Latest news

The latest rumor, and "confirmed" by a couple of photos, is that Sony will name their upcoming NGP handheld "PlayStation Vita."

Vita is the Latin term for "Life," which could absolutely be a reasonable name for the system.

Additionally, psvita.com has the same technical contact as psp.com, Sony.

Whether the rumor is true or not, we will know the official name of the system at Sony's E3 keynote on June 6th.

For controls, the updated handheld adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support, and access to Android gaming.

TechHog has posted what they claim to be the upcoming Google Nexus 3 flagship Android device, one that will run on Android's "Ice Cream Sandwich" platform.

ICS will be the first Android version to mix 3.1 Honeycomb (optimized for tablets) and the Android 2.x series built for smartphones.

In the leaked photo, the alleged HTC-built Nexus 3 will remove all physical buttons, the signature home/back/menu keys.

Additionally, the site also says that the company is working on both HSPA+ and CDMA versions, one for AT&T and one for Sprint.

While many will decry that the photo is faked, the editor of the original piece says the photo is edited, but only to remove items that would otherwise lead a trail back to the Google employee source.

In a open letter sent to members of Congress this week, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai has said that he cannot guarantee the PlayStation Network will not be hacked again despite new policy changes and added security measures.

Last month, Sony took down the PSN following multiple security breaches that left 101 million gamers with their personal data stolen including addresses, phone numbers and even credit cards.

Wrote Hirai:

No security system is absolutely foolproof, and changing conditions in the future can make a currently secure environment less secure.

These gaps in what we know are not for lack of trying by experts, but rather an unfortunate testament to the skill of those who perpetrated the attacks. Some aspects of the intrusion may never be known.

Sony has still not found the identities of the hackers except to subtly accuse the hacking group "Anonymous."

Apple has settled their lawsuit against teenager Fei Lam, although the settlement figures were undisclosed.

In 2010, Fei Lam, a 17-year-old student from Queens, NY, started the website whiteiphone4now.com which sold unauthorized kits to turn your black iPhone 4 into a white version.

Lam had secured a large supply of white iPhone 4 parts from Foxconn in China, even though Apple had delayed the model until February 2011.

The teen says last November he received a letter from a private investigator hired by Apple, accusing him of dealing in stolen goods.

Apple filed a lawsuit against against Lam this week, accusing him infringing on Apple's trademarks. The suit asked for an injunction and damages.

Horace Dediu of Asymco has posted some interesting figures today, noting that Microsoft has actually made a lot more money off Android phone sales than it does off of phones sold running Windows Phone 7, its own operating system.

Citigroup analysts says that HTC pays Microsoft $5 for every Android device sold, which will add up to an expected $150 million in revenue this year.

So far, Microsoft has sold just 2 million Windows Phone 7 licenses at an estimated $15 per license. $30 million is significantly less than what the company will make from HTC only this year.

Microsoft is expected to strike similar deals with other Android manufacturers that it has sued over the past two years over patent disputes.

When they do, revenue from Android could outshine WP7 sales for at least a couple of years.

Recent reports stated that Apple was considering using a new Samsung AMOLED display for their upcoming iPad 3 tablet but OLED-display.net says this is highly unlikely as production will not be able to hold up to expected demand.

The site says Samsung would not be able to produce enough 9.7-inch screens, especially since the company has already announced it will sticking to smaller and medium sized panels, mainly for smartphones.

Samsung's expected capacity is 8 million 4-inch AMOLED displays per month for the next six months. Tablet-sized displays are also said to have been delayed until early 2012.

The company will also use the larger (6 or 7-inch displays) for their own upcoming Galaxy Tab tablets.

Adds Barry Young, director of the OLED Association:

If anything, it would have to be after 2011, maybe 2012. It's just not going to happen for Apple.

The Apple iPhone 4 has finally made its way to India, 11 months after its global launch.

India has 800 million mobile phone subscribers but 3G has been slow to rollout in the nation, making smartphones a tougher sell. Smartphone sales only account for 5 percent of all mobile sales.

Aircel will sell the 16GB iPhone 4 for 34,500 rupees ($764 USD) or 40,900 rupees ($906 USD) for the larger 32GB version.

Bharti Airtel, the clear market leader in the country, will have similar pricing, and does already offer older models of the iPhone.

In 2011, however, Aircel and others have begun aggressive rollouts of 3G services and smartphone sales are expected to double in 2011 year-over-year.

Weeks after it restored access in the United States and Europe, Sony has said today that it will begin restoring the PSN in Asia beginning on Saturday.

Sony says online gaming and chat will be restored in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand this week. PSN will be down in South Korea and Hong Kong indefinitely.

The Asian rollout was delayed because officials in Japan and other nations forced Sony to prove that its services were completely secured following the breaches that led to 101 million gamers having their personal info stolen.

As "compensation," Sony is also giving a gift package to gamers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia just like it has in the NA and EU regions.

Sony noted last week that the breaches will cost the company $171 million.

Just weeks after acquiring the struggling movie rental company Blockbuster, Dish Network has dropped prices across the board for in-store rentals at the 1700 stores that are still open.

Starting today, thousands of films will be just 99 cents per day, matching the price of the popular Redbox kiosks.

Additionally, brand new releases will be $2.99 for the first day, and 99 cents for each day thereafter.

Says the CEO of Blockbuster, Michael Kelly (via THR):

Our customers are seeking a better value - we’ve answered with new pricing and the flexibility of single day rentals. Our new pricing gives our customers the best of both worlds: access to the latest releases – many 28 days before Netflix and Redbox – and the most movies at low prices.

As a special promotion, Dish has started unlimited movie rentals in-store through July 4th. If you rent a new release (priced at $2.99) you can get any other movie (priced $1.99 or less) for free on the first day. You can then return that free film and get another one for free.

According to 01.net, Sony will release the NGP this year in Japan only, with Europe and North America getting the handheld in early 2012.

Furthermore, Sony will have to downgrade some of the console's powerful specs, in order to stay competitive with the Nintendo 3DS' $250 price tag.

01.net gets a slight benefit of the doubt for the report because they leaked the full accurate specs for the NGP two weeks before it was unveiled officially by Sony.

If accurate, Sony will sell the low-end (non-3G) NGP for $250, but with 256MB RAM instead of the 512MB announced. The company may also remove most of the 16GB internal flash memory, meaning there may be a cloud offering or gamers will have to buy external storage.

To make up for cutting the RAM in half, Sony will allegedly reduce "the size of the OS footprint in memory."

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has said this week that the company will continue to support phones running the Symbian OS until 2016.

Earlier this year, Nokia made a billion dollar pact with Microsoft to turn Windows Phone 7 into its primary smartphone OS, pretty much leaving Symbian for dead.

Says Elop:

We're in a period where the investment in Symbian absolutely continues.

Even as we go through a transition towards our primary smartphone platform, Windows Phone, you will see that continued investment. And I know there's been questions about--so how long does that continue--and we've now been very clear about that, that software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016. So there's a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future.

Elop adds that the company will continue all customer service for Symbian customers.

Netflix has updated their Android app this afternoon, adding support for three more devices.

In addition to the Droid Incredible, Nexus One, EVO 4G, T-Mobile G2 and Samsung Nexus S, the app now supports the original Motorola Droid, the LG Revolution and the Casio G'zOne Commando C771, as long as the phones have Android 2.2.

The company also listed a few bug fixes:

-Fixed application failure on startup when phone's embedded storage space is almost full.

-Removed check that prevented attempt to playback on unsupported devices.

While the device check has been removed, reports have come in that the support is still very hit-or-miss on devices that are not officially on the supported list, including the new Thunderbolt.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said today that profits for the company coming from China is only $1.25 billion per year, about 1/50th of the software giant's overall revenue of $62 billion.

The CEO says that number could jump to $7.5 billion if China had better piracy control.

Speaking to Chinese employees today, Ballmer said "our revenue in China will be about a twentieth of our revenue in the United States," even though the company sells the same amount of PCs in both countries.

Additionally, the CEO says the company makes six times as much per PC sold in India as it does in China, ever since India initiated stricter piracy controls in the country.

Developer CD Projekt has announced today that the official 1.1 update for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will strip all DRM that came with the game originally.

Additionally, the patch allows gamers to install and play the game on any amount of computers they want, whereas before it was restricted to 3 machines.

Says the developer:

Our goal is to make our fans and customers happy and to reward them for buying our game and DRM schemes does not support our philosophy as they might create obstacles for users of legally bought copies.

Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version. This means it has to be superior in every respect: less troublesome to use and install, with full support, and with access to additional content and services. So, we felt keeping the DRM would mainly hurt our legitimate users.

This is completely in line with what we said before the release of The Witcher 2. We felt DRM was necessary to prevent the game being pirated and leaked before release. This purpose has been served, so we are pleased to let our users enjoy the full freedom of game usage they deserve.

Google has introduced their "Wallet" automatic mobile phone payment system today, turning NFC-enabled devices into credit cards.

Users with Android devices will be able to pay for groceries or other items by waving their phones in front of NFC readers.

Google, alongside launching their daily deal site Google Offers, says it envisions Android devices eventually being a "personal financial hub" for coupons, loyalty points, payments, receipts and more.

As a way to not scare the credit card firms, Google will not take any share of the fees generated from Wallet payments, instead relying on added revenue from traffic, ads and Google Offers.

Wallet will launch over the summer, with trials starting sooner in NYC and San Francisco. A few of the retailers that will soon accept mobile payments are Macy’s, Subway, Walgreens, Toys “R” Us, Bloomingdale’s and Guess.

As with physical credit cards, users have zero liability if there are fraudulent purchases and users need a PIN number to access the app, meaning the chip can't be accessed by hackers.