Got your tin foil hats on? Good – you’ll need it for this. Earlier this week, Accuvant Labs released a study that named Chrome the most secure browser in all the land. Um, one problem: Google was the one that commissioned the study. But the story doesn’t end there! A couple of days ago, NSS Labs – an independent security research firm – released a report of its own, in which it dissected the flaws in Accuvant’s methodology and claimed that the Accuvant study was but a small portion of a wider plan by Google to effectively kill of Firefox. Oh snap!

It’s shaping up to be a festive holiday season for Samsung! We’ve already told you that the company sold a gargantuan 300 million handsets through the first 11 months of the year, a number that no doubt brings a smile to the face of Samsung higher-ups and stock holders alike. And hey, as if that wasn’t good enough, a new report claims that Samsung took “a record share of global DRAM” in the third quarter. Time to break out the bubbly! The joy extends to consumers, too, since DRAM just continues getting cheaper and cheaper.

It’s December, and you know what that means: egg nog, Christmas trees, and Internet top ten lists from both the year past and the year to come. One early attempt at divination amounts to a lump of coal in Microsoft’s stocking: IDC doesn’t exactly expect the desktop version of Windows 8 to leap off the shelves. In fact, the analysis firm bluntly says that Windows 7 users probably won't even care about the new OS when it launches.

Ultrabooks may be the thin, attractive and powerful MacBook Air alternatives Intel and its manufacturer buddies hoped they would be, but as comparable as they are to Apple’s ultraportable laptop, they haven’t exactly been flying off the shelves. As we reported on Halloween, Acer and Asus are both reporting Ultrabook sales well under initial expectations. But wait! Don’t write off the Ultrabook just yet – one analytical firm thinks Ultrabooks will account for nearly half of all laptop sales by 2015.