[via Column Five Media]

Ookla, the company behind the Speedtest conducted a study about which countries have the fastest Internet. It turns out that South Korea has the fastest. South Koreans experience on 34.14M bps (bits-per-second) on average. The worldwide average is 7.67M bps. Sudan has the lowest average at 340K bps. The rankings are as follows for the top 5.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) company has announced that their Entertainment & Devices division President Robbie Bach will be retiring this fall. J Allard, Microsoft’s Chief Experience Officer is also leaving the company. Allard is best known for driving Microsoft’s Xbox business and oversaw the development of the Zune. Allard will continue to be a direct advisor to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Below is the e-mail that Allard sent out.

MIT graduate Chris Varenhorst bought a vending machine off of Craigslist for his project: The Vendor. Chris created an iPhone application that sends messages to the server. Chris then presses a button from anywhere and the vending machine dispenses a drink. Check out the video demo below:

MGM Mirage (NYSE:MGM) has launched five free iPhone applications to discover new ways for exploring Las Vegas hotels and attractions. Vegas Reality [iTunes link] is the first dedicated augmented reality application. Below are some of the other feature-rich apps:
- Mandalay Bay [iTunes link]
- MGM Grand [iTunes link]
- New York-New York [iTunes link] and
- Entertainment of Las Vegas [iTunes link]
Check out the video demo below:

Verizon Wireless and LG Electronics MobileComm USA Inc. announced the LG Fathom will be available on May 27 and online starting June 3. Below is the full press release:

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and AT&T announced today that they have reached a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire AT&T’s Sterling Commerce. Sterling Commerce is based in Dublin, Ohio. Sterling Commerce has about 18,000 global customers. The full press release is below:

Private publishing company Forbes, Inc. has acquired freelance startup company True/Slant. True/Slant founder and CEO Lewis Dvorkin will be joining Forbes as the Chief Product Officer on June 1st. Dvorkin worked as Executive Editor of Forbes magazine from December 1996 to April 2000. Forbes also invested in True/Slant in August 2008. [TechCrunch]