Sony has announced that former president and chairman Norio Ohga has passed away at age 81.

Ohga is credited with developing the CD (compact disc).

A lover of music and former opera singer, Ohga made the decision to design CDs at 4.8-inches (75 minutes of music), so it could store the complete Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Ohga is also credited with helping expand Sony out of niche into a global player in the audio, video and electronics world.

Says current Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer (via CBS):

It is no exaggeration to attribute Sony's evolution beyond audio and video products into music, movies and game, and subsequent transformation into a global entertainment leader to Ohga-san's foresight and vision.

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Despite founding partner Nokia leaving the mobile operating system for dead, it appears there is still interest in the Linux-based mobile OS MeeGo.

Last week we reported that LG Electronics was looking to adopt the OS for some lower-end smartphones, with discussions already underway.

Furthermore, ZTE and China Mobile were also said to be looking to help develop a handset with the OS.

Today, insiders are saying Huawei and Panasonic are joining the Handset Working Group, making sure the OS does not die.

Panasonic is a large handset maker in Japan and Huawei has a number of feature phones and smartphones available worldwide.

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Collecting info from multiple sources, the upcoming Wii 2 is getting more and more details, including a mockup of the next-gen controller.

For now, the console is under codename Project Cafe and may be released very early next year as the Nintendo Stream.

Under the hood, the Stream will run on a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC CPU, with "much" faster clock speeds than the Xbox 360. The GPU will be a revamped AMD R700 architecture. The system will support full 1080p output alongside stereoscopic 3D.

For form factor, the system will be the same size as the first-gen Xbox 360s and will look like a "modernized" SNES.

The completely revamped controllers will have integrated touchscreens, with the ability to stream games to each controller. (Check included mockup)

While the console will begin shipping in September, but it appears that Nintendo will not release until early 2012 to ensure they have a huge amount of launch titles and large supply so there are no delays.

Perhaps most importantly, the sources expect the console to sell for $350 at launch, unless Nintendo decides to take a hit on margins and lower the price.

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There are conflicting reports surrounding the upcoming iPhone 5, but former Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky has fueled the fire by claiming that the iPhone 5 will be completely redesigned to look like the iPod Touch, including a "teardrop" shape where the device goes from thicker to thinner, just like the MacBook Air.

Additionally, the "home" button will be expanded to also support gestures. (As seen in mockup)

Furthermore, the screen will also be expanded to 3.7-inches and take up the entire front of the device, leaving no bezel.

Rumors of the larger screen have been around since last year, including the "edge-to-edge" design.

The phone will keep 312dpi Retina display, as well, despite the larger screen.

On the other hand, Macrumors cites a "reliable" source when saying Engadget's report is completely untrue.

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Launched on March 22nd, Mozilla's Firefox 4 has become a rockstar, topping 100 million downloads earlier this morning.

The numbers come via Mozilla's "Glow" stats ticker page, which has been updating the downloads since launch. You can check that page here: Firefox 4 Downloads

StatCounter (via Crunch), says Firefox 4 already has 8 percent of the worldwide browser market share, behind more established IE8 at 30 percent, Firefox 3.6 at 24.43 percent and Chrome 10 at 15.35 percent.

Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 9, a complete overhaul of their previous browsers, and Google has released betas of Chrome 11, which adds HTML5 speech input, allowing users to talk into their mics and have the browser type out what you are saying (great for hands-free searches).

Download it here:
Download Mozilla Firefox

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Earlier this week we reported that Sony's PlayStation Network was down "for maintenance" and that Sony was saying the downtime might be a "day or two" as Sony worked to bring back all features.

The shutdown is taking a lot longer than a day or two, as the PSN is still not functional, but at least Sony has confirmed why the popular free service is non-functional.

Says the company, via its blog:

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

The PSN has over 70 million registered users, with 40 million or so expected to be active accounts.

So far, no one has taken credit for the attack, and 'Anonymous' said on Thursday, bluntly, "it wasn't us."

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