Facebook and MySpace introduce portable profiles It turns out that you can take it with you. Your Facebook or MySpace profile, that is. Both popular social networking sites are making it easier for their members to take their personal information such as pictures to any web site that wants to host them. Facebook’s 70 million users can take their info any place they want; MySpace members can only provide their profiles to a few sites such as those owned by eBay and Yahoo. MySpace, with its 200 million users worldwide, is owned by News Corp. Industry watchers say the move is risky because it means users don’t have to keep coming back to the sites, which could hurt advertising. But others say that allowing personal profiles to be shared could turn social networks such as Facebook into command centers that steer social interactions across the web by making it a more attractive platform for widgets, or mini-applications. The moves come just as Google readies similar capabilities for a new platform called Friend Connect.   Apple settles Canadian class action over battery life For those Canadians whose iPod batteries turned to Applesauce after lots of continuous use, the company is real sorry. And a judge is making Apple fork over some real big bucks. Apple has settled two Canadian class action suits pertaining to battery life of first-, second- and third-generation iPods, agreeing to give any Canadians who bought those devices a $44.75 store credit. The suit claimed that battery life for those iPods, which was supposed to be eight to 10 hours, shrank to half that after the device was recharged. Apple settled a similar suit three years ago with U.S. iPod buyers. The Canadian suits were filed in Ontario and Quebec.   Australia's rising stink over eBay PayPal requirement EBay users may soon find that the only way to buy things on the online auction giant’s site is through PayPal. That rule has not gone over well in Australia, where it goes into effect next month and has drawn protests from the local chapter of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance. According to eBay, the move is necessary in order to resolve arguments over payment, but Australian authorities think it may prompt some antitrust violations, as eBay owns PayPal. It is not known at this time whether eBay will institute a similar policy in the U.S., but the popular web site often tries out new things in smaller markets before expanding to larger ones. EBay says that using PayPal helps stop fraud, but critics say the service is more expensive than other payment options like bank transfers because of transaction fees.   Big Chile: Hacker exposes personal info of millions It was a rough weekend for many Chileans. While thousands found themselves having to flee from an erupting volcano that had been dormant for 2,000 years, 6 million had their personal data hacked into on the internet. Names, phone numbers, email addresses and background were among the information swiped from the web sites of the Electoral Service, the Education Ministry and state-run phone companies over the weekend. The unidentified hacker has been crediting with saying that he wanted the world to see that personal data in Chile wasn’t protected. The information was made available for several hours on the community website ElAntro and technology information website FayerWayer before it was taken down by authorities.