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Details are still sparse (and primarily in Japanese), but our Tokyo bureau just let us know that Sony’s announced a fairly severe security vulnerability on the PlayStation Network, which would actually allow an attacker to access your account, personal information, and Wallet — but not your credit card on file — as well as change your password. More on this as it develops; in the mean time, keep a close eye on that account.

Update: More information is on the US PS3 site. Apparently the issue has been resolved and security is restored.

A mouse is a mouse, right? You move it, it moves a thingy on the screen, it’s as simple as that. Well not when you’re a hardcore PC gamer it’s not. For these guys, a mouse is a precision tool that needs to react exactly how and when you want it to, or be laughed to the bottom of every scoreboard in town.

And you’re not going to get much more precise than the Sidewinder mouse from Microsoft: a resolution of up to 2000dpi (not that you’ll need it) and interchangeable teflon feet for a smoother glide. You can even swtich cursor speeds live in any game with three adjustable buttons on the top, insert small weights into the body of the mouse to alter momentum, and reprogram all the buttons. It all sounds pretty ridiculous, but you just can’t scoff at this array of options.

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If you’re using Apple’s Safari browser, PayPal has some advice for you: Drop it, at least if you want to avoid online fraud.

Safari doesn’t make PayPal’s list of recommended browsers because it doesn’t have two important anti-phishing security features, according to Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer.

“Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers,” Barrett said in an interview. “Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera.”

Safari is the default browser on Apple’s Macintosh computers and the iPhone, but it is also available for the PC. Both Firefox and Opera run on the Mac.
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Intel has found a way to stretch a Wi-Fi signal from one antenna to another located more than 60 miles away.

Intel has announced plans to sell a specialized Wi-Fi platform later this year that can send data from a city to outlying rural areas tens of miles away, connecting sparsely populated villages to the Internet. The wireless technology, called the rural connectivity platform (RCP), will be helpful to computer-equipped students in poor countries, says Jeff Galinovsky, a senior platform manager at Intel. And the data rates are high enough–up to about 6.5 megabits per second–that the connection could be used for video conferencing and telemedicine, he says.

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Five years ago, Patrick Baudisch found that it was getting harder to dial the minuscule buttons on ever-smaller cell phones; he couldn’t see what he was tapping on the keypad while he was holding the phone. What he really needed, he decided, was fingers he could see through.

So Baudisch, a scientist at Microsoft Research who was studying human-computer interaction, started working on something more practical: LucidTouch, a digital technology meant to give handheld devices the illusion of transparency. An unusual joint venture formalized in 2006 between Microsoft and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, LucidTouch is designed to allow the use of all 10 fingers, unlike the BlackBerry or Treo.
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