They say things have to get worse before they can get better. For Sony, that's apparently a threat – not a promise. First PSN went poof, then Sony announced that some hacker got their keyboard-calloused mitts on everyone's personal info, and now, well, you can probably see where this is headed. Yep: straight to court.
The Rothken law firm has filed a federal class action lawsuit against SCEA on behalf of PSN's 77 million-strong customer base. Specifically, the suit takes Sony to task for "failure to maintain adequate computer data security of consumer personal data and financial data" and demands compensation for "extra time, effort, and costs" users must now expend to help clean up Sony's mess.
"Sony's breach of its customers' trust is staggering," said Rothken co-counsel J.R. Parker. "Sony promised its customers that their information would be kept private. One would think that a large multinational corporation like Sony has strong protective measures in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal information, including credit card information. Apparently, Sony doesn't."
Now the sticky part: Is it even fair to blame Sony for the actions of some maniacal tube-bending Internet wizard? Could any security measure taken a hit like this and not come crumbling down? For obvious reasons, Sony's not talking, but this Digital Foundry article is incredibly eye-opening. In a nutshell, PSN's gaping security holes have been clearly visible since the Geohot jailbreaking brouhaha earlier this year, yet Sony did nothing to patch them up. There's far more detail in the actual article, and it's well worth a read.
So, does it constitute negligence on Sony's part? That's for the court to decide. In the meantime, we can only say for certain that Sony did a fairly miserable job of communicating in the early goings of the situation, and that's a colossal no-no. As we said earlier, things have to get worse before they can get better. We have to wonder, though: Is Sony the one making them worse?
Apple pioneered the first-party mobile app store as we know it in July, 2008. Since then, the Apple App Store has played an increasingly important role in the success of the iOS ecosystem and continues to boast the largest app population (over 350,000) of any app store out there. But, according to market research outfit Distimo, its leading rival, the Android Market, is catching up with the App Store at such a fast rate that the former could become the most populous app store within the next five months.
Just for the record, the Android Market has already leapfrogged the App Store in terms of the total number of free applications available with them. The Android app repository now boasts 134,342 free applications compared to the App Store's 121,845.
"If all application stores maintain their current growth pace, approximately five months from now Google Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of applications followed by the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad, Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World and Nokia Ovi Store," wrote Distimo's Gert Jan Spriensma in a blog post regarding the study.
Windows 7 Marketplace is also making reasonable progress and is expected to "be larger than the Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World prior to the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace being available for even a full year."
The prospect of the App Store breathing in the Android Market's slipstream is now very real. But does the app count even matter after a certain point?
We tapped five top vendors to send us their best small form factor rigs. What we got were machines that will blow your mind in system specs and performance. But more important--are they small form factors? Maximum PC's Gordon Mah Ung gives you a quick preview of five of the fastest and smallest machines around.
Pre-release versions of Windows 8 have leaked to the web. Here's what they tell us about the upcoming OS
Recently leaked builds show that Windows 8 will be a very different OS from its forebears, from the kernel to the cloud. ARM processor support, mobile-device optimization, and system-wide menu tweaks abound. There are still a lot of things we don't know about the next OS from Microsoft, but the number of things we can say for sure is growing. Read on for our list of 7 things we know about Windows 8!
ARM-ament
It's no secret that Microsoft wants Windows on tablets. To get there, Windows 8 will include support for ARM processors, as Steve Ballmer demonstrated at CES in January. That means it could compete with Android and iOS on slim, low-power devices—if Microsoft keeps bloat under control.
Touch Optimization
The suckage of Windows touch-screen interfaces has been, well, a touchstone of tech reality for more than a decade. But design elements from the login screen, task manager, and browser all point to tight integration of touch controls throughout the operating system. A touch-friendly login screen buried in the leaked code lets you unlock the device using a pattern rather than a password, in the same way Android does. Some short-lived YouTube videos (DMCA'd by Microsoft's legal team) also demonstrated gesture support.
Ribbons Galore
If you were among the throngs who hoped Office's ribbon menus would prove a passing phase, you'll be sorry to note that they're now pervasive in Windows Explorer. The good news is that it looks like you'll be able to revert these menus to a layout more similar to that of Windows 7.
