Beyond Good and Evil 2 unveiled

Ubidays 2008 has been a lot of things so far; mainly a great excuse to visit the Louvre and to exploit Ubisoft's open bar policy. One other thing it's been has been a chance for us to see the first footage of Michel Ancel's massively anticipated sequel to Beyond Good and Evil 2.

The first day of Ubidays has just finished and although the main presentation to the event, which was hosted by Vernon Kay, didn't seem like it was going to have many surprises in store, it ended on quite a high note as Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot introduced the first footage of

Cyberlink to launch new TrueTheatre technologies

Cyberlink, the Taiwanese outfit behind the popular PowerDVD software is about to launch some new technologies – we were given exclusive first access to its new Noise Reduction technologies, Video Stabiliser, Video Upscaling (re-engineered) and fps upsampling engines.

The products are still in the development stages – the noise reduction won’t be available until next year, we were told, so the technology was still a work in progress and “out of its PowerDVD wrapper”. Cyberlink is branding everything top to bottom to match its TrueTheatre range – if you’ve already seen PowerDVD 8 you’ll be aware of the TrueTheatre Surround audio upscaling option that’s already nosed its way in there.

Desktop Eee sighted

If you're salivating over the soon-to-be-released low-cost desktop Eee from Asus, then you'll want to check out the pictures that AnandTech has put up.

The unit, which has been rumoured for quite some time, is designed to do for the desktop market place what the Eee PC has done for the notebook market: demonstrate to people that for the vast majority of their needs, a low-cost and low-power machine is more than capable of keeping up. As an example, I'm writing this article in OpenOffice.org and using The Gimp to edit the image on the right – both of which work absolutely fine on my Eee PC 701 at a fraction of the energy consumption of this creaky old desktop.

Asus "condemns" Gigabyte: Round 3

If you thought that Gigabyte and Asus had finally solved their differences in their ongoing spat – and perhaps grown up in the process – think again.

The story so far revolves around accusations from Gigabyte who claims Asus's new Energy Processing Unit technology is a sham and massively outperformed by Gigabyte's own Dynamic Energy Saver system. Asus denied these claims, and vaguely threatened a lawsuit over the comments – which, to be fair, did go so far as to directly accuse Asus of telling lies, faking results, and generally screwing the consumer over.

Dell to launch Eee-alike

If you don't yet feel spoilt for choice in the teeny-tiny laptop market, then Dell's latest may be just what you're looking for.

Gizmodo's Brian Lam managed to buttonhole Michael Dell in the corridor of the D: All Things Digital conference, and spotted him carrying a rather tasty bright red mini notebook, which Lam snapped a photo of before Dell could jam it back into its secretive (and rather Eee PC reminiscent) black jacket.

Samsung announces speedy 256GB SSD

If you've been waiting for the performance and capacity of solid state drives to increase before taking the no-moving-parts plunge, check out the latest from Samsung.

Electronista broke the news late yesterday regarding Samsung's latest entry into the notebook SSD market with a lovely brushed-metal number storing an impressive 256GB in a standard-size 2.5" and 9.5mm thick chassis.

Where the new drive shines – aside from the prodigious amount of space available – is in the performance stakes: capable of reading sequential data at a staggering 200MB/s and writing data at a non-too-shabby 160MB/s, the new drive is around twice as fast as Samsung's prior 128GB models.

Homeplug AV II tech announced

The Homeplug Powerline Alliance has announced an update to its specification for AV-centric home powerline networking kit, designed to improve speed without sacrificing range.

The Homeplug system is one of several technologies designed to use the electrical wiring that is already threaded throughout your home to as a carrier for network traffic. It's a neat idea, as it means you don't have to mess around drilling holes and punching CAT5e and the very fact that it's wired means you get better coverage and higher security when compared to 802.11 wireless technologies. While early models were limited to very slow speeds – on the order of 14Mb/s, in fact – the current Homeplug AV standard allows for a theoretical maximum of 200Mb/s.

