Broadband Internet service is uneven in the U.S. state of Vermont but officials want to change that and make sure the whole Green Mountain State is connected.

A website has been launched to allow residents to report the quality of service or non-existence of broadband Internet in different parts of the state. This will allow government officials to have an accurate map of gaps of service which can be addressed.

Vermonters who want to know what broadband Internet is and the service options available to them can view the information at the same website, www.broadbandVT.org.

The state of Vermont has partnered with broadband Internet service providers to bring to fruition the goal of 100 percent coverage in the immediate future. Vermonters can also see on the web site an Internet provider’s service speeds and nearby facilities such as libraries that provide broadband Internet service.

The mapping program will allow Vermont to leave behind old dial-up connections in favor of faster broadband Internet to hook into the online world.

Free services to fight identity theft have been offered by Sony Corp. for customers affected by the data breach of their PlayStation Network.

After credit card and personal account information were stolen by hackers, customers who are using the online gaming and video streaming service are becoming concerned and don’t want to fall prey to schemes using their personal details. The free program will help them fight identity theft.

Sony said customers have until June 18 to sign up for  12 months of free protection provided by Debix Inc.’s AllClear ID Plus identity theft program. The service will check for suspicious activity using personal information and will notify customers monthly.

In case measures to fight identity theft fails to prevent a crime, a customer can receive $1 million as compensation from Sony.

The PlayStation Network connects gamers around the world to play and also allows users to stream movies and music. It was shut down April 20 after the company confirmed the hacking.

Aside from services to fight identity theft, Sony is offering complimentary downloads and free 30-day subscription to its PSN premium service.

Latest rumor we hear about the upcoming smartphone iPhone 5 from Apple says that the design of this gadget will get “radical changes”, while from outside, it will generally look more like the latest iPod touch, rather than iPhone 4, writes Joshua Topolsky (Former Editor at Engadget) on his site.

Sequel as reported will be thinner than iPhone 4 and will probably get a teardrop-shaped profile, which will go from a thin part at the bottom to thick one at the top (something like that could be seen in the last notebooks MacBook Air).

If we believe the figure, drawn from the description of the smartphone, and rumors, iPhone 5 will almost have no frame around the screen, but will receive increased 3.7-inch display, whose resolution will match that of iPhone 4. Owing to this, the pixel density will decrease from 326 to 312 dpi, giving it a larger home area.

The source also notes that the taper illustrated in the mockup figure is somewhat exaggerated. In addition, the flip side of the gadget will not necessarily be metallic, like iPod touch, just the latter was taken as a basis for the figure.

U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing a probe on the subject of monopoly of Google in the Internet search market. FTC has appealed for help from internet companies in order to ascertain the monopolistic position of Google in the search business, reports Financial Times. This step could be the first signal directed to conduct a full antitrust investigation into Google.

In the meantime, one of the sources who provided the information to FT said that the Commission only intends to get the information relevant to it about the company and then on its basis will take any decision. Another source reports that the FTC is preparing to send official requests for information, which is the first sign that the formal investigation is already underway.

Earlier also FTC had attempted to determine whether Google is fair in its search results. But the attempt was not very active, and it lost interest in the issue. In late April, interest of the FTC in Google again emerged after the U.S. Justice Department approved the $700 million acquisition by Google of ITA Software, which provides its clients with information about the scheduled departure of flights and sells flight tickets through the Internet. Under the deal, Google must provide the travel data to other search-engine and it could well open the Pandora box for other search engines to lodge complaints against the internet giant.

Two lawsuits have been filed against Japanese gaming giant Sony because of last week’s massive data breach of users of its online-gaming system.

A lawsuit has been filed by one Kristopher Johns in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of California seeking class-action suit status and charging Sony’s security being “negligently poor”, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the WSJ, the lawsuit charging that the “company failed to encrypt personal information” also says that Sony did not inform customers of the incident in a timely manner.

Sony took down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity service on April 19 because the company discovered an intrusion of its systems. Sony only announced that user data may have been compromised, including possibly credit card accounts, on April 26.

Another lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court charging Sony of being negligent in letting data from its customers be compromised in the attacks. The Los Angeles lawsuit is also asking for class-action lawsuit status, the report says.

Keeping the tradition of releasing a new version after every six months, Ubuntu team yesterday presented the final release of version 11.04 codenamed as Natty Narwhal operating system.

The new product is based on Linux 2.6.38 kernel and Unity interface, which has increased the usable space for smaller vertical screens, and allows users to use the scroll bar less frequently besides undergoing some other changes. Ubuntu 11.04 is characterized by a redesigned control mechanism of desktops, supporting multi-touch navigation of system and quick access to frequently used programs, documents and files.

