In no way did it happen like this, but it would be cool if it did.

(Reuters) – Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the so-called “Anonymous” group on Friday on charges of cyber attacks against targets including Sony’s PlayStation store, governments, businesses and banks.

The police said the accused, arrested in Almeria, Barcelona and Alicante, were guilty of coordinated computer attacks from a server set up in a house in Gijon in the north of Spain.

Spanish police alleged the three arrested “hacktivists” had been involved in cyber attacks on Spanish banks BBVA and Bankia and the Italian energy group Enel as well as Sony PlayStation stores.

Members of the loosely coordinated “Anonymous” group, known for wearing Guy Fawkes masks made popular by the graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” had also attacked government sites in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand, police said.

“They are structured in independent cells and make thousands of simultaneous attacks using infected ‘zombie’ computers worldwide. This is why NATO considers them a threat to the military alliance,” the police said in a statement.

“They are even capable of collapsing a country’s administrative structure.”

The arrests are the first in Spain against members of the “Anonymous” group following similar legal proceedings in the United States and Britain.

The police did not rule out further arrests.

PSN still down after security breach.

(Reuters) – Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer apologised to users of its PlayStation Network and other online services, breaking his silence on the biggest Internet security break-in ever.

Stringer’s comments, which did not specify when services would resume, come after criticism of his leadership since Sony revealed hackers had compromised the data of more than 100 million accounts used for accessing games and music over the Internet.

“As a company we, and I, apologize for the inconvenience and concern caused by this attack,” Stringer said on Sony’s U.S. PlayStation blog late on Thursday.

The incident may prove to be a significant setback for a company looking to recover after being outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and which faces a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft.

One analyst said security concerns could weigh on sales of Sony’s gadgets and hurt growth prospects for its network services.

“There is a real concern that trust in Sony’s business will decline,” Kota Ezawa, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Japan, wrote in a note ahead of the comments from Stringer.

“The network business itself still only makes a small direct contribution to earnings, but we see a potential drop in hardware sales as a concern.”

[Full article at Reuters.com]

Over the last week, the Wii has been rumored to be heading on its way off the market. With all of the major first-party titles released on the Wii, this wouldn’t shock me. What shocks me is how quickly it might be moving out. Could Project Cafe be here by the holiday 2011 or early 2012?

Last week according to CVG, a trusted source has said that Nintendo will cut the price of the Wii to May 15. With this announcement, Best Buy responded online by lowering the price temporarily to $169.99.Of course, Nintendo dodged the question when Nintendo of America’s President Reggie Fils-Aime replied to a few questions from CVG:

(more…)

That's a big 'Nintend-No' to a NES Phone.

(CNN) – Playing Super Mario on a Nintendo phone will remain a pipe dream.

Although Microsoft and Sony, Nintendo’s rivals among the “Big Three” gaming companies, have branched into mobile phone development, Nintendo isn’t planning to build a phone or license its games for third-party software platforms, executives for the Japanese company said in interviews.

Instead, the video-game giant is continuing to focus on machines dedicated to entertainment.

“We have no desire to get into telephony,” Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said. “We believe that we will earn our way into someone’s pocket without having to offer that (phone capability) as an additional factor.”

Nintendo isn’t completely discounting the idea, but the high costs involved in cellular carrier partnerships are a roadblock, said Hideki Konno, a top Nintendo producer.

“It’s not that I’m uninterested,” Konno said through a translator. “However, I look at the business model, and I see so many additional costs that come into play.” Splitting revenue with cell operators would affect the retail price of games, he said.

“Would we increase the price of the software itself?” Konno asked. “The distribution couldn’t be free.”

On March 25, Nintendo released the 3DS, the first mainstream gadget available that can show 3-D graphics without the need for special glasses. Games cost about $40, compared with the free and inexpensive applications available for phones. In addition to games, the 3DS also is designed to be able to download movies or stream them via Netflix.

[Full article at CNN.com]

Geohot makes a break for it!

(Ubergizmo) – Famed iPhone hacker turned PlayStation 3 hacker George Hotz a.k.a Geohot, has reportedly fled to South America from his New Jersey home in an attempt to escape Sony in their ongoing court battle over hacking the video game console.

According to VGHQ, Hotz has not been complying with Sony’s requests to hand over hardware related to his PS3 hacking. Devices such as his computer hard drives were supposed to be forked over to Sony for inspection untouched, with all potential hacking tools in tact. In Sony’s defense, it wanted to search for any names and contacts of any co-hackers that worked with Hotz to break the system’s security and allow unsigned code to run on the machine.

Since then, Sony has apparently learned that Hotz had deleted “integral components??? from his hard drives and that the hacker lied to the Court about not having a PlayStation Network account.

[Full article at Ubergizmo.com]

Amy Adams for Elena Fisher? We vote yes.

Amy Adams possible pick for the role of journalist/love interest Elena Fisher in big-screen adaptation

(Gamespot) – David O. Russell’s The Fighter has been nominated for seven Oscars, but the Hollywood man isn’t just talking about his boxing film. In an interview with Empire Online, Russell discussed his next project, the big-screen adaptation of Naughty Dog’s action adventure Uncharted. He said he is currently mulling over ideas for the character of journalist/love interest Elena Fisher, who first appeared in the original Uncharted title.

“Ah, Elena. I’ve cultivated her quite a bit, and I think I’ve added a lot of dimension to her so that’s all I’m going to say,” he said. “I love the women characters and the more robust they are, the more robust the movie.”

