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Fantasy fans should be ecstatic this morning; "The Hobbit," the film adaptation of J.R.R .Tolkien's classic novel, has officially been given a third film. The trilogy's first installment will drop this December, the second December 2013, and the final movie will come out sometime in summer 2014, Variety reports.

The dock connector may be the only iPhone 5 feature that we know, for sure, will be different in the next-gen model, allegedly "set for release" between September or October. Almost every major news outlet has reported Apple will slim down its traditional 30-pin dock connector -- the outlet for connecting the iPhone to other accessories, power sources, devices and utilities -- to just 19 pins in its next-gen iPhone, which Apple fans have ceremoniously dubbed "the iPhone 5."

Tennessee Titans receiver O.J Murdock, 25, died Monday morning in Tampa after apparently committing suicide by shooting himself while sitting inside his car in front of Middleton High School, according to the Tampa Police Department.

A James Holmes conspiracy theory has risen in the weeks following the release of the alleged killer's mug shot. Holmes, a 24-year-old former doctoral student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, was arrested in the parking lot of an Aurora, Colorado movie theater after police say he opened fire inside a screening of "The Dark Knight Rises." the shooting left 12 people dead and 58 others wounded.

After considering formation of a strategic relationship for over a year now, Apple and Twitter are reportedly back in talks about Apple investing in the short-messaging service, Twitter, to gain a toehold in the social-media world. According to the New York Times, Apple is reportedly considering an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in Twitter, which would raise Twitter's value to $10 billion -- more than $1.5 billion more than its valuation last year.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of online retailer Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), and his wife Mackenzie Bezos have pledged $2.5 million to help defend same-sex marriage in Washington state. Will this move affect Amazon as did forays into the culture wars made by Chick-fil-A Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., and other companies?

Brad Pitt dead? No, the actor was not killed in a snowboarding accident -- he's just the latest victim of a celebrity death hoax.

IBTimes presents its weekly roundup of winners and losers in the financial world.

Through his manager, actor and evangelist Kirk Cameron denied a request from a formerly bullied gay teenager who wanted to discuss the homophobic things Cameron has said in the past and the actions he's taken to prevent the legalization of gay marriage.

Expedia Inc, Barclays Plc, Synacor, Amgen, Nokia Corp, Starbucks Corp, Facebook, Logitech International, Newmont Mining and Zynga Inc are among the companies whose shares are moving in the premarket trading Friday.

Google, Twitter and Facebook celebrate Olympics 2012 with special initiatives that has fans hooked to the Internet for more than the usual number of hours.

As New Yorkers hunkered down for a severe thunderstorm Thursday afternoon, many took pictures of the swirling storm and posted their shots to Facebook.

"The Daily Show" host criticized Romney and the GOP on his show Wednesday night for misrepresenting a quote from Obama that made it seem like the president was saying "If you've got a business - you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

Facebook Inc (NYSE: FB), the world's largest social networking platform, on Thursday issued its first quarterly report, disclosing results that slightly beat analyst expectations.

As analysts began to eagerly predict Facebook earnings--its first as a public company--the social media giant's close ally Zynga posted dramatic losses, leading many to question the future the two tech companies may have together.

Gamasutra reports that Mark Pincus, Zynga CEO cashed in his stock in the company months before the price dropped. After selling shares at around $12 each, the company has watched as the shares have dropped as low as $3, following disappointing performance on the stock market. Zynga has consistently reported losses since going public, however; news of the CEO dumping his stock is a blow to the company's image.

A remora is a fish that sticks to the side of a shark. Inventor of FarmVille is the remora in this analogy.

Much like Google Talk going down earlier today, Twitter is experiencing service issues all over the globe, according to TechCrunch.

Whole Foods Market, Unilever, Zynga Inc, Alcatel Lucent, Siemens AG, Telefonica S.A, Facebook and Groupon Inc. are among the companies whose shares are moving in the pre-market trading Thursday.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino has written a letter to the President of the fast food chain Chick-fil-A, Dan Cathy, after Cathy’s negative remarks about gay marriage, suggesting that a Chick-fil-A would be unwelcome in the city of Boston.

Mariel Zagunis, a two-time Olympic champion fencer, was voted by Team USA as flag bearer for the United States when the opening ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics get underway Friday.

The former Republican presidential candidate broadcast his support for Chick-fil-A Wednesday in the wake of its president's anti-gay comments, posting on Twitter and Facebook about his plans to honor "National Chick-Fil-A" appreciation day and, once again, drawing the ire of gay activist Dan Savage.

It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for Chick-Fil-A's PR. Bad enough that the restaurant chain may have taken to using fake sock puppet Facebook accounts to defend itself over the internet.

Social media is now a $16.9 billion business, according to 2012 estimates by Gartner.

Most Apple fans couldn't wait to download OS X Mountain Lion, the eighth iteration of the OS X software line for Mac, and as a result, the Mac App Store was flooded early Wednesday morning with download requests for the $19.99 upgrade. Most early adopters of Mountain Lion love the beast, but most major software upgrades are not without their fair share of bugs, issues, errors and omissions. Would OS X Mountain Lion suffer the same fate?

Investors in Facebook stock are bracing themselves for something wild. The market is bracing for big swings in Facebook Inc (FB.O) shares after the social media company reports earnings for the first time as a public company.

Chad Everett, the star of the 1970s TV hit Medical Center, died Tuesday at age 75 after a battle with lung cancer - a diagnosis he allegedly kept secret from his friends, according to actor Kevin Sorbo. Everett had a long-lasting marriage with Shelby Grant, an actress who also appeared on Medical Center. The couple were married for 45 years prior to Grant's death in June 2011.

Greece has removed triple jumper Voula Papachristou from its Olympic team following posts she made on Twitter mocking African immigrants and expressing support for the fascist Golden Dawn Party.

There's always a big buzz whenever Apple releases new hardware or software - or really, any time Apple does anything publicly - and today is no different. Apple released OS X Mountain Lion this morning, which is the eighth edition of its OS X software for Mac. Many will have upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion by now, but others are waiting to know if Mountain Lion is worth upgrading to immediately. Here's why you should wait.