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SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday that all its new smart television products launched in 2015 will be powered by the Tizen operating system, marking a fresh effort by the company to increase the usage of the software platform. Smart TVs offer additional software and connectivity functions, such as video streaming and web browsing capabilities. Samsung demonstrated TV sets powered by Tizen at developer conferences last year. “We are focusing our efforts on Tizen right now,” Kim Hyun-suk, Samsung's president of visual display business, told Reuters in an interview. …

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By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea called U.S. President Barack Obama a “monkey” and blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages that it has experienced during a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures. The National Defence Commission, the North's ruling body, chaired by state leader Kim Jong Un, said Obama was responsible for Sony's belated decision to release the action comedy “The Interview”, which depicts a plot to assassinate Kim. …

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(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp's Xbox Live and Sony Corp's PlayStation Networks experienced user connection problems on Christmas Day, for which a hacker group claimed responsibility. The group, called Lizard Squad, could not be reached for comment, and the companies did not give a reason for the connectivity issues. Both companies expected heavy use as people who received Microsoft Xbox players or Sony PlayStations on Christmas tried to hook up. …

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By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama moved to prevent U.S. anger at North Korea from spiraling out of control on Sunday by saying the massive hacking of Sony Pictures was not an act of war but instead was cyber-vandalism. Washington's long-standing dispute with North Korea, which for years has centered on its nuclear weapons program, has entered new territory with the accusation that Pyongyang carried out an assault on a major Hollywood entertainment company. …

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By Dan Levine SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) – Google will try to persuade a U.S. judge on Thursday to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit over its Android smartphone operating system, as the Internet search company faces increased regulatory pressure from European authorities. The hearing in San Jose, California, federal court is over the lawsuit filed by two smartphone consumers who say Google Inc requires Android handset manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to restrict competing apps like Microsoft Corp's Bing search, partly by making Google's own apps the default. …

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(Reuters) – The U.S. government warned iPhone and iPad users on Thursday to be on the alert for hackers who may exploit a vulnerability in Apple Inc's iOS operating system that would enable them to steal sensitive data. There was the potential for hacks using a newly identified technique known as the “Masque Attack,” the government said in an online bulletin from the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Teams. …

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China is part of “intensive” talks on a global trade pact regarding information technology products, the World Trade Organization's chief said on Saturday, but it is unclear if a deal will be made at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders underway in Beijing. The United States and other countries have been hopeful that China would sign on to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which requires signatories to eliminate duties on some IT products, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that ends on Tuesday. …

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By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc pulled a “bait and switch” move to force GT Advanced Technologies into a money-losing deal to supply the iPhone maker with sapphire, according to an affidavit by a senior executive at the company. In documents unsealed on Friday by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, GT Advanced Chief Operating Officer Daniel Squiller says Apple offered what would have been GT Advanced's largest sale ever and then changed the terms of the agreement after it was too late for the smaller company to pursue other opportunities. …

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(Reuters) – Apple Inc said it has identified and blocked malicious software applications targeting users in China. Palo Alto Networks Inc said on Wednesday it discovered a new family of malware that can infect Apple products, underscoring the increasing sophistication of attacks on iPhones and Mac computers. “We are aware of malicious software available from a download site aimed at users in China, and we’ve blocked the identified apps to prevent them from launching,” Apple said in an email to Reuters. …