Articles by Walaika Haskins

Social network site Facebook began informing its members Wednesday that it will open users' basic profiles to non-members searching the site. In addition, over the next few weeks, the site will begin allowing search engines access to the public profiles in its database The social networking site had previously blocked access to member's profiles by...

Sony has reportedly turned its attention to creating products and services that will enable users to download television programming and movies. The service will use the company's struggling PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game platforms as well as the company's high-definition Bravia televisions as its basis technology, and it will operate in a fashion similar to Apple's iTunes store...

Sony unveiled two new Walkman music players Thursday, the NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610. The two new players bring video storage and playblack capabilities to the iconic Walkman brand in the U.S. and are the first in the digital players from the company not tied down to Sony's ATRAC (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding) audio format "Our Walkman products of...

Microsoft on Wednesday announced details and a timeframe for the release of Vista's first service pack, giving a heads-up to businesses waiting on information needed to plan possible deployment of the company's latest operating system "Now is the time and the time is now: Let's talk about Windows Service Pack 1 (SP1)," Nick White, Vista product man...

In an attempt to combat what it views as illicit activities, the Chinese government announced Tuesday it will deploy two virtual police officers to patrol the Internet, according to reports from the state-run China Daily The cartoon cops, one male and one female, will hit theirbeat Saturday and will be on duty 24/7, safeguarding Beijing's gateway W...

It appears that Sony could have another rootkit scandal on its hands if a recent report from Finnish security firm F-Secure proves true The problem concerns a hidden directory contained in software for Sony's MicroVault USM-F thumb drive. The files, according to F-Secure, could be accessed by hackers and used to install other hidden files on an unw...

This Halloween, something once thought dead will come back from the grave. Video game maker Rockstar, the creator of the "Grand Theft Auto" series, said it has revised its much-maligned "Manhunt 2" ("MH2") game -- this time with a Mature rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) The game's initial Adults Only (AO) rating, revealed in...

After launching a three-year, US$1 billion warranty plan in response to hardware failure in its Xbox 360 video game console, Microsoft announced Wednesday that it has begun offering a free retrofit for its Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel controller Microsoft has received a "very small number" of reports of a malfunction that could cause a component ...

Microsoft this week unveiled its SideWinder Mouse during the 2007 Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany. Designed for the hardcore PC gaming crowd, the mouse marks the revitalization of the SideWinder brand and Microsoft's reentry into the PC gaming hardware market The button-studded, black and red laser mouse boasts an LCD screen for gamers to...

PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners in Europe will have something to look forward to in 2008 -- the addition of PlayTV, a TV tuner and personal video recorder (PVR) for the PS3, as well as a whole slew of additional functionality for the PSP such as a video download service for users in the U.K and Ireland. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) head David Reeves made the announcement Wednesday at the 2007 Games Convention held in Leipzig, Germany...

In an effort to bump up gameplay in the online realm of its "World of Warcraft" (WoW) massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORP), Blizzard Entertainment two years ago introduced a new villain, known by the colorful moniker of "Hakkar the Soulflayer." Little did the company know that the virtual plague Hakkar would spread to avatars in t...

Gamers across Europe woke up Monday to Microsoft's announcement that the company will cut prices on the Xbox 360 Premium and Core models starting August 24, the same day the 120 GB Xbox 360 Elite makes its way across the Atlantic and onto store shelves. The European price drop follows on the heels of a similar cut in prices in the U.S. and Canada during the first week of August. Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 Elite in April...

IBM and Sun Microsystems announced Thursday the two long-time rivals have formed a partnership that will bring Sun's Solaris operating system to IBM servers. The "comprehensive relationship" will see both companies embark on a mission to jointly serve enterprise clients seeking to run the OS on IBM's BladeCenter servers and IBM System x servers IBM...

The bad news just keeps on coming for Take 2 Interactive, parent company of Rockstar Games The firm revealed Wednesday that following a year-long informal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the handling of certain stock options grants, the company received a Wells call on Aug. 9 from the Staff of the Division of Enfo...

Electronic Arts (EA) appears to have scored a touchdown with its "Madden NFL '08," the latest iteration of the 18-year-old video game franchise that hit store shelves Tuesday. Reviewers have generally lauded "'08" as a marked improvement over the last few editions of the game, but some give an edge to gameplay on the version available for Microsoft's Xbox 360 over that of Sony's Playstation 3 (PS3)...

Some Facebook users are too friendly and play too loose with necessary security precautions, concluded a Tuesday report released by computer security firm Sophos In the report, the company warns social network users about the dangers inherent in giving cyber-strangers access to their online profiles. Those overly trusting individuals could be discl...

After four and a half years, the long, torturous and often twisted legal battle between SCO and Novell came to an end Friday when a federal district court judge put the kibosh on SCO's claims that it owned copyrights to the Unix code and operating system (OS), upon which some of the code in Linux is based SCO's stock dropped more than 70 percent in...

More than 1 million gamers have plunked down their US$60 to preorder one of the most anticipated video games this year, "Halo 3," Microsoft announced Thursday. With a little more than one month to go before the game's release Sept. 25 on the Xbox 360, the latest installment in the "Halo" franchise has become the fastest-selling pre-ordered video game in history, the console maker said...

The same week the world learned Microsoft had shaved US$50 off the price of its Xbox 360 next-generation gaming console, the company also rolled out refreshed versions of its Xbox 360 Premium models. Consumers picking up the consoles from now on will receive a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) port The news initially came from gamers who ...

Internet security research firm Sophos has warned of a massive spam campaign it has detected within the past 24 hours The spamming operation, known as a "pump and dump," was designed to boost the share price of company that sells wireless products to young people, according to Sophos....