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Sony Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato has made it clear that the upcoming PlayStation 4 will not cause the company severe losses like its predecessor the PS3 did.

The new console features a processor from AMD, which comes a lot cheaper than Sony's own proprietary Cell chip used in the PS3.

"The amount of investment is much, much smaller, [than the PS3]" Kato said. "I cannot give you the absolute amount."

Sony had to writedown over $3.5 billion in losses for 2007-2011 on the PS3. The console finally became profitable late in 2011.

"We will not generate anything like the losses we did for the PlayStation 3," added Andrew House, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment.

The Pirate Bay has taken a stand against censorship, releasing their own "PirateBrowser."

PirateBrowser is a mix of the Tor client (Vidalia), FireFox Portable browser (with foxyproxy addon) "and some custom configs" to allow you to circumvent censorship. Although it has Tor in it, anonymity is not the point of the Pirate Browser.

The torrent tracker says "PirateBrowser is a bundle package...that allows you to circumvent censorship that certain countries such as Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland impose onto their citizens."

TPB is one of the most universally banned sites on the Web, as governments try to keep their citizens away.

As an added kick, the browser comes with pre-loaded bookmarks including The Pirate Bay, IsoHunt, Fenopy, EZTV, KickassTorrents, Bitsnoop, H33T and more.

Get the browser here: PirateBrowser at AfterDawn

According to one tech researcher using internal sources, the Google Glass headwear is expected to cost $299 when it finally becomes available to all consumers.

Early adopters got access to the glasses earlier this year for the price of $1500.

The device itself is not too expensive to build. The most expensive component is the display, which comes in at about $35. The display is made by Himax Tech, which Google just acquired a majority share in.

Given that Google can sell the 32GB Nexus 7 FHD for $299, the sources speculate a similar price tag should leave the company with a decent margin.

BlackBerry has announced that the U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has approved BlackBerry 10 for use on Department of Defense networks.

Right now there are two smartphones with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the Z10 and the Q10.

The DISA is now building up capacity to support 30,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones by the end of the year.

As the phone maker says: "BlackBerry 10 smartphones will enable DoD personnel to have the ability to securely connect to networks and access assets from work. The BlackBerry mobile infrastructure provides a highly responsive, intelligent and intuitive mobile computing experience while ensuring the personal and the corporate information on a user's phone are kept separate and safe."

Apple has won their patent dispute against Samsung this week, with the U.S. ITC ruling meaning Samsung's infringing products will see an import ban soon.

The panel ruled that Samsung infringed on two patents, one for a touchscreen control method and the second for headphone I/O tech.

Before any ban, there is a 60-day Presidential review in which the Obama administration can reverse the order. The administration recently vetoed ITC's ruling against Apple, in which Samsung had gotten the iPhone 4 banned from the U.S.

Samsung can also likely get around the import ban by updating the firmware of the phones, or removing the features in their entirety.

The company is obviously not happy with the decision: We are disappointed that the ITC has issued an exclusion order based on two of Apple's patents. However, Apple has been stopped from trying to use its overbroad design patents to achieve a monopoly on rectangles and rounded corners. The proper focus for the smartphone industry is not a global war in the courts, but fair competition in the marketplace. Samsung will continue to launch many innovative products and we have already taken measures to ensure that all of our products will continue to be available in the United States.

The Pirate Bay, despite the best efforts of Hollywood and other content owners to shut it down, has made it to their 10th anniversary.

Sponsored by an energy drink company, the infamous torrent tracker threw a party in Stockholm to celebrate.

TPB was founded on August 9th, 2003 and launched a month later in September. At launch, the founders muse the site was powered by just four Linux servers.

By 2008, The Pirate Bay was in the crosshairs of every content trade group and Swedish prosecutors filed charges against the four founders for facilitating unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material.

The next year, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundströmwere were found guilty and sentenced to prison time and a large fine, $3.5 million at the time. After appeals, the sentences were reduced but the damages were increased. The Swedish Supreme Court has refused to hear any appeals.

As part of the case, many ISPs around the globe have been ordered by their host governments to block access to the site but it remains one of the most popular destinations on the Web.

Microsoft has announced that it will make good on its promise of dropping Microsoft Points in exchange for real currency.

Starting with the next system update, which has been in public beta for the last month, the hated digital currency system will move to gamer's local currencies. Microsoft points had been maligned due to the fact that you could only buy certain bundles of points and you almost undoubtedly had leftovers after transactions that were unusable.

