Tech Features

This week in the world of tech, Nintendo and Microsoft each had E3s to forget, while LinkedIn were faced with a huge hack attack.

Nintendo shares drop after uninspiring E3 showing

With a surprisingly light third-party slate, an uninspired first-party line-up and no announcement of pricing or a release date, it's fair to say that Nintendo dropped the ball with their much anticipated Wii U-centric E3 2012.

In fact, such was the apathy towards the Japanese giants' press conference at the video game industry's biggest event, Nintendo's share price has since began to plummet.

A day after the Tuesday event, Nintendo shares fell 2.68 per cent on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as investors began to grow ever-wary towards the tablet-controlled console. In comparison, Sony shares in New York and Tokyo were up 2 per cent each after a strong showing.

Facebook launch their own app centre

Rumours of a Facebook phone refuse to go away but for now Mark Zuckerberg and co have announced their latest venture - the 'App Centre'.

Released across iOS and Android devices, the centre is a new era for Facebook's app economy and will include over 600 apps in the coming weeks. One of the smartest decisions behind the App Centre is that it easily allows you to see what apps your friends are using and do likewise.

LinkedIn battle back after huge hack attack

If you still haven't changed your LinkedIn password after this week's huge hack attack, do so straight away - we'll wait here. Are you back? Good.

In case you hadn't heard, a major security breach left 6.5 million LinkedIn users passwords exposed, with the same hacker also posting plenty of eHarmony profile details too. Finally, LinkedIn have responded.

Admitting that LinkedIn had "learned" that the passwords were posted to a Russian hacking site, the company's director Vicente Silveira admitted that "...unfortunately a small subset of the hashed passwords was decoded and published."

"We've invalidated those passwords and contacted those members with a message that lets them know how to reset their passwords," Silveira added.

"Going forward, as a precautionary measure, we are disabling the passwords of any other members that we believe could potentially be affected," he said.

30 per cent of Irish to watch Euro 2012 online

According to online TV service Aertv, 30 per cent of all Irish people will watch Euro 2012 on their mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

“Our analysis of visitors shows that the Aertv service has become a great way to resolve screen conflicts with family and friends," explained Aertv's director Philippe Brodeur.

“One case in point was last month's recent Champions League Final where the service showed a spike in visitors with many viewing the game on their tablets or smartphones.

“A recent addition to the service means that the matches will all be available to watch in HD, making the viewing experience great for everyone who wants to watch the Euros live," Brodeur said.

Microsoft launch SmartGlass integration at E3

With barely any first-party titles to reveal, Microsoft bored the pants off E3 visitors this week with their latest innovation, SmartGlass, which promises to provide full integration between tablets, Xbox Live and mobile phones. For example, start watching a movie on Xbox Live and watch the rest on your Windows tablet.

Having clearly spent a little too much time explaining the process, the corporation's new move was roundly mocked just a few minutes later as the South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone took to the stage. Have a look at the first few seconds of the clip below to see Trey Parker's view of SmartGlass: