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Dell Inc. reported an 11 percent fall in revenue and 31 percent drop in net profit in the recent quarter, in what could be its last reported results before it goes private

Its figures were ahead of analysts expectations, but still shows the drop in Dell's consumer business. The company reported an 11 percent drop in revenue to $14.3 billion over the quarter. Net profit dropped 31 percent compared to the same period the previous year, to $530 million.

Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Inc., is proposing a buyout of the company that will take it into private ownership. He is joined by equity firm Silver Lake, and is helped with a 10-figure loan from Microsoft and financing from several major lenders.

The buyout, which would be worth $24.4 billion, is being contested by some Dell shareholders, including its largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management. Its position is that the figure grossly undervalues the company.

Domains have been registered that indicate Sony is about to reveal something called "PlayStation Cloud".

The domains have been registered by a system administrator for Gaikai, which is a games streaming company that was bought by Sony in 2012 for $380 million. They suggest that an upcoming "PlayStation Cloud" service is to be announced, which would fit with rumors that the PS4 supports game streaming, and may use it to allow PS4 owners to play older PS3 titles.

The domains include playstation-cloud.com, playstation-cloud.org and ps-cloud.net.

Sony is expected to officially announce the PlayStation 4 (PS4) console in New York tomorrow, with rumors suggesting a holiday release for Japan and North America, followed by a Spring 2014 release in Europe.

(via: superannuation)

Apple has released iOS 6.1.2 for iPhones, iPads and iPod touch to fix a couple of bugs reported in iOS 6.1.

It had previously released iOS 6.1.1 just for iPhone 4S users to fix problems with 3G signal, after several carriers told their customers not to update to iOS 6.1 due to several reported issues.

Now Apple has pushed out iOS 6.1.2 for all compatible devices, fixing an issue with Microsoft Exchange servers that caused headaches for corporate network administrators, and also fixing another issue that reportedly caused battery drain.

What is more peculiar is what Apple has not fixed however; iOS 6.1.2 is still vulnerable to a flaw that lets a user easily bypass the lock screen and access some user data, so we guess that we have to wait for Apple to fix that now too.

iOS 6.1.2 is available OTA, or through iTunes, for all compatible devices now.

Less than a week after launching in Europe, Nokia has made its Music+ service available in the U.S.

The new music subscription service is exclusively for users of their Lumia Windows Phone devices. The service will add on to the current free "Mix Radio" service while bringing a number of extras.

New features for paying subscribers:

Unlimited skips. Whether you like to skip from track to track, or just want extra control over what you hear. There's no stopping you with Nokia Music+.

Unlimited downloads. The free service allows you to download up to four Mixes (each of which contains hours of music) and play them without an Internet connection. The paid service removes this limit – you can download a massive supply of offline music you can swap as you wish.

Higher quality. We were surprised by the high quality of streaming music from Nokia Music, even over a 2.5G connection. Nokia Music+ allows you to download music at eight times the existing quality. Plus, you can set rules to only download high quality when you're on WiFi, for example.

With a copy of Gears of War: Judgment leaking over a month earlier than its release date, Microsoft has warned pirates who download and play it.

As with cases of previous leaks, Microsoft has warned Xbox 360/Live users who download and play the recent leak of Gears of War: Judgment, due to be released on March 19.

"We are aware of isolated cases in which Gears of War: Judgment content has been propped on the web and are working closely with our security teams and law enforcement to address the situation immediately," a Microsoft spokesperson told Eurogamer.

"Consumers should be aware that piracy is illegal and we take vigorous action against illegal activity related to our products and services."

Of course, playing a game that is not even out for a month on Xbox Live is just asking to be banned, so that will come as no surprise. Playing pirated copies of games is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use, and will likely get a console banned from Xbox Live for good.

Google has given details about its fight against account hijacking, showing how the company has reduced the amount of accounts stolen by 99.7 percent since a peak in 2011.

Most Google accounts hijacked are compromised because of poor password decision making. Many Internet users tend to use the same password for every service they use, so they can easily remember their login details each time. This presents an obvious problem; only one of those services needs to be hacked to put all of your other accounts at risk.

This is exactly what Google has observed happening in recent years. The spam filter for its service only allows less then 1 percent of spam to get through to inboxes, so spammers changed their habits in recent years.

Compromised databases of passwords and other items are sold in underground markets to spam groups who will then check the passwords against stored e-mail addresses. If successful, the spammers will send more personalized e-mails to contacts.

"We've seen a single attacker using stolen passwords to attempt to break into a million different Google accounts every single day, for weeks at a time," Mike Hearn, Google Security Engineer, wrote. "A different gang attempted sign-ins at a rate of more than 100 accounts per second."

Google is reportedly in talks with payment processors to cut funding to piracy websites in order to make it more difficult for them to operate.

Google has purged millions of links to copyright infringing content that was indexed by its Search engine in recent years. It has also changed its search recommendations to purge some potentially piracy-related suggestions and more.

Now it is reportedly in talks with Visa, Mastercard and Paypal to block such websites from receiving funding.

"Google has never worked harder to tackle piracy online," the company said in a statement. "Last month alone we removed over 14 million links to pirated material. There are also huge and growing opportunities for content creators to make money online, which is why so many have signed up to Google Play and as YouTube partners."

Google has repeatedly argued that authorities should "follow the money" to hurt Internet piracy.

Sony has continued its Evolution of PlayStation series of videos by celebrating the effect the brand has had on gaming since the early 90s.

After previously reminiscing about the original PlayStation console (1995), the PlayStation 2 (2000), the PlayStation 3 (2006) and the portable PlayStation gaming consoles, Sony is now focusing on the impact PlayStation has had on gaming.

