Martyn Williams

Sony's main optical disc distribution warehouse for the U.K. was hit by a large fire on Tuesday morning that has apparently destroyed most or all of the building.

Television images showed fire consuming the facility in Enfield, which is just to the north of London. The warehouse is one of six Sony has in Europe. It is operated by subsidiary Sony DADC and handles distribution of Sony Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD blank media, and movies and games for the U.K.

In a twist on conventional charging for electric cars, Nissan has developed a system that allows a vehicle to supply electricity to power a house.

A prototype of the charging system running on a Nissan Leaf electric car was unveiled in Japan on Tuesday. The system can be used to supply electricity to a house during a power outage or shortage. A two-way charging device that would typically convert the household electricity supply to a voltage suitable for charging the car's battery can be reversed to feed power back into the household circuit.

Feeling the pressure from an unreleased rival, Nintendo will slash the price of its 3DS handheld gaming device worldwide from mid August as it attempts to turn around dismal sales and grab market share ahead of the launch later this year of Sony's PlayStation Vita.

The price of 3DS will be cut by 40 percent from ¥25,000 to ¥15,000 (US$320 to $192) on August 11 in Japan. U.S. gamers will see the price drop from $250 to $170 a day later on August 12.

Nintendo will slash the price of its 3DS handheld gaming device in Japan from mid August.

The price cut comes as the company deals with lackluster sales and the launch later this year of Sony's PlayStation Vita.

Sony reported a net loss for the three month period from April to June as the company dealt with unfavorable exchange rates, cut-throat competition in the consumer electronics business, and a hacking attack on its online gaming network.

The consumer electronics giant posted a net loss of ¥15.5 billion (US$191 million) for the quarter against a profit of ¥25.7 billion in the same period of 2010. Sales and operating revenue dropped 10 percent to just under ¥1.5 trillion.

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player.

The first smartphone based on the new "Mango" edition of Microsoft's Windows Phone platform was unveiled on Wednesday in Tokyo.

The phone is the first of several handsets due over the next few months, that Microsoft hopes will signal its return to the smartphone market as a serious player.

Toyota has developed a safety system that can automatically stop a car in the moments before a collision with a pedestrian.

The system, which will begin appearing in Toyota cars in the near future, is built on existing pre-collision detection technology that is already fitted in some Toyota cars and those of competitors. Those systems are designed to guard against collisions with large objects, such as stopped vehicles or walls, and don't do a good job when it comes to people.

The cyber attacks that paralyzed a handful of major South Korean websites earlier this year were almost certainly carried out by North Korea or parties allied with the country, computer security company McAfee said Tuesday in a report.

The company's analysis, carried out with the help of the South Korean and U.S. governments, is one of the most thorough yet published on the March attacks, and details how they were carried out, and why they were so difficult to counter.

Sony will fully restore PlayStation Network service to users in Japan this week, ending a two-and-a-half month suspension of service, and bringing to a close an embarrassing incident that began with the largest known loss of customer information by a company.

Users in Japan will be able to access all functions of the PlayStation Store and Qriocity services starting on July 6, Sony said on Monday. The PlayStation Store is an online shopping mall offering games and video to PlayStation users, while the Qriocity service offers video content to Internet-linked consumer electronics devices like televisions.

Japan's Ricoh plans to acquire Pentax as part of a push to get into the digital single-lens reflex camera market, it said Friday.

Ricoh will buy the Pentax business from Hoya, a Japanese optical technology company that acquired the camera maker in 2008. The acquisition, agreed by the companies on Friday, is expected to take place in October this year.

Japan's console and portable gaming market sank 16 percent in the first six months of the year as new software failed to make a splash and sales of hardware fell, according to data released on Thursday.

The entire market was worth ¥192 billion (US$2.4 billion), down from ¥228 billion in the equivalent period of 2010, said Japanese publisher Enterbrain, which tracks the gaming market.