Flaw mars PlayStation revival

Sony's efforts to revive its PlayStation Network (PSN) stumbled after the firm discovered a flaw hackers could exploit when it came to resetting passwords, reveals AFP.

Sony temporarily disabled PSN and its Qriocity music streaming password reset pages to fix a vulnerability in a system that was just regaining its footing after a cyber attack that resulted in it being shut down for weeks.

“We temporarily took down the PSN and Qriocity password reset page,” Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold said in an update posted on the PlayStation blog.

Investors keen to get in on the online networking craze snapped up LinkedIn's initial public offering (IPO) at $45 per share late yesterday, hitting the top end of the projected price range, writes the Associated Press.

It minted LinkedIn with a market value of more than $4 billion, the highest for a US Internet company taking its first bow on Wall Street since Google went public nearly seven years ago.

LinkedIn's shares will make their market debut today on the New York Stock Exchange. Mutual funds, pension funds and other major money managers got the first chance to buy most of the IPO's 7.84 million shares because stock in these offerings is typically sold to investment bankers' top customers.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has promised that the firm will simplify the process by which Android phone users agree to share their data, states the BBC.

It follows questions in the US Senate about how much location information is stored by mobile handsets.

Speaking in the UK at a conference on privacy, he also revealed that Google plans to offer Web users more control over their online profiles. Schmidt insisted that the company took the matter “very seriously”.

Apple has signed a cloud-music licensing agreement with EMI Music and is very near to completing deals with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, multiple music industry sources said, reveals Cnet.

Warner Music Group already had a deal in place with Apple. The licensing agreements will enable Apple to unveil a fully-licensed cloud-music service to rival unlicensed offerings of rivals Amazon and Google.

The negotiations with Sony Music Group and Universal Music Group could be wrapped up as early as next week, the sources said.