Tuesday might not have been the absolutely best time for Sony to divulge that it, like so many others, is going to go skipping after Apple into the media tablet business later this year with two Android Honeycomb models code named S1 and S2.
See, as the last of the top 10 laptop makers to declare its intentions, by fall when the widgets are due, it’ll be coming from behind and to differentiate itself in an already overcrowded field it intended to borrow or piggyback on the cloud-ified media services in its PlayStation franchise.
A sensible idea up to the point late Tuesday that it found itself confessing that its great PlayStation Network for multi-player gaming as well as its streaming Qriocity online entertainment service, the cloud that pipes music, Netflix movies, sports and TV shows to Sony widgets, had been hacked – and hacked badly – sometime between April 17 and April 19 – which caused a catastrophic failure.
Sony now says that some unknown felon made off last week with the personal data in its 77 million PlayStation accounts – let me repeat that – 77 million accounts plus the “sub-accounts” data on any kids you might have signed up. How many Qriocity subscribers it’s got is unclear.
The personal data includes the accounts’ name, complete street address down to the Zip Code, e-mail address, birth date, PlayStation Network and Qriocity password and login and handle or PSN online name.
Sony’s also afraid that the hacker got everybody’s profile data, including purchase history, billing address and password security answers, as well as their credit card numbers.
It’s not sure the thief stole the credit card data but, it said, “We cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.”
Because of the intrusion Sony has hired itself an investigator. It’s also trying to get the rebuilt and presumably less penetrable services back up in the next week.
It’s “strongly” recommending that when the services are restored, users l on and change their password and, if they use the passwords elsewhere, they change them too. It thinks it might be a good idea for US users to contact the three main credit bureaus and have them put a free “fraud alert” on their accounts.
As far as the Tegra 2-based tablets go, well, the S1 is a tapered 9.4-inch slate and the S2 is a clamshell device with two 5.5-inch displays that can function as one screen. They include Wi-Fi or 3G/3G.
Sony described the first as “optimized for media entertainment” and the second as targeted at “mobile communication and entertainment.” Besides games and movies it’s also thinking Sony Reader e-books, e-mail and social networking.
Sony described the first as “optimized for media entertainment” and the second as targeted at “mobile communication and entertainment.” Besides games and movies it’s also thinking Sony Reader e-books, e-mail and social networking.
It didn’t mention price other than to suggest the widgets would be competitive.
It will also introduce a Windows version by the end of the year.
Sony wants to be number 2 after Apple by next year.
See here.
