HTC's Dismal Quarter; Microsoft Sells Mediaroom; AppGratis Pulled From App Store.

Topping tech headlines on Monday, HTC reported another huge drop in profits for the first quarter amidst the delayed rollout of its newest flagship smartphone, the HTC One.

HTC reported NT$42.8 billion ($1.42 billion) in revenue, but only NT$85 million ($2.82 million) in earnings. That, according to Bloomberg, is the phone maker's lowest quarterly profit on record. For more, see PCMag's review of the HTC One for Sprint.
In other news, Microsoft yesterday finalized a deal to turn its IPTV business, Mediaroom, over to Ericsson so it can focus on Xbox. Mediaroom, which employs more than 400 global workers, will make Ericsson the largest provider of IPTV technology, with more than 25 percent of the market. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.
Meanwhile, yet another app can join the "Pulled from the App Store" club, as Apple this week yanked AppGratis for violations of its terms of service. AppGratis, an app-discovery service, says on its website that it offers "huge discounts on paid apps," as well as one push notification per day.
Also on the app front, app downloads increased 11 percent during the first three months of 2013 compared to the previous quarter, according to new data from Canalys. The four leading app stores — Apple's App Store, Google Play, the Windows Phone Store, and BlackBerry World — together hit 13.4 billion downloads, the research firm said.
Here's some other news you might have missed yesterday:

• • Marvel Tries Again With Free Downloads of 700 First Issues: Second time's the charm? After its first attempt to give away free digital copies of first-edition issues went awry, Marvel is trying again.
  • CISPA Reworked Ahead of Vote to Appease White House: Amidst backlash from privacy groups and uncertainty about whether their bill would pass muster with the Senate and the White House, the authors of a controversial cyber-security bill announced several amendments that they hope will help move it forward.
  • HP Launches First 'Project Moonshot' Servers: New infrastructure framework for scale-out data centers supporting fast-growing "big data" activities kicks off with the launch of an Intel Atom-based Moonshot 1500 enclosure.
  • Mars in a Month? Hook Up the Fusion Drive: Researchers at the University of Washington are working on a fusion-powered spacecraft that could theoretically ferry astronauts to Mars and back in just 30 days—shaving off years from what scientists believe a trip using current technology would take.
  • Worldwide Domain Names Top 252 Million: More than six million names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total number worldwide to a whopping 252 million-plus top-level domains.
  • Sony Unveils $699 4K Media Player for UHD TVs: Sony unveiled a 4K media player and video service that will serve up content for your 4K - or ultra-high definition - TVs.
  • Patent Office Withdraws iPad Mini Trademark Objections: Despite an initial rejection, the U.S. Patent Office has reversed course and withdrawn its objections to Apple's trademark application for the iPad mini name.
  • Report: NASA Prepping $100 Million Robotic Asteroid Retrieval Mission: The commercial space mining industry has rapidly moved from the stuff of science fiction into a very real, potentially billion-dollar industry, and NASA is now getting in on the action.
  • Liquid Robotics Unveils Powerful Data-Collecting Ocean Robot: Liquid Robotics had released its latest unmanned, autonomous marine robot, dubbed the Wave Glider SV3.
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