Sony have released a statement revealing they have been hacked again, with 93,000 accounts globally being accessed. Sony have temporarily locked these accounts and only a "small fraction" of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. Sony are currently reviewing the accounts for unauthorised accessed and will provide more updates as they have them. Sony have also used some number play to seemingly down play the event by saying "less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of their PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected".

Sony have used this as an opportunity to remind people of the importance of a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites. They suggest you use a hard-to-guess password and always look out for unusual activity in your account. I've provided the full press release below:

Gabe Newell, founder of Valve, believes that Apple may be in the middle of preparations of launching a games console in the near future, he explained to The Seattle Times. Gabe gave some of his thoughts on the subject, with quotes like:

He also says there are "dark clouds forming", where he raised concerns of the closed-garden approach with platforms such as Apple's iOS. Gabe says "On the platform side, it's sort of ominous that the world seems to be moving away from open platforms." Platform providers that used to use their role to enable developers "instead view themselves as more rent guys who are essentially driving their partner margins to zero," he said.

It has just been announced that Sony's PlayStation 3D Display is finally getting released in Australia. The display allows gamers to play split screen games on a full screen via 3D glasses, with the 3D display receiving a limited "test" release in Australia - exclusively through Harvey Norman.

Sony Australia's Michael Ephraim says that this limited launch is to test the market. He goes on to say:

The current injunction against Samsung may hurt their Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales in Australia, but Samsung are not letting that get them down. Samsung have attacked the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S not with words, but with super-cheap Galaxy S II handsets. By super-cheap, I don't mean 10% off, or even half price, I mean you can get them for... wait for it... $2. Yes, $2. There are no zeroes behind that, just a mere $2.

The GSII handsets are available in a temporary pop-up Samsung shop that is just metres away from Sydney's Apple Store. Literally, metres away. The catch? The first 10 in line will receive a $2 phone, those behind the first 10 will have to wait until the day is over, wait the entire night and then the following 10 will receive that day's batch of phones. Samsung this week rented a store just two doors down from the Sydney Apple Store to promote their Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone as well as their new online music subscription service, Music Hub.

It will definitely hurt Apple, as their new iPhone 4S goes on sales 8am on Friday. With the Galaxy S II being the strongest competitor (and actually still better in some aspects) it is a huge blow to Apple, especially after Samsung paid their respect to Steve Jobs and postponed their Samsung Unpacked 2011 event where they were reportedly going to unveil their next-generation Nexus handset sporting Google Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich.

Sigh. Apple have won their injunction and have halted the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, with Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett delivering her verdict just a little while ago now. Bennett's said it was "appropriate" to grant a temporary injunction. This isn't the end, however. The case was reportedly "evenly weighed", but still ruled in Apple's favor.

This is partly because Samsung weren't willing to present itself for an early final hearing in November. Both parties are set to have statements released, and are both expected back in court tomorrow for a directions hearing that will determine where the case goes from here. Samsung's statement is below (or in the full news post):

Yesterday I reported that the new Xbox LIVE Dashboard would drop on November 25th, but if you are one of those people who like to live on the bleeding edge then you can sign up for the Xbox LIVE Public Preview Program. Microsoft have announced an open call for all Xbox LIVE members to register to participate in the preview program to help them test the system.

They say that this is an important program as Microsoft are continually striving to ensure the reliability of a service that reaches tens of millions globally. They can't do this without you, the users. Once the program starts, an update will be pushed to your Xbox 360 console that will contain the new features, including:

• New design for integrated Kinect and controller navigation

Intel's roadmap for 2011/2012 has been leaked and it is clear that Intel wants to give their SSD portfolio the same non-stop product cycle that their processor lineup enjoys, where we receive generation leaps every year or so. Intel will start 2012 with products that have been introduced just recently such as the SSD 520 "Cherryville", SSD 710 "Lyndonville", SSD 720 "Ramsdale", and "Hawley Creek" mSATA SSDs.

