Sony Corp (SNE.N). unveiled three flavors of its new PlayStation 3 video game machine Monday in what is likely a new round of console wars with rivals Microsoft Corp. and
Nintendo Co.

The new machine, set for release in the spring of 2006, is about the same size as the current generation
PlayStation 2 but has a more rounded look. Besides black, the PS3 will be available in silver and white.

Sony officials said the PS3’s new processor technology — called Cell — will offer high performance for movie-like realism in games, high-definition movies and other features.

“The PS3 is truly is a system to be placed in the center of the living room,” said Ken Kutaragi, creator of the original PlayStation console as well as the more recent PlayStation Portable handheld.

Prices or a specific lineup of games that will be available were not were not provided, though Sony showed off numerous demonstrations of games in development.

The PS3 will use the Blu-ray disc format, capable of holding 50 gigabytes of information, which is about six times the capacity of existing DVDs, as well as slots for memory cards, a detachable hard drive and Bluetooth wireless for up to seven wireless controllers.

The PS3 also will be able to run the thousands of games available for the older PS2 and PS1, officials said.

You can read the full specs here

Source: AP

Gamers awaited details of Sony Corp.’s new PlayStation 3 video game machine Monday in what is likely a new round of console wars with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co.

Sony officials was to tout Cell — ultra-fast processors jointly developed by Sony and Toshiba Corp. — as a way to deliver games with ever more realistic, movie-like graphics.

The chip’s designers have said Cell can deliver 10 times the performance of today’s standard PC processors.

The announcement comes two days ahead of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, an annual industry gathering in Los Angeles.

Source: AP (via Yahoo)

Symantec is beefing up its antipiracy efforts with the acquisition of Brisbane, Australia-based software licensing company XtreamLok. The 30-strong company develops advanced antipiracy and activation technologies that enable the licensing of software applications. Both companies refused to reveal details of the acquisition, which closed on Friday.

Source: News.com

Oracle and PHP tools maker Zend Technologies are working on an open source development tool for Oracle databases.

Due in the third quarter, the free solution, called Zend Core for Oracle, will provide integration between the Oracle database and Zend’s PHP (PHP Hypertext Preprocessor) environment.

PHP is a scripting language that helps accelerate development on applications like databases. Zend had previously signed a similar agreement with IBM to support development in its database products.

Source: ComputerWeekly

Check Point Software Technologies plans to unveil a new NGX platform upgrade across a number of product lines, including its VPN, firewall, and management software products. However, analysts say that the company is still falling behind other networking heavyweights, and customers are becoming concerned about increased licensing fees.

Source: TechRepublic

CNN.com will make its existing online video offerings available for free beginning June 20 as it prepares a new video package that will cost money to watch.

CNN is redesigning its home page to prominently feature the free video, which currently can be found by clicking on small links marked “video.”

Susan Grant, executive vice president for the CNN News unit that oversees the Web site, said costs for delivering video have decreased dramatically since CNN first charged for video in 2002. The market for advertising, meanwhile, has increased, allowing CNN to subsidize costs.

CNN now charges $12.99 a month for video as part of the Real SuperPass package from RealNetworks Inc. The site is switching to rival Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Player 9 to deliver the free video, but Grant said the partnership with RealNetworks might continue when the premium video package is launched in the fall.

Source: AP (via Yahoo)

In anticipation of the release of the final chapter in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Stuffo.com celebrates with a week of special features devoted to George Lucas and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Wondering how lightsabers work? Confused by characters like Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and all the references to the Sith in the prequels? Stuffo.com can help.

HowStuffWorks will deliver new Stuffo Star Wars articles from May 16 through May 20, 2005:

• On May 16, Stuffo shows what it would be like if Darth Vader appeared on the old game show This Is Your Life? Replete with true Vader facts from the Star Wars canon, the article calls upon bit players from the Star Wars saga to offer reminiscences about their brief brushes with the Sith Lord.
• Star Wars Week will continue with new articles like The Sith Explained and Special Agent Eleventeen’s Review of the Darth Vader Voice Changer
• Additional HowStuffWorks and Stuffo Star Wars articles are available now

Companies running servers based on certain Intel Corp. chips could come under attack from the inside, due to a new type of software timing attack.

A research paper released on Friday by Oxford University computer science student Colin Percival details a method by which an attacker could heist cryptography keys on servers running Intel processors with Hyperthreading.

Hyperthreading technology runs two threads or streams of data, making computer software view a single processor as two.

The exploit Percival details takes advantage of the threads’ shared access to memory caches within the processor to interpret data that’s being processed and thus lift the keys. A software timing attack basically watches the behavior of a computer in an effort to expose protected information.

Source: eWeek

The MSN(R) network of Internet services today launched the new MSN Search Toolbar with Windows(R) Desktop Search, a suite of tools that helps people rapidly search across the Web or their PC and provides easy access to world-leading MSN services. The final version of the MSN Search Toolbar includes free enhancements for Windows(R) 2000 and Windows XP customers, providing a dramatically upgraded desktop search experience. These new innovations for Windows customers will make it easier than ever to find and retrieve documents, e-mail, images, video and more on their Windows-based personal computers.

Security researchers are reporting a new brand of phishing attack that attempts to use stolen consumer data to rip off individual account holders at specific banks.

According to Cyota, the phishing e-mails arrive at bank customers’ in-boxes featuring accurate account information, including the customer’s name, e-mail address and full account number. The messages are crafted to appear as if they have been sent by the banks in order to verify other account information, such as an ATM personal-identification number or a credit card CVD code, a series of digits printed on the back of most cards as an extra form of identification.

Cyota co-founder Amir Orad said he believes that the criminals responsible for the personalized phishing attacks have purchased stolen consumer data from other individuals and are trying to get information that’s even more sensitive to sell to someone else at a premium.

Source: ZDNet