This morning a Taiwan news station reported that the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth, had passed away. However, we are happy to report that the Queen is alive and well. The report headline said (as pictured below): "Queen of England passes away, and we will miss her." It appears that the passing of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of England, was confused with the Queen.

Margaret Thatcher served England as prime minister from 1979 until 1990, and holds the title as England's longest serving politician, and nicknamed the "Iron Lady" because of her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

While we at TweakTown are sad to hear of Baroness Thatcher's passing, we are happy to report that the Queen is doing just fine. In general I hold all media sources to the highest standards and as a journalist myself, I fact check everything I post before hitting that submit button.

What has Taiwan news media been smoking this morning?

UPDATE: To be clear, there was some confusion to the translation of the headline. Some are stating the Chinese wording translates to "Queen" and others "Prime Minister". The fact remain for sure that the image used is of the Queen of England, and not Margaret Thatcher.

Apple has been trying to trademark the iPad Mini name since the product's inception, but up until now the US Patent and Trade office has been denying the request. This morning 9to5mac is reporting that the USPTO has agreed to grant the request on one condition.

If Apple would like to trademark the iPad Mini name, they must add fine-print to the application stating that Apple is not claiming exclusive rights to the term "Mini." This could be the turning point for the US PTO in how it reviews trademark applications. We're hoping that this move by the Patent office is an attempt to punish Apple for what it sees as a useless application.

In a statement the US PTO said:

"The document also holds firm on the requirement that Apple add a disclaimer to its application noting that it only seeks to protect the term "mini" when used as part of the "iPad mini" name. The disclaimer would allow other companies to use the "mini" term in their own product names."

A benchmarking standard for mobile devices has long been needed and Futuremark recognized this need. This morning Futuremark released its Mobile Hardware Channel that list the top 100 mobile devices by performance.

Unsurprisingly the top listed phone is the Samsung Galaxy S4 that posted a default score of 10,819 with extreme numbers reaching 6,725. It is followed up by the Sharp Aquos Phone Zeta, Pantech Vega R3 and the Fujitsu Arrows A 201F. The HTC One rounds out the top five with a default score of 10,389 and an extreme score of 6,310.

The worst performing device on the list is the Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ with a default score of just 3,539. Also low on the list is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE, Nexus 7 and the Acer Iconia Tab A211.

If you would like to see where your device stands, you can download the official 3DMark app for your OS by visiting the app store.

Facebook Home, the new launcher for Android by the social networking giant, releases this Friday, and will officially be available for the HTC One, HTC One X/X+, Samsung Galaxy SIII, Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Note II and the new HTC First.

This morning MoDoCo.com has published a set of three APK files that appear to be the components that make up a pre-release beta of Facebook Home. The only requirements for installing the beta is that the device has a maximum resolution of 1280x768, as well as the ability to completely remove or uninstall the existing Facebook app.

I was able to install all three apps to my aging Motorola Photon 4G, but all I got upon launch was a black screen. Home does not appear to actually reconfigure the home screen, but it remaps the home button to the Facebook Home wall. Pressing the back button allowed me to return to my normal Android home screen, and I was then able to delete the APKs through the normal app removal method.

Last month I reported that digital comic book startup comiXology would be offering the entire Marvel first edition catalog for free to users of its app. Unfortunately that is where the good news began and ended.

Just minutes after going live, the site was inundated with overwhelming traffic and their servers began to melt down. The site was unreachable for several days even after the download links were taken down. This lead to the CEO sending a mass email to members stating that they would get their free downloads, but for the time being, the company had to upgrade the network.

I was one of those subscribers, I tried to download several comics and failed to do so every time. This morning I received an email from comiXology that said they will begin delivering on their promise of free first editions beginning this Thursday. It appears that the process will be rolled out to members in phases and will only be accessible via a custom link that will be emailed to you.

It looks like the next-generation Xbox could be unveiled next month, with The Verge reporting that Microsoft are hosting an event next month for such a thing. Paul Thurrott has said that Microsoft has an event planned for May 21, with The Verge confirming this, saying "as we understand this date is accurate".

The Verge's sources have said that the event will be at a small venue, which will concentrate on the first details of the next-generation Xbox. There's not much else to report on right now, but you should pull that pencil out of your bag, and jot down that May 21 date - I'll be waiting with some seriously powerful enthusiasm.

If you're after a gigantic SSD, Crucial's upcoming M500 in 960GB might do the trick. The mammoth-sized SSD was teased a couple of months ago at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but it looks like the drive is about ready to drop.

