Weekend Wrap-up: Target Breach is Actually Worse; T-Mobile Covers ETF Fees for New Customers

Thanks for stopping by for this week’s edition of the Weekend Wrap-up, where we look back at the biggest stories in tech from the past week. You can catch a video summary of these stories directly below, or you can skip on past the moving picture technology to get your news in the more traditional text format.

If you’re really feeling frisky, you can do both.

That Target Breach Was Worse than We Thought

Remember the time that Target told us over 40 million customers were affected by a security breach? Funny story (unless you’re a Target customer, in which case, totally not funny): the number of customers whose info has been compromised is actually closer to 70 million. And the breach isn’t just about credit card data as we first thought; it includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, too. The original news wasn’t great for Target — I think it’s safe to say this latest revelation won’t be, either.

T-Mobile Strikes at Competing Carriers, Offers to Pay ETF Fees for New Customers

Some industries have healthy competition. Others have just a few big players who barely compete with each other. Wireless carriers fall into that “other” category, though one has apparently had enough of staring up at third, second and first place. T-Mobile announced that, as a continuing part of its un-carrier initiative, it plans to pay the ETF fees — up to $350 — of customers who switch from another carrier to T-Mobile. The company adds this perk to a list of several others, which includes free worldwide data roaming, unlimited data and cheaper, contract-free plans. T-Mobile is making a lot of consumer-friendly moves, but can it last?

Sony PlayStation 4 Sales Hit 4.2 Million

Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One launched a week apart, with Sony’s console getting the head start. For a while, the two consoles were pretty close in sales, but now that the holidays are over, they’re anything but. Sony announced this past week that it’s sold over 4.2 million PlayStation 4 systems so far. Microsoft, meanwhile, is claiming 3 million Xbox One sales. Sony is clearly ahead as far as sales go in the first month to two months of the generation, but we’ve still got a long way to go. It’s too early to pick a winner yet.

Pebble Steel Hits the Scene, Makes Smartwatches Look Good

Prior to CES, Pebble told us it was going to have a big announcement. I was pretty confident we weren’t going to get a new Pebble, but I was wrong… sort of. See, the product announced and shown off, the Pebble Steel, is pretty much the same Pebble you’ve seen over the last year. What’s different is the build. The Pebble Steel is much smaller and much better looking than its younger sibling. It’s meant to give Pebble a sense of fashion, something the previous design (with its big, blocky appearance) lacked a little. Both watches will continue to sell, with the original Pebble going for $150 and the Pebble Steel selling at $250.