Joystiq: Your mother-in-law is going to love Angry Birds Space

Rovio's furious fowl have fought menacing swine on traditional battlefields, foreign fronts and even through seasonal holidays -- outer space was obviously the next logical step. In case you somehowhaven't heard, Angry Birds Space sees casual gaming's most perturbed feathered heroes escaping terra firma to, as always, reclaim their stolen eggs. Joystiq describes the title as a tweaked, but familiar affair with a new twist that literally changes the gravity of the situation -- challenging players with inventive stages built around planetoids that divert and redirect the birds' trajectories. Sure, it might not resurrect a dead horse, but the new mechanic, they said, is probably enough to keep your in-laws entertained.

Leica's M9-P to be offered in unicorn-guise, $31,770 and Japan-only

Currently drowning in more cash than sense? Do you also call the land of the rising sun home? Excellent, as we've found the perfect camera just for you: the elusive white variant of Leica's M9-P. Restricted to only 50 units, the unicorn shooter will go on sale come June for a cool 2,620,000 yen (or around $31,770) -- a hefty premium over the regular (read: black and chrome) permutations which cost $7,995. Granted those pedestrian versions don't come wielding an insane f/0.95 50mm lens out of the box. And if this ridiculous combo is priced out of your league, you could always go after its cheaper, yet also delectable white predecessor -- although we'll hazard you're going to need more than just luck finding it.

Distro Issue 33 takes on Apple's new iPad -- Now in HD!

Late last week, Apple unleashed its new iPad on the world, and in this issue of Distro we'll let our review of the high-res tablet loose on you. While the iPad may be out in front in terms of sales today, our Weekly Stat shows that the army of Android competitors may surpass it by 2016. We'll give one of those soldiers, the Acer Iconia Tab A200, the review treatment in this issue, as well as Wacom's latest tablet of another sort, the Intuos5 Touch, and Samsung's rugged handset, the Rugby Smart. Also on offer in our 33rd edition are a host of regular exclusives: Recommended Reading, Switched On, a Q&A with Tekzilla's Patrick Norton and the comic stylings of Box Brown. So grab the tablet of your choosing and hit the appropriate download link below, but make sure to update your app if you're sporting Apple's latest slate -- we've optimized Distro for high-res viewing.

NVIDIA's GTX 680 tested in SLI and multi-display modes, loses some of its lead

Just hours after our review round-up of the new GeForce GTX 680 graphics card yesterday, a Dutch site has managed to test multiple cards in different (but invariably exorbitant) SLI modes. One of the strange things we learned during our hands-on was that SLI is complicated by NVIDIA's GPU Boost technology, which causes individual cards in the same chassis to run at different clock speeds depending on their load and temperature. Fortunately, Hardware.info reports no problems with SLI whatsoever, but it also concludes that the GTX 680 doesn't scale quite as well as AMD's Radeon HD 7970 in this type of niche setup. That changes if you throw down even more money on a 5760 x 1080 triple-display rig, in which case NVIDIA takes the lead in some games, but loses in others -- leaving the two rivals closer than the single-card reviews we looked at yesterday. 

Rdio inks deal to license UK music, but doesn't offer up a visit date

One of those other music subscription services has inched towards British shores, announcing a licensing deal with PRS for Music, a not-for-profit organization representing around 85,000 songwriters and music publishers. The San Francisco-made music service has already launched across Europe, the US and Brazil, but still remains out of reach for Brits. While it's far from a confirmation of intent, the service might have plans to jump across to the land of royalty, Rich Tea biscuits and RPattz pretty soon.

Facebook bought 750 patents from IBM

The patent war between Facebook and Yahoo may be only just starting.

A new report says Facebook has acquired 750 patents from computer-systems giant IBM. The news comes shortly after Yahoo sued Facebook for patent infringement over 10 of its software patents.

A "person with knowledge of the transaction" tipped the news toBloomberg Businessweek, though the deal hasn't been made public yet.

Compared to other tech companies, Facebook's arsenal of patents is rather meager: The company has just 56 patents compared with the thousands stockpiled by the likes of Microsoft and Apple.

However, the report says, Facebook has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for at least 500 more. Apparently it didn't want to wait for those to be approved and chose to take a shortcut in stocking up its patent portfolio.

The lawsuit from Yahoo, which has recently had a wholesale change in management and is expected to announce layoffs, likely provided the motivation.

See also: Tech industry scorns Yahoo over Facebook patent suit

Many tech companies are now using patents strategically to both generate revenue and discourage competition. For example, Google licenses many patents from Microsoft in the making of the Android platform, which provides a steady cash flow for Microsoft.

In other cases, such as the many patent lawsuits between Apple and Samsung, patents are used to shut competitors out of entire regions (though that's rarely the outcome).

