In agreement made with the US military, GameStop has agreed not to sell the upcoming Medal of Honor reboot in its locations on Army and Air Force military bases due to the ability to play as a Taliban fighter in multiplayer.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Services confirmed to Kotaku that it requested the game be pulled from all 49 GameStop locations located in the continental United States. GameStop told its employees that the pull was “out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.”

“GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores…,” the internal GameStop email said. “As such, GameStop agreed to have all marketing material pulled by noon today and to stop taking reservations. Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base.

“GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter.”

This is not the first time there has been an uproar over Medal of Honor and its controversial addition, UK’s Secretary of Defense called for the game’s ban in the United Kingdom. When the issue was brought to the BBFC, the ratings board gave the game an 18+ rating and nixed the ban proposal.

The AAFES confirmed to the gaming website that the reason was over the ability to fight as the Taliban. Electronic Arts declined to comment on any additional details.

Since the launch of Apple’s music-based social network yesterday, Cupertino has had some problems with Facebook and vice-versa. The New York Times is reporting that the two have become “frenemies“, since the two could not reach an agreement with Ping being based on services on top of Facebook.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the deal’s stipulations “onerous”, and that Apple’s original idea was to build Ping off of Facebook. But that deal, obviously, did not work out, and we now have Ping. However, Apple still left some connectivity to Facebook, so you could add your Facebook friends to Ping.

But once the service went live, Facebook pulled the plug on Ping’s API. Sources for NY Times said that that the Apple service, which is included inside iTunes 10, had the “potential to send so much traffic Facebook’s way and cause ‘site stability’ and ‘infrastructure’ problems”.

“We’re working with Apple to resolve this issue. We’ve worked together successfully in the past, and we look forward to doing so in the future,” Facebook said in a statement. The social network did not specifically say what the “issue” was.

Throughout the disagreements, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has created his own account on Apple’s social network. He is connected to another Facebook exec, Bret Taylor, and is the only “Mark Zuckerberg” account to be connected to another Facebook executive. So the likelihood of the account actually belonging to Zuck is high.

Apple, of course, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s pretty interesting when you take a look at all the content being shared on Twitter: photos, links, thoughts, check-ins, and even your thoughts. Twitter users have been about to share all of these things on their smartphones and computers, and now they can share on Twitter via the iPad.

The social network website announced the new iPad app on its official blog by saying, “Today we are bringing Tweets to a device that really lets content shine – the iPad. Twitter for iPad takes advantage of the iPad’s fluid touch interface, letting you move lots of information around smoothly and quickly – without needing to open and close windows or click buttons.”

There are several new features that come with the Twitter iPad app that you won’t see on other smartphones and computers. In the new application, when you tap a link or click on a video, you can now view that embedded video from within the actual application.

You can also “pinch” Tweets to view information about the author, you can pinch by putting two fingers together and pulling down.

During the event earlier today, CEO Steve Jobs also announced the release of iTunes 10 in his keynote address, the latest version of Apple’s music software. The segment wasn’t just about iTunes itself, the about one specific feature included in the latest version — Ping: a music-based social network.

Jobs described the social network as “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes” but he pointed out that “it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter.”

The userbase is already quite large thanks to iTunes 160 million users (in 23 different countries). No doubt that Apple is planning on launching the service in other markets as well. Ping is also available on the iPhone and iPod Touch via the App Store.

The service features 17,00 concert listings in its database, with the ability to write comments about artists and songs. Other abilities include: the ability to follow “friends” and artists and custom song and album charts.

Apple also made a couple other changes and additions to iTunes, the biggest being the new logo. The Cupertino-based company dropped the CD for a blue orb with a music note in the center.

So far, reaction to the new logo has been mixed: every other person either loves it or hates it. Jobs said the reason behind nixing the CD was due to the fact that most users buy their music digitally, and not so much physical CDs anymore.

iTunes 10 will be available for download shortly.

Microsoft announced earlier today, via the Windows Team Blog, that it would be releasing its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system to manufacturers. Redmond noted that the mobile operating system is the most “thoroughly tested” mobile platform it has developed.

“We’re very excited to say that we’ve reached the biggest milestone for our internal team – the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Phone 7!  While the final integration of Windows Phone 7 with our partners’ hardware, software, and networks is underway, the work of our internal engineering team is largely complete,” Terry Myerson wrote.