Russell was also posed a question concerning his interest in having Amy Adams (Enchanted, Julie & Julia), the female lead of The Fighter, play Elena in the Uncharted film.

“Oh I would love that too; I love Amy [Adams],” he said. “I also love Scarlett Johansson (The Prestige, The Island); there’s a lot of great actors I think might suit. Hopefully, we’ll see how it works out with everybody who are being scoped to do that role.”

[Full article at Gamespot.com]

(Gamespot) – Sony Online Entertainment’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game DC Universe Online is proving to be a massive success for its maker. According to the publisher, the title has used its superhuman strength to become SOE’s fastest-selling game ever.

The news comes via the Twitter post of SOE president John Smedley, who said the game is evaporating from store shelves.

“Working on out-of-stock problems for DCUO,” he said. “It’s out [sic] fastest selling game ever. Should have more inventory in Monday.”

Smedley also used the social networking space to tout Steam sales figures. Smedley said DC Universe Online was #1 in sales on Steam last week. He did not offer further specifics as to how well the PS3 iteration is selling.

Set within the DC Comics world, DC Universe Online lets players create a superhero or villain and fight alongside or against iconic comic book characters, such as the Joker, Batman, Superman, and others. It was developed under the creative direction of famed comic book artist Jim Lee.

(Gamespot) – Recently, hackers proclaimed victory over the PlayStation 3′s security measures, releasing security keys allowing people to run unauthorized software on their consoles, including pirated games, homebrew programs, and even custom firmware. Sony Computer Entertainment America fired back yesterday, filing suit in US District Court against original iPhone jailbreaker George Hotz and multiple members of a hacking collective called fail0verflow.

The suit seeks injunctive relief and damages, accusing the hackers of breach of contract, tortuous interference with contractual relations, trespassing, common law misappropriation, and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Copyright Act, and the California Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act.

Additionally, Sony characterizes the hackers’ efforts as a conspiracy because they worked together to circumvent the PS3 security measures and encouraged others to build on those actions. As a result, Sony wants each of the defendants held liable for all acts committed in furtherance of the conspiracy by the other members.

“Unless this court enjoins defendants’ unlawful conduct, hackers will succeed in their attempts to ensure that pirated software can be run on the PS3 system, resulting in the destruction of SCEA’s business,” the suit states.

Sony is also seeking a temporary restraining order preventing the defendants from circumventing the PS3 security or assisting others in that act, as well as an evidentiary preservation order requiring them to preserve all hardware and files related to their hacking efforts. Those requests have not yet been ruled on by a judge.

[Full article at Gamespot.com]

Playstation Phone for 2011?

Engadget has photos of what it says is a prototype Sony Ericsson slide-out phone with PlayStation-PSP–style gaming controls. The phone has a multitouch trackpad and purportedly will appear sometime next year running Android 3.0.

Rumors of an Android 3 PlayStation Phone first emerged in August, and according to Engadget, the phone’s screen is “in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches??? — they have photos, but not a copy of the phone itself.

The phone is also reported to have a 1-GHz Qualcomm processor, 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of ROM.

Engadget also claims there will be a special Sony Marketplace offering Android apps for the device. Custom Android app stores for custom Android devices seem to be the thing to do: Barnes & Noble is getting ready to do just that for its new Nook Color.

Kotaku reported earlier this week that Sony executives were showing off a slide-out widescreen gaming device that the company was calling the PSP2. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that Sony was working on adding 3G networking to its gaming devices, and on handheld devices offering wireless communication, gaming and e-reading.

Sony’s European division stated that the leaked photos are fakes, but then changed its official response to “no comment.???

[Source]

Google on your TV! Now if you get a recliner that's also a toilet, you'll never get up.

At a conference today, Google announced new “innovations” for Web content on your TV. Having teamed up with Sony, Intel, and Logitech to create the new technology that they hope will become the tool for adding web surfing to your nightly channel surfing. A demonstration was provided that was less than stellar until they convinced the audience of some 5000 to stop using the wi-fi connection in the conference room.

The idea of Web TV has always sounded good on paper… A means to incorporate web surfing into your viewing habits. The implementation, however, has come up lacking in each of the previous attempts. The inclusion of three hardware companies in the making of this rendition does give me some hope but will it be enough when the Web capable televisions go to market.

Based on any one of the hardware companies, I can’t imagine that the devices will be bargain priced. Google, however, would love to be able to belly up to the potential advertising revenue from such devices so perhaps we’ll see pricing go the route of gaming consoles where we’ve typically seen pricing well below production costs in order to push content which is priced more or less in the profitable range. Seeing Google’s profit reports from advertising last year ($26 million dollars) leads me to believe this might be the route they take.

Logitech will be the brains behind set top boxes for those of us who already have our nice televisions in place in order to be able to use the technology as well as remote control devices to make browsing easier. Sony will begin producing Blu-ray DVD players that work with the tech as well as teaming up with Intel to provide flat panel televisions with micro processors built in. And of course Google will be providing the Android OS to the project in addition to the Chrome browser.

If implemented correctly and using an OS that is more TV viewer friendly, I have no doubt a profit could be turned very easily. Make the device function with Netflix out of the box and you might even convince me that it’s a worthwhile purchase to go with all the other junk I watch on the web.

After all, perusing YouTube videos of Keyboard Cat on a large screen device should be enough to convince anyone.

Gritskrieg – End of Line