Flame, a highly sophisticated virus that was first discovered in Iranian oil refineries, and is supposedly the result of a U.S. and Israel joint effort to slow down Iran's nuclear program, reports The Washington Post. The information comes from multiple Western officials who purportedly have knowledge of the project, but of course want to remain anonymous.

This shouldn't come as a surprise considering the U.S. were unveiled as using the volatile Stuxnet virus, where The New York Times reported about Operation: Olympic Games, which is a project that used Stuxnet and Duqu, both sophisticated viruses. These viruses targeted Iranian SCADA systems, that allowed the creators of this virus to gather intelligence and even control aspects of Iran's nuclear and oil refining facilities.

Stuxnet code has been found within the Flame virus, according to security researchers, which is an unofficial confirmation that the creators of the Stuxnet virus (the U.S. government) are also behind this new nasty virus. Once this was discovered, in Get Smart fashion, the virus began to self-destruct, hastily removing itself from infected computers... not suss, huh?

LG haven't been doing so well in the tablet market which is mainly dominated by Apple, Samsung and Amazon, but instead of making a constant loss, or barely breaking even, they're completely diving out of the market and concentrating solely on the smartphone side of things.

LG is focused on the smartphones big time, with company spokesman Ken Hong speaking to AllThingsD and being quoted here:

We decided early this year to focus exclusively on building up our smartphone portfolio, which includes the category of large five-inch display and over devices, such as Optimus Vu, which we feel addresses many of the content consumption issues with traditional mobile phones.

Microsoft held their "secret" press event this week, where they announced their Surface tablet running the upcoming Windows 8 OS, but did PC makers know what Microsoft was going to show off? Well, yes, yes they did.

During an interview with The Verge, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer noted that PC makers knew about the Surface tablet ahead of the announcement. The question is, how long before the announcement did PC makers know about Microsoft's Surface tablet? The other question is why didn't Microsoft unveil the Surface tablet at Computex just two weeks ago? Did they hold off so PC makers could show off their various Windows 8-based tablets and Ultrabooks?

Was this why the Microsoft booth at Computex was so quiet? It would appear (to me at least) that this is the case. Ballmer did note that one of the reasons behind Microsoft building the Surface table was to "prime the pump" for Windows 8's release later in the year, noting that a tablet was an important piece of the overall story of Windows 8. PC makers have been quiet about the Surface tablet, and for good reason.

Microsoft are on quite the roll this week, first up we had their Surface tablets, and now the announcement of Windows Phone 8. The next-generation mobile operating system will sport a redesigned home screen, now allowing every tile to be customized in one of three available sizes, and completely ditches the right-hand "rail" that help the link to the full app list.

Skype and VoiP functionality are built directly into Windows Phone 8. Microsoft are adding a background agent that handles incoming and outgoing calls, as well as messaging and integration with several of the Windows Phone 8 features. Skype takes full advantage of this, as well as any other VoiP-based application without favoring one over the other. Microsoft's Greg Sullivan says the integration is so good that he jokes that Apple should create its own FaceTime app on Windows Phone 8, and it would work better than it does on the iPhone.

Windows Phone 8 will include Internet Explorer 10, which will run on the same desktop code used in Windows 8. It will also offer four times faster JavaScript performance and full HTML5 support. Security-wise, it will offer increased security, such as a phishing filter and the SmartScreen URL reputation system.

Acer have jumped out today, late in the week, to announce their thin and light Timeline Ultra M5 Series of Ultrabooks. Measuring in at just 0.81-inches thick, they're quite slim and light. Also sporting up to 8 hours of battery life, a single charge can give you an entire days use from the Ultrabook.

Acer also has their Green Instant On, which as you can imagine is an 'instant-on' tech which can throw the Ultrabook back into action within 6 seconds from a deep sleep, or just 2 seconds from normal sleep mode. Acer's new Timeline Ultra M5 Ultrabooks also feature Intel's third-generation Core processors, as well as NVIDIA's latest discrete GPUs, optical drives, and an option of either a 14- or 15.6-inch display.

