Sony's Stringer under fire as 25 mln more accounts hacked
Sony CEO Howard Stringer faced harsh criticism of his leadership after the consumer electronics conglomerate revealed hackers may have stolen the data of another 25 million accounts in a second massive security breach. Sony's latest revelation came just a day after it announced measures to avert another cyberattack like that which hit its PlayStation Network two weeks ago. The Japanese electronics company said its Sony Online Entertainment PC games network had been hacked on April 18, but did not find out about the breach until the early hours of Monday and shut down the service shortly afterwards.
Reuters

Vodafone installs free mobile phone chargers in 500 black cabs
Vodafone has decked out 500 black cabs in London with mobile phone chargers that will allow the network's customer to charge their smartphones for free. The move is part of a £10m advertising scheme highlighting the improvements the network has made to its coverage in London and will also see Vodafone customers given the ability to pay for their journey using their handset.The network's customers can text the licence number of the black cab to a special code and the fare will be added to their bill.
PC Advisor 

RIM announces Blackberry Bold smartphones
SMARTPHONE MAKER Research in Motion (RIM) has announced its Blackberry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones with an updated Blackberry 7 operating system.Both handsets feature RIM's latest operating system for phones, Blackberry 7 OS, are powered a 1.2GHz processor and have 768MB of RAM. They have the familiar Qwerty keyboard and trackpad along with a 2.8in Liquid Graphics capacitive touchscreen that has 640x480 resolution.RIM says that its Blackberry 7 OS provides an easier and faster user experience through improved web browsing, voice activated searches and the ability to manage personal and business content separately.
The Inquirer

Android smartphones winning over 'app' makers
Google is the new darling of software wizards out to cash-in on the world's love for customizing smartphones with fun, hip or functional applications.Developers once obsessed with "apps" for Apple's hot-selling iPhones are touting creations tailored for smartphones built on the Google-backed Android platform."In the past seven months, Android has become the de facto second platform out there that people are developing for," AppNation chairman Drew Ianni told AFP during the gathering of software entrepreneurs this week in San Francisco.
The Independent

Windows Phone 7 update stalls on Samsung Omnia 7
Microsoft's Michael Stroh, who writes for the Windows blog, acknowledged on Thursday that the company had stopped sending updates to Samsung Omnia 7 phones. Those are the same phones that were rendered useless, or 'bricked', when Microsoft started to roll out the so-called NoDo update in February. "The team discovered a technical issue with the update package for this model," Stroh wrote in a reply to questions posted on the Windows Phone blog. His reply was first reported by the WinRumors site. Stroh said Microsoft is working to fix the problem. "The work of fixing and testing the package is nearly done, and the team hopes to resume update deliveries soon," Stroh wrote. "When I know more about the timing, I'll pass it along."
ZD Net

Global mobile phone market grew 19.8% in Q1 - IDC
Snartphone sales will drive market through 2015, analyst firm says. The global market for mobile phones grew 19.8% from a year earlier in the first quarter, according to estimates by research firm IDC, driven by growth in high-end smartphones, especially in emerging markets."Increasingly, mobile phone makers and carriers are making smartphones affordable to a wider variety of people, which has helped drive the market to new heights," IDC said in a statement on Friday.IDC said it expects mobile phone sales growth to be driven almost entirely by smartphone sales through 2015.
Total Telecom

Google faces another privacy probe
South Korean investigators raided Google's Seoul offices this morning as part of a probe into the search and advertising giant's privacy policies. Police were looking for evidence of illegal data collection by AdMob Google's mobile advertising service. A South Korean police official told the BBC: "We suspect AdMob collected personal location information without consent or approval from the Korean Communication Commission."Google is facing a plethora of investigations into privacy and data protection as well as wider anti-trust or monopoly probes.
The Register

South Korean actor Jung Kyung Ho joins China’s microblogging elite
South Korean actor Jung Kyung Ho (aka He Jiong) has become China's fifth most popular microblogger, pushing Chinese singer and actress Xie Na out of the coveted fifth place on Sina's Weibo. Jung Kyung Ho slips into fifth position with 5.63 million followers while Xie Na’s fan count increases to 5.55 million followers this week. Pop singer Katy Perry is edging closer to the elusive 7 million followers mark with Twitter. The singer needs only a few thousand more fans to put her ahead of the milestone.
The Independent

Telstra cozies up to small end of town
Telstra is investing AUD$600 million over the next five years to upgrade its network for the delivery of advanced business services.The carrier commissioned a study by IDC into the small business sector which found that the move to digital services in the sector was being held back by outdated technology.Telstra CEO David Thodey and Federal Small Business Minister Nick Sherry launched the targeted SME initiative, Digital Business, to assist businesses to make the switch to integrated communications.We’re offering some of the world’s most sophisticated call features and complete integration between fixed and mobile, allowing small business people to work in a way that has up until now only been possible by people working in large corporations,Thodey said.
The Register

Fingerprint lock for mobile phones
A smartphone that requires the owner's fingerprint to be scanned before it will allow anyone to access the web, play games or even make a call is launched today. The biometric fingerprint reader is the latest device intended to protect phones from theft and misuse. The 1cm-wide scanner is fitted to the Motorola Atrix which will be offered by Orange. To unlock the phone the owner must run their finger slowly down the scanner. A spokesman for Orange UK said: "This technology is the direction mobile phones are going in."
The Independent