Sony predicts large loss thanks to PSN breach and earthquake
Sony has given a revised forecast for their fiscal year today, adding a large loss resulting from the earthquake and tsunami tragedy in Japan and the security breach of the PlayStation Network.
The company says the PSN breach will cost Sony $171.1 million and the earthquake will cost them a devastating $1.8 billion.
PSN costs were mainly attributed to the cost of the free 1-year of ID theft protection the company is offering all affected, as well as the free games/PlayStation Plus and customer support costs.
Adds Sony (via Gamasutra):
So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack. Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change.
In addition, in connection with the data breach, class action lawsuits have been filed against Sony and certain of its subsidiaries and regulatory inquiries have begun; however, those are all at a preliminary stage, so we are not able to include the possible outcome of any of them in our results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2012 at this moment.
Overall, thanks to the earthquake and the PSN issues, Sony says its fiscal year, ended in March 2011, will be revised down to a $3.2 billion loss from an $858.5 million profit.
Sony did say, however, that the earthquake will not affect the release of the NGP (PSP 2) and that the PlayStation Store would be available again this week.
Liberty Media bids $1 billion for Barnes & Noble
Earlier this week, Liberty Media offered $17 per share, or $1 billion for giant book retailer Barnes & Noble.
Shares of the company, however, jumped to $18.33 by the close on Friday, as Wall Streets expects a competing bid.
Furthermore, many believe the bid undervalues the company, which has been struggling for years now.
Liberty is bidding for the company in an effort to continue the strong sales and growth of the Nook e-reader and Nook Color e-reader/tablet.
Finally, the offer is conditional on founder and current Chairman Leonard Riggio keeping a stake in his company and staying involved in running the company.
Barnes & Noble has around 30 percent of the e-book market, has 720 superstores, and has been up for sale since August.
Gartner: Android, iOS gain, RIM, Windows, Symbian decline
Research firm Gartner has spelled out Android and Apple’s dominance in the global smartphone market, revealing the Q1 sales figures today.
Android moved to 36 percent share from 9.6 percent in the Q1 2010, with sales increasing to 36 million from 5 million year-over-year (YoY).
Symbian, the now defunct smartphone OS, fell from 44.2 percent share to 27.4 percent, even though sales increased to 27.6 million from 24.1 million. Symbian should eventually fall to 0 as Symbian has been left for dead by Nokia as they move on to Windows Phone 7.
Apple’s iOS saw 16.9 million sales and 16.8 percent share, up from 15.3 percent share and 8.4 million sales.
RIM, despite growth for its BlackBerry smartphones, saw market share collapse to 12.9 percent from 19.7 percent. Sales increased to 13 million from 10.75 million.
Microsoft saw a weak introduction for its Windows Phone 7 line and market share fell to 3.6 percent from 6.8 percent. Sales saw a minor fall, from 3.7 million to 3.66 million.
Other OS, like Bada, accounted for the rest of the sales.
Apple proposes smaller SIM card
Apple has now proposed a smaller standardized SIM card than is currently used, allowing its iOS devices to be marginally thinner.
UK carrier Orange seems to support the proposal:
We were quite happy to see last week that Apple has submitted a new requirement to (European telecoms standards body) ETSI for a smaller SIM form factor — smaller than the one that goes in iPhone 4 and iPad.
They have done that through the standardization route, through ETSI, with the sponsorship of some major mobile operators, Orange being one of them.
Processing would take some time, but thew first devices using those SIM cards could be out next year.
Google to fix Android security flaw
Google has announced today that it is currently fixing an Android security flaw that was brought to the public’s attention last week by German researchers.
The group explained on Friday that some Google account authentication tokens were apparently being sent OTA unencrypted, leaving users with their data freely available if they were on public Wi-Fi.
Hackers using simple software could steal account info for Google Calendar, Contacts and Picasa accounts.
Users with Android 2.3.4 are free of the issue, but 98.4 percent of Android devices run Android 2.3.3 or lower, making the fix useless for the vast majority.
Google has begun rolling out the server-side patch this week for Android 1.5 - 2.3.3, and it will be completed by the end of the week.
