An Anonymous-branded message threatening Sony and a handful of celebrities has surfaced and calls for attacks on the target parties as retaliation for their collective support of SOPA. The message announces that Anonymous will “destroy [Sony's] network,” and has “declared that [their] fury will be brought upon…Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift,” for their grievous crime. Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Releasing a video announcing an Anonymous attack doesn’t necessarily make said Anonymous attack real, but this one seems to be gaining some traction.

While rechargeable batteries are taking some of the financial sting out of consumer electronics, those batteries still contain some nasty chemicals that would probably just as well not be in our landfills. With that in mind, and no doubt to tout its green clout, Sony has demonstrated a remarkable “bio-cell” that breaks down paper to create power. The demo was rolled out at Tokyo’s Eco-Products 2011 exhibition. Though the bio-cell was only powering a small fan, the potential of the new technology could be huge.

So remember back, after the big Sony hacking fiasco, when Sony pushed a PlayStation Network update that required all users to surrender their right to sue Sony? Well now Sony is getting sued over it. There were a lot of questions about whether the move to include the clause was actually legal, and now we’re set to find out. Sony did provide a way to opt-out of the clause, but it was hard to find and even harder to excute; you had to send them a letter snail-mail, which as we all know, is an activity bordering on impossible. Seriously though, it’s kind of a pain and that was a pretty sketchy move on Sony’s part.

Sony’s PSP successor, the PS Vita, released in Japan over the weekend, a handful of months before the U.S. and European February 22, 2012 release date. One early adopter stacked the PS Vita up to other handheld consoles, as well as some PS Vita game boxes, to give everyone a size comparison of the new unit: It’s noticeably larger when placed next to other units, but it isn’t the largest one around, only slightly bigger than the PSP.

As you may know, Viacom is particularly jealous of its copyright. Viacom videos on YouTube that aren’t supposed to be there do not last long at all. In addition to that, it seems that Viacom has moved on to getting rid of videos that are only tangentally related to it, like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us trailer. Yesterday, the trailer was pulled by from YouTube, leaving a hole in the game’s official site, all on the grounds that Viacom somehow owned it just because it initially aired on the VGAs on Viacom-owned Spike TV. It’s back now, but come on.

Not too long ago, a site claiming to know what you have downloaded via torrent showed up on the scene. The site, YouHaveDownloaded.com, aims to call attention to the fact that torrenting, as it stands right now, is not a very private activity. You can go there right now to see if they have anything on you. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the folks at TorrentFreak decided to use the service to see if the big, anti-piracy companies live up to their own standards. Spoilers: They don’t.

Not too long ago, there was a terrible rumor floating out around that Fumito Ueda, the genius behind Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and the upcoming The Last Guardian would be leaving Team ICO. Well, those horrible, nightmare-inducing rumors are true, as Sony confirmed that Ueda is indeed leaving.

He, at least, will continue working on bringing The Last Guardian to fruition on a contract basis.

Sony’s followup to the PSP, the PS Vita, is releasing on February 22, 2012, but if you want to get yourself a Vita a full week before the official release date, you can grab the First Edition Bundle a full week ahead of time on February 15. There is a bundle for the U.S. and one for Canada, with the U.S. nabbing the 3G + Wi-Fi model and Canada receiving the cheaper Wi-Fi only model. Aside from variant PS Vitas, both bundles come with a 4 GB PS Vita memory card, a limited edition case, and Little Deviants, the obligatory launchgame  mini-game compilation that showcases a device’s capabilities. The 3G + Wi-Fi bundle will be selling for $350, while the Wi-Fi only bundle will be selling for $299, each bundle only $50 more than the base PS Vita units.

So, are you anticipating the PS Vita enough to where you’d shell out an extra $50 of getting your hands on it and Little Deviants a week earlier than you otherwise would have?

After a ten year partnership that started in 2001, Sony has announced that it will buy out Ericsson’s share of Sony-Ericsson mobile for 1.47 billion dollars. The purchase mainly consists of “five essential patent families” that Ericsson held. Now that Sony has full control of those patent families, it opens up the opportunity to use them in other, non-mobile devices, of which Sony makes a couple.

This isn’t exactly coming out of left field considering rumors of the buy out have been floating around for a while now. Apparently, Sony sees this as an opportunity to catch up with its rivals, who are a little bit ahead at the moment. Ericsson sees this as an opportunity as well. In a release, Ericsson President Hans Vestberg said that they would use this opportunity to “enhance [their] focus on enabling connectivity for all devices, using [their] R&D and industry leading patent portfolio to realize a truly connected world.”

When done right, nothing is more instantly recognizable and associable as a catchy sound bite. Once upon a time, instantly recognizable jingles were the backbone of the advertising industry. Today,  audio clips are a little more pervasive, considering our seeming dependence on electronic devices. Receive a phone call? Catchy audio clip. Get an email? Catchy sound bite. Turn on just about any modern electronic device? Memorable tune. We’re living in a world where companies and devices need to differentiate themselves from the competition as much as possible, and an instantly recognizable sound bite is a three-to-ten second mean to that end. So, come with us as we check out some of the most instantly recognizable, brand differentiating, nostalgia inducing sound bites in tech.