Upgradeable.com.au has it for sale, at AU$875. This is much more than Crucial teased at CES, where they promised the "First terabyte-class drive available for under $600" But, we're also talking about an Australian retailer, so we have 10% for GST bringing the price down to under $800, and AU retailers nearly always charge more than US retailers - so $600-$650 in the US isn't much of a stretch.

What does Crucial's M500 SSD in 960GB provide? Well, you'll see some sustained sequential read/write performance of 500MB/sec and 400MB/sec, respectively. 4KB random read/writes are both up to 80,000 IOPS. The controller doing all of the work inside the Crucial M500 is the Marvel 88SS9187 controller with "Micron Custom Firmware."

We've seen leaps and bounds in graphics over the years, helped by each iteration of DirectX. But, after games started being made for, and optimized for consoles, the push of graphics started to sink.

It has gotten to the point where AMD's vice president of global channel sales, Roy Taylor, stated during an interview with German publication Heise.de, that AMD don't believe we'll see a DirectX 12 API. We won't be seeing DirectX 12 with Windows 8, or Windows Blue either.

Taylor was responding to a question about next-generation GPUs and technologies that they can be built around, where Taylor replied they'd normally build them around new DirectX versions to help the next-generation GPU architectures, but there won't be a DirectX 12, which means AMD's next-gen GPUs will integrate other technologies.

I'd love to know what "other technologies" means, but in the meantime we'll enjoy the fact that Taylor also hinted that Battlefield 4 could be part of AMD's next "Never Settle" bundle.

Reuters is jumping out of the gate, with fresh news that former News Corp president, Peter Chernin, who now runs The Chernin Group, has made a $500 million bid to buy Hulu. We heard that Hulu jammed a 'For Sale' sign into their front garden a few weeks ago, but this news is now much more official.

The Chernin Group owns stakes in Pandora Media Inc and the related production company Chernin Entertainment, who has produced films and TV shows such as New Girl, Terra Nova and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Hulu is currently jointly owned by News Corp and Walt Disney Co. Peter Chernin actually had some word in building Hulu back in 2007 when he sat on the website's board.

Reuters has reported that the owners of Hulu "reached out to potential buyers in March [of 2013] after initially contemplating a deal in which one [News Corp. or Disney] would buy out the other. It is not clear whether that transaction is still being contemplated."

The time is nearly upon us, when we get to see what the fourth-generation Core processor from Intel can do. Haswell, as it's otherwise known, has begun "shipping to customers now and will launch later this quarter" according to a source of CNET's.

Intel is expected to make a statement at the IDF Beijing conference next week, and should arrive in June for Computex in Taipei. Haswell is a special chip, as it is a next-generation processor that will scale incredibly well, from Ultrabooks to smart devices, right up to the high-end desktop and more. Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, has said that Haswell's new micro architecture will deliver "the single largest generation-to-generation battery life improvement in Intel history."

The chipmaker has confirmed the USB bug attached to chipsets, known as errata, will be "in production" during the initial ramp which happens later this month:

4th gen Core is on track for a mid-year launch. Intel issued a PCN documenting a chipset USB errata and stating that chipsets with the errata will be in production during the initial ramp. But Intel has confirmed that there is no chance of data loss or corruption. This issue has only been observed with a small subset of USB SuperSpeed thumb drives and does not affect other USB peripherals. We take all customer issues seriously and should any customer have a question or concern they can always contact Intel customer support.

Sony have just announced their 55- and 65-inch 4K-capable TVs, which will be made available as of April 21. The two new sets are the XBR-55X900A and XBR-65X900A and will sell for $4,999 and $6,999 respectively.

Sony's new 4K-capable LED TVs sport passive 3D, an edge-lit display, and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Sony had hoped to have reached a "more accessible price range" with their line of TVs, and it seems they have hit that point. Considering I paid just $1000 less for my Samsung 55-inch 1080p-capable TV, this is quite a heartbreak for me.

The on-going war between Samsung and Apple has hit an interesting point, with Apple looking to jump out in the lead once again. Judge Thomas Pender from the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled that Samsung devices infringe on a text selection patent owned by Apple.

This is a feature that is available on the iPhone and iPad, with another claim from Apple that is seeking an injunction against Samsung's use of a patented technology for detecting microphones when they are inserted into the headphone jack, which has been rejected. The first claim, of which can be appealed, could see Samsung slapped with a sales ban in the US for most of their smartphones and tablets.

The final decision should arrive in August, but we don't know if Samsung could avoid the import ban through a software update - something that could easily be done between now and then.

WikiLeaks have chosen today to release their largest ever unleashing of formerly confidential information, known as the "Kissinger Cables". These cables include over 1.7 million diplomatic records spanning 1973-1976, where 205,901 are connected to controversial US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.