Says Google, via CW:
Today we’re starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in calendar and contacts. This fix requires no action from users and will roll out globally over the next few days.
Verizon to begin selling Xperia Play next week
Verizon will bring the Xperia Play smartphone to the U.S. next week, May 26th.
Sony’s “PlayStation Phone” is an Android device that has slide-out gaming controls.
The device has been available in Europe for two months now but the American launch kept getting delayed.
Sony’s smartphone will come pre-loaded with Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, and Tetris.
The smartphone will cost $200 with 2-year contract.
Netflix streaming app finally available for a few Android devices
Netflix has announced the launch of the long awaited streaming app for Android devices, however, it is only available on five devices.
As of right now, the app is available for the Nexus S, Nexus One, T-Mobile G2, HTC Evo 4G and HTC Incredible.
You must be running Android 2.2 (or 2.3 for Nexus S) to download the app.
Netflix was clear to explain why the small selection of phones:
The Android platform is gaining rapid adoption in the mobile world and presents a great opportunity to reach more of our members. Because the platform has evolved so rapidly, there are some significant challenges associated with developing a streaming video application for this ecosystem. One of these challenges is the lack of standard streaming playback features that the Netflix application can use to gain broad penetration across all available Android phones. In the absence of standardization, we have to test each individual handset and launch only on those that can support playback. We are aggressively qualifying phones and look forward to expanding the list of phones on which the Netflix app will be supported. We anticipate that many of these technical challenges will be resolved in the coming months and that we will be able to provide a Netflix application that will work on a large majority of Android phones.
Despite the fragmentation, the company is working on expanding the selection of devices the app will work with:
“e expect to quickly add to the number of phones that can download from Android Market as we work with ecosystem partners to expand playback support.
Retailers reporting influx of PS3 trade-ins for Xbox 360s
Edge is reporting today that retailers are starting to see the effects of the over 3-week-long PSN outage, with an influx of consumers trading their PS3s in for cash or Xbox 360s.
Furthermore, sales of PSN points cards are almost non-existent and the ratio has begun to shift for multi-platform games, with Xbox taking the lion’s share.
One manager at a UK retailer had this to say:
In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades. However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.
A different retailer said most of those trading in their systems are from the “hardcore online shooter crowd,” gamers that spend many hours online looking to level up. Black Ops and/or Modern Warfare 2 were cited in many cases.
PS3 sales have also taken a hit (says independent retailer in Germany):
We’re just ten days into the month and already we have an increase of 200 per cent in PS3s coming into the store compared to all of March. Normally we sell them really fast, but not this time. We’ve only sold 30 to 40 per cent of our inventory right now.
For software sales, gamers buying Black Ops have split 66 percent to 34 percent in favor of the 360, although the numbers were 52/48 during the first week of the outage.
Not all retailers said trade-ins were growing but one retailer in the UK did say the satisfaction rate for Sony was falling:
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Get Angry Birds HD for free with Chrome Browser
Rovio and Google are offering Angry Birds HD for free for Chrome browser users.
Head over to the webstore here: Angry Birds HD for Chrome to install the game.
Reads the game’s description:
**** Surprise! New exclusive Chrome levels ****
The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 70 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.
“Lemme tell ya, these ain’t no ordinary finches we’re talkin’ about. These here are the Angry Birds, the ones that’s gonna kick you in the ‘nads. And they’re the ones on your side. They must be from Galapadapados, or sumptin’.” – Col. Angus, Bird Expert.
Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!
Google I/O conference: Android@Home gives you control over household items
Google has introduced Android@Home today during their I/O conference, a service that it will give users a chance to control their home’s lights and other appliances using an Android device.
The new remote is dubbed “Project Tungsten.”
Using Android@home, users can also send their brand new Google Music cloud library to any computer or stereo in the home.
Making it even more interesting is the fact that if you have appliances that do not have built-in Wi-Fi, future items will have a protocol to make them compatible.
One example Google used was CDs selling with an NFC device inside the case. When you tap the case with your Android device with NFC, the entire album’s content is uploaded to your cloud music library.