First open-source graphics card available

If you're a Linux nut who'll only be happy when your entire computer is fully open-source, you'll be pleased to hear that you can take a step closer to your goal thanks to the Open Graphics Project.

The project, which began touting for expert engineers to help build a graphics card free from any proprietary limitations four years ago, has announced the availability of its OGD1 graphics card according to hacker news site Hack a Day.

Study: Male gamers have need to conquer

Just what the difference exactly is between male and female gamers is something that has long been the subject of debate, but the results of a recent study in Stanford may hold the answer.

According to new research by Dr. Allan Reiss, the difference between female and male gamers is so fundamental it occurs at the neurochemical level and men and women experience vastly different emotions when gaming.

Dr. Reiss led researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in a worlds-first imaging study which performed MRIs of gamers as they played a bespoke computer game, according to Bio-Medicine.org. The results showed that men and women have vastly different brain activity when gaming, with men having more activity in the mesocorticolimbic region of the brain.

MIT team refines image recognition

Image-based search specialists TinEye might not even have left closed beta yet, but it looks like they've got a fight on their hands in the new search battleground thanks to a team of researchers at MIT.

The group, based at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and lead by Antonia Torralba, has been working on reducing the amount of information required about an image in order to still be able to make judgements regarding its content. So far, their work has produced some interesting results.

Microsoft to pay users to use Live Search

In a move that will give Google a few laughs, Microsoft has announced plans to woo web users over to Live Search by paying them to use the service through its Live Search cashback scheme.

Yes, you read that right – Microsoft wants to pay you to use its search engine to purchase products sold through participating retailers listed in Live Search’s results. The Redmond giant says that it will give between two and 25 percent of the purchase price

Starcraft 2's system specs leaked?

Update:

We have received word from Blizzard directly that these system specs are by no means the official specs for the game. Micromania did not receive these specs from Blizzard in any way, nor did Blizzard even answer a question in regard to the specs. Therefore, these figures should be taken as, at best, incredible speculation!

The originally published article will continue below for discussion purposes.

Jack Thompson guilty on 27 misconduct charges

The judge who presided over Jack Thompson's Florida Bar trial last year has made a recommendation that the Florida attorney should be found guilty of 27 of the 31 misconduct charges he is now facing, according to Gamepolitics.com.

Judge Dava Tunis has made 21 recommendations of guilt on misconduct charges in relation to the Strickland vs. Sony case in which the controversial Thompson represented the families of policemen who had been killed by Devin Moore, who had been a fan of

Pteroglider game released for free

Polish game developer Codeminion has announced that it has released it's DirectX 9 PC arcade schm-up Pteroglider for free after consideration of the games future and, though we'd never heard of Codeminion before, free games are something we never sniff at - even when the developer is the first one to say how bad the game is.

Codeminion has released a short analysis of the game to go hand in hand with the free version of the game, in which they openly admit that the game is badly made and a disappointment from the sales perspective.

Mozilla considers tracking Firefox browsing habits

The Mozilla Foundation, the organisation behind the Firefox web browser, is considering tracking its users’ browsing habits on a voluntary basis.

Last week, Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly revealed that the organisation was working on a project known internally as ‘Data’ – a project that is said to collect data on users’ browsing habits if they chose to opt into the scheme and provide anonymous usage statistics to anyone who wants the information.

UbiDays conference to be broadcast live

Ubisoft has announced that it will be broadcasting it presentations from it's second annual press showcase next Wednesday via a new UbiDays website, Uplay.com, according to Eurogamer.

The press conference to be broadcast is the first event in the UbiDays showcase, with hands-on previews and interviews for many of the publishers upcoming games following the next day.

This year the event is again being held in the Louvre, Paris and is the second time that Ubisoft has hosted a showcase on this scale. Last year's show saw the announcement of

GDDR5 for AMD’s next-gen graphics chip is shipping

Qimonda has announced that it has started shipping GDDR5 memory for AMD’s next-generation graphics processors, meaning that the launch of the “R700" generation of products is imminent.

