Dell to launch Streak handheld in Europe

In today's podcast: Sony's PS3 now turning a profit; Chinese telecom vendors lobby Indian government; and Dell to launch Streak handheld in Europe.

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Sony has finally begun making money on its PlayStation 3 console and expects its game business to turn a profit this year, the company said Thursday. The turnaround represents a success for Sony's new management team, which made profitability at the division a key short-term goal when it took over in April 2009. The PlayStation 3 has remained a money loser for Sony ever since it went on sale in November 2006. Things began to change in the second half of last year when Sony launched a redesigned PlayStation 3. Advances in electronics and manufacturing meant the console was cheaper to produce and Sony managed to boost sales by reducing the price.

Executives from Chinese telecommunications equipment company ZTE met India's home secretary, G.K. Pillai, on Thursday as part of their bid to convince the Indian government that buying from the company is not a security risk. The Chinese ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, also met Pillai on Thursday, according to media reports. Chinese equipment vendors say Indian service providers have been blocked from buying their equipment by the Indian government, which is citing security reasons. Huawei said purchases of its equipment by service providers have been blocked by the government since February.

Dell will release its Streak handheld computer in Europe next month and in the U.S. during the summer, CEO Michael Dell said on Thursday. The Streak is an Android-based device that Dell showed at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Not to be confused with Dell's Mini 3 smartphone that is on sale in a few emerging markets, the Streak has a larger, 5-inch touch screen and looks like an iPhone but bigger. It has two cameras: a webcam in the front that could potentially be used for videoconferencing, and a 5-megapixel camera on the back. It will operate over both Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

Facebook has identified the hacker named Kirllos who tried to sell 1.5 million Facebook accounts recently in underground hacking forums. According to the investigators at the social networking site, he's guilty of both hacking and hyperbole. Kirllos was first spotted by researchers at VeriSign's iDefense group a few weeks back after he claimed to have an unusually large number of Facebook accounts for sale at rock-bottom prices. According to VeriSign, Kirllos wanted between US$25 and $45 per 1,000 accounts, depending on the quality of the Facebook user's connections. Kirllos appeared to have sold close to 700,000 accounts, although nobody knew for sure if his claims were legitimate, according to VeriSign Director of Cyber Intelligence Rick Howard.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.