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Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network are clawing their way back to full functionality, a couple of days after crippling distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by the Lizard Squad hacking group.

The Xbox Live service, which has almost 50 million global users, was working significantly better by Friday evening - but the PlayStation Network, supporting almost 110 million users, still had significant problems, preventing users from logging on.

In a tweet issued Saturday morning, Sony had this to say: "Update: PS4, PS3, and Vita network services are gradually coming back online - thanks for your patience." A follow-up statement noted: "We are seeing reduced reports of network issues. We'll continue to monitor."

The malware software and cybercriminal technique demonstrated against Sony Pictures could be used in additional attacks targeting US companies, according to a recent alert from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). Specifically, the malware, which is similar to code used to target South Korean companies, is able to communicate with operators while spreading quickly and conducting brute-force password attacks against systems.

"Due to the highly destructive functionality of this malware, an organization infected could experience operational impacts including loss of intellectual property and disruption of critical systems," the US-CERT warning stated. It's true that next-generation malware, written by increasingly skilled cybercriminal groups, has a wide variety of different purposes. Although stealing and compromising infected PCs remains lucrative, cyberespionage would be better served by disrupting day-to-day operations of necessary systems.

North Korea has been blamed by the US government for the attack against Sony Pictures, a charge it vehemently denies - has dedicated resources to improving its cyberattack capabilities.

NVIDIA was one of the first companies to roll-out Android's 5.0.1 Lollipop Operating System to their devices, seeing this widely-acclaimed update work flawlessly on NVIDIA's tablet offering.

Said to focus on adding new features to the Android platform, with NVIDIA adding in a few extra's of their own to increase the updates potency, as per their usual practice.

Seeing their Camera Awesome App updated to include new FX features said to take advantage of the Tegra K1 chip on offer (for acceleration of live and preview recording), NVIDIA also brought back their acclaimed SHIELD power control menu. The feature is designed to help you pick your processor modes, including things such as Custom Battery Saver, Optimized and Max Performance, alongside giving you the ability to enable an auto-shutdown of your device.

The latest Tesla model upgrade has been announced, with the Roaster 3.0 package boasting an impressive 400 mile range - seeing a 31 percent increase in battery capacity when compared to it's older brothers 52 kWh lithium-ion offering.

This 70 kWh battery package takes up the same amount of room as the older model, providing "more potent" lithium-ion cells for use. This improved and extended battery also includes an improved aero body-kit, enabling this futuristic vehicle to travel along at a more efficient rate and reducing its drag coefficient from 0.36 to 0.31, meaning a 15 percent improvement has been made.

The last improvement following this massive 40 to 50 percent increase in driving range is a 20 percent decrease in rolling resistance, to further help drive in efficiency.

Thanks to the "Lizard Squad", many bright-eyed youngsters were left out of luck - being unable to connect their new Santa-given PlayStation's and XBOX's to their respective online gaming and content networks.

This group of hackers targeted both of these large-scale online mediums on the 25th of December, seeing Kim Dotcom come in as some kind of savior - offering them 3,000 lifetime premium Mega accounts worth $99 each in return for PSN and XBOX Live's safety. The squad accepted, stopping the DDoS atacks instantly, vowing never to return.

According to a Twitter post, this deal is only made true if "they don't attack Xbox Live & PSN again. #ThatsTheDeal," in the words of Dotcom himself.

According to a publication by Wikibon, "Flash will become a lower cost media than disk for almost all storage in 2016." This will mark a new era in today's digital age - seeing faster storage capacities become mainstream.

Do you remember when you first installed your SSD? Something under 25 seconds to completely re-boot your system was simply unheard of in HDD-only days, seeing you often click that restart button and adventure out to the kitchen to grab a drink or a snack. Well now according to Wikibon, we're only a couple of years off seeing flash memory price-match or even become cheaper than hard disk technology for always-on enterprise applications.

The main limitation of flash memory in this day and age is the price per GB on offer. For sub-$100 you can now easily purchase a 2TB data drive to store all of your photos, home videos and various backup data - this is compared to a hefty price tag of $3,301 for a comparable SSD offering from Sandisk.

CES 2015: Kodak will reportedly be showing off its new Android-powered smartphone at CES 2015 next week, as part of the companies new plans for 2015 and beyond. These new plans will kick off with the launch of a new smartphone, but we don't know what to expect, at all.

Kodak's CEO, Oliver Schulte, has said that the company has taken its heritage and used it to inspire a range of beautifully designed devices that will allow their suers to take great pictures, and then edit, share, store and print them in an instant. This has me hoping for some kind of amazing Polaroid Phone... or am I dreaming?

The company says that it will not be manufacturing the handset, as this will be in the hands of Bullitt Group, who has been tasked at making rugged handsets for construction company Caterpillar. Kodak adds that it will not be compromising on design and the users experience, with its unnamed handset aimed at those who are after a high-end experience, without a complicated interface. The smartphone itself will be shipping with an advanced remote management application pre-installed, so if users need to get help from family and friends, it's super easy to do so.