IBM has been friendly in selling patents to younger tech companies in the past. In January, Google bought 217 patents from the IBM, including one for a "semantic social network."

Reps from Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. An IBM rep declined comment.

What do you think of Facebook's patent grab? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sharp intros underwhelming RW-T110 Gingerbread tablet with NFC, not much else on board

Last year, we saw Sharp bust out an array of 7-inch Android slates, including that NFC-packing RW-T107. Now, the Japanese company is adding a slightly larger member to the family, dubbed RW-T110. This 10.1-inch Gingerbread slab (sorry, Ice Creamers) is sporting a 1GHz TI OMAP processor alongside 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a 1280 x 800 display as well as an NFC chip. Additionally, the biz-oriented slate is powered by a 6,240mAh battery, which promises to get you up to nine hours of continuous video payback time. The RW-T110 will be hitting Japanese shelves on March 27th, and while there's no info on whether Sharp plans to launch it in other markets, we doubt you'll miss this run-of-the-mill "Big Pad."

PSA: ICS customer guide now available for Samsung Galaxy S II owners

Now that Ice Cream Sandwich has (finally) begun rolling out for the Galaxy S II, Samsung has decided to put together a little guidebook to help its European customers get started. It's actually more PowerPoint than book, but it's just as informative as you'd expect, offering a full rundown of everything GT-I9100 users will need to know before making the jump. The folks over at Coolsmartphone were kind enough to put it all into a pocket-sized PDF

Samsung's WiFi-laced DV300F camera now available, priced at $200

After having launched in January, Samsung's WiFi-enabled DV300F camera officially hit the market today, according to a fresh announcement from the Korean manufacturer. As the latest addition to theDualView line, this 16 megapixel shooter features a 25mm wide angle lens with 5x optical zoom, and boasts a three-inch main LCD, along with that 1.5-inch front-facing display. The latter is specifically designed to make self-shots a bit easier to manipulate, but it also features some extra kids games in "Children Mode," to help keep the little ones at bay. And of course, there's onboard WiFi connectivity, allowing users to instantly upload shots to Picasa and Facebook, and an extra "Smart Face Recognition" function. According to Samsung, the device is now available on a "global basis," for a price of ₩299,000, or about $266. For more details, check out the full, but choppily translated PR, after the break.

Update: We've received word that U.S. pricing has been announced as well, with the DV300F hitting stateside shelves for $199.99. That model, along with the $229.99 WB150F, are shipping now.

All of those Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 video apps Microsoft has been promising since last year's dashboard update continue to slowly leak out, and the latest is the BBC iPlayer. Already long available on the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3, UK gamers finally have access to the catalog of titles on any major console they choose. The Xbox 360 supports HD streams and, of course, voice and gesture control courtesy of that little add-on, however unlike many of the services on Microsoft's box, this one is available to all users with or without an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Platforms that are next up for iPlayer's blessing? Sky AnyTime+ is confirmed for later this year while a Windows Phone 7 is reportedly being developed. Check after the break for a couple more shots of the interface, plus a video demo for users on the appropriate side of the pond.

Intel's empire-building in non-PC markets could almost be considered Napoleonic, were it not so inherently rational. Having given us the lauded Medfield SoC for smartphones and tablets, it has now announced its next-gen processor for cable boxes. Nicknamed "Berryville", the dual-core Atom CE5300 is loaded up with integrated 2D/3D graphics, hyperthreading, virtualization and ultra-realistic car chases, which Intel hopes will allow Pay TV providers to offer smarter services, like gaming, home security and home automation. Can't let ARM have all the fun now, can we?

BBC iPlayer app finally launches for all UK Xbox 360s

All of those Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 video apps Microsoft has been promising since last year'sdashboard update continue to slowly leak out, and the latest is the BBC iPlayer. Already long available on the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3, UK gamers finally have access to the catalog of titles on any major console they choose. The Xbox 360 supports HD streams and, of course, voice and gesture control courtesy of that little add-on, however unlike many of the services on Microsoft's box, this one is available to all users with or without an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Platforms that are next up for iPlayer's blessing? Sky AnyTime+ is confirmed for later this year while a Windows Phone 7 is reportedly being developed. Check after the break for a couple more shots of the interface, plus a video demo for users on the appropriate side of the pond.

Sonos' new controller apps now available for kicking out those jams

Remember those revamped Sonos apps the company teased last week? Now they can be yours whenever you choose to update the software on your OS X or Windows computer. As well as a refreshed user interface, you'll get unified search, drag-and-drop functionality and one-touch party mode -- although it turns out, that last one doesn't suddenly make a party appear in your house. Shame, that.