By Cliff Edwards, Karen Gullo and Michael Riley 4/25/11

Sony Corp. (SNE)’s network entertainment unit faced a legal and regulatory backlash over delays in telling 77 million subscribers that their personal account data may have been stolen by a hacker. A lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in San Francisco alleges the delay left PlayStation console users exposed to losses related to any credit-card data theft. Officials in Connecticut, the U.K. and Ireland began inquiries. Sony warned customers of the security breakdown on April 26, offering its first accounting of the severity of the intrusion six days after closing the PlayStation Network and Qriocity video- and music-streaming services. The Tokyo-based company said it notified consumers as quickly as it could. “Consumers and merchants have been exposed to what is one of the largest compromises of Internet security and the greatest potential for credit-card fraud to ever occur in U.S. history,” according to the complaint. In the lawsuit, plaintiff Kristopher Johns, of Birmingham, Alabama, seeks to represent people who bought a PlayStation console, subscribe to either PlayStation Network or Qriocity service and “suffered loss of service and break of security,” according to the complaint. 

Read more here –>bloomberg.com

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By AMD.com April 27, 2011

AMD today announced the addition of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6670, HD 6570 and HD 6450 graphics cards to the channel, completing the roll-out of the AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 family of graphics cards. Priced at less than USD $100 MSRP and consuming less than 75 watts of power, these cards offer budget-conscious gamers and digital lifestyle enthusiasts powerful yet very affordable solutions that are ideal for HD gameplay, video playback and productivity applications. "The proliferation of HD and 3D content places even greater emphasis on the quality of the visual experience, and AMD Radeon graphics cards enable industry leading image quality," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, AMD Graphics Division. "With the newest additions to the AMD Radeon HD 6000 graphics family, we're providing customers with a number of compelling products priced below $100 that enable exceptional image quality and game performance while remaining incredibly energy efficient and easy to install."

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by Josh Lowensohn April 27, 2011

Apple frequently touts the number of applications available to iOS users, which now sits north of 350,000. But that number could be in danger of coming in second place to rival Google in just a few months time. In a new report by market research firm Distimo for the last month of activity on Apple's various App Stores, the BlackBerry App World, GetJar, Google's Android Market, Nokia's Ovi Store, Palm's App Catalog, and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, the group found Google and Microsoft's efforts to be growing the fastest. "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," the firm said in its findings. "The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace will also 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." Distimo's research found that Google has already made headway on attacking Apple on the volume front, pushing past the App Store with 134,342 free applications versus the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch's 121,845 free applications. The firm estimates that Google will be 40,000 applications short of evening out with Apple's overall volume by the end of June, and will catch up completely in July. 

Read more here –>cnet.com

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