Windows 8 Explorer menus will apparently feature the same ribbon interface as Microsoft Office 2007 and 2010, though we may have the option of reverting to old-school menu bars.
Revamped Task Manager
Managing running applications—and being able to quickly kill resource-hogging tasks—is even more critical on mobile devices than it is on gaming rigs. The reconfigured tool, renamed Modern Windows Task Manager, will give you a single window from which to spot and kill the processes that are slowing down your system by combining the Resource Monitor and the Task Manager together. It also includes tap-friendly kill buttons for tablet users.
Immersive Browser
Some leaked screenshots from the Windows 8 alpha show a simple, full-screen browser that looks identical to the Metro browser included in Windows Phone 7, complete with a mosaic of little blocks for favorites and such. Once again, strong evidence that Microsoft is betting big on tablets as the future home of Windows.
Cloud Integration
At long last, it looks like Windows will get integrated cloud storage synching with Win8. In addition to Windows Live SkyDrive, which you'd expect the next Windows to support by default, it appears you'll be able to add third-party cloud storage services as mapped drives.
Portable Workspaces
The demise of U3 in 2009 left a void in the portable apps market that Microsoft helped to fill by cofounding StartKey in partnership with SanDisk. It now appears that Microsoft is integrating this technology directly into Windows 8 with a feature called Portable Workspace. Leaked screenshots show that USB drives of 16GB or larger will be formatted with a portable image of the user's Windows 8 system.
The new Portable Workspace will turn any USB drive with more than 16GB of space into a pocketable clone of your PC.
Of course, predicting final release features based on Windows alphas is always dicey. We need only recall all the cool features Longhorn was supposed to bring us, and then look at the reality of Vista, for a cautionary tale in the hazards of banking on Microsoft's leaked alpha builds. But if Microsoft has the sack to release all the features we're seeing in these early builds, Windows 8 could prove as significant a platform change as Win95.
We have nothing but admiration for Blizzard's dedication to blinding polish, but we counter it with this incredibly poignant argument: "We want Diablo III nooooow." Last we heard, Blizzard was hoping to grant our wish within 2011's chronological bounds, but with the caveat that "when it's done" still rules the day. Fortunately, there now seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel – dim though it may be.
"We're definitely in the home stretch. We're crunching. This is when the magic happens," game director Jay Wilson told The New York Times.
Granted, Blizzard magic takes a lot more than a simple wave of a wand or a good old-fashioned blood sacrifice. For instance, StarCraft II entered its "final stretch" in February 2009, and then proceeded to take a leisurely stroll through development hell until July 2010.
So, anyone want to place bets on when Diablo III will finally drop? We're leaving out all calendar years that don't begin with the phrase "stardate," because – above all else – we're realists.
Microsoft just can't catch a break. The tech giant reported their quarterly results, and they managed to beat analyst expectations. Microsoft had revenue of $16.43 billion for the which is a 13% increase from a year ago. Income was $5.23 billion, or about 61 cents per share. So why is Microsoft feeling down about these admittedly huge numbers? The market isn't impressed. Redmond is seeing stock dip 2% in after-hours trading.
It seem as though just announcing financial data, no matter how good, simply reminds investors Microsoft exists. That apparently is enough to cause a small sell-off. Most of the trepidation regarding Microsoft's future comes from the recent influx of tablet and mobile phone products in the market. Microsoft is perceived as not playing in that world very well. For better or worse, investors are worried enough that Microsoft shares have dropped 14% in the last year.
A bright spot for Microsoft is the success of the Xbox and Kinect. These products, along with Office propelled the company to these record profits. Now if only someone would care.
We know that Netflix has been killing it in new subscriber counts quarter after quarter, but that might be having some unexpected consequences. According to TorrentFreak, the increasing prevalence of Netflix is having a negative effect on US-based BitTorrent piracy. Apparently, if you give people a good deal on content, a lot of them will stop pirating movies.