The memory manufacturer says that it has already started mass producing and shipping GDDR5 512Mbit modules (rated at 4.0Gbps per pin) to AMD.

"We are very proud to supply AMD with GDDR5 volume shipments only six months after first product samples have been delivered,

Xbox Live Arcade to get spring cleaning

Xbox Live Arcade may be in for some rather sweeping changes in the coming month it seems. According to Xbox Live's General Manager Marc Whitten, Microsoft will be cleaning out a lot of the chaff and trying to sow seeds of greatness in the future.

Speaking to Next-Gen, Whitten confirms that Microsoft will be launching a new first party studio to focus on developing new games designed just for XBLA and that a lot of the weaker games will be purged according to strict criteria.

XP SP3 breaks WHS RDP

Another issue has been uncovered that can cause problems for users of Microsoft's troubled Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

According to a post on the Windows Home Server Forums provided by Microsoft, users with Service Pack 3 installed on their Windows XP desktop may well find themselves unable to connect to their Windows Home Server box via the Remote Desktop Protocol interface in Internet Explorer.

In a reply to a request for help regarding RDP no longer working since SP3 was installed, forum user

Police to be trained on videogames

A new game designed by a team of researchers at Abertay University has been created to offer armed police officers a chance to train with weapons in a realistic, simulated environment.

The simulation, titled Shoot/NoShoot is played using a light gun and recreates a few realistic conflict situations, including a man looking in a car boot. Players approach the man and must decide whether to shoot, fire a warning shot or to hold their fire based on how much of a threat they think he is.

WHS refresh ditches auto-backup

If you're a Windows Home Server user making sure that your backups are up-to-date in case the file eating bug – which still hasn't been fixed – bites you, you've probably been looking forward to Power Pack 1's automated backup features. Sadly, it looks like you might be relying on third-party packages for a while longer.

According to an article over at BetaNews, Power Pack 1 – a kind of value-added service pack for the OEM-centric home server OS – was originally set to introduce a feature by which the WHS database containing the backups gathered from client machines on your home network could itself be automatically backed up in case of corruption. It took a member of the Windows Home Server Community Forums asking how to prepare for the feature for Microsoft to admit that the automated backup facility had been quietly removed.

Samsung demos 82" quad-HD panel

If you've been holding off on buying a big-screen TV in the hopes that something really impressive would come along, then you might want to look at the latest device to come from Samsung Electronics.

According to the Korea Times the troubled company has presented its latest achievement at the Society for Information Display show in Los Angeles – and it's a monster.

Measuring a whopping 82" on the diagonal, the ultra-high definition LCD display can not only muster a 120Hz screen refresh rate – double that of most models, which run at 60Hz – but has a native resolution of 3840x2160, some four times as much as a traditional 1080p display. The display is rounded off with a LED backlight that increases the contrast ratio and improves the black level when compared with a fluorescent backlight.

Microsoft considers new Yahoo! deal

Following Steve Ballmer's revelation that he'd called off the marriage between Microsoft and Internet portal Yahoo! earlier this month, the software giant has revealed that it is mulling a fresh deal with Yahoo!

"Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties,

The Blizzard Challenge 2008

If you're interested in helping advance the science of text-to-speech synthesis, you're needed as part of the Blizzard Challenge.

The Challenge is an annual event hosted by the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Speech Technology Research in which programmers are given 10,000 sentence-length recordings of a person from which they must create a working speech synthesis engine. Once each team has completed their engine, the results are uploaded for people like us to listen to and rate.

Thunderbird 3 Alpha sneaks onto web

If you're looking for an e-mail client to match your Firefox 3 Beta 5 installation, then say hello to Shredder Alpha 1.

