger) screens.

Those that have defended Apple’s decision to stick with a 3.5” screen have made the case that it’s harder for your thumbs to navigate the entire surface of the display when holding the phone with one hand.

“There is no doubt that some people would prefer a bigger screen. But nor is there any doubt that many other people would not. I wouldn’t,” wrote Daring Fireball’s John Gruber back in October. “I like to see things get smaller, not bigger. Bigger is not necessarily better. Apple decided on the optimal size for an iPhone display back in 2006. If they thought 4-inches was better, overall, as the one true size for the iPhone display, then the original iPhone would have had a 4-inch display.”

However, if the WSJ sources are correct, those who think a 4” or larger screen size for an iPhone is “all wrong” will have to jump onboard or just stick with the previous generation models.

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From DailyTech: Facebook's $100 billion initial public offering (IPO) was already set to be one of the largest IPO's in the tech industry, but now, the social network is looking to surpass the $100 billion mark by raising another $12 billion.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook increased the price target range from $28-$35 per share to $34-$38 per share today. This values Facebook at about $93 billion to $104 billion, exceeding the $100 billion mark.

At about $36 per share, Facebook would raise $12.1 billion.

Social networking giant Facebook revealed that it was planning a 2012 IPO back in November 2011. The company was talking about raising $10 billion for the initial public offering. Many had previously thought a 2011 IPO was in the works, but a shaky economy and ongoing privacy battles with the U.S. government put everything on hold.

In February 2012, Facebook made the IPO official. The company said it was looking to sell $5 billion of its private shares and hoped to be valued at $100 billion. The set date for the company to go public was May 18.

The social network plans to complete the IPO later today, which is two days ahead of schedule. Facebook is expected to price its shares on Thursday and begin trading under the ticker "FB" on Friday.

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From X-bit Labs: HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), a division of Western Digital, has introduced a new generation of hard drives for consumer electronics applications. The new CinemaStar hard disk drives (HDDs) utilize latest-generation 2.5" platters with 630Gb/inch2 areal density and thus provide 500GB capacity while being very - 7mm - thin, or up to 1000GB in 9.5mm models.

"The ever increasing appetite for on-demand entertainment is driving the adoption of high-capacity 2.5" hard disk drives into a growing number of CE applications. Not only is there a desire to increase the storage capacity in these devices to hold more programs, but they must deliver predictable A/V streaming performance," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST.

All CinemaStar drives feature HGST’s patented SmoothStream technology, which supports the industry-standard ATA‑7 streaming command set, and SMART command transport (SCT) that provide time-limited error recovery and thermal monitoring capabilities for a longer system life. Together, the SCT protocol and HGST SmoothStream technology minimize disruptions in stream delivery by adapting buffer management behavior and error recovery timing to match the characteristics of typical streaming applications.

"With our broad new family of 2.5" CinemaStar drives, we continue to give our customers the flexibility to select a variety of reliable and robust drives to meet their cost, performance, power or capacity requirements, while helping them to deliver smaller, more aesthetically appealing designs," added Mr. Collins.

The new 2.5" CinemaStar family is now shipping in limited quantities. CE OEM samples are now available.

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From X-bit Labs: Nvidia Corp. on Tuesday introduced what may be one of its most important developments in the recent years: cloud technologies that allow processing of graphics data from any device. Nvidia’s Grid and VGX cloud graphics processors enable gamer-grade or professional-grade graphics capabilities on absolutely any device, including desktops, laptops, tablets or even smartphones.

Thanks to a set of virtualization technologies supported by graphics processing units (GPUs) that belong to Kepler family, Nvidia now offers Grid, a cloud graphics solution for consumers for gaming applications, and VGX, a cloud graphics solutions for professional usage in professional programs. Both technologies enable high-performance graphics processing on devices that simply cannot take advantage of the latest power-hungry GPUs.

"Kepler cloud GPU technologies shifts cloud computing into a new gear. The GPU has become indispensable. It is central to the experience of gamers. It is vital to digital artists realizing their imagination. It is essential for touch devices to deliver silky smooth and beautiful graphics. And now, the cloud GPU will deliver amazing experiences to those who work remotely and gamers looking to play untethered from a PC or console," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and chief executive officer of Nvidia.