TorrentFreak is not about to call time of death on torrents. There are no hard numbers on the effect, but they note, "We have some preliminary stats which show that the number of absolute US [Torrent] downloaders slightly decreased over the last year." Netflix has made a name for itself streaming a large catalog of films and television for a low price. Torrents were previously one of the few ways to get the same content for a low price (in its case, free).
Make no mistake, Netflix isn't going to totally stop piracy. But this trend could show that many consumers would like to pay for their content, they just lacked a viable option until recently. Do you think content owners should take this as a sign, and go with the streaming flow?
Google has announced today that native video chat is coming to the Android phone platform. The new version of Google Talk will be bundled in the new Android 2.3.4 update, which is currently rolling out to the Google Nexus S. Video chat debuted on Honeycomb with the Motorola Xoom, but this is the first time we've gotten confirmation the feature was coming to phones.
Of course, the Nexus S user base is very small, so the majority of users will be waiting until their carrier and manufacturer roll out the 2.3.4 update. The video chat functionality will work over 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi. But users will be able to call more than just Android devices. Video calls will tie in with Google's existing video chat capability in Gmail.
The app will allow sharing of links and videos while chatting. Users will be able to leave the video chat and take care of other business, but keep the audio running in the background. We're going to be interested to see how manufacturers deal with this big update.
No one's going to argue that Intel's the big man on campus for desktops, notebooks, and servers, but in the mobile device world, well, ARM is the one muscling the competition. ARM Holdings this week announced its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011, and the numbers have never been better. Riding the mobile wave, ARM's revenue jumped 29 percent to $185.5 million, with profits up 35 percent at $30.5 million. Both are record numbers for ARM.
ARM partially attributed its record breaking performance to widespread growth in adoption of ARM processor technology. ARM added 39 processor licenses signed for all target end markets in the first quarter, including several major semiconductor companies who, for the first time, licensed ARM technology in order to develop chips for set-top boxes and digital TV applications.
"Influential market leaders are licensing ARM technology to gain access to a growing ecosystem of operating systems, software applications, tools and service providers," said Warren East, CEO of ARM. "Many of these companies have been ARM licensees for many years, and are now deploying ARM technology across a multitude of applications; in mobile, consumer electronics and embedded devices.
"This licensing drives ARM's long-term royalty opportunity. Shipments of ARM-processor based chips increased 33 percent on the same period last year driven by growth in smartphones, tablets, digital TVs and microcontrollers. ARM's revenue growth enables us to continue to invest in innovative technology development at the same time as delivering strong increases in profits and cash flow."
ARM also benefited from the emerging tablet market and increasingly popular smartphone segment. In just the first quarter, ARM shipped around 1.15 billion processor-based chips into mobile devices, the company said.
Yahoo found a pair of buyers for its Delicious social bookmarking site. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who you might recognize as the founders of YouTube, paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Delicious. Whatever that sum is, it's a safe bet that they paid significantly less than the $1.65 billion they made from selling YouTube to Google back in October 2006.
"We spoke with numerous parties interested in acquiring the site, and chose Chad and Steve based on their passion and unique vision for Delicious," said John Matheny, SVP of Communications and Communities at Yahoo.
If you have a Delicious account, you'll need to login and agree to let Yahoo transfer your bookmarks to the new owner. By doing so, you'll continue uninterrupted use of Delicious and keep your account and all your bookmarks. If you choose not to, Delicious will still be available in its current form until July 2011, and after that you'll no longer be able to use your account or access your existing bookmarks or account information.
Don't worry about the cold and rainy weather sweeping through parts of the country, it's okay to bust out your open source swimming trunks anyway. Canonical today invites you to dive into Linux with the release of Ubuntu 11.04, otherwise known as Natty Narwhal. This latest Linux distro, which has been in beta form for about the past month, supports laptops, desktops, and netbooks, and supersedes Ubuntu Netbook Edition for all PC netbooks, Canonical says.
"11.04 continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality easy-to-use Linux distribution," Canonical said in a press release announcing the new build.