Shredder Alpha 1 is the first preview of what will eventually become Thunderbird 3. Built on top of the same layout engine Mozilla uses for Firefox 3, Gecko 1.9, the next-generation message client promises a fresh look and some snazzy new features.

First among them is an in-built Add-ons Manager, which allows – you guessed it – easy browsing and installation of Thunderbird extensions. While this is a pretty neat feature, you'll be hard pushed to get any use out of it at the moment – very few add-ons have been updated to work with Shredder.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 confirmed

It's something we've secretly been expecting for the last few months now, but that didn't stop us (well, OK, me) from leaping for joy when we found out that Beyond Good & Evil is getting a sequel.

Well, kind of.

Series creator Michel Ancel recently spoke to French games magazine JeuxVideo and confirmed that yes, a Beyond Good and Evil 2 is in development. More than that in fact, the game has been secretly in development for the past year, with 12 staff working on pre-production for the game.

Microsoft demos TouchWall

Bill Gates has spent some of his precious time at the Microsoft CEO Summit 2008 demonstrating a new multi-touch interface dubbed 'TouchWall'.

As reported by CNet yesterday, the TouchWall is a six by four feet research prototype similar to the Surface desktop-based multi-touch interface the company has already demonstrated.

Where it differs – aside from in orientation – is the price. According to a quote published by CrunchGear from Microsoft's Director of Envisioning Ian Sands the system will be able to turn "

Sneak peek into MSI’s new products

I think the very sunny Austrian mountains (yes, it’s a hard life) might have helped here, but MSI gave bit-tech a quick sneaky idea into what’s coming up in a couple of weeks at this year’s Computex in Taiwan.

WindFirst off, unless you've been living under a rock you'll probably be aware that MSI will be launching its Wind notebook (netbook) and desktop (nettop) at Computex with Intel Atom processors. What MSI did make clear was that it is not expecting it to compete with Asus’ EeePC as it will be a bigger form factor, although it’s still expected to be very inexpensive. We suspect this is also partly because competing with the EeePC's supreme popularity is tough and MSI doesn't want to be branded an "Eee-clone".

MSI to offer free EFI BIOS update in July

We’ve been talking about EFI for quite a while now and MSI has always been on the forefront of this technology – this is the next generation BIOS structure that moves away from the 20-year-old Assembler-based design into a new, very user friendly interface where you can even use a mouse.

When you buy an MSI P45 board (it wasn’t stated which yet), MSI has said that it will deliver a free upgrade to EFI in and around the July timeframe. The company's representatives stressed to us that you can choose whether to go back or forth if you like it or prefer the standard legacy BIOS – it won’t be a permanent switch.

Sony losing $260 on each PS3 sold?

That console makers lose money on every console sold is no real secret and the only real exception to that rule is Nintendo and the Wii - for everyone else it's a case of selling large amounts of games to recoup losses though.

Sony though may be making larger losses on the PlayStation 3 than they are willing to admit though, if an analysis of the recently release financial results is to be believed.

The Guardian had a quick look at Sony's latest spreadsheets and revealed that although Sony's game division has managed to reduce yearly losses from $2 billion to $1.2 billion, the news may not actually be all that good.

Opera Mini 4.1 released

The latest release of the Opera browser for mobile devices, Opera Mini 4.1, was officially upgraded from its beta status yesterday and is now available for download.

The latest version of the free handheld browser includes several features borrowed from its desktop-based companion, Opera 9.5. These include a Find feature that highlights entered terms on a page (a feature sadly lacking from most browsers aimed at the mobile market) and the ability to guess what URL you were hoping to visit after the entry of a few characters in the address bar.

OpenSSL flaw in Debian Linux discovered

If you're a Linux user sitting content in the knowledge that your open-source operating system is free from the security issues that plague other operating systems then you might want to double-check your system before breaking out the smug grin, as the Debian team has highlighted a rather embarrassing flaw in their Linux distribution.

