SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 RUMORS: COULD BE MODELS GT-I9500 AND GT-I9505

While 2012 is still winding down, many of us tech junkies can't help but look forward to what 2013 will bring. Samsung is slated to make some splashes next year, and it looks like the electronics manufacturer may have already started testing its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, according to a new report.

Reliable website SamMobile seems to have received an early tip off from an unnamed source that Samsung is testing new handsets with the model numbers GT-I9500 and GT-I9505. The latter is believed to be the LTE version.

Samsung devices GT-I9500 and GT-I9505 are believed to be the company's flagship Tizen smartphone or Android handset. Tizen is an operating system based off Linux, but there's also a chance that Samsung chose to skip product code GT-I9400 (the Galaxy S3 was GT-I9300) since the number 4 is bad luck in Korea. Samsung has apparently never used the number 4 as a product code, so there's a chance that GT-I9500 and GT-I9505 are actually Galaxy S4 variants.

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'THE HOBBIT' HOLDS NO. 1 SPOT, 'JACK REACHER' AND 'THIS IS 40' DISAPPOINT

Despite a record-breaking opening, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" experienced a significant 57% drop off in its second week, bringing in an estimated $36.7 million, with an $8,952 per screen average. This brings "The Hobbit's" ten-day gross to $149.9 million, tracking about 8% behind "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's" ten-day gross.

Paramount's "Jack Reacher" (Cinema Score: A-) opened this past weekend in second place with a modest $15.6 million. Based on the popular Lee Child-created character, the Tom Cruise action flick has been somewhat of a box office wild card and will have to struggle to maintain momentum to make up the costs for the $60 million production.

The weekend prior to the Christmas holiday isn't usually the strongest at the box office, but last year Cruise's "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol" opened wide on December 21 at $29.6 million. As many have already mentioned, "Jack Reacher" fans are perhaps put off by the casting, since the character is supposed to be physically imposing at 6'5″.

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FACEBOOK TESTS PAID MESSAGES TO STRANGERS

How much would you pay to contact a stranger? Facebook is sprucing up its messaging system, and the most interesting change is a move to charge people to send a message to someone outside their network.

Most important messages go straight to your inbox on Facebook. But there's a second class of messages, including potential spam and notes from people not in your network, that the site's algorithms deem "less relevant."

These unlucky missives are dropped in the little-known "Other" folder, where they will often spend the remainder of their digital existence unseen, unread and unloved.

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