A PlayStation 3 owner has brought to attention Sony's policies regarding movies purchased from the PlayStation Network: if one is deleted, it is rather difficult to obtain again.

According to Sony's licensing agreement: "Content cannot be redownloaded once it has been downloaded to either a PLAYSTATION 3 or PSP system. Content cannot be redownloaded once it has been downloaded to either a PLAYSTATION 3 or PSP system."

AT&T has announced its HomeManager, a 7" touchscreen device by Samsung that looks to revitalize landline communication by bundling it with other services.

The HomeManager device offers converged content through its simultaneous connection to a broadband router and to a landline. Voice calls can take place both over VoIP or landline, and address book syncing from AT&T Mobile Backup allows customers to port their mobile device's contacts over to the HomeManager base station. The touchscreen device acts as a portable speakerphone, but also comes with a Dect 6.0 cordless handset for regular conversations.

In Budapest, Hungary on Friday, the Acer group unveiled its strategy for marketing and identity-branding for all of its consumer computer labels.

TBR analyst John Spooner remarked to us earlier this year that Acer looked to be arranging itself at the top of its brand pyramid, ahead of Gateway and Packard Bell, and eMachines. In the new conglomerate, it looked like all the brands would retain their identities. On Friday, Acer announced the relative markets where these products would be aimed, and there doesn't appear to be a change in course.

Due to inherent risk of electrical shock, Apple has instituted an exchange program for iPhone 3G ultracompact USB power adapters. According to the company, the adapter's metal prongs can break off and remain lodged in power outlets.

After receiving reports of detached prongs, but no injuries, Apple has set up an exchange program where the faulty adapters can be replaced with newer, redesigned ones. Exchanges can be initiated in Apple's retail stores beginning on October 10, or immediately on Apple's support site.

Graphics company Nvidia is making a swift cut to its workforce, laying off 6.5% of its international staff starting immediately, and ending with the closeout of 2009's third fiscal quarter.

It's been a rough summer for Nvidia. While engaged in a price war with rival AMD, the news came out that several previous generation GPUs were failing at abnormally high rates in the field due to a weak die and material set. The cost of replacement and repairs set the company back at least $200 million and its stock value took a sharp 22% drop.

The Treo Pro is Palm's "Hail Mary" play in slow motion. The smartphone company has limped through another quarter on the brave little legs of the Centro, and is positioned for what could be its last, best hope.

In the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008, Palm's record breaking sales of the $99 Centro were bittersweet, and the taste is lingering. Now, the latest numbers show it's sold more than a million units -- more than any other of Palm's products, fully bucking expectations. But although Centro has proven to be a formidable introductory smartphone that has grown Palm's customer base tremendously, its margins are so low that it can't pull in enough profit to keep the company moving.

At Open Source in Mobile (OSIM) in Berlin this week, Nokia announced that future iterations of its Internet Tablet OS will support 3G HSPA. Are Nokia tablets becoming better PCs than 'tablet PCs?'

Worldwide mobile device leader Nokia predicted earlier this month that its dominant position in the market would soften as consumer confidence weakens. Meanwhile, the company presses ever harder into the software sector.

The third installment of Microsoft's $300 million ad campaign finally grabbed the "I'm a PC" invective and wore it like a crown. Yes, I am a dork, I wear glasses, but I am also an athlete, scientist, teacher, artist, and everything in-between.

Tim Conneally: I'm a PC indeed.

Despite what has become international opposition to the deal, Eric Schmidt yesterday expressed his belief that Google doesn't have to receive special governmental approval to proceed with its ad-sharing arrangement with Yahoo.

In a press conference at Google's headquarters yesterday, CEO Eric Schmidt said the deal is scheduled to be completed in October, but he can't seem to get a bead on where regulators stand.

In what could be the most sweeping changes yet to its front page, Yahoo is testing the impact of a redesign in the US, UK, France and India, and has already added the capability to play back full songs in response to a music search.

Yahoo's forthcoming upgrade bears slight resemblance to the existent My Yahoo page, except in a couple of critical respects: Naturally, the Yahoo search field is the paramount item on screen, and the left-hand navigation pane is where the new Yahoo and the present My Yahoo are most similar. In My Yahoo (and the standard home page), a quick-links bar connects users to Yahoo's other services; in the new Yahoo home page, that component has become the "My Applications" dashboard. It links to the same services, however in the redesign, the user defines which links are shown, and contents are no longer limited to Yahoo properties.

Today T-Mobile announced that its 3G network will be available by mid-October, roughly the same time the HTC Dream Android phone is expected to go on sale.

T-Mobile will be premiering the world's first Android phone in just five days; the 3G device is presently without an official sale date and price. Unofficial reports have placed availability between October 13 and October 21, and though today's announcement from T-Mobile does not provide any further information on dates, its "mid-October" availability of 3G services is in keeping with that timetable.

In its third week in the wild, Microsoft's outwardly pointless advertisements will tonight be making their first statement, and it's one we're now familiar with: I'm a PC.

In the wee morning hours today, Microsoft's Steve Clayton posted a brief blog saying he'd seen the ads that will be airing tonight, and provided a link to the New York Times' fresh analysis, along with a picture of a diver in a shark cage holding up a tablet displaying the once-derisive slogan "I'm a PC."

The latest suite of Windows Live "Wave 3" betas is now available for download, which includes the beta of Windows Live Movie Maker. Can you really use it to edit a motion picture? Yeah...in a sense, as we found out first-hand.

Microsoft's new Live Movie Maker -- the latest beta in "Wave 3" of its Windows Live services -- leaves quite a bit to be desired at this point, as it lacks the ability to do anything except arrange clips and photos with the option to include background music.

Plastic Logic, flexible e-paper display company, cut the ribbon today on its own factory in Dresden, Germany. This will be the factory that manufactures its e-reader device which will compete with Sony's Reader and Amazon's Kindle.

Just as the company announced at the debut of its own e-book reader at DEMO in San Diego last week, the Plastic Logic facility opened today.

While Yahoo's deal with Google directly affects only the US and Canada, the European Commission is currently investigating the potentially pond-hopping impact on the availability of advertising resources worldwide.

The European Commission's zealous consideration for a fair and competitive market has brought many, if not all, of technology's biggest companies before the judicious eyes of Commissioner for Competitiveness Neelie Kroes. Now, Reuters reports the deal between Google and Yahoo -- which is slated to only affect Yahoo search pages for North American Web users -- has been brought to Kroes' attention.