Most of these will launch in Q4 2011 where Intel will allow these products to lead the portfolio for the remainder of the year and until the end of Q1 2012. In Q2 2012, Intel plans to launch "Ramsdale MLC" which is a variant of "Ramsdale" Intel SSD 720 series PCI Express SSDs, which sport 25nm MLC-HET NAND flash memory instead of SLC NAND flash found on the normal "Ramsdale". MLC-HET gives Intel the ability to double capacities, whilst offering the same kind of endurance to SLC, and much higher price per gigabyte.

It does come at a cost though, slower throughput. This is where Ramsdale MLC is not really a replacement, but just an extension of the 700 Series PCI Express family. At this time, Intel will launch "King Crest", which is a successor to the SSD 520 "Cherryville" family. This is definitely an increase in tech, which uses 25nm MLC-HET NAND flash instead of regular 25nm NAND flash that is found on the SSD 520. Capability wise, there shouldn't be any surprises, but endurance, sequential data-rates and throughput should be increased. Also like the SSD 520, "King Crest" will be a 2.5-inch form-factor with a SATA 6 Gbps interface.

ASUS is about to unleash a new ROG gaming rig in the form of a desktop machine which it calls the Tytan CG8565. It was first seen on radar during Computex earlier in the year, but a date of release wasn't mentioned at the time. A pre-order listing for it has just been spotted in Europe, however, indicating it to be just around the corner now.

Upon first glance the mid tower sized chassis looks to have been inspired by 'ballistic missile submarines', which was of course ASUS' intent with several of its Republic of Gamer series notebooks also running off similar design queues.

As for the most important aspect, its guts, it runs a 2nd-gen Core i5 or i7 processor on Intel's Z68, up to 32GB RAM, GeForce GTX 560 Ti or GTX 590 graphics card, DVD writer or Blu-ray combo drive and ASUS Xonar audio. It provides four USB 3.0 ports total as well as DVI and HDMI outputs and a 16-in-1 card reader. A single button on the case provides for instant overclocking to really help get those FPS numbers up there.

Once upon a time Sony was killing it in the TV market with their beautiful Bravia line, but thanks to increasingly fierce competition from the likes of Korean players Samsung and LG over the past eight years, Sony has been experiencing continuingly declining losses.

This latest report that's come out via Routers certainly doesn't help the situation for Sony, with word that several of its Bravia series LCD TVs manufactured in 2007 and 2008 have been subjected to faulty parts that may cause the TVs to overheat and emit smoke, or melt certain components inside. Lovely.

While Sony has noted 11 overheating incidents solely in Japan, the company has said in a news release that the faulty parts may affect TV sets sold all over the world, although the majority of the ones in the bad batch were apparently sold in Europe and the U.S.

Earlier on today we attended the GeIL Overclocking Showdown featuring two famous Russian overclockers Smoke and Slamms. Besides all of the overclocking fun, GeIL took the opportunity to promote its new gaming brand called EpicGear.

It's a very new brand at the moment with products still in development, but one of their first products that they did have on display was the Meduza gaming mouse. Before you say, "oh, not another gaming mouse...", listen up.

This mouse features what EpicGear is calling the world's first "HDST" and that stands for hybrid dual sensor technology. As you'll see in the pictures, on the back surface of the mouse where you usually see either a laser or optical sensor for tracking, EpicGear include both a laser sensor and an optical sensor. EpicGear says that super fast laser sensor with speeds up to 6000 DPI and the stable optical precision with jitter-free operation leads to an overall much better feel and use than traditional mice.

ASUS have stayed true to their word of an Ultrabook release in October, with the new Zenbook brand. Five new models will debut ranging in price from $999 to $1499. First up we have the Zenbook UX21 which is an 11.6-inch (1366x768) config, sporting 128GB of SSD and either a Core i5-2467M or Core i7-2677M whilst the Zenbook UX31 sports a 13.3-inch (1600x900) display and comes in three flavors: a Core i5-2557M model with 128GB of SSD, a similar model with the SSD pumped up to 256GB and the final model, including a Core i7-2677M.