Microsoft also notes they will begin selling gift cards in stores later this year.

If you have remaining points, they will be converted into cash credit.

According to Taylor Wimberly, Motorola is building the next Nexus.

Via Google+, the source says "Motorola will release a Nexus smartphone in Q4 (that is not the Moto X)."

There had been speculation that LG or Samsung would be creating the new device, but Motorola would make equal sense given that Google now owns the company.

The source, Wimberly, is well-known for breaking news about Google and Motorola, even recently unveiling many of the features of the Moto X before launch.

Last year's Nexus 4 launched in December so a sequel could conceivably be hitting this December.

Acer has noted this week that it will reduce its exposure to Windows PCs and laptops and instead invest more in "non-Windows business" such as ChromeOS and Android devices.

The company hopes to grow such devices to 12 percent of total revenue by the end of the year.

President Jim Wong notably says he sees a growing market for Chrombooks, based on the ChromeOS operating system. The light devices made up 3 percent of the company's shipments last quarter.

Overall, Acer reported a poor quarter, with PC shipments down 35.5 percent for the quarter and a reported operating loss of $20.5 million.

"For the PC industry, I haven't seen light at the end of the tunnel," Wong said. "First, we have to sustain our market share and protect our bottom line ... and by doing tablets and smartphones right, we can be prepared for the day after tomorrow."

Wong also noted that they expect Android devices to account for up to 40 percent of total revenue by the end of 2014.

PC maker Asus has announced this week that it will no longer build Windows RT tablets.

Windows RT is a version of the operating system that works on ARM-based devices, but does not run legacy Windows apps.

"It's not only our opinion, the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," Asus CEO Jerry Shen added.

Moving forward, the company will only make Windows 8 Pro devices, which run on Intel and AMD chips and have full compatibility with all Windows applications.

Asus says it took a writedown on its Windows RT tablets, but did not disclose a figure. Microsoft took a $900 million loss this last quarter due to excess inventory of its Surface RT.

Selling well in the U.S. since launch, Google's new Nexus 7 FHD will go on sale in the UK on August 28th.

The device will be available through the hardware Play Store and in numerous retail stores including Currys and PC World.

Base 16GB/Wi-Fi models will cost £199.99 and the 32GB model will cost £239.99.

Read our review of the device, the best small-sized tablet of all-time, here: Google Nexus 7 FHD Review at Afterdawn

After years of declines and waning investor support, BlackBerry may finally be considering going private, says Reuters.

CEO Thorsten Heins and the company's board of directors have increasingly moved towards the idea, with the source claiming "there is a change of tone on the board."

Of course, going private would require a sale process and BlackBerry will likely have a very hard time finding a buyer and the necessary funding.

At its peak in 2008, the company's market value was a massive $84 billion. The iPhone's release, in conjunction with a global recession, quickly destroyed that value and the company has been losing customers and profits since. Today, the company has a market value of less than $5 billion.

For years, BlackBerry (formerly RIM), refused to consider going private, making large bets on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system and two new flagship devices.

According to multiple sources, Amazon could be ready to create its own Android-based gaming console.

The sources claim the console could be in consumer's hand by the end of the year, most likely in time for the Black Friday shopping day.

Similar to other similar boxes, the Amazon console would have its own dedicated controller to play digital games already offered by Amazon through their Web site and app store.

Amazon has left some clues in the recent past that a console is a possibility. The e-commerce giant has been hiring game developers and even hired the executive producer for Gears of War 3 and Quantum Break earlier this year.

The company would not comment on rumors.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang has confirmed that the company is working with Microsoft on the next-generation Surface tablet.

Huang recently claimed that Windows RT was a disappointment, but added that Outlook for Surface RT would make his "life complete." Microsoft has announced that Outlook would be available for Windows 8.1. "Now we're going to bring it with the second-generation Surface," says Huang. "We're working really hard on it, and we hope that it's going to be a big success."

Other reports had suggested Microsoft will be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor for the Surface RT 2, but there is a chance there could be multiple models in the works, including an 8-inch tablet.

The new Surfaces are expected for much later this year.

Just a day after Microsoft revealed that its Xbox One Game DVR will be exclusive to Xbox Live Gold customers, Sony has countered by making its own version free to all PSN users.

You will not need a paid PlayStation Plus subscription to record and share your gameplay clips.

The word comes via Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida:

@JasonBassant no, thanks :D

-- Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) August 8, 2013

@jonboi204 no

-- Shuhei Yoshida (@yosp) August 8, 2013