The Debian distribution – upon which popular desktop Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Damn Small Linux are built – has been distributing a version of the OpenSSL encryption package with a random number generator that turns out not be quite as random as you might like.

MS: Glad we haven't made a handheld

Microsoft Games Studios boss Shane Kim has said he is very happy that the company hasn't tried to launch a handheld games console, mainly because the games made by Microsoft Games Studios just wouldn't work well in the handheld market.

"I'm very happy we didn't get into it, because launching a handheld platform is like launching another Xbox 360. You have to be fully committed, as an organisation, from a resource standpoint, to doing that,

EA: PC gaming is wrongly categorised

CEO of Electronic Arts John Riccitiello has spoken out on the the topic of PC gaming recently, saying that he thinks the market is wrongly categorised and widely misunderstood.

Though many publishers are worried that PC gaming is on the decline, Riccitiello affirms that the market has actually been "growing for several years" and that it is only "wrong categorised by a heavy focus on retail sales".

"

Shane Kim: Xbox 360 has 7 year lifespan

The original Xbox didn't last all that long when you look back at the history of the console and, as an owner of big black box, that was admittedly quite disappointing. So disappointing in fact that some people are worried that the Xbox 720 might soon appear and replace the ubiquitous towel warmer.

No fear though - Microsoft boss-man Shane Kim has said that he believes the current plan for the Xbox 360 is for it to have a seven year life time for consumers, which is slightly less than Sony's plan for a ten-year PlayStation 3.

Kojima mistranslated, not disappointed with PS3

Hideo Kojima, creator of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, has hit out at games journalists who have mistranslated him in a recent comment on the PlayStation forums.

Hideo Kojima was quoted massively in the press recently as saying he was dissatisfied with the PlayStation 3 as a platform, but that may have been a cultural misinterpretation it seems.

"I am Japanese, so I try to be modest. I'm an especially modest person. I don't wish to brag about it and say, 'I am the amazing Metal Gear guy', or say, 'This is the best one', just like how Americans brag [about] stuff like this,

EA backs down from draconian copy protection

According to two postings—one made on the official Mass Effect forum, and another via email on a Sporefansite—Electronic Arts has backed down from the draconian authentication methods it planned to include in both Mass Effect and Spore.

Both titles will drop the 10-day re-authentication method originally penned for inclusion and will instead use an online authentication when you install and launch the game for the first time.

Ubisoft caught in Assassin's Creed marketing war

Ever since the release of Assassin's Creed on the PC, there has been a controversy brewing over the game's support for DirectX 10.1 and it looks as if things aren't going to calm down.

You see, owners of ATI Radeon HD 3000-series graphics cards benefitted from the inclusion of DirectX 10.1, as it enabled them to run anti-aliasing in a single pass that resulted in it delivering higher performance than the GeForce 9600 GT. The improvement was to the tune of 20 percent as a result of DirectX 10.1.

Will you be overclocking a P45 mobo? READ THIS!

Will you be overclocking a P45 mobo? READ THIS!

After spending time today talking in depth to a couple of MSI's P45 engineers and considerably more to Tony Leach from OCZ Technology, who spends a lot of time QAing BIOSes for companies like Asus, DFI and MSI, it looks like overclocking is going to become an increasingly more complicated art with the release of Intel's P45 chipset, as it mirrors many of the tweaks the current high-end X48 chipset offers.

Sony considering external PS3 HDD?

Sony considering external PS3 HDD?

Sony boss David Reeves has admitted that he isn't sure that Sony will stick to only offering the 40GB PlayStation 3 unit and that the company may look into expanding storage via external hard drives.

Former Rock employee stole £220,000 of stock

Former Rock employee stole £220,000 of stock

Yesterday it became apparent that Rock, once one of the UK's leading specialist notebook manufacturers, had gone into administration.

Gore Verbinski making BioShock movie

Gore Verbinski making BioShock movie

Gore Verbinski has signed on to direct a film based on BioShock as part of a film deal signed by Universal and games publisher Take-Two, it was revealed today. The deal is the first game-to-movie license that Take-Two has signed.

