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Read the rest of LG to Launch Windows Mobile 7 Smartphone in September? [Windows Mobile 7 is Alive; LG Android 2.1 Smartphone Also in the Works]

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When Avatar hit the 1 billion dollar milestone, we asked you whether you believe it has what it takes to surpass Titanic on the all-time biggest earners list. Most of you thought that it has a very good chance of doing so, and judging by its 4th weekend box office results, you were right.

This weekend, Avatar once again shattered the previous record for the best 4th weekend at the box office, earning 48,500,000 dollars. On its fourth weekend in cinemas, Titanic made 20 million dollars less. If the trend continues, Avatar will not only surpass Titanic; it will set new records far above the popular historic love story.

One detail strikes me as odd, however: I don’t see the movie industry complaining much about Avatar being pirated. According to Torrentfreak, it’s by far the most pirated movie right now, but it still managed to earn over a billion dollars in cinema, and it’s showing no signs of stopping. Could it be that all that interest and buzz around the movie, even on torrent sites, actually helped propel Avatar into one of the biggest earners ever? Also, for an analysis of how social media helped Avatar become the second most watched movie of all time, check here.

Tags: avatar, social media, trending

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Need something to get you through those last few grueling hours before the weekend? Do we have a distraction for you: “YouTube, Play the Piano,” an interactive video that actually lets you tickle the ebonies and the ivories in an online video.

This video was created by the Swedish web production company, KOKOKAKA, and is pretty much good for a solid 15 minutes of fun.

Make sure to let the video load fully before jamming, and check out some of the other videos on the site if you have a moment. There’s one about how to wash “nudie jeans” that I’d love someone to explain to me. Happy Friday!

Tags: entertainment, humor, viral video, web video

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I’ve seen Avatar (the 3D version) over the weekend, and while I won’t go into the content of the movie, technologically it’s a must-see. Think you’ve seen 3D? Avatar truly takes it to the next level, giving us a glimpse of the movie industry’s future.

It’s no wonder that, partly due to the enormous online buzz (“Avatar” has been one of Twitter’s trending topics almost constantly for days now), it’s had one of the best opening weekends in the history of cinema. It earned $73 million in the US and $159.2 million internationally; combined, it’s a $232.2 million worldwide total.

It’s not the best opening weekend of all time; but the movie did manage to break some records. It’s the biggest 3D release of all time, and the biggest original content (which means it’s not a sequel or a part of a franchise) opening weekend ever.

These accomplishments are even more impressive when you take into account that the weekend was very snowy in both Europe and the US, keeping many folks at home. The movie’s production and promotion cost approximately 400 million dollars, so it’s not making money just yet, but the way it started, it might be one of the biggest hits of all time, proving that James Cameron still has the touch of King Midas.

Have you seen the movie? Is the buzz justified? Do you think it’ll turn out to be profitable? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Tags: avatar

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Sony and Nintendo have revealed their sales numbers from this past Thanksgiving weekend (AKA – holiday shopping super weekend), and despite an economic recession and the steep price of video games and their consoles – they did surprisingly well. Mircosoft has been vaguely quiet on how they made out this past week.

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Read the rest of Sony, Nintendo Have Super Thanksgiving Weekend, Microsoft Silent On Sales [PS3, Wii, DS Sell Well On Holiday Weekend, Xbox 360 Results Vague]

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The ASUS Eee PC 1201HA was discreetly put on sale in the United States this weekend, appearing on the website of big box electronics store Best Buy. It’s on sale at a special price of $330 with free shipping for a cyber monday deal.

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Read the rest of ASUS Eee PC 1201HA Hits America [New ASUS Netbook On Sale In US, 12" screen, 160GB HDD, $330 price]

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It’s not every day that we discover the answer to such a simple question. And because it’s the weekend, we might as well have some fun talking about the weight of the Internet.
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Read the rest of How Heavy Is the Internet? [The Internet Weighs 498,438,559,990kg and Rising] (328 words)

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Super hero-themed MMORPG Champions Online is having its second free-play weekend, after only being released two months ago and having its first free-play weekend one month ago. The upcoming free-play weekend, which will be based around Thanksgiving, will coincide with an in-game content update called ‘Nemesis Confrontation’, and will feature new player costumes and quests.

The developers of the game hope that it will lure new players in, as the new quest kidnaps the player to an intergalactic prison where you have to fight your way out to freedom. However, as good as it may sound and despite a lukewarm launch reception,the folks from Cryptic Studios had several adverting campaigns, like reduced subscription deals, price drops and free-play weekends, which leads one to wonder if the game is actually struggling for subscriptions. But since exact numbers of active subscriptions are rarely released publicly by a MMO developer, and usually only when the game is doing well,  all these are only speculation.

Champions Online faces competition from City of Heroes, Cryptic’s first super hero-themed MMO that is now being run by NCSoft, and a pending DC Universe Online, a game with the popular DC Comics license.

The ‘executive producer’ of Cryptic is Bill Roper, formerly of Blizzard Software and Flagship Studios, who worked on such critically acclaimed games like Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3, but also worked on MMO bust, Hellgate: London.

See: Cryptic Gives Away Another Free Champions Weekend [MMORPG Champions Online to Bring New Player Ccostumes and Quests]

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It’s not officially official yet but it looks like Motorola and Verizon Wireless sold about100,000 Droid phones in their opening weekend. The number is certainly impressive and it looks like all that marketing effort paid off. People hurried to Verizon stores to grab the hottest Android available to date.
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See: 100,000 Motorola Droid Smartphones Sold in First Weekend [Motorola to Sell 1 Million Android Handsets in Q4 2009?]

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Last week, the much hyped Motorola Droid made its debut on the Verizon network. Armed with a slick ad campaign and generally strong reviews, the smartphone — which runs on Google’s Android platform — is taking direct aim at the iPhone and might just be the first viable competitor to Apple’s throne of awesome.

As with anything else, the proof will be in the numbers. How well did the Droid sell its first weekend out? Bloomberg reports that analysts are estimating that 100,000 units went out the door.

According to the report, that means that about half of the 200,000 phones that Verizon stocked in its stores and authorized retailers were sold over the weekend. That’s a solid launch, and certainly nothing to scoff at, but it certainly can’t compete with the 1 million plus sales weekends for both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS.

The last phone dubbed a potential iPhone-killer — the Palm Pre — sold between 45,000 and 100,000 units in its first weekend of release.

It will be interesting to see how the Droid continues to sell in the coming weeks — especially with the holiday shopping season just starting to take off.

Did you buy a Verizon Droid this weekend? What do you think of the new phone? Let us know!

Disclosure: Motorola is currently a sponsor of Mashable’s Open Web Awards.

Tags: android, droid, motorola droid, smartphone, verizon droid

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It’s hard to ignore the fact that Twitter has been overtaken this weekend with a new meme: #oneletteroffmovies takes the titles of popular flicks and changes just one letter for comedy effect.

Some attempts are hilarious, some vulgar and some just plain unfunny. Here we’ve picked more than 20 of our favorites for your weekend amusement: please post your favorites in the comments.

Tags: twitter

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