The release has an eye-busting 700 million words, and contains something WikiLeaks describes as "significant revelations about US involvements with fascist dictatorships, particularly in Latin America, under Franco's Spain (including about the Spanish royal family) and in Greece under the regime of the Colonels."

These files should be an interesting read for those involved in the various industries, so hopefully we see some juicy content from them in the coming hours, days and weeks.

Anonymous are in the news again, this time for their claims of a cyberattack against the Israeli government and their various Web sites, which has caused billions of dollars in damages. Israeli officials have said that there has been no serious disruptions.

Anonymous have claimed to have hacked over a dozen website, including the Israel Police, the Prime Minister's Office, the Israel Securities Authority, the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, and the Central Bureau of Statistics. Anonymous estimates that #OpIsrael has caused over $3 billion in damages, after hacking over 100,000 websites, 40,000 Facebook accounts, 5,000 Twitter accounts and 30,000 Israeli bank accounts.

It looks like Acer is preparing a new form-factor tablet, something that will compete with the popular iPad mini among other smaller slates. Acer's Iconia A1-810 would feature a 7.9-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1024x768.

This display slaps it right on iPad mini territory, but loses out to the Nexus 7 ever so slightly. We should expect Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, an 1.2GHz MediaTek MT8125 ARM Cortex-A9 quad-core processor. The usual suspects will also make an appearance, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The A1-810 also features an micro HDMI port, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, VGA front-facer, and a 3250mAh battery.

1GB of RAM will be included, as well as 16GB of on-board storage. The Acer Iconia A1-810 weighs 460 grams and measures in at 208.7 x 145.7 x 10.5 mm. We should expect a price of around $250 and it should ship sometime in June.

It looks like NASA might just get that $100 million grant to find an asteroid, bring it back to the Moon, and study it. The $100 million initial fund would be used to find the right asteroid to retrieve.

The good news comes from the Christian Science Monitor, who says that President Obama is putting aside $100 million in a 2014 budget for the project. This isn't written in ink just yet, but it is exciting. The full project will cost much more, somewhere around $2.6 billion - a huge twenty-six times as much as the initial $100 million grant.

HTC's upcoming "Facebook Phone" or the HTC First, will still just be an Android phone underneath. Phandroid has reported that the OS shaking along underneath the First handset is accessible by either resetting the default launcher, or disabling the Facebook Home app from its own settings.

This is quite interesting, because it could change the future of the Facebook app itself. I would expect a future iteration of the Facebook for Android app to give all Android users this ability in the near future. Most people live their entire lives through their smartphone, and most of the time it's heavy Facebook use (I'm looking at you, my dear sister-in-law) and the background OS doesn't matter to those people.

Give them their games, status updates and 'liked' pages, and you've done your job.

Indie superstar, Minecraft, has sold more than 10 million copies according to Mojang customer support manager Marc Watson. Watson tweeted the news, with the milestone including just copies from PC, Mac and Linux - making it the seventh best-selling PC game of all time - a huge, huge milestone.

The game is also available on Android, Xbox 360 and iOS, so these numbers would be much higher if the extra platforms were counted. The developer has said that the Xbox 360 version alone has sold more than six million copies as of last month. Developer Jens Bergensten believes that across all platforms, sale numbers on Minecraft was around 20 million in January of this year.

What was originally thought of as a huge April Fool's Day joke has turned into an actual serious tease of the upcoming Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon from Ubisoft. A bunch of screenshots have made their way to the official Xbox.com website, which has gamers talking.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon goes down a very different path to the usual DLC, where we should expect some seriously fun first-person shooter fun. Here is the official synopsis from the game's website:

The year is 2007. It is the future. Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war and new paths for peace must be found. A U.S. cyborg army may have found a solution: a powerful bioweapon on a distant island. A Mark IV Cyber Commando, Sergeant Rex Power Colt has been sent over to gather information and figure out what the hell is going on.

US Cellular is trying something new for their would-be customers, where they're offering up some play-before-you-pay trials saving customers from signing a two-year agreement, to only be disappointed with US Cellular's network performance.

The offer is for just selected markets, starting off with Eureka, CA, Klamath Falls, OR and Knoxville, TN. Some carriers already offer this, but what happens here is that you don't need to actually sign a contrat in order to get any of the equipment to test their network out. US Cellular will instead offer a loan device, with three on offer: Motorola's Electrify M, Samsung Chrono 2 or Samsung Galaxy Metrix, which can be used for eight days with 500 minutes, 500 texts and 1GB of data included.

This is a great way to test out their network, to see if it's worth a dive into a two-year contract on a new device.