CES 2015 is going to be a year to remember for technology and vehicles, with Mercedes-Benz set to show off its plans for a self-driving vehicle, and so much more. We should know more during their keynote speech, with a super cool prototype to be shown off at the show in Las Vegas.

LG has also revealed that it will be supplying Mercedes with the mono and stereo camera systems, cameras that will be used to keep these cars in their lanes, dim the headlights, brake autonomously, and detect pedestrians or cyclists on or near the road. LG will also be providing biometric systems that will monitor drivers' eye movements and alertness, as well as its mobile and home entertainment expertise.

Merdeces will be providing LG with a license to its 6D Vision self-driving technology, so that LG can share it with other automakers.

There has never been a movie we've reported on so much, but we simply have to continue. The Interview was downloaded over 750,000 times in the first 20 hours of release, according to TorrentFreak.

With Sony Pictures cancelling the theatrical release of the James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy, after being threatened with terrorist attacks by the hackers, Sony Pictures eventually released the movie in a limited release on Christmas Day. The day before, Sony pushed the film out to rent or own on YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video, as well as their own website, SeeTheInterview.com.

Within the first 20 hours, TorrenFreak estimates that there were over 750,000 illegal downloads of The Interview. The site says that one of the driving forces of people downloading the movie is that Sony failed to give international audiences access to see the movie, as it was only available in the United States.

The Iranian government will move ahead with an effort to use "smart filtering" of the Internet for Iranian users, with "undesirable" content censored - Iran has some of the strictest regulation and controls of the Internet, with many foreign websites blocked.

Despite Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other populations blocked, a growing number of Iranian users access these websites with virtual private networks (VPNs). However, Tehran wants to filter the content, hoping it's a more effective method of preventing some blocked content - and President Hassan Rouhani previously promised to begin opening up technology access.

"Presently, the smart filtering plan is implemented only on one social network in its pilot study phase and this will process will continue gradually until the plan is implemented on all networks," said Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian Communications Minister, in a statement to the IRNA news agency.

The misery for console gamers stretched into a second day, following a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by the Lizard Squad hacking group. Microsoft Xbox Live is working, sort of, with some gaming functionality still limited - and Sony PlayStation's online service is still reportedly down.

As frustration continues to mount, especially towards Sony, it would appear the Lizard Squad's efforts to disrupt Christmas - with millions of console gamers expected to boot up their Xbox One or PS4 consoles for the first time, or load new games - was a success for the hacker group.

Despite Kim Dotcom providing lifetime vouchers to his MegaPrivacy cloud storage service to Lizard Squad members, Microsoft and Sony still struggled to resolve network problems following the DDoS attacks.

The North Korean government has steadily increased capabilities of its secretive Bureau 121 cyberespionage unit, but very little is known about how it operates. A North Korean defector recently shed light on the division of specialized "cyber warriors," with specific training of programming languages, operating systems research, and IT network security vulnerabilities.

By the time hackers are officially hired by Bureau, some candidates have almost nine years of training, according to Jang Se-yul, a graduate of the top North Korean engineering college. Bureau 121 cybercriminals - and their families - are moved to Pyongyang and become among the country's top 1 percent, including a high salary, free apartment, and free Internet access.

The US and other western nations are focused more on limiting cyberespionage, especially from North Korea, Iran, China and Russia - but the cybercriminals have had a step up on us for quite some time. North Korea understands it wouldn't be able to win a conventional war against political rivals, but is able to cause chaos using their hacker branch.

The long-awaited release of The Interview resulted in only $1 million dollars in revenue at the box office. This is a small amount compared to most releases, which normally top $10 million when they feature top-billed actors. Sales results are also very likely skewed by the simultaneous release on digital platforms, such as Google Play and YouTube, which may have kept movie-goers at home. Sales figures from the digital release aren't available yet, but they are sure to garner widespread attention from the movie industry.

A digital release of a major Hollywood movie has never happened until much later in the cycle, primarily because the movie industry makes much more money from theater ticket sales. The inevitability of the ever-growing digital sales segment has raised questions in the past of how such a release would work. The impromptu release of The Interview should provide solid insight into how future movie releases may look, and how much money online platforms can generate in comparison to typical theater releases.

Releasing The Interview onto streaming services first was certainly unintended, and the result of the long-running hacking saga at Sony Pictures. Releasing the movie in theaters on Christmas day also surely depressed ticket sales, and figures from the long holiday weekend may be a better indicator of the The Interview's success.

Prepare for sadness: AMD and NVIDIA's upcoming next-gen GPUs could be delayed, at least the 16nm or 20nm based versions of them, according to a new report from WCCFTech.

The site is reporting that TSMC may be rolling out its 20nm technology, but TSMC is busy filling orders for Qualcomm and Apple. Flagship GPU dies are much, much larger than the likes of system-on-chips (SoCs) that Qualcomm and Apple require, so that leaves Apple and NVIDIA with a very limited supply of 20nm dies.

