Sony to support MP3

Sony yesterday announced plans to support MP3 music files on some of its portable music players.

The shift represents a realignment in the company`s strategy, as up until now it has remained insistent on customers using its proprietary format, Atrac. The move will better position the electronics giant against rivals such as Apple, whose portable players support both MP3s and other file formats, AP reports.

Sony will now offer certain flash-based players allowing both Atrac and MP3 formats as early as this year, and plans to develop software upgrades so owners of current models could play their songs in the MP3 format.

IBM and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have signed an agreement that could see the two companies work on chip-making technologies based on a 32nm process.

At present, the most advanced chip-making processes can create wires as small as 90nm on a microchip, but the two companies plan to decrease that size even further, said IBM spokesperson Chris Andrews.

"We were already collaborating on 65nm and 45nm technology, now we`ve added joint development on 32nm technology to the agreement."

According to PCWorld, the agreement is a three-year extension of the companies` original December 2002 collaboration, and will now end in 2008. AMD spokesperson Karen Prairie said the company will pay IBM up to $280 million (R1.8 billion) over the next four years, which in return will continue to host the research and development work at its New York facility.

"It`s a sign that our relationship with IBM is going very well and this has benefited both companies," she said.

Hackers have targeted Authorize.Net in a large scale denial-of-service that has resulted in service disruptions for certain customers, PCWorld reports.

The attack targeted the credit card processors` payment gateway service, said marketing director David Schwartz, who added that the company had received an extortion note a few days before, asking for a "substantial amount of money".

This is not the first time Authorize.Net has been the subject of such attacks. "We have been attacked in the past, but not on this scale and with such tenacity," said Schwartz.

Extortion attacks targeted at e-commerce companies are on the increase, and generally tend to happen during busy periods such as the upcoming holiday season or around major events, said Tom Corn, VP of DoS-Mitigation technologies vendor Mazu Network.