The new Ultrabooks feature either a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive for super-fast access to your files and transfer speed, with all models sporting a DVD drive as well. Two USB 3.0 ports are found on the Ultrabooks, and filling out the GPU side of things we'll find an NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M or 640M LTE dedicated GPUs for your GPU-accelerated, or gaming needs. Fans of backlit keyboards will feel at home since Acer's latest offerings sport the beautiful backlit keyboards, as well as the professionally-tuned Dolby Home Theater v4 and premium speakers that will deliver some great audio for your music, games or movies.

Google Maps with traffic conditions is a great idea, especially if you're trying to get from A to B during rush-hour. But, the feature hasn't been made available across the world. Today, the team at Google Maps have made it available in 7 more counties: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania and South Africa.

The Maps team have also improved the traffic conditions feature, as well as added more roads in 19 counties and regions: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the UK. The Maps team has said:

For our new users, you can check traffic conditions by visiting maps.google.com and clicking on the traffic layer in the widget on the upper right-hand side of the map. This useful traffic information is also available on Google Maps for Mobile devices and Google Maps Navigation.

After a reported eight-year development, Max Payne 3 has not done so well. According to last month's NPD numbers, actual sales figures of Rockstar's slow-mo, kill-lotsa-dudes game, Max Payne 3, has only sold 440,000 copies.

Considering that new IP from Rockstar from last year, LA Noire, pushed over 900,000 copies, one would think an already-established IP like Max Payne would do better. But it has fallen short of industry expectations with Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter calling the game "a flop".

Pachter cites the eight-year development, and claiming "Rockstar put off releasing GTA" to work on Max Payne 3. Have you picked up the game yet? I've only played through around 20 minutes of it and have enjoyed it so far, but it's hard to play the game with a broken wrist and cast! 4 more weeks until I can thrash through it!

Bethesda Softworks have announced that the Doom 3 enhanced re-release of Doom 3 is coming out just before Halloween, on October 16. Doom 3 "BFG Edition" hits PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and will retail for $40 on the consoles, and $30 for the PC.

Doom 3 BFG Edition includes Resurrection of Evil and "The Lost Mission", all in glorious 3D, 5.1 surround sound, achievements, improved rendering and lighting as well as a new checkpoint save system. The improvements don't end there, also included is an armor-mounted flashlight "allowing players to illuminate dark corners and blast enemies at the same time".

Doom 3 BFG Edition also comes with the original Doom and Doom 3, making the BFG Edition the "definitive collection" for the series.

NVIDIA has issued a statement regarding Linus Torvalds harsh words. A little recap: Linus Torvalds said during a conference that NVIDIA is the worst company ever and then said "NVIDIA: F*** you!" He said this because he was a little upset with the Linux support and willingness to work with the open source community.

NVIDIA's PR machine has been at work crafting a statement to respond to his comments and finally issued a statement last night. The short version is that they are committed to Linux support using their own proprietary driver that is common among platforms. This allows for same-day Linux support of GPUs.

They also highlight their work with Tegra in the Linux community. Below is the NVIDIA response:

Facebook is adding subscription billing which should allow app developers to make even more money from their most loyal users. Starting next month, app developers will be able to create special plans or content that is available with a monthly fee. The lowest monthly fee that can be offered by a developer is a mere $1.

Kixeye is a perfect example of how developers can take advantage of the new system. Kixeye is planning on having a $9.95 per month subscription plan that will give subscribers access to exclusive in-game items. They are focusing on a smaller subset of players that are more inclined to pay which should yield an interesting revenue stream.

In other news, Facebook is backing away from Facebook Credits as the main currency. Just a few years ago, Facebook was pushing Credits so that Facebook and online shopping would become linked in people's minds. This, unfortunately, prevented developers from using their in-game currency for purchases.