What does this mean for AMD and NVIDIA's future GPUs? NVIDIA is already sailing quite well with its efficient Maxwell architecture, where even on the now ageing 28nm it is pulling some seriously good numbers in both camps: performance and power efficiency. AMD is most likely the next up for a GPU refresh, but it looks like the company is going to have to side on the 28nm fence, which should mean its upcoming next-gen architecture should be quite impressive.

Tim Cook has been named "CEO of the Year" for 2014 by CNN, with the rise of Apple stock and record-breaking iDevice launches for the year cementing Cook as CNN's CEO of the Year. Cook took first place, while John Chen of BlackBerry, Mary Barra of GM and Meg Whitman of HP weren't too far behind him.

CNN said that Apple was the "apple of Wall Street's eye again" thanks to its stock driving up 40% this year, as well as other individual factors that led to the stock price going up. CNN said that Cook did "an amazing job" over the year, with the successful launches of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as other various launches, including Apple Pay.

All eyes are watching for the launch of the Apple Watch early next year, which could be another big win for both Cook and Apple. CNN said "Cook has arguably the toughest CEO job in America. He's had to convince skeptics that Apple can still innovate after the death of Steve Jobs. He's proven all the naysayers wrong."

The US Postal Service is desperate to attract customers and business clients interested in making shipments via the USPS service. Since 2012, the USPS has ramped up efforts to appeal to e-commerce businesses to combat stiff competition from FedEx, UPS, DHL, and other rival services.

The e-commerce business sector continues to increase, and fighting for customers making frequent shipments has proven difficult for the USPS. However, real-time package scanning and new handheld scanners of delivery workers are two strategies besieged Postal Service executives have tried implementing.

Fighting for profitability will remain a major undertaking for the USPS, as first-class mail - the most profitable business for the USPS - continues to slide, contributing to the $5.5 billion fiscal 2014 loss suffered by the Postal Service.

Facebook has been hit with a class action lawsuit in the United States, with the social network being accused of reading users' private messages, without their consent.

On Tuesday, Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled in an Oakland, California court that the social network must face a class action lawsuit for violating its users' privacy by scanning their private messages, so that it could used the gathered data for targeted advertising. Facebook shot back, arguing that their actions are covered by an exception under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act for interceptions by service producers occurring in the ordinary course of business. The court replied, saying that Facebook hadn't explained how this practice fell within the ordinary course of business.

The lawsuit itself was filed two years ago, and it could benefit any user that sent or received linked through private messages. The suit is asking for damages of up to $10,000 per person, and it would also like to see Facebook not scanning private messages going into the future.

Cybercriminals from China are increasingly targeting Japanese bank account holders, with more than $16 million stolen from the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group during the first six months of 2014. Japanese police officials report a rising number of Chinese nations being arrested for cyber-related crimes, and security experts point towards Chinese-based IP addresses.

The chaos begins by a phishing attack that tricks users into providing their passwords. Money is transferred out of Japan and people are recruited to visit ATMs and withdraw as much money as they can. Products are purchased in Japan and the stolen items are shipped and re-sold in China.

Earlier in the year, Japanese government websites were compromised by suspected Chinese hackers, with most of the sites temporarily dropped by distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. However, other websites were defaced with political messages related to Japan-China sociopolitical propaganda - as both countries continue their efforts to rebuild an extremely tumultuous relationship.

Even though Xiaomi has only been selling Android-powered smartphones in India for only six months, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer has sold over 1 million handsets in that time.

Up until recently, Xiaomi had just three devices for sale in India; the Xiaomi Mi 3, Xiaomi Redmi 1S, and the Xiaomi Redmi Note. The company was slapped with a sales ban in India earlier this month, with Ericsson claiming that its smartphones violated several of their patents. The sales ban will affect Xiaomi until February 5, 2015.

Xiaomi got an Indian court to allow them to sell smartphones that are powered by Qualcomm processors, which lasts until January 8. This allowed the company to sell only one of their handsets, the Redmi 1S. The Redmi Note 4G goes on sale in the country next week.

Sony is going for utter tablet domination as we move into the New Year, with the rumor of an Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra. This new slate would feature a beautiful 12.97-inch Trilumous IPS display with Sony's X-Reality engine, but more so, the 16:10 aspect ratio 4K display that will have tongues wagging.

The 12.97-inch display will have a resolution of 3840x2400, with the additional 240 vertical pixels providing the 16:10 aspect ratio. Inside of the new Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra are some serious specs, with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor clocked at 2.86GHz, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a 12,100mAh battery, PS4 Remote Play and so much more. All of this will find its way into a super-thin body of just 8.6mm.

Sony is expected to provide its 1/2.3" Exmor RS sensor with f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* lens and 8-megapixel Superior Auto resolution. We should expect Sony to provide Android 5.0 Lollipop on the Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra. We're expecting Sony to unveil this new tablet at CES 2015, but if it misses the mark there, Mobile World Congress kicks off in March.