News written by James Delahunty (April, 2011)

Finnish consumer board balks at Sony's killing of OtherOS functionality, and thinks the consumer electronics giant should pay up.

A Finnish man purchased a PlayStation 3 (PS3) console last year for €268.90. At the time of purchase, the product was being presented with capabilities to install an alternative operating system, such as a Linux distribution.

However, it is well known now that Sony decided to axe the popular "OtherOS" functionality, citing security concerns. Consumers who had previously purchased the console would see the functionality disappear after installing a firmware update.

Choosing not to install updates in an attempt to preserve the OtherOS functionality would cripple other functions of the console, such as online features, and could block out newer game titles.

The man at the center of the case in Finland, which was brought to the Consumer Complaints Board, lost the ability to use an alternative operating system after an update was installed from a new game. He was seeking €150 in damages for the removal of the OtherOS feature.

The CCB said that the removal of OtherOS crippled console features that were present at the time of purchase, and agreed that consumers should be compensated. It recommended that the manufacturer and seller of the console pay €100 jointly to compensate the man.

GFI, the company that owns the VIPRE security products, has apologized for its part in a claim made earlier this week that Samsung pre-installed keylogging software on new laptops.

The headlines of Samsung pre-loading spying software on its laptops made waves online on Wednesday and through Thursday. The claim was originally published by NetworkWorld.com through a guest contributor, Mohommad Hassan. Some contributions were also made to the articles by Mich Kabay.

Original Reports - Disocvery

The two part report from Hassan and Kabay separates the story into the discovery of the keylogging software, and then Samsung's response and alleged admission to it being there.

Some problems with the claims were immediately noticeable. Firstly, on the discovery article, Hassan claims to have been alerted to the presence of the threat on a new Samsung R525 by a "commercial security software" he installed on the system. Hassan never names the security product that fingered the threat, which is bizarre by itself in such a report, and taking into account the gravity of the accusation against Samsung.

Hundreds of thousands of websites have been hit by a code-injection attack that targets a problem with an unknown (so far) web application.

Websense has dubbed the widespread attack as "LizaMoon" after the website its researchers were initially directed to by the malicious code. The attack seems to have largely affected small website so far, with no reports of major corporate or government websites showing signs of being compromised.

Users visiting any hacked site are redirected to a prompt showing a bogus security warning, and may end up downloading "Windows Stability Center", a scareware application that provides fake scans and results on an infected system and gives the user a chance to buy a license to remove the fake threats.

Websense was contacted by people who found the code in their Microsoft SQL databases, using SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008. This does not mean there is a vulnerability in Microsoft SQL Server, Websense Security Labs stressed, but instead points the finger at a web application that is still, right now, unknown.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dish Network Corp and investor Carl Icahn have submitted bids for bankrupt Blockbuster Inc.

The bids qualify both for an auction in federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan on Monday. Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last September, weighed down with debts of $900 million.

A group of hedge funds headed by Monarch Alternative Capital made a bid of $290 million for the rental chain in February, setting a mark for other bidders.

South Korea's top mobile carrier, Sky Telecom Co Ltd, also said it was considering an investment in Blockbuster.

Icahn has revealed interest in the past in buying Blockbuster, and Dish could find the brand very useful for its video-on-demand (VOD) services. It is not known how much each lodged bids at.

Man claims that Electronic Arts failed to compensate him for sales of one of the most popular video games franchises in history.

Robin Antonick is suing the company for "tens of millions" in royalties as well as potentially billions from profits made by EA from over 85 million copies of Madden NFL Football titles sold. Antonick says he created the mega-popular game.

The first version was created for the Commodore 64, MS DOS and Apple II when it was released in 1988. Antonick signed a development contract with EA in 1986, which allegedly entitles him to royalties on derivative versions of the game. He says that for years afterwards, he worked in a cubicle a few feet from EA founder Trip Hawkins.

"Only recently, as a result of publicity surrounding the 20th Anniversary of the 'Madden' videogame did Antonick become aware that Electronic Arts did not independently develop subsequent versions of its Madden NFL software," says the complaint.

"Instead, according to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick."

Bloomberg is reporting that Amazon is joining a list of other tech firms in plotting a mobile payments service.

Based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, the demand for services that allow payments to be made at brick and mortar stores using a smartphone could be considerable. For that reason, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and several others have reportedly been developing their own offerings.

Users of such services could hold their handset near an NFC-equipped register and use an application to make payment for goods and services, or to potentially carry out other tasks such as redeem coupons or use loyalty points.

Amazon is making bold inroads into the mobile marketplace. It recently launched its own Android Appstore to the dismay of Apple, which is suing the company for the use of "App Store" in its name. It also unveiled a music streaming/locker service just earlier this week that works with Android.

According to research firm Gartner, 340 million mobile users will carry out mobile transactions in 2014, with a value of $245 billion.

Baidu reaches agreement with music group to pay for MP3 downloads through its web site.

Baidu had been in talks with the Music Copyright Society of China, a group that has previously sued the Chinese search giant, to establish a partnership to protect legal digital music. The payment will go directly to the Music Copyright Society of China.

The money only covers the songwriters behind lyrics in the downloads however, and no record companies will receive any. Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo said to pay labels would require a completely different agreement.

"We will also provide the [Music Copyright Society of China] playback and download data, so that they will be able to have some idea of what's actually being downloaded," Kuo said.

Baidu has been the focus of a lot of anti-piracy groups for years due to the popularity of its MP3 search service in China, which helps users to download copyrighted music for free. Some experts claim the MP3 service was the offering that brought Baidu to the top in China, and now 75.5 percent of the country's search market is held by Baidu.

MSI says AM3 boards have easy upgrade solution to support AM3+.

The company officially announced compatibility with all AMD AM3+ multi-core processors on its AMD AM3 mainboards today, saying that it will be made possible by way of a quick BIOS update.

AMD AM3+ multi-core processors are built on the latest 32nm process for significant technical specs: additional cores, a larger L3 cache memory capacity, and the built-in 2nd generation Turbo Core technology boosts overall performance.

Current MSI board owners can download the latest BIOS updates to enable use of the latest AM3+ processors on their respective product pages. In addition, all future shipments of existing AM3 motherboards will have their BIOS updated from the factory before being sent out.

MSI AM3 mainboards with support for AMD AM3+ multi-core processors and corresponding BIOS versions:

Lawsuit against the social network giant and CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeks more than $1 billion in damages.

It was reported earlier this week that Facebook shut down a "Third Intifada" page, which called for violence against Israel. The page quickly picked up about 340,000 fans. Facebook removed it several days after a letter to Zuckerberg from Israeli Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein urged him to do so.

The company said the page was left alone at first because it specifically called for peaceful protests. It was later removed as the tone changed to the incitement of violence instead, which violates Facebook's terms of service.

Now, a lawsuit filed against Facebook in the U.S. claims it showed negligence by not quickly responding to requests to take down the controversial page. The lawsuit has been filed by Larry Klayman, a controversial American activist.

"While Facebook has accomplished a lot of good, it can, as in this instance, be used for nefarious and evil purposes. Defendants Zuckerberg's and Facebook's callous and greedy actions in not taking down the page, but willfully allowing it to stay up for many days, has caused huge damage, for which they must be held accountable, so as to prevent this from ever happening again. Read more...