Sony Chairman Howard Stringer has apologized for the multi-week outage of the PSN and has offered all affected users in the U.S. one year of free identity-theft protection.

The company will offer $1 million insurance per user, which will cover legal expenses, identity-restoration costs and lost wages if your ID is stolen.

Debix has been hired to do the monitoring in the U.S. and it is unclear when international PSN users will get the same treatment.

Sony admitted this week that 101.6 million accounts were compromised by two "highly sophisticated attack" on Sony's servers on April 17th.

If you want the $1 million insurance, you have until June 18th to sign up for Debix's AllClear ID Plus protection service.

Added Stringer (via SFG):

I know this is a frustrating time for all of you. Let me assure you that the resources of this company have been focused on investigating the entire nature and impact of the cyber attack we've all experienced and on fixing it.

Sony adds the following if you are interested in signing up:

Please note that we will start sending out activation emails for this program over the next few days, and you will have until June 18th to sign-up and redeem your code. You will need to sign up directly through AllClearID, not on Sony's websites, and details, including step-by-step instructions for the program, will be emailed to United States PSN and Qriocity Account holders soon.

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Last year, AT&T began locking down all Android devices, blocking sideloading of apps for "security reasons."

Today, it appears that AT&T has removed that restriction, following considerable criticism.

In the newly launched Infuse 4G, users have confirmed that "Install from Unknown sources" is available in settings.

Outside from downloading pirated apps (which was likely AT&T's concern), there are a plethora of legal reasons to need to sideload applications, including the newly launched Amazon Appstore.

The Infuse 4G goes on sale next week for $200 with contract.

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According to IRC chat logs acquired by Cnet, a group of hackers is planning a third cyber attack on Sony, which is still reeling from two attacks that have taken the PSN down for two weeks and left 100 million customers with data exposed.

The upcoming attack is planned for this weekend, and the hackers claim to already have access to some of Sony's servers.

Furthermore, the hackers plan to publicize all of the info they steal, including names, addresses and credit card numbers.

Earlier this week, Sony revealed that a "highly sophisticated, planned" attack hit Sony's servers and they took down PSN as soon as it was detected. The company also implied that the group Anonymous had something to do with it, as there was a file planted on the server named "Anonymous" which included the statement "We are Legion," one of the group's mottoes.

Anonymous, twice now, has denied being part of the attack.

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Speaking to investors this week, Barnes & Noble has announced that it will reveal a new tablet or e-reader on May 24th, with many speculating it will include Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

Says the SEC notice:

In a meeting with investor analysts on May 4, 2011, Barnes & Noble ... indicated it expects to make an announcement on May 24, 2011 regarding the launch of a new eReader device.

B&N currently offers the e-ink Nook and the 7-inch tablet/e-reader hybrid Nook Color, which was recently updated to support Android 2.2 and Flash video.

There are no other details about what the new Nook will bring, but most expect it to be a Honeycomb tablet.

Possibly, B&N may be updating the e-ink Nook, instead, to be slimmer and include more features, just like Amazon has done multiple times with their market leading Kindle e-reader.

B&N is currently in a patent dispute with Microsoft, who sued them last month over the Nook and Android.

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Sources have said this week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been actively speaking to Skype about a potential buyout or a joint venture.

If accurate, the report says Facebook could pay up to $4 billion for the video chat service.

More likely, however, the two companies will tie-up for a new joint venture.

Additionally, Google appears to be interested in a similar venture, as well, and has had "early talks."

Skype only commented to say: "As a practical matter, we avoid commenting on rumor and speculation."

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CNET has been sued this week for distributing 220 million copies of LimeWire over the years.

The record labels say CNET parent CBS Interactive profited from the free downloads, which accounted for 95 percent of all LimeWire downloads since 2008.

Reads the complaint:

The CBS defendants received massive amounts of revenue from P2P provders on a 'pay per download' basis and also from advertising revenues generated by advertisements placed on the download screen for P2P software.

The suit also claims CBS was "well aware" of LimeWire's infamy as an "infringement tool" yet continued to offer the client and "videos, articles and other media that instructed how to use P2P software to locate pirated copies of copyrighted works and remove electronic protections placed on digital music files."

LimeWire was shut down last year and had 50 million active users at its peak.

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