QTrax signs up with Universal

QTrax signs up with Universal

If you've been wondering what happened to the QTrax service after its rather embarrasing launch, then I've got an interesting bit of news: they've finally signed a major label, just five months after launching.

Call of Duty 5 to have 'new theatre'

Call of Duty 5 to have 'new theatre'

Activision has confirmed that the next installment in the Call of Duty series will be set in an entirely new military theatre and that Treyarch is currently working on a new James Bond game.

Episodic Siren game coming to PS3

Episodic Siren game coming to PS3

Sony has announced that it's new Siren game will be released online on the PlayStation 3 in an episodic format, starting this summer. The game, which is being titled

Moore: "Disappointed" by Home delays

Moore: "Disappointed" by Home delays

The former head of all things Xbox and current president of EA Sports, or Peter Moore for short, has said he is bitterly disappointed by the latest series of delays to hit Sony's

How to detect BitTorrent blocking

How to detect BitTorrent blocking

If you're curious as to whether your particular ISP is one of those naughty P2P jammers, there's a website that might just help you find out.

Rock goes into administration

Rock goes into administration

Rock, a UK-based specialist notebook manufacturer, has gone into administration after announcing that it has appointed financial management firm Deloitte & Touche to try and sell the business.

India gets fibre link to UK

India gets fibre link to UK

India is due to get its first direct fibre-optic link to the UK in a £350 million project dubbed the Europe India Gateway.

According to the press release issued yesterday, the project is aimed at expanding network capacity and ensuring routing diversity amongst the thirteen planned landings.

Industry to start move to 450mm wafers in 2012

Industry to start move to 450mm wafers in 2012

Intel, Samsung Electronics and TSMC have reached an agreement to push forwards with plans to move semiconductor manufacturing to 450mm wafers starting in 2012.

Mass Effect and Spore DRM detailed

Mass Effect and Spore DRM detailed

We all remember the furore around Bioshock's copy protection, right? Well, I've got some bad news for you in that BioWare has just dropped the bomb that

CoreAVC for Linux downed

CoreAVC for Linux downed

If you're a Linux fan and a video buff, the chances are you've used the CoreAVC H.264 DirectShow filter created for Windows under Linux using the CoreAVC for Linux package. A DMCA notice from the original developers looked set to put a halt to that, but it might not all be bad news.

Cuba sells its first PCs

Cuba sells its first PCs

Next time you boot up your home desktop, spare a thought for the population of Cuba who are only just getting the right to own a personal computer.

According to an Associated Press article, Friday saw the lifting of a ban on the sale of evil capitalist personal computer systems under the new president of the island Raul Castro.

NIN releases free album

NIN releases free album

If you've been wondering where forward-looking musician Trent Reznor would be taking his music after the success of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV, you're going to enjoy this: he's releasing another album for digital download, and this one is totally free.

E3 looking empty this year?

E3 looking empty this year?

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3, used to be the single biggest event on the games calendar until about two years ago when the show organisers mercy-killed a large part of the show. Recognising that the event, which was open to the public, was growing beyond their ability to control they scaled it down to a press-only event.

Microsoft withdraws from Yahoo! acquisition

Microsoft withdraws from Yahoo! acquisition

Microsoft has announced it has abandoned attempts to buy Yahoo! following a weekend of last-gasp negotiations between the two companies.

Memristor: the fourth circuit element

Memristor: the fourth circuit element

HP Labs hopes it has created the basis for a fourth basic integrated circuit element which promises to produce computing devices with instant startup and non-volatile memory.

Guitar Hero: On Tour tracks revealed

Guitar Hero: On Tour tracks revealed

Guitar Hero: On Tour is slowly making it's way closer to release on the Nintendo DS, and has us tentatively excited as details of the tracklist start to creep out. In a recent interview with Nintendo Power US, Activision confirmed 15 of the 25 songs that will be featured in the game.