The 11.6-inch Zenbook UX21 and 13.3-inch Zenbook UX31 weigh just 2.4 and 2.9 pounds, respectively. This os thanks to their aluminum alloy bodies, glass trackpads and all-metal keyboards. Not only that but they look absolutely gorgeous. The 11.6-inch UX21 ranges in thickness from 0.11-inch at the front, to 0.67-inch at the rear with the 13.3-inch packing more in the trunk with the same 0.11-inch front but a 0.71-inch rear.

All Zenbooks feature an instant-on feature that ASUS say will allow the Zenbook to resume from sleep in just two seconds. Battery life we have the UX21 rated for five hours of run time, sporting 7 days of standby time. The UX31 on the other hand lasts a tad longer, at seven hours of runtime or ten days standby from a single charge.

Microsoft have plans to launch the new Xbox 360 dashboard on November 25th which is based on "Lakeview", a modified version of Microsoft's Silverlight development framework. Included is support for Kinect's voice recognition and gesture control. The new dashboard will also show off applications based on Silverlight and H.264 encoded video delivery using Apple's HTTP live Streaming.

Microsoft seems to be targeting a Black Friday release of the Xbox Live update, which would add the new video apps an features such as Bing universal search. This could bolster sales for Xbox over the holidays as well as helping Xbox Live members enjoy cool new features to play with over Thanksgiving, thanks to Microsoft, giving them new toys. Pun intended. The Lakeview code is still being worked on, as Microsoft are pushing out weekly updates to the application framework.

Little things aren't changing in the code, either. Sources say that Microsoft are making fundamental changes and subtractions in Lakeview's capabilities over the past few weeks, causing partners to update and re-test their apps with each and every new release. The goal here is to quickly mature the platform, with the end goal from MS to enable other third-party developers to use the Lakeview framework to build their own apps for the Xbox 360 console.

The recently announced iPhone 4S had pre-orders last Friday and they should start hitting retail stores and customers door steps on this Friday. But, while industry-folk were mostly underwhelmed by the iPhone 4S, Apple still managed to break sales records by scooping up over one million pre-orders in 24 hours, impressive. Now that the initial first week wave of buzz is over, we can move onto the juicy bits: actual reviews.

The iPhone 4S packs a new dual-core A5 processor (like the iPad 2 sports), an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p recording capabilities, the swish new Siri voice recognition technology and 14.4Mbps HSDPA support. It is also the hero standing in the wind for iOS 5. Now we have reviews, maybe not real-world, in-the-hands-of-real-customers reviews, but closer than the marketing magic that Apple sprinkle onto their followers.

First up we have Joshua Topolsky of The Verge talking about the iPhone 4S' new camera:

Samsung's current flagship Android-based handset, the Galaxy S II has won Phone of the Year award at the T3 awards. This is the first time in three years that Apple or HTC have not won the prize, so Samsung really are shining bright right now. The Galaxy S II packs a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen, an 8-megapixel camera and 1GB of RAM. Luke Peters, editor of T3 talked about the GSII:

Even though Apple missed out on Phone of the Year, Apple did take home three awards. First of all, the MacBook Air 11-inch took out the T3 Design Award and Computer of the Year, whilst the iPad took home Tablet of the Year. Microsoft actually didn't too bad, as they won Gaming Gadget of the Year and overall Gadget of the Year for their motion-sensing gizmo, Kinect.

Start-up company BlueStacks has rubbed their hands together and produced some magical app that allows Android apps to run on all Windows PC, as it is ready to start publicly testing its software. BlueStacks is making an alpha of its software available to the public. But their long-term goals are to have both a free and a paid version of its software and to have it loaded onto new PCs. The alpha version of the software allows most (not all) Android apps to be loaded onto a PC, but prohibits some games such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja - which will be left for the paid version of the app.

BlueStacks VP, John Garguilo said in an interview "We're very happy with the degree to which apps work, not every app will work perfectly." That I agree with, we can't expect every app to work perfectly, but for just an app to appear [for what seems] out of nowhere, this is a magic day indeed. BlueStack's app will actually ship with several Android apps already preloaded and users will have the ability to push programs from their phone or tablet to the PC from a program that will be on the Android market.

