The hacking group 'Anonymous' has turned its collective eye on Sony, posting a picture on the AnonOps site.

Anonymous is certainly not happy with the way Sony has treated Geohot and others who have jailbroken their PS3 to run homebrew.

The group started in 2003 via 4chan and recently became a household name after they launched DDoS attacks on MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and Amazon after the companies cut off donations and server space to WikiLeaks following the release of diplomatic cables.

Reads the poster:

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AT&T has confirmed today that it will be increasing its smartphone early upgrade by $50, the second time it has done so in the last 6 months.

If you somehow have a one-year contract through the carrier, the early upgrade fee is now $150 higher. The fees are only in effect if you try to upgrade to a smartphone before your contract is up.

Says the carrier (via BGR):

We've updated our early upgrade and no commitment price points for smartphones and feature phones. Only customers who are not yet upgrade eligible or who do not want to sign a contract are impacted. As mobile devices become more sophisticated, their cost goes up. This change reflects the increased costs, while still allowing us to offer customers the latest device before they qualify. We're happy to discuss individual account and upgrade needs one-on-one with customers.

Furthermore, other unconfirmed reports have AT&T raising the early upgrader fee on feature phones by $20.

Last October, AT&T pumped the fee to $200 from $75 on the same logic, "increased costs."

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Nortel has said today it will sell of its remaining 6000 patents and applications to Google for $900 million unless a rival bidder takes a shot.

That patents cover communications tech, including digital, wireless and wired.

Says Google:

One of a company's best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.

Google will receive patents for wireless, 4G, data networking, optical, voice, and semiconductors, says ZD.

Nortel has been selling off assets since going bankrupt in 2009.

Once trading as high as $600 a share in the tech bubble of the late 90s, Nortel shares now trade for 3 cents.

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Epsilon Data Management, one of the largest online mail service companies in the U.S., confirmed reports that millions of names and email addresses were stolen after hackers broke into their system.

Emails and names were stolen for firms including Chase, Best Buy, Target, HSN, Capital One, TiVo and Walgreen among 50 companies.

I have attached the email I received from Chase this morning.

In all, the company provides online mail services to 2,500 companies.

Says one security analyst (via LAT):

These are examples of why those people who provide services to thousands of other companies have to be way more secure than the individual companies themselves.

Each of the companies affected has sent out warning letters to customers telling them to prepare for an increase in phishing emails, aimed at stealing credit card details, passwords or addresses.

While the attack will affect millions, Epsilon spokeswoman Jessica Simon says no sensitive information was stolen.

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TF has posted a picture today that shows a Saudi airline running a pirated Blu-ray copy of the movie "Killers" as its in-flight film.

The copy shows up as "Killers 2010 BDRiP AC3 XViD-ILOVE," clearly meaning the airline decided to roll with a pirated copy over the official content given by the studios.

It is likely the company has the license to play the film, but believed pirating the film was easier (no DRM), or just better quality.

There was no comment from the airline or the studio behind Killers.

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A Chicago public school teacher now faces disciplinary action after she posted a picture of a student and led the way in mocking the girl's hair while others commented.

Copying something she had seen in a magazine, the 7-year-old girl asked her mother to tie Jolly Rancher candies to the end of her braids, adding some color. The student then came in for picture day.

Other teachers complimented the look so she was comfortable when the computer teacher in question asked to take a camera phone picture.

On Facebook, the teacher posted the picture and posted comments like "And y'all thought I was joking!," "This is for picture day too! SMDH," and "Yeah, this is foolishness at its best."

Lucinda Williams, the mother of the student said she was shown the page by a friend who was also "friends" with the teacher on Facebook. After Williams complained to the principal, the teacher apologized and removed the picture.

Regardless, the Chicago Public School says:

The (Overton Elementary School) principal said this was a good teacher but this was a case of poor judgment. It will warrant disciplinary action.

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