New to this latest release is a Unity-based desktop that's a bit different from a Windows-based desktop. There's an embedded global menu that sits on the top of the screen, and a task dock attached to the left-hand side. Unfortunately, the task dock placement can't be customized, Arstechnica notes, though users who aren't feeling the new design can opt for the "Classic" desktop in the system login interface.
Read more of what's new here, and when/if you're ready, you can download a copy of Ubuntu 11.04 here.
AMD on Wednesday rolled out new Catalyst drivers for Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 series graphics cards, and Radeon 3000 and 4000 series chipsets. The new Catalyst 11.4 suite adds a handful of new features, such as new task-based Display Management controls, easier Eyefinity setup, and a new Catalyst update notification system that lets AMD graphics card owners know when updated drivers are available.
The latest release also boasts up to double digit performance gains in select games, including:
Call of Duty Black Ops: gains of up to 15 percent with AA and AF on single GPU configurations
Battleforge: gains of up to 15 percent with AA and AF on single and multiple GPU configurations
Batman Arkham Asylum: gains of up to 20 percent with AA and AF on single and multiple GPU configurations
Civilization V: gains of up to 15 percent on single and multiple GPU configurations
Lost Planet 2: gains of up to 10 percent on single and multiple GPU configurations
Aliens vs Predator: gains of up to 8 percent with AA and AF on single and multiple GPU configurations
Far Cry 2: gains of up to 6 percent on single and multiple GPU configurations
Just Cause 2: gains of up to 9 percent on single and multiple GPU configurations
A number of bug fixes come with the new driver package, one of which resolves an issue in Firefox 4 with hardware acceleration where the GPU would previously show high usage.
Large portions of Japan are in still ruins, the Middle East is spiraling deeper into chaos and the CEO of GoDaddy.com murders elephants in his downtime--but you can't find anything about it online because major portals like CNN and Gawker are too busy providing a blow-for-blow account of Charlie Sheen winning. Yeah, we're a little tired it too. That's why Silence of Celebs has been picked as our Extension of the Week.
Once installed, Silence of the Celebs excels at blocking the inane prattle of over-exposed celebrities. Just open the extension's user interface, click on the stars that you're sick of hearing about and watch them disappear from the interwebz before your very eyes. While this makes reading news sites like the NYTimes and HuffingtonPost bearable (depending on your political sensibilities), it can also turn a Twitter trawling session an absolute pleasure.
The extension also lets users enter their own requests for content they feel would be better left unseen. That said, Silence of the Celebs does have a few unfortunate limitations. First, it's only available for Google's Chrome browser. Second, for the time being, the extension only works on a handful of sites. Fortunately, Silence of the Celebs' developers have been adding support for a few more sites every week, and likely already covers a number of the pages you visit on a regular basis. Give it a try--you'll be glad that you did.
Be sure to check back every Thursday for another edition of Browser Extension of
So what if Nvidia and AMD make unlikely bed fellows, and who cares that the two are currently duking it out in the discrete graphics market? Certainly not Joe Gamer, the unbiased enthusiast who only wants to build the best gaming machine his budget will allow. Unfortunately for Joe, his decisions have always been partially dictated by artificial compatibility constraints, and the decision to roll with multiple Nvidia or AMD graphics cards depends on his choice of platform. Not anymore, folks!
Nvidia has chosen to bury the hatchet with AMD and finally license its SLI technology on AMD motherboards. We'll let that sink in for a moment... This bears repeating, in case you didn't believe what you just read. Nvidia, who became AMD's arch-nemesis when the CPU maker picked up ATI, is going to allow AMD chipsets to support SLI!
"Long term gamers probably remember that for a long time AMD offered great high-end CPUs, but in recent years, AMD's stature as the preferred gaming CPU fell by the wayside and Intel CPUs have been the gamers' choice," Nvidia said in a blog post. "For this reason, we've only licensed SLI for motherboards with Intel chipsets. However, we've been recently hearing chants of 'SLI for AMD CPUs', and figured that now is a great time to do it. After all, we want to make sure gamers can benefit from the new CPU competitive landscape and ensure they have NVIDIA SLI – the highest performance, most stable multi-GPU solution - to game on! According to Steam, 93% of all multi-GPU systems in use today use SLI."
