Sony said Thursday that it had sold 500,000 units of its updated PlayStation Portable model in Japan. While sales have cooled significantly since its September 20 launch when 250,000 were sold in a mere four days, it was still a blockbuster month for the device. Sales were the highest since December 2004, the month the original PSP launched.

The PSP led all other consoles -- including the set-top ones -- during the week of September 24 to 30 in Japan, according to figures from MediaCreate. The device sold 102,809 units, significantly more than second place Nintendo DS at 72,895. The closest console was the Wii, which sold 24,143 consoles, the firm said.

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Apple confirmed Thursday that there was indeed an issue with a recent software update causing a limited number of its iMac desktops to experience user interface freezes, and that it required a restart to remedy the problem.

The exact reason for the issue is not yet known, although Apple said it has a team of researchers looking into the problem. Once the root cause is identified, a software patch will be issued. An Apple spokesperson said the likely time frame for the fix will be sometime later this month.

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Confirming speculation, Sony on Friday said it will introduce a new base model of its PlayStation 3 console in Europe, Africa, Australasia, and the Middle East.

The new console includes a 40 GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, and HDMI connectivity. Sony says the introduction of the new console has a lot to do with consumer feedback as well as research into prospective console owners.

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Just two days after it launched its redesigned Zune music player, Microsoft has named a new head for the Zune unit.

Microsoft veteran Rick Thompson has been named Zune vice-president, and will report to J Allard, the company's design chief for its entertainment and devices division. Allard managed the Zune division prior to Thompson's promotion.

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It isn't really a new version of WordPerfect, and in more than one way, that fact is starting to show. But for the product that still purports to be the world's #2 commercial word processor, just behind Microsoft by about 85 points give or take a few, even the smallest change may as well be a monumental shift. This week, Corel released to selected beta testers an updated version of its WordPerfect Office X3 suite, which still features the Quattro Pro spreadsheet, and which now places the OpenDocument Format on an equal standing with Microsoft Word formats.

"At the end of the day, customers don't care about formats - they shouldn't have to," remarked Corel's director of product management Jason Larock in an interview with BetaNews. "I think for a consumer or small business customer, I don't want him thinking, 'Should I be ODF or should I be OOXML or WordPerfect format?' I just want him to work with his documents, work with them correctly."

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In a surprising turn of events, Microsoft confirmed Friday that it had indeed severed ties with Bungie, the creators of its popular Halo franchise.

The split is shocking due to the fact that Bungie and Microsoft had just finished the most successful entertainment launch with Halo 3, netting some $300 million in the first week of sales.

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Apple is planning to begin selling its Apple iPhone through Rogers Wireless in Canada by mid-October, technology news site Digital Journal reported this week. The site said a source from within Canadian luxury retailer Holt Renfew said it would be receiving the phone within two weeks, and it would retail in the country for $799.

If true, such a high price for the phone may turn off many buyers. Although prices are typically higher in Canada, a weak dollar has brought the currencies to near parity, and Canadian consumers may balk at paying the premium. Apple would not comment on the report, and a Rogers Wireless representative would neither confirm nor deny it.

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As first reported by the Duluth News Tribune, local resident Jammie Thomas was found guilty by a jury in US District Court of having pirated 24 specific audio files, and was order to pay plaintiffs from the recording industry a total of $222,000.

It could have been much worse, with evidence presented that the Kazaa client on Thomas' system had been responsible for the proliferation of as many as 1,702 tracks. At $9,250 per track, she could legally have been liable for as much as $15.74 million.

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Microsoft has released a minor update to Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, removing the requirement for users to be validated through the company's Windows Genuine Advantage program. This means those with non-legitimate or pirated copies of Windows can now upgrade their browser.

IE7 was released to the public nearly a year ago, but has yet to overtake its predecessor as the most used Web browser. The removal of the WGA requirement is sure to boost install numbers over IE6, and -- as Microsoft notes -- in turn protect more users from security threats on the Web.

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On the very same day that the president of Matsushita Electric, the parent company of Panasonic, proclaimed at the CEATEC electronics show in Chiba that the format war for high-definition recorders was already over in Japan and customers there had already overwhelmingly chosen Blu-ray, Toshiba showed a prototype of an HD DVD recorder capable of burning up to two hours of 4 Mbps MPEG-4 high-definition video. That video is apparently being burned using a red laser -- not blue -- to an ordinary DVD-R, DVD-RW, or DVD-RAM disc.

As first reported in English by CDRinfo, Toshiba's RD-X7 would not be the first high-def recorder to support DVD - Sony has a handful of Blu-ray recorders planned for this holiday season. But it would be the first to support a new file format adopted just three weeks ago by the DVD Forum, caretaker of the HD DVD format, called "HD Rec."

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Apparently as part of a separate effort from the HD DVD Promotional Group, Toshiba and Microsoft announced tomorrow morning Asia/Pacific time (this afternoon US time) they will form a new coalition dedicated to promoting the HDi interactive layer used in HD DVD.

The charter members of the Advanced Interactivity Consortium will consist of Paramount (along with its DreamWorks Animation unit), Warner Bros., and Universal Studios. These well-known studios have apparently made a commitment to release HD DVD titles in the near future -- a timeframe has not been publicly specified -- that will feature advanced overlaid menuing, bookmarking, Internet connectivity including download capability, and online shopping.

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Security software firm Sunbelt said Thursday that it had attempted to warn California officials of a hack on one of its sites long before the state shut ca.gov down entirely.

In a post to the company Web log Wednesday, Sunbelt's Alex Eckelberry said the company had warned the state as early as September 11, but the government ignored its warnings,

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AT&T today unveiled its first Windows Mobile 6-enabled smartphone, the Tilt. Named for its 2.8" screen, which tilts like a laptop's when slid up to reveal the handset's full QWERTY keyboard.

Containing a host of powerful features, the device includes Wi-Fi with 802.11b and g frequencies, a 3-megapixel camera, the highest resolution yet for AT&T, Bluetooth 2.0, support for up to 32Gb microSD memory, and global 3G Capabilities from AT&T's UMTS/HSDPA-based BroadbandConnect Network.

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A security update released by Apple this morning for users of QuickTime for Windows appears to eradicate the exploitable hole discovered last month by GNUCitizen.org developer Petko D. Petkov.

That exploit enabled the Web browser to pass JavaScript code to the QuickTime plug-in, which it then passes back to Firefox when it's the default Web browser. The code could then run unchecked, theoretically enabling a malicious user almost total access to a client's system, including his file system and command line.

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Microsoft said Thursday that it had launched a new service called HealthVault, which will allow consumers to manage their health information online. The site does not fall under Microsoft's Windows Live branding, and is currently beta.

The offering looks fairly similar to that of Revolution Health, a venture led by AOL co-founder Steve Case. Like HealthVault, that service offers a centralized online location to manage healthcare information.

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