TECHNOLOGY

With its value amounting to $153 billion, Apple is now the world’s valuable brand. Leaving behind Google - the leading Internet search engine - to second spot, Apple now costs double of its capitalization, says the yearly BrandZ study of the world’s top 100 brands.

The prototype consists of a 3.7" electrophoretic E Ink display rigged up with 2" bi-directional bend sensors so that the user interface can respond when the screen is bent.

As Sony is in the final stages of getting the PlayStation Network back online, a new threat may be emerging. People with knowledge of the IRC chat room where hackers have been congregating to discuss the attacks are discussing a new effort, CNET reported late Thursday.

Late last month, Sony promised partial PSN restoration -- gaming, music and video services -- on May 4, a pledge repeated on May 1. It's now May 8, and PSN is still down. I checked just before posting.

Internet giant Google has launched its Google Shopping product search engine in Australia.

Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments grew in the first quarter, rising 1.6% from the fourth quarter of last year, and 7.4% in the first quarter of 2010, research firm IDC said.

The smartphone wars are fully engaged, with no clear winner in sight -- if there will ever be one -- despite the Nokia-Apple horse race.

After detecting a “traffic anomaly” on one of its database servers, LastPass which is an online password management provider, required all their users to change their master passwords.

Telstra (ASX: TLS) will be the first telco in Australia to offer the Motorola Xoom tablet, the first device worldwide to run the designed-for-tablets Android 3.0 OS. Motorola and Telstra have announced today the Motorola XOOM will be available on Telstra from 24 May for $840 RRP.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NTDOY) will drop the price of its Wii game system by US$50 to US$149.99 and cut the price of several popular games before the launch of its new console. This is the second time Kyoto, Japan-based company has made a price cut since it was launched in 2006.

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) is expanding its publishing business with a new line of romance books, with the new imprint Montlake Romance.

After Apple released iPad 2 just recently, Motorola is set to release its tablet tonight at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia with Telstra. The Honeycomb-powered tablet is expected to sell big in the country as consumers awaited for the unit since its launch in other countries.

MailGuard, a security company, and Swinburne University of Technology found out the use of internet and online social networks by employees in the workplace don't necessarily have a bad effect to the business. This is by far the preliminary result.

Last Wednesday, Apple released iPhone updated software called iOS 4.3.3 to finally fix the 'bugs' user have been complaining about. The software addresses the distractong location data that keeps popping out and storing the same information for like a year.

"With the new process, what happens where and when is a lot more explicit and consistent," Firefox Release Manager Christian Legnitto said in April.

Electronic Arts Inc. on Tuesday announced an agreement to acquire mobile game developer Firemint Pty Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Bing will be the default search engine and map application on Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)'s BlackBerry smartphones, the software maker announced Tuesday.

Even in today’s digital era, a whopping 40 per cent of small businesses in Australia don’t have a website. New research released today by Sensis has found many SMEs are at risk of falling behind their larger competitors when it comes to digital marketing.

Aimed to pin down the people behind the massive breach which exposed personal information of more than 100 million online gamers, Sony hired outside investigators to clean its networks.

As Twitter aims for greater influence online, speculations suggest that it has obtained one of its top desktop clients, for $40-$50 million.

Sony has admitted and confirmed that some of the credit and debit card data on its PlayStation Network for videogame players were stolen. Therefore, customers must take action in checking their accounts with their banks.

The Internet security crisis confronting PlayStation Network users has gotten worse than expected as Sony revealed on Monday additional 25 million clients stolen by hackers.

Unparalleled give away of free downloads and access to premium games and music shall welcome back users as Sony Corporation’s PlayStation Services resumes in the coming days.

An addition to Australia’s largest Apple stores is soon to open in the succeeding months in the city of Brisbane. This is a result of yesterday’s announcement of plans concerning the $10.5 million renovation of historic MacArthur Chambers.

Australia's internet service providers are wary that the planned National Broadband Network (NBN) may push up their prices much to the dismay of customers.

Hackers who have penetrated the Sony PlayStation Network may have made off with the headed off with the credit card numbers of Sony customers. These were revealed by security researchers who had seen discussions in some online forums.

Semi-skilled workers are being left out of work due to technological advances and automated workplaces, resulting in an 'hour glass' shaped labour market, according to recruitment firm Hays.

The $820 billion IT services market is changing quickly and dramatically, as cloud computing and offshoring become mainstream, and CIOs should take steps to manage inherent risks and unexpected costs during the cloud services revolution, according to Gartner, Inc.

After ten months of waiting, the white version of the iPhone 4 is now out in the market.