We're not buying Nvidia's explanation that AMD has only just now picked up its game to where SLI would be a good fit, and that chants of 'SLI for AMD CPUs' were non-existent up to this point, but who cares, the point is you'll finally be able to build a system based almost entirely on your budget and not on compatibility concerns.
This doesn't mean you should rush out and pick up a second Nvidia videocard for your 890FX motherboard, it won't work. However, Nvidia did license SLI for AMD's upcoming chipsets, including 990FX, 990X, and 970.
"Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, and MSI are among the first motherboard manufacturers to offer this new capability, with more coming on board shortly," Nvidia said.
Google on Wednesday released Chrome 11 to the Stable Channel for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame, and in doing so, paid a combined bounty of $16,500 to bug hunters. That's the most Google has ever had to retrieve from its treasure chest for a browser update, and the sultan of search was more than happy to do so in order to plug up more than two dozen security holes, the majority of which carried a security rating of "High."
While some of the bug discoveries went unpaid, the rest were worth anywhere from $500 to $3,000, the biggest payout awarded for "possible URL bar spoofs with navigation errors and interrupted loads."
As for the browser itself, Google says "Chrome 11 contains some really great improvements including speech input through HTML." Internet users need a microphone to take advantage of this feature, and one of the first services to utilize speech input is Google Translate, which includes a listen option.
This is also the first stable version of Chrome to incorporate the new flat logo.
Patriot is upfront in the fact that its new Torqx 2 solid state drive line isn't the fastest on the market, nor is it intended to be. Built to take advantage of the SATA II (3Gbps) interface, Patriot says it's looking to deliver "the perfect balance of price and performance." Don't misunderstand that to think the Torqx 2 is slow. On paper, this new series is rated at up to 270MB/s read and up to 230MB/s write speeds.
"We recognize there are a lot of users with desktops and notebooks that want the SSD performance experience but lack SATA III (6Gbps) compatibility to fully take advantage of our higher-end drives," says Meng Jay Choo, Patriot Memory's Flash Memory Product Division. "With the new Patriot Torqx 2 series, we are able to deliver a significant performance boost an attractive prices."
That all sounds great, unfortunately Patriot failed to mention any MSRPs. Patriot did, however, say the new drives will ship this week in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities with a 2.5-inch form factor and TRIM support.
Apple has been having a bear of time keeping up with demand for its iPad 2, which continues to be a hot commodity in the U.S. New iPad 2 orders on Apple's website will take 1-2 weeks to ship, and supply is low pretty much across the board. It's been reported that manufacturing problems unrelated to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are at least partially to blame for the depleted stock. Be that as it may, Apple is forging ahead with its international release, launching the iPad 2 in a dozen more territories.
The iPad 2 is arriving today in Japan, and Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and UAE on Friday, April 29. Pricing will be the same overseas as it is in the U.S., meaning the 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB Wi-Fi models will sell for $499, $599, and $699 respectively, with the 3G versions going for $629 (16GB), $729 (32GB), and $829 (64GB), all of which will be adjusted for local currency.
Apple launched the iPad 2 in the U.S. on March 1 and has been slowing releasing it in other countries ever since.
D-Link is chasing after the budget router crown with the release of its Wireless N 300 Gigabit Router, model DIR-651. It's a single-band router with 4 Gigabit ports, multiple intelligent antennas, and support for intelligent Quality of Service (QoS) to separate and prioritize different typs of data streams for smoother video streaming, gaming, and VoIP calls.
As CNet points out, one major advantage D-Link's DIR-651 holds over Cisco's new Linksys E1500 budget router is that it supports Gigabit Ethernet for 1000Mbps over wire. The Linksys E1500 does not.
Otherwise, this is about as basic as a Wireless-N router gets. You won't find any advanced features like a USB port, printer sharing, or other amenities typically reserved for higher end routers, though you shouldn't have to worry about security with support for all types of WPA and WPA2 standards, as well as Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) support.
Look for widespread availability in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we did manage to track down Office Depot selling the DIR-651 for $60.
