Sony brings PSN back online, new security measures in place Sony Online Entertainment brought its PlayStation Network back online in parts of Europe and the U.S. Saturday following a three-week outage resulting from the hacking of the network by unknown individuals, the company said on the PlayStation blog. The restoration of PSN service requires a firmware update on PS3 consoles and requires users to change their passwords. PCMag
Amazon server said to be used in Sony atttack Amazon's Web Services cloud- computing unit was used by hackers in last month's attack against Sony Corp. (6758)'s online entertainment systems, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Hackers using an alias signed up to rent a server through Amazon's EC2 service and launched the attack from there, said the person, who requested anonymity because the information is confidential. Bloomberg
Netflix: Metered broadband a pure cash grab Netflix initially tried to downplay metered billing as a threat to their business, though in recent months the company has gotten increasingly vocal about the issue – especially after launching streaming video service in Canada and running face first into that country's low caps and high per byte overages. DSLReports
Mozilla halts updates for Firefox 3.5 Mozilla is currently preparing to phase out Firefox 3.5 and said that it will not release further major updates for the browser version. There was no exact date for the end-of-life given, but Mozilla said that it wants to phase out 3.5 as quickly as possible and move its 12 million users to versions 3.6 or 4.0. ConceivablyTech
RIM recalls at least 900 faulty BlackBerry PlayBooks, here are the serial numbers We found the BlackBerry PlayBook to be a pretty solid piece of hardware, but it seems there was a problem batch – an inside source tells us that nearly 1,000 faulty tablets were shipped to Staples, and now they're being recalled. Engadget
Why I (and probably 600,000 others) stopped playing World of Warcraft Blizzard's flagship online game, World of Warcraft, shed around 600,000 players in the last quarter even though it released one of its most successful expansion packs yet. Blizzard chief executive Mike Morhaime said players blitzed through the content faster than the developers expected. GamesBeat
Seven tech trade-offs worth making Buying gadgets can sometimes be like buying a car; it requires sorting through options. Do you go for the navigation package or the rear-seat entertainment system? The faster processor or more memory? NY Times
Confessions of a computer repairman When your PC breaks down - assuming you can't fix it yourself - the first port of call is often a professional repairer who might just be able to rescue that vital data, restore the operating system without losing your photos, or get that graphics card working again. PCPro
Slaying the cable monster: Why HDMI brands don't matter You've probably experienced this when shopping for a new HDTV: A store clerk sidles up and offers to help. He then points you toward the necessary HDMI cables to go with your new television. And they're expensive. PCMag
Perl 5.14 A new version of Perl, 5.14, was officially released on 14th May following the successful test period, including the testing of release candidates. This is the first release of Perl 5 using the new annual schedule. The Perl Foundation
Gabe Newell on Valve The PC games pioneer bares all on Valve's unique dev culture, and shares his grand plan for the future. Develop