Nvidia VGX platform enables workers for the first time to access a GPU-accelerated desktop similar to a traditional local PC from any device (thin client, laptop, tablet or smartphone) regardless of its operating system, and enjoy a responsive experience for the full spectrum of applications previously only available on an office PC. The platform's manageability options and ultra-low latency remote display capabilities extend this convenience to those using 3D design and simulation tools, which had previously been too intensive for a virtualized desktop.

Nvidia VGX uniquely addresses the user experience issues of traditional virtualized desktop infrastructure by adding a fully virtualized GPU board to the data center. This now enables up to one hundred users to share a VGX board with a true PC experience with GPU-accelerated VDI (GPU-VDI). Initially, Nvidia will offer one quad-GPU graphics card with 768 stream processors and up to 4GB of memory per chip. The card will be 10.5” in length and 4.4” in height, hence, it will require new cases, special power supply units and so on. Still, Nvidia promises that machines with Nvidia VGX hardware will fit into common server racks.

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From InfoWorld: Advanced Micro Devices hopes to provide thin-and-light laptops that are less expensive but equally speedy to Intel's Ultrabooks with its new A-series chips, which the company officially announced on Tuesday.

The A-series chips, code-named Trinity, will enable laptops to be made that are comparable in size, weight and battery life to Intel's Ultrabooks, said John Taylor, director of global product marketing at AMD. Users won't have to pay "premium prices" for Trinity ultrathin laptops, which will be significantly cheaper than Intel's Ultrabooks.

Laptops with Trinity chips will be priced at "mainstream prices," and offer battery life of up to nine hours, Taylor said. AMD has said that Trinity laptops could start at $500, while Intel's Ultrabooks starting prices of $750 to $800. Intel hopes to bring that down to $699 by the year end.

Laptops with Trinity chips will offer around eight hours of battery life, Taylor said. The chips will go into laptops up to 22 millimeters thick, just a hair over the 21-mm maximum set by Intel for Ultrabooks, AMD's Taylor said. The chips will draw around 17 watts of power, similar to the upcoming Intel's Ivy Bridge Ultrabook chips.

AMD will also provide quad-core Trinity chips for ultrathins, Taylor said. Intel has said Ultrabooks for now would be limited to dual-core processors, but quad-core chips could give AMD-based laptops a performance advantage.

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From PC World: Apple on Monday issued its first security-related update for OS X 10.5, or Leopard, in nearly a year, to disable long-outdated versions of Adobe's Flash Player.

Security Update 2012-003 does not patch any known vulnerabilities, but is instead a Leopard-specific version of what Apple released last week for OS X 10.6, or Snow Leopard, and the newer OS X 10.7, better known as Lion.

Like those updates, 2012-003 for Leopard removes versions of Flash Player older than 10.1.102.64. Adobe issued that edition of Flash in November 2010. It was also the final version Apple delivered to its customers before it stopped maintaining Flash.

Monday's update will not be installed on PowerPC-equipped Macs running Leopard.

On May 9, Apple disabled older copies of Flash Player on Snow Leopard and Lion using an update to Safari 5.1.7. Because that version of Apple's browser doesn't support Leopard, the company instead updated the operating system.

The newest version of Flash Player for Leopard is 10.3.183.19, which was released earlier this month. That newest version, which requires an Intel processor, can be downloaded from Adobe's website.

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From CNET News.com: Apple may already be prepping for the production of its next-generation iPhone.

The company is significantly cutting back on the production of the current iPhones, according to supplier checks by Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. The number of iPhones produced may have fallen by 20 to 25 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis, Wu said in a research note published today.

The reduction suggests Apple is being conservative and giving suppliers a two-quarter pause ahead of the introduction of a new iPhone, which Wu believes will come around September or October. The pause will allow suppliers to better manage inventory and prepare for the new model.

Apple had previously reduced the production of iPhone 4 devices ahead of the iPhone 4S.

As a result of the checks, Wu pegs the potential shipment of iPhones at 26 to 28 million units, below Wall Street's average estimate of 30 to 31 million. He noted that the reduction was due primarily to the iPhone refresh, as opposed to weaker demand for the product.

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