Sony’s mobile phone division is downscaling globally, SA fate uncertain

Now might be a bad time to buy a smartphone in general. It’s not just Huawei having hassles, Sony Mobile’s also got issues. Far more pressing issues than the Chinese smartphone maker. According to a report from Xperia Blog, the company is scaling back operations around the world, looking to focus on just a handful of locations. Africa… the whole of Africa… is not one of them. Which puts South Africa in the crosshairs for a possible pull out of the market — something that has reportedly (and quietly) happened elsewhere. The region — along with several others around the world — is now marked as ‘defocused’, which is a bit of a strange term. It could mean that Sony isn’t putting much effort into the region, but it could also mean that you just won’t be able to buy Sony Xperia handsets. There’s no timeline for the changes to be implemented, but you might want to be wary of the Xperia lineup for the moment. Sony locally says that nothing will be changing, so perhaps we’re just looking at a reduced marketing focus here at home.

Source: Xperia Blog

Astronomer captures SpaceX’s Starlink satellites marching in a row

So you want to see what SpaceX’s internet-providing Starlink satellites, successfully launched by the space company last week, look like? We’ve got a treat for you. Rather, astronomer Dr. Marco Langbroek has a treat for you — a procession of the mini internet providers marching across the night sky in a brief but spectacular video. The video was captured in Europe and the sight was unusual enough that UFO reports were filed. The video (which can be seen in full at the link below) was captured using a “… WATEC 902H low-light-level surveillance camera, equipped with a Canon FD 1.8/50 mm lens.” Quite the decent setup for night-time sky-watching. The so-called ‘train’ of satellites will be slowly dispersing over time, as they get themselves into position. Don’t expect to see them quite this orderly for long.

Source: SatTrack Cam blog

The Persistence of Chaos: A very dangerous laptop is up for sale, as an art piece

So you think you’ve got an odd piece of tech history at home, do you? We doubt it’s quite as strange as The Persistence of Chaos, an old Samsung notebook infected with six of the nastiest bits of malware in recent memory. And, of course, it’s up for sale. Because the notebook is an art piece now. It contains WannaCry, the ILoveYou virus, as well as others that have collectively caused almost $100 billion in financial damage. The notebook is perfectly safe, though, provided you don’t stick in a USB stick or connect it to a network. Or run a virus scan, because it’s currently valued at $1.2 million. Yikes. Want to check out the notebook? There’s a live-stream of the machine here.

Source: The Verge

The Sonic movie has been delayed to 2020, for ‘corrections’

So much for ‘Gotta go fast’, right? The Sonic motion picture, the one that got massive backlash for how its lead character looked, has been delayed so that the titular character can be changed. That much we knew, but the delay has been lengthened a little. It was still supposed to make a 2019 release but it’s been stalled a little further. The new launch date is 14 February 2020. The reason for the delay is that it takes quite a lot of effort to alter all of the CGI in a movie where the lead character is… you know, all CGI. What the new Sonic will look like is anyone’s guess, but we’re willing to bet that they’re gonna let us sneak a peek at the blue speedster before very long. You know, just to make sure…