Week in review: PlayStation Network's big outage

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:

Sony’s PlayStation Network suffers big outage — The good news is that Sony has more than 70 million registered users for its PlayStation Network online service for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The bad news is that they’re all angry because Sony suffered an outage this week.

AT&T craps on T-Mobile, self, in … Continue Reading

Entrepreneur Corner: Auto-renewals and safely raising prices

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner.

Ask the attorney: The auto-renewal conundrum – Setting up an auto renewal for your product or service gives you a steady revenue stream, but if it’s done wrong, it can put you in legal hot water. Attorney Curtis Smolar offers five ways to ensure you’re protected.

5 ways to retarget visitors (without using retargeting tools) – Retargeting is a great way to bring in customers who failed to … Continue Reading

Sony confirms external attack brought down PlayStation Network

Sony acknowledged today that its PlayStation Network online entertainment service has been brought down by an external intrusion, according to a blog post this evening.

The network has 70 million registered users and is Sony’s gateway to online entertainment on the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable. Frustrated users have been without service since Wednesday. Sony’s Qriocity music service was also attacked and brought down. Sony has kept the services off while it conducts an … Continue Reading

I sure hope the iPhone 5 looks like this

Pictured here is the latest mockup of Apple’s next iPhone, taking into account a slew of new and old rumors, put together by ex-Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky over at his interim online home.

If the iPhone 5 ends up looking close to this mockup design, Apple may just lock me in for another cellphone cycle (which in gadget blogger terms is between a year and 18 months).

At first glance, you’ll notice a larger screen … Continue Reading

Why Foursquare needs another round of funding

Foursquare is seeking a new round of funding estimated at $20 to $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Raising more money seems absolutely necessary for the location-based check-in service as it branches out to offer exclusive deals from local shops and restaurants — putting the company into more direct competition with group-offer sites like Groupon and LivingSocial.

While Foursquare has an active user base of eight million, the service has been unable to … Continue Reading

Green and travel sites flavor of the month, says top 50 report

Visits to green and travel-related websites had the most noticeable increase in March, according to the latest comScore Media Metrix report which ranks the top 50 U.S. web properties every month.

The report, which tracks where Americans spend their time online, attributed initiatives such as Earth Hour, which looks to raise awareness of energy consumption, and the approaching spring break, for the abundant increase in both categories respectively.

Website properties in the green category drew … Continue Reading

ValueClick acquiring mobile ad network Greystripe for $75M

Online marketing company ValueClick has acquired mobile ad network Greystripe for $75 million, according to TechCrunch.

The deal continues a merger spree among the mobile ad networks, as noted in previous deals such as Google’s $750 million purchase of AdMob and Apple’s $275 million purchase of Quattro Wireless.

Greystripe raised $18.1 million in four rounds. TechCrunch said that Greystripe is on pace to generate $25 to $30 million in revenue this year and $6 million … Continue Reading

Apple readies online music service; Google may tap Spotify to keep up

Apple is set to launch its iTunes cloud storage service well ahead of rival Google, according to a report by Reuters.

Apple, Amazon and Google are competing for dominance in the realm of cloud storage services that will let users access music and video remotely wherever there is internet connectivity.

Both Amazon and Google’s music services are apparently stalling from a full launch due to unresolved agreements with record labels over licensing, which is something … Continue Reading

Online video service Encoding.com raises additional $2M to support rapid expansion

San Francisco–based Encoding.com has raised $2 million in a second round funding. The company says it offers online video encoding services to 1,700 customers.

The funding comes from previous investor Metamorphic Ventures and included angel investors Patrick Condon, John Engates and Dave Morgan.

Encoding.com will use the new funding to expand its operations. The company has a couple of new offerings that it hopes will bring new customers. Last week it released a new feature, … Continue Reading

Latest rumors on Nintendo's Wii 2 video game console

Rumors are pouring out hot and heavy for Nintendo’s next-generation console, dubbed the Wii 2. A week ago, sources told journalists that Nintendo would announce this new console at the E3 trade show in Los Angeles in early June.

Rumors have come and gone over the years about a new console. Nintendo constantly designs new prototypes but usually postpones the introduction of a new machine until it really needs to introduce one. But Wii sales … Continue Reading

Amazon cloud crash takes out everyone but Gaddafi

Slowly but surely, theories are emerging about why the Amazon cloud crashed. CNN Money cites Amazon’s weird explanation that an unnamed “networking event” created a domino effect that filled up the servers and caused them to go haywire. Unless the event was Amazon’s IT team getting blazed, how this managed to take down an entire cloud empire is unclear.

In the meantime, the list of web services that were affected by the Amazon cloud crash … Continue Reading

Nintendo discontinues DS Lite handheld and ends support for GameBoy Advance

Nintendo has decided to discontinue production of its aging DS Lite handheld and end support for the GameBoy Advance handheld, according to a leaked memo.

Lots of other tech companies are in the same boat of having to figure out when to stop making aging systems and when to end customer support for obsolete products.

The decision shouldn’t come as a surprise, since both systems are pretty old. The DS Lite in 2006 was the … Continue Reading

GE: wind turbine demand fell last year

General Electric saw a drop in demand for its wind power turbines to around half of its 2009 sales levels as power companies turned to natural gas for cheaper alternative energy forms, the company said on a conference call.

GE is the top supplier of wind turbines for some of the nation’s largest wind power farms — huge swathes of land dotted by giant windmills that use the wind to generate anywhere from 1 to … Continue Reading

Twitter: Yep, we're staying in San Francisco

Well, it looks pretty definitive: Twitter is staying in San Francisco.

The news follows a period of political haggling, as well as rumors that the messaging service would be moving out of the city. Twitter had said it was impossible to justify the expense of remaining in San Francisco, especially under the existing tax structure. So the Board of Supervisors passed a measure that would cap Twitter’s taxes at their current level for the next … Continue Reading

OnLive lets you share a game with a simple link

OnLive, the online game streaming company, is quietly introducing this weekend an interesting way to share a high-quality online game. All you have to do is share a web page link.

The new sharing system could be a big deal for game publishers as they seek to use social media to share new games. You could share the game Mafiia II, for instance, by sharing the link to it on the OnLive system via email, … Continue Reading

Hackers deny involvement in PlayStation Network outage

Sony’s PlayStation Network is still down today in its second day of a massive outage. So far, Sony hasn’t offered an update about when the online entertainment network, with more than 70 million registered users, will be back online.

Users trying to log into the system are getting a message that says “an error” has occurred. Yesterday, Sony warned that it may take a day or more to bring the network back up. Since then, … Continue Reading

Listen up, Realtors: solar panels increase home value

So much for the not-in-my-backyard argument: California homes with solar panels installed on them sell for more than their panel-free counterparts, according to a study by the University of California at Berkeley.

The study found that homes with solar panels sold for an extra $5.50 per watt of solar power installed, for an average of $17,000 more per house.

Both solar power and wind power sources typically face resistance from communities due to a “not-in-my-backyard” … Continue Reading

Verizon's next 4G phone: the $300 Samsung Droid Charge, coming April 28

The newest entry in Verizon’s super-fast LTE 4G smartphone crew is Samsung’s Droid Charge, which will be landing at the carrier on April 28 for a hefty $300 with a two-year contract.

The Charge is Samsung’s first LTE 4G smartphone to hit the market, and it comes on the heels of Motorola delaying its 4G Droid Bionic for Verizon.

The most striking thing about the phone at this point is its $300 price tag. In … Continue Reading