Charlie Sheen joined Twitter and in just a few hours attracted more than 500,000 followers. The CBS television show “Two and a Half Men” took a hiatus during Sheens personal problems and was set to resume, but now the show appears to have put on hold indefinitely or cancelled altogether. The only new entertainment from Sheen is coming via several interviews with media, and now his Twitter account.

The caption “Winning! Choose your vice” appears over a rated G photograph of Sheen and …

Facebook confirmed today that it has acquired the talent and assets of group messaging service Beluga, which lets groups of friends communicate via their mobile device. Beluga, a free service that lets people stay in touch, share updates and photos while on the go, is based in Palo Alto, California, like Facebook. Beluga was founded in July, 2010.

Facebook said in a statement today, “We’re psyched to confirm that we’ve just acquired the talent and assets of Beluga, whose simple and …

Social Barrel loves to feature startup internet companies or existing companies launching interesting new products.  Companies interested in being featured on Social Barrel should offer products in the categories that we write about, which is social media, social networking websites like Facebook and LinkedIn, mobile, telecom, and hardware companies. If you are launching a startup or offering a new product that is of interest and value to our readers, then we want to hear from you.

If your …

ToobyDoo /Flickr / (CC BY)

A study published by the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit reveals that for 70 percent of respondents of the recent study find that downloading pirated media and software is socially acceptable.
On the other hand, according to the study first brought to attention by TorrentFreak, 30 percent of those involved in the study feel that piracy is totally unacceptable practice.
The Danish study has a piracy section where respondents were asked to rate from 1 to 10 whether …

weatherpattern / Flickr / (CC BY-NC-SA)

Verizon has just given Android fans a reason to celebrate as it has slashed its prices on nine Android-powered smartphones by up to $100.
The lineup offered with the price cuts, first reported by phandroid, includes Motorola’s Droid (CPO), Droid 2 Global (white, non-white, and CPO), Droid Pro, Droid R2D2, Droid X (CPO and non-CPO) and HTC’s Droid Incredible (CPO).
All of the smartphones come with a required new 2-year activation and data pak. The …

LGEPR /Flickr / (CC BY)

A study from enterprise mobility service provider iPass reveals that tablets and smartphones are being used more and more in the business market while laptop use is declining.
According to the firm’s Mobile Workforce Report, 65 percent of mobile workers in the enterprise market use tablets, 27 percent of which use tablets for work.
Compared to last year, laptop use declined 10 percent, the study found.
Barbara Nelson, iPass chief technology officer, said that …

jfingas / Flickr / (CC BY-ND)

Verizon Wireless will be ending its unlimited data plan scheme and will likely be deploying a tiered-pricing data usage plans essentially installing data caps on plans, various reports say.
The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg report that Verizon will be adopting data caps to keep heavy data users in check.
The WSJ says that Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said that the scheme will likely be implemented this summer. Bloomberg, also citing the top …

Game Developers' Conference 2011

The Game Developers Conference was kicked off this Monday at San Fransisco, California and Google is there, with large banners promoting its development tools in the North Hall of the Moscone Convention Center. We got reports that confirm that there will be presentations that go beyond two days and this in itself shows Google’s eagerness to woo in game developers to use its development tools.
Monday was kept aside for Chrome and HTML5, WebGL, …

Dan Sinker, an assistant Journalism professor at Columbia University, revealed it was he who was impersonating Ralph Emanuel, Chicago Mayor-elect and former chief of staff for President Obama, on Twitter.  Emanuel has always been well known for his frequent use of the ‘expletive deleted’, but he has become famous for it, at least in Chicago at the moment, following Sinker’s twitter impersonation of him.

Sinker, using the Twitter name @MayorEmanuel, posing as Ralph Emanuel, was able to …

Yutaka Tsutano / Flickr / (CC BY)

After reports last month that Apple is considering a more affordable iPhone, an analyst now points to Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook’s comments as indication that the company is seriously considering a more affordable version of its hit gadget.
Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said he thinks Apple is “likely to develop lower-priced offerings” of the iPhone, Forbes reports.
Apple’s Cook, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and …