Other features of the platform include improved system installer, and updated software package, which include office suite LibreOffice 3.3.2, which has come as a replacement to OpenOffice.org, as well as improved installation application manager (Ubuntu Software Center), allowing the possibility of acquiring commercial solutions and trial programs on a remote server before installing on your computer.

Ubuntu 11.04 has been released to public and can be downloaded from the project site ubuntu.com. Setups are available for desktops, servers and cloud-environments. The next version of system under the number 11.10 is scheduled for October release this year.

It is worth noting that along with the final release of platform, life cycle of Ubuntu 9.10 is over. Starting April 29, 2011, there will no longer be any updates or patches for the said platform. Users are encouraged to upgrade the previous version of operating system.

iPhone 4 in white body has finally arrived in the market, 10 months later than its originally scheduled release date. The senior vice president of Apple’s Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller explained that the reason for delay was linked to a whole range of issues.

Apple Inc., starting today, April 28, begins the sales of white iPhone 4. This version of the phone was announced in June 2010 but its release was postponed several times owing to production problems.

As reported by Apple, sales will begin in 28 countries: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and USA.

Mobile phone goes on sale in Apple retail stores, company’s online store, besides through operators and authorized resellers. Price of the device has been kept same as that of iPhone 4 in black casing, which is available in the market since last June.

The senior vice president of Apple’s Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller in an interview with All Things Digital explained the reasons related to delay in the release of white iPhone, which was scheduled to be launched together with the black unit 10 months ago.

The main reason behind postponement, according to Schiller, was the problems in the production of casing. “It’s not as simple as making something white. There’s a lot more that goes into both the material science of it–how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors,” said Schiller. He added that more transparent white plastic hampers the working of sensors and, moreover, it premature aging of the iPhone as a result of UV exposure was also an issue.

Deep study of the issue, said Schiller, finally allowed creating the product that will fully meet the expectations of customers. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who also took part in the interview, added that the iPhone 4 in a completely white body fits perfectly in their lineup that already includes white iPad 2.

Just six days after closing its PlayStation network, Sony reported that its online gaming networked was hacked and more than 70 million members had their email addresses and passwords stolen.  The disclosure came as Sony was emailing users of its free service that their data was stolen.

Sony, the fifth biggest media conglomerate in the world, said that credit card information of some users may also have been stolen, and members who had provided their credit card data online should carefully review their bills.

The security breach is the largest ever to date, and is especially worrying because many members may have used the same email and password information for social networking websites. This means those who are not aware or who did not act fast enough may be the victims of identity theft. Criminals could use the email addresses and passwords to hijack other websites and steal bank account information, and send fake emails to friends.

Sony said other information stolen during the hacking includes birth dates, home cities, and possibly security questions and answers. Criminals who steal e-mail addresses alone can use this information to scam unaware surfers.  After a security breach at marketing firm Epsilon last month, users began receiving emails which directed them to a website that installed a key-logger program that recorded every word they typed into the keyboard, including passwords.

News Corp is looking to sell its once-hot social networking site MySpace for more than $100 million, a report citing people familiar with the sale said.

According to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the media conglomerate owned by Rupert Murdoch will likely be receiving bids for fractions or the whole social networking site.

Citing sources familiar with the MySpace sale, the WSJ said that News Corp. will accept no lower than $100 million for the ailing site. It bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million.

The Journal, which is also owned by News Corp, said that potential bidders are THL Partners, Redscout Ventures and Criterion Capital.

The report also said that Chinese company Tencent and Myspace co-founder Chris De Wolfe have looked into the viability of buying MySpace.

A deal for the money-losing social networking site is expected to be revealed on June, the WSJ said.

Facebook is now competing with hot-performing Groupon.

Following the path blazed by deals site Groupon, Facebook will launch a deals service on Tuesday in five cities in the US.

Deals sites offer discounts usually amounting to 50 percent off or more on offers made by local businesses.

Analysts will be closely watching as Facebook tries to leverage its all-important social graph with its deals service.

According to reports, the five cities where Facebook will launch its local discounts service will be Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco.

Facebook’s director of local Emily White said that the company is “We’re building a product that is social from the ground up,” a report from The Associated Press said.

According to White, the deals to be featured on the upcoming Facebook service will also be more social than deals offered on other discount sites like Groupon.

“All of these deals are things you want to do with friends, so no teeth whitening, but yes to river rafting,” White said.