I'm sure you have taken many photos that have been blurry, but Adobe is looking at erasing this problem with a new feature that they demoed at the company's MAX 2011 event. It had the crowd gasping from amazement as before their eyes they had a blurred photo, retouched and perfected in seconds. Advanced algorithms calculate the movement of the camera at the time the image was taken, enabling the user to 'fix' the image by unblurring it - saving what would usually be a photo that would end up in your recycling bin.

The video shown below (which ironically, is shakey itself) demonstrates the process can be used on a photo captured on a mobile device to sharpen the quality, and in some cases with text-based images, reveal more data. There is no official release date for the anti-blur feature, but it will definitely be a favorite for millions worldwide when it becomes available.

Dual-core phones are all the rage now, with Android-based smartphones rocking dual-core power for a while now and Apple finally catching up to the two-legged race with their upcoming iPhone 4S. But, Windows Phone unit boss, Andy Lees said that he hopes to become the solid No. 3 platform and a viable alternative to Apple and Android. What has helped them achieve this is a rocky, but stable start and with the Windows Phone 7 Mango update now rolling out - things are looking up for Microsoft.

Lees has been quoted:

A fresh roadmap looking deep into 2012 reveals that Intel is planning to hit the SSD market harder than ever with new series' on the horizon that will cover pretty much all major market segments.

We've already seen some refreshments in their SSD product range recently, and more to follow before the year is out. These include the SSD 520 "Cherryville", SSD 710 "Lyndonville", SSD 720 "Ramsdale", and "Hawley Creek" mSATA SSDs. These will maintain the lead into the first quarter of 2012, and as the second quarter comes around Intel will introduce its "Ramsdale MLC" and "King Crest" families to market.

But the biggest changes are to be seen into the third quarter of 2012 when "Taylorsville" hits the scene. This is said to be a successor to SSD 710 "Lyndonville" and will bring significant capacity increases going as large as 800GB.

Microsoft have set the goal of reducing the overall runtime memory requirements of the core system, this is a benefit to everyone and will allow people to run more and more apps, or many apps simultaneously on systems with only 1 or 2GB of RAM. Microsoft are wanting to reduce Windows 8's memory footprint as it will be pumping away on SoC-based devices which will have not only limited specs compared to a full blown desktop, but they also have batteries that don't last forever.

As Microsoft say "If an OS uses a lot of memory, it can force device manufacturers to include more physical RAM. The more RAM you have on board, the more power it uses, the less battery life you get. Having additional RAM on a tablet device can, in some instances, shave days off the amount of time the tablet can sit on your coffee table looking off but staying fresh and up to date." This is very true, so reducing the memory footprint is a very, very important move.

Microsoft's goal with Windows 8 was to ship with the same system requirements as Windows 7, and Microsoft thinks they've reached that point, as well as exceeded it. Microsoft ran a test with Windows 7 vs Windows 8 to see what its memory usage was like in a system with 1GB of RAM (the minimum OS RAM requirement) and compared them by rebooting multiple times, and then idled a few times. They used a 3+ year old netbook (the same one used at the //build/ keynote) and below we have a screenshot of Windows 7 SP1 and under that, Windows 8.

Zynga is holding a press event tomorrow in San Francisco dubbed "Zynga Unleashed", where it is expected to share its plans on how they're going to use Facebook's new HTML5-based mobile platform. Facebook's platform was announced this afternoon and runs on Apple's iOS devices as well as across the mobile Web. It will allow game developers such as Zynga to connect versions of the same application on PC and mobile devices.

In order to achieve this, developers will build applications in HTML5, rather than the commonly used Adobe Flash technology. Zynga is expected to launch "selected titles" tomorrow, with other developers set to follow such as EA, Moblyng, Storm8 and Wooga. Zynga are quite on what they're bringing to the table tomorrow, saying to AllThingsD they "will have HTML5 games coming soon the Facebook's mobile apps site".

SVP at EA Interactive, CJ Prober said: