Hard-core players hate to lose games. But what happens when they're the sport -- the object of play? That increasingly is the state of PlayStation Network subscribers, following a hack that swiped personal data. If that's you, there are ways to protect you now and from future data theft anywhere on the Internet. Fun and games don't have to end when someone breaks in.

It all started so innocently. Two weeks ago, PlayStation Network went down. The next day, Sony promised the outage would last for a "day or two" to the despair of the fun-loving millions who use the service to access multiplayer games, movies, music and other downloadable entertainment. At the time, Sony raised the possibility that a hacker instigated the outage, but it took six days and outside help before it was revealed that PSN had indeed been the victim of a hack -- one that compromised the personal data of as many as 77 million customers. Today, new details emerged that, despite denials, Anonymous may have been responsible for the hack and data theft.

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With the PlayStation Network expected to be back up within a matter of days, Sony's statements to a US House subcommittee seem to point the finger on responsibility back at hacktivist group Anonymous, which initially denied involvement.

PlayStation chief Kazuo Hirai told Congress in a letter that the company was a victim of a sophisticated attack. As part of the hack, a file was planted on the company's servers named "Anonymous" with the words "We Are Legion." He said the company understood the full scope of the attack by April 25, but could not rule out the compromising of credit card data.

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After more than a decade in development, Intel's three dimensional "Tri-Gate" transistor design will finally be used in a mass-produced microprocessor, the company announced on Tuesday.

Transistors are perhaps the most basic element of computer hardware. They are the physical mechanism that translates the ones and zeroes into "on" and "off" for the electrical current. In a basic transistor, the electrons flow in, encounter a "gate" that can act as a resistor if it has been told to do so, and then flow out.

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That's the question to ask, following Canalys' release of first quarter 2011 smartphone shipments, today. Asia has long been Nokia's stronghold but that may rapidly change during the transition from Symbian to Windows Phone -- at a time when Asia is the world's largest region for smartphones.

Smartphone shipments to Asia grew 98 percent, to 37.3 million units, during Q1, with volumes strongest in China, India and South Korea. India has been a Nokia stronghold, with as much as 70 percent overall handset market share, as well as China.

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Document metadata can be very useful on your own PC. Tag yourself as the author of a report, say, or enter some relevant details in its description, and the file should be much easier to find later. When you need to share documents online, though, it's a very different story. Without knowing it, you could be giving all kinds of information away to hackers: usernames, network details, email addresses, software information and a whole lot more.

So does any of this apply to you? Manual checking is tedious, and could take a very long time, but, fortunately, it isn't necessary. FOCA Free is a simple tool that automates the process of checking any websites for metadata issues, and it's both quick and easy to use.

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UK-based music and video download site 7digital on Tuesday updated its Android music player application, making its MP3 download store available to Android devices in the US, UK, Canada, and 13 other countries.

Open source software users should already be familiar with 7digital, since it powers the Ubuntu One Music Store and is the default download store for media management software Songbird. Like Amazon, it offers DRM-free music downloads from all of the "big four" record labels, and the updated Android app lets users browse and preview all of the downloadable albums and songs.

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Opera has released an alpha build of Opera Next 11.50. As the name implies, this new release is a separate version of the cross-platform Opera browser. It's designed to allow users to install the latest developmental version of Opera alongside the current stable version, allowing users to road-test the latest new features without risking their current, stable installation.

Aside from introducing the Opera Next browser, which is identified by a silver grey version of the traditional red "O" icon used by Opera, version 11.50 also adds support for Speed Dial extensions, allowing developers to do more with the Speed Dial shortcuts page in Opera itself, such as delivering live news feeds, page updates or animated video in place of the static web page image or site icon.

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In the light of [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] we are cautioning users to beware of Internet scams and other abuse. Be on the lookout for Facebook messages related to [NAME OF NEWS EVENT], scrutinize search engine results related to [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] and look out for new domain names using [NAME OF NEWS EVENT] to attract your attention.

Oops, sorry folks! I filed my template without filling it in first. My bad.

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RSS feeds can be used to keep abreast of news headlines and the latest blog posts, and most RSS fans will have a huge number of subscriptions. Whether you have opted to use a dedicate RSS reader or use an online RSS service such as Google Reader, you'll no doubt be aware that it is all too easy to spend a great deal of time wading through endless posts when you are only likely to be interested in posts from a small number of sites. Fresh Feed enables you to keep up to date with your most important feeds so you can focus on the stories that are likely to need your attention.

In a few moments it is possible to configure the app to check some of your most frequently read feeds on a regular basis, and you will receive an audio alert whenever a new post is made. A menu bar popup displays the headlines for your configured feeds and a preview of the associated story can be viewed in a small slide out window -- anything that particularly grabs your attention can be viewed in its entirety with a quick click.

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If you're looking for a way to keep a track of your Google accounts, Gmail Notifier Pro may well be the tool you have been looking for. Although the name of the program may suggest that its sole purpose is to provide notifications about the state of your Gmail inbox, the tool can be used to monitor Google Calendar and Google News.

There are free and paid-for versions of the application available, with the free version including support for up to two Gmail accounts and the Pro version allowing you to add as many accounts as you like. Mail can be checked using IMAP or Atom protocols and the notification area popups that appear when messages are received can be used to mark mail as read as well as composing replies and new emails without the need to visit the Gmail web site.

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Evidence seemed to build that Amazon is in the process of building an Android tablet on Tuesday as DigiTimes reported sources said electronics maker Quanta had received orders for such a device.

Amazon's tablet, which is believed to run on Android, would likely be the next-generation Kindle as opposed to a separate device. Gdgt's Peter Rojas said last week that he expected Amazon to do something similar to what Barnes & Noble has done with the new Nook.

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Should I feel special? Today I got an invitation from Amazon offering "free, instant access" to "membership-only fashion destination" MyHabit.com. Are you a "valued Amazon.com customer," who received this invite, too?

I'm a sucker for good marketing but I'm a perpetual T-Shirt, shorts and sneakers wearer. Besides I'm short and chunky. I don't look good in designer anything. I do like Amazon's branding and marketing though. MyHabit.com is truly inspired branding. Every fashionista I know, including my 16 year-old daughter, is a clothes and fashion addict.

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Android users who have been depending on free tethering are finding themselves blocked out of such apps, as most major US carriers have made moves to block access. Tests by several technology sites and blogs indicate most of these apps now fail to work, or are being made harder to find.

While the apps have not disappeared from the Android Market, attempting to download them to your device results in the message "this item is not available on your carrier." Both AT&T and T-Mobile had been blocking access to these apps for some time now, however Verizon has begun to also block such downloads.

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Paragon's Hard Disk Manager is a comprehensive collection of hard drive tools that comes in three different flavors. Hard Disk Manager Suite is powerful, but aimed at home users. The Server edition targets corporations, with its ability to optimize Windows Server installations. But the new Hard Disk Manager 11 Professional is perhaps the most interesting. It's packed with features, and Paragon say it's more of a business package, but there's also plenty here to appeal to the more advanced user, whether at home or in the office.

This doesn't make the program difficult to use, though. Hard Disk Manager 11 Professional doesn't have the same front-end menu that you get in the Suite edition, but it's still quite straightforward to locate the functionality you need; just right-click the drive or partition you'd like to work on, or browse the menus, and the feature you need will generally be very obvious. The interface in general is much the same as it has been in previous Paragon software, so if you've ever used any of the previous suites then you'll probably feel at home right away.

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It has been something of a long time coming, but Fluid for OS X has finally been released, providing an easy way to make websites accessible in the same way as any software you have installed. As so many websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, function in much the same way as applications, it makes sense to treat them in this way -- and this is exactly what can be achieved with Fluid.

In a matter of moments it is possible to create shortcuts that can be used to open you favorite website in its own window, as well as giving you the opportunity to create shortcuts that can be placed anywhere, Fluid also makes it easier to cycle through open website "apps" as opposed to scrolling through countless tabs in your browser.

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