It quickly runs through many of the best sellers available since the mid-90s for PlayStation consoles, setting aside the first praise for the Gran Turismo title for the original PlayStation console.

Check it out.

Kim Dotcom has said that his MEGA cloud storage service will expand to other areas where privacy is needed, and that the service will now accept bitcoin.

He revealed the details on Twitter during the weekend. He said that MEGA would take payment in the form of Bitcoin through reseller Bitvoucher, which will be good news for enthusiasts of the central bank-less online currency.

Mega, he said, will also expand into "secure e-mail, chat & voice, video and mobile", and described Mega as "The Privacy Company."

Earlier, he had tweeted that GMail, iCloud and Skype have to provide secret and untraceable NDA backdoors to all of your data, and said you should never host anything on a U.S.-based service, because "the US govt says if you do they can extradite you."

Microsoft is reminding Windows 7 users that support for Windows 7 RTM ends on April 9, 2013, so its time to install the service pack.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released almost two years ago now, and Microsoft policy is to end support for a Windows product 24 months after the release of a new service pack. So in other words, if you are running Windows 7 RTM (with no service pack), then you will need to install SP1 before April 9 to get continued support for the product.

For those who are updated, there is no need to worry. Windows 7 will continue to be fully supported for a long time, with mainstream support continuing until January 13, 2015, and extended support continuing until January 14, 2020.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded from Microsoft.com

For the difference between Mainstream Support and Extended Support, view the chart below.

A source has told Kotaku that the PlayStation 4 games console will launch in the United States in November this year, starting at $430.

Two separate models will be available, with a higher end model going for $530. This information fits in with previous rumors about pricing for the console in Japan and in the United Kingdom.

The source also provided Kotaku with another image of the PS4 controller, and revealed that most of the PS4's online features will require a premium subscription - not likely to go down well. PlayStation Plus will apparently be renamed PlayStation World.

One interesting snippet of info suggests that the PS4 can be controlled with a smartphone or tablet PC, and that each PS4 comes with a PlayStation Eye as standard. A feature also described is the ability to allow gamers to watch their friends play games remotely, without having to own the game they are playing.

Sony is expected to announce the PlayStation 4 (PS4) at an event in New York.

Credit: Kotaku

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is hoping to have all six major ISPs in the UK block three more websites it claims are heavily linked to piracy.

The three websites - Fenopy, H33t and Kickass Torrents - would be blocked by BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk if the BPI gets its way in a court hearing. BPI argue these sites infringe music label's copyright. They are likely to join Newzbin2 and the Pirate Bay by being blocked in the country.

The Open Rights Group opposes such blocks, giving the following arguments:

• Website blocking is an extreme response. There are growing fears this precedent will make it too easy and quick to block sites. Time needs to be taken to consider the legitimate use of the sites.
• There needs to be a more specific and adequate definition of the precise URL or IP address to be blocked to prevent mistakes.
• Once a site is blocked, its alleged clone sites can also be blocked, but in this case, BPI will be able to practice this without a court order. The decisions would be made between BPI and ISPs and will not be published.
• The blocking of these sites does not come with an expiry date. This indefinite blocking is potentially problematic if the number of sites blocked keep growing, leaving a large number of sites hidden from the public.
• These court hearings between a judge, ISPs and right holders do not sufficiently represent the needs of the user as their voice is not included during the hearing.

Amazon has confirmed that it terminated a contract with a German security firm that was providing protection at its warehouses, after a documentary showed serious abuse of workers.

The documentary aired last week, and prompted the German government to call for an investigation into workers' conditions at German Amazon warehouses. Following the documentary, Amazon said it terminated the contract with Hensel European Security Services (Hess) with immediate effect.

"Amazon has zero-tolerance for discrimination and intimidation and expects the same from every company we work with," a spokesperson said.

The documentary had drawn attention to the clothing worn by the security guards, and their alleged link to the neo-Nazi movement, as well as pointing out that the security firm shares the name "Hess" with Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess. The firm denies suggestions of links to far-right wing politics.

Whether linked or not, the documentary exposed harsh harassment aimed at some workers in the warehouses, particularly those from Poland and Spain.

European Union regulators plan to take action against Google by the summer due to a change in the firm's Privacy Policy last year.

Google moved to pool all user data across multiple services, such as YouTube and GMail, and users had no way to opt out of the change. European regulators warned Google about the change at the time, saying it was a high risk to users' privacy.

Google consolidated around sixty privacy policies across its services into one.

French regulator CNIL spearheaded the opposition to Google's change, and in October European regulators gave Google four months to change its approach to privacy. Now the French regulator has said Google failed to address concerns.

"Google did not provide any precise and effective answers," CNIL said.

"In this context, the EU data protection authorities are committed to act and continue their investigations. Therefore, they propose to set up a working group, led by the CNIL, in order to coordinate their reaction, which should take place before summer."

Google maintains that its privacy policy is in line with European laws, and that it did in fact contact CNIL in January with a list of steps already taken to alleviate concerns.

In another one of its "Evolution of PlayStation" series, Sony has looked back at the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and covers its PSVita handheld.

Having already made videos for the original PlayStation console (1995), the PlayStation 2 (2000) and the PlayStation 3 (2006), Sony has now reminisced about the PlayStation Portable, released starting in 2004.

It touts the PSP's large screen (for a handheld) and its ability to deliver console quality gaming for a handheld device.

As for the PSVita, it focuses more on its social integration and so forth, but clearly the PSVita is an unfinished story.

Check it out.