They say things have to get worse before they can get better. For Sony, that's apparently a threat – not a promise. First PSN 
We have nothing but admiration for Blizzard's dedication to blinding polish, but we counter it with this incredibly poignant argument: "We want Diablo III nooooow." Last we heard, Blizzard was 
Microsoft just can't catch a break. The tech giant reported their 
We know that Netflix has been killing it in new subscriber counts quarter after quarter, but that might be having some unexpected consequences. According to TorrentFreak, the increasing prevalence of Netflix is having a 
Google has announced today that 
No one's going to argue that Intel's the big man on campus for desktops, notebooks, and servers, but in the mobile device world, well, ARM is the one muscling the competition. ARM Holdings this week announced its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011, and the numbers have never been better. Riding the mobile wave, ARM's revenue jumped 29 percent to $185.5 million, with profits up 35 percent at $30.5 million. Both are record numbers for ARM.
Yahoo found a pair of buyers for its Delicious social bookmarking site. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who you might recognize as the founders of YouTube, paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Delicious. Whatever that sum is, it's a safe bet that they paid significantly less than the $1.65 billion they made from selling YouTube to Google back in October 2006.
Don't worry about the cold and rainy weather sweeping through parts of the country, it's okay to bust out your open source swimming trunks anyway. Canonical today invites you to dive into Linux with the release of Ubuntu 11.04, otherwise known as Natty Narwhal. This latest Linux distro, which has been in beta form for about the past month, supports laptops, desktops, and netbooks, and supersedes Ubuntu Netbook Edition for all PC netbooks, Canonical says.
AMD on Wednesday rolled out new Catalyst drivers for Radeon HD 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 series graphics cards, and Radeon 3000 and 4000 series chipsets. The new Catalyst 11.4 suite adds a handful of new features, such as new task-based Display Management controls, easier Eyefinity setup, and a new Catalyst update notification system that lets AMD graphics card owners know when updated drivers are available.
Large portions of Japan are in still ruins, the Middle East is spiraling deeper into chaos and the CEO of GoDaddy.com murders elephants in his downtime--but you can't find anything about it online because major portals like CNN and Gawker are too busy providing a blow-for-blow account of Charlie Sheen winning. Yeah, we're a little tired it too. That's why 
So what if Nvidia and AMD make unlikely bed fellows, and who cares that the two are currently duking it out in the discrete graphics market? Certainly not Joe Gamer, the unbiased enthusiast who only wants to build the best gaming machine his budget will allow. Unfortunately for Joe, his decisions have always been partially dictated by artificial compatibility constraints, and the decision to roll with multiple Nvidia or AMD graphics cards depends on his choice of platform. Not anymore, folks!
Google on Wednesday released Chrome 11 to the Stable Channel for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Frame, and in doing so, paid a combined bounty of $16,500 to bug hunters. That's the most Google has ever had to retrieve from its treasure chest for a browser update, and the sultan of search was more than happy to do so in order to plug up more than two dozen security holes, the majority of which carried a security rating of "High."
Patriot is upfront in the fact that its new Torqx 2 solid state drive line isn't the fastest on the market, nor is it intended to be. Built to take advantage of the SATA II (3Gbps) interface, Patriot says it's looking to deliver "the perfect balance of price and performance." Don't misunderstand that to think the Torqx 2 is slow. On paper, this new series is rated at up to 270MB/s read and up to 230MB/s write speeds.
Apple has been having a bear of time keeping up with demand for its iPad 2, which continues to be a hot commodity in the U.S. New iPad 2 orders on Apple's website will take 1-2 weeks to ship, and supply is low pretty much across the board. It's been reported that manufacturing problems unrelated to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are at least partially to blame for the depleted stock. Be that as it may, Apple is forging ahead with its international release, 
D-Link is chasing after the budget router crown with the release of its Wireless N 300 Gigabit Router, model DIR-651. It's a single-band router with 4 Gigabit ports, multiple intelligent antennas, and support for intelligent Quality of Service (QoS) to separate and prioritize different typs of data streams for smoother video streaming, gaming, and VoIP calls.
