Led by the late Michael Jackson and the vampire-driven "Twilight" series, Yahoo's Top 10 Searches for 2009 show that penny-pinching consumers are escaping to the Web "to pursue news and their guilty pleasures," according to a Yahoo search trend analyst.

Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2010 will ship in June, but continues to hammer home a marketing line that could spell trouble for sales.

Any Windows owner is familiar with the Blue Screen of Death, that much-dreaded white text on a blue background that essentially says you're through. But what you may not know is that there's a new contender in town: the Black Screen of Death. So what is this horrible-sounding thing, where did it come from, what's being done to fix it, and how bad is it? Here are five things you need to know about the Black Screen of Death.

AT&T's exclusive hold on the iPhone is coming to an end, and speculation is bubbling as to which U.S. carrier will get Apple's smartphone next. Verizon has been hot tipped to take over the iPhone, but the latest iPhone-trashing campaign for the Motorola Droid could mean it's not going to happen. Now, a new carrier has emerged as a possible contender: T-Mobile. Yes, T-Mobile.

Motorola is set to sell its millionth Google-powered Droid device by the end of this year, exceeding analyst expectations, and quickly developing a large fan base. But can Motorola replicate the success of the late RAZR and create an iconic Google Android phone to threaten Apple's iPhone?

Ailing Motorola may just be on the road to recovery. The Droid, sold in conduction with Verizon in a $100 million marketing push, is on track to sell one million units in the U.S. by the end of this year, according to an analyst quoted by GigaOm. The European outlook, where the Droid is known as the Milestone, is not as cheery -- as Dext (U.S. Cliq) and Milestone haven't benefited from such a strong marketing push.

Verizon's Droid, as we all know by now, does a lot of things (remember the commercials?). One feature conspicuously missing from the handset, however, is multitouch browsing.

Oddly, the phone itself does support multitouch functionality; the European version, the Milestone, even allows for it. No one's really quite sure why the American Droid doesn't -- well, no one who's talking, anyway. Some theories suggest it might have something to do with Apple's multitouch patents, while others hypothesize that multitouch might clash with existing Android 2.0 applications.

A second report of a Google-branded mobile phone has emerged online, possibly vindicating TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who made a similar claim in mid-November, not to mention earlier whispers from other sources. The latest rumor is courtesy of Gizmodo's Mark Wilson, who reported Monday that a new "Google Phone" will run a new and improved version of the Android operating system:

"Over the next few weeks, Google Phones (most probably in early, prototype form) will flood the Mountain View campus. They'll don large LCDs while running a new version of Android—either Flan or the version of Android beyond it—which our source spotted running on Google's handset as well as a laptop. (Whatever the software was, it most certainly wasn't Chrome OS, we were assured.)"

Michael Arrington's CrunchPad, a dream device that would allow quick and easy Internet access on a touch screen tablet, is vaporware indefinitely, but not for the cost-related reasons you'd expect.

While Black Friday deals on laptops and HDTVs helped to lure shoppers to stores and online sites over the weekend, it's still unclear whether sales of consumer electronics products really brought retailers much holiday cheer.

Even before Cyber Monday, Amazon's Kindle hit a sales record in November, topping all previous months in the e-reader's two-year history.

Where there is no app for that on the iPhone, there now is for porn on the competing Android mobile operating system. A Seattle-based company named MiKandi (pronounced "my candy") has released an app store specifically geared towards porn. The application attempts to create a red light district for adult Android apps allowing adult content providers to set up shop within a MiKandi app (see SFW video).

Just when you thought it was safe to put away that credit card, the National Retail Federation presents its annual Cyber Monday event. If you decided to forgo the maddening crowds on Black Friday, you can still snap up some great deals today from the comfort of your cubicle, home office, or kitchen table.

The NRF's event is meant to officially kick off the online shopping season, and an estimated 90 percent of leading online retailers plan on offering discounts or free shipping today. That includes some of the major retailers and players in tech.