Exactly one month ago, iWinUX reported that 3,000 Windows Phone 7 devices had been using a Facebook application to connect the devices to Facebook. So it’s no surprise when Microsoft says that it had 10,000 phones in testing daily up until this point. Microsoft also plans to give all 90,000 of its employees a WP7 device.

Microsoft has also been listening to feedback and acting on it, as the Myerson wrote that feedback showed users wanted ways to filter their contacts so Facebook friends only appear if you really know them, and Redmond added support for just that.

Other Facebook features include the ability to view Facebook and even “like” posts from the device’s “People Hub”, or write on their wall directly from the device.

At the Apple event this morning, CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new redesigned Apple TV, a service that was first launched in 2006.

The new Apple TV set-top box is 1/4 the size of the original set-top box, and the device comes loaded with iOS 4.2, which is being released alongside Apple TV in November. Features include Wi-Fi support, HDMI capabilities, an Ethernet port, and optical audio.

The device is also seeing a dramatic price-change to $99 from the original $299. The reason for this is to appeal to a broader audience by having a price-tag that everyone can work with.

Users of the new Apple TV will also not have to worry about managing the hard drive, as the device is going to a rental model, and everything will be streamed in 720p HD.

Currently, BBC America, Disney, Fox, and ABC are the only partners on board with Apple, and you can rent television shows from the mentioned studios for only 99 cents per episode. Users can also stream right from their Netflix queue, as well as use MobileMe and Flickr.

Other companies are looking to bring broadband service to television screens as well, rival Google is set to launch Google TV with several partners later this year.

Images courtesy of Engadget

Microsoft is being reported to be spending half a billion dollars on Windows Phone 7, which is the company’s latest attempt to enter the smartphone market as a serious competitor. Half of a billion is  to be spent on marketing and development, says analyst Jonathan Goldberg.

“This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game,” says the Deutsche Bank telecommunications analyst. “It’s still wide open. They don’t have to take share from Android or Apple, so long as they can attract enough consumers switching from feature phones.”

When Goldberg visited Microsoft HQ at Redmond, Washington, earlier this week, an executive told him that the company would likely spend at least a billion on Windows Phone 7 in the first year.

“We have a long-term view and Microsoft has been in this position before in other businesses where we’ve had to take a long-term view,” says Greg Sullivan, who would not go on record about the estimates.”

“The mobile phone market is growing by leaps and bounds, but it’s still in the early stages,” the Microsoft senior product manager said.

Microsoft has announced that there will be an increase in its Xbox Live Gold subscription service for North America and the United Kingdom. Larry Hryb, Microsoft’s Major Nelson of Xbox Live-fame, announced the following prices on his official blog:

Unless noted in the above chart, other subscription packages remain the same price. Current Xbox Live Gold subscribers can now purchase a 12-month subscription at a 30 percent discount, so if you aren’t digging the new price, it would be wise to purchase early. You can view the Price Lock page here.

$59.99 might seem like a lot of money for a Gold subscription, but the increase only amounts to 16 cents a day (US).

The Xbox Live subscription price will increase on November 1, 2010.

Cisco has made an offer to acquire Skype, an eBay subsidiary, just before the company’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) process is complete. As TechCrunch reported, the site’s sources are hoping for an “out of the gate” valuation of $5 billion.

Cisco, one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies, is making an offer against Google, who has been reported to be interested in Skype as well. As much publicity as Google has gotten over merging its Google Voice service into Gmail, Google is probably nixing its planned offer in fear of antitrust concerns.

As iWinUX reported earlier this week, over 1 million calls were placed in the first 24 hours of the merger. All US and Canada calls are free, while International calls are offered at a discount, rates are even as low as 2 cents per minute for most countries.

The Financial Times is reporting that Google is currently in negotiations with major Hollywood movie studios to launch a streaming pay-per-view service on YouTube by the end of the year. Google is pitching the idea of the on-demand service being intertwined with existing Google products.

Sources close to FT say that the service will more-than-likely launch in the United States first, with other countries “added over time”. The search company is looking to its search engine and YouTube to market the new service.

The movie rental service has been in beta testing since January, claimed one source, and has been in discussion for months. Competition from Netflix’s streaming service and Hulu have created a deeper interest and a greater urgency from movie studios and Google.

Apple is also set to unveil its new Apple TV and a $99 version of its set-top box at an event this week, which will connect TV sets to the Internet, and users being able to download apps — like on an iPad — and purchase/rent movies straight from the studio.

Google has been searching for YouTube’s next big thing since the search conglomerate acquired the video sharing website in 2006.