XP SP3 delayed by RMS

XP SP3 delayed by RMS

If you're wondering why you haven't been able to download Service Pack 3 for your Windows XP install, then blame Microsoft.

The update, which promises speed improvements alongside bugfixes galore and which is likely to be the last official Service Pack produced for the last-generation operating system, was supposed to be released to Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center on the 29th of April. Don't bother rushing off to check – it never happened.

Intel to team up with Cray

Intel to team up with Cray

According to tech site BetaNews, Intel is due to chalk up another major win over rival AMD with an alliance between the chip maker and supercomputer manufacturer Cray Incorporated.

Epic: No plans for another Unreal

Epic: No plans for another Unreal

Epic, as a company, is having a bit of a turbulent time right now as PC gamers turn against the now console-focused Unreal developer. There is one hope though, one thing which might return Epic to the good graces of PC enthusiasts.

bit-tech April PotM winner announced!

bit-tech April PotM winner announced!

Congratulations to forum member WiK1d, who achieved first place in April's Photo of the Month competition, themed "The Golden Hour" with his entry "Cloudy Sunset over Pretoria".

Valve releases Steamworks SDK

Valve releases Steamworks SDK

Valve has finally announced the release of the Steamworks software development kit originally hyped back in January.

The Steamworks SDK is a suite of tools aimed at helping independant developers who want to help get their game off the ground using a similar digital distribution model to Steam. The SDK includes a whole host of tools for helping to get games published online and, best of all, is completely free to download and use.

Virgin Media offers iPlayer via TV

Virgin Media offers iPlayer via TV

If you're a fan of the BBC's iPlayer service but would prefer not to use peer-to-peer software and aren't exactly enamoured with the low-quality Flash streams available, then you might want to take a look at Virgin Media.

Radiohead dumps digital distribution

Radiohead dumps digital distribution

If you were hoping that the move to DRM-free digital distribution for music which was popularised by Radiohead and further expanded by Nine Inch Nails and, if Lars Ulrich's comments are to be taken seriously, Metallica was a herald of a future free from the tyranny of the corporate music industry, then you're in for a disappointment according to Thom Yorke.

Qmotions brings wireless skateboards to 360

Qmotions brings wireless skateboards to 360

Microsoft and Sony are both great companies with semi-excellent consoles, but realistically they both have to be just a little bit envious of Nintendo, we think. The whole motion sensitive thing has been a real hit and Nintendo is definitely leading the market right now thanks to a boost from the

New Prince of Persia previewed

New Prince of Persia previewed

Joypad magazine, a French gaming mag, has just published the first preview of the new Prince of Persia game from Ubisoft, which was only just announced.

Valve: No Portal 2 this year

Valve: No Portal 2 this year

In a recent interview, Doug Lombardi has revealed that there are currently no plans to release a sequel to The Orange Box's Portal in 2008.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Lombardi said that the Seattle-based developer wanted to do something new with the idea instead of just churning out more of the same right away.

Steam was rejected by Microsoft, Yahoo

Steam was rejected by Microsoft, Yahoo

Steam is pretty much ubiquitous for gamers everywhere nowadays and we accept it as a fundamental part of our daily

Matt Damon wanted Myst-like Bourne Game

Matt Damon wanted Myst-like Bourne Game

If you've been following the development of the Jason Bourne game Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy then you may have noticed that the player character in the screenshots doesn't look especially like Matt Damon. There's a reason for that, though MTV had to contact Damon's mother to find out what it was.

TAITRA talks up this year's Computex trade show

TAITRA talks up this year's Computex trade show

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), in conjunction with Taiwan Computer Association (TCA) and the Taiwan Design Center (TDC), held a press conference this afternoon in Taipei to enlighten prospective clients looking to participate in this year's Computex trade show, which will be held from 3rd to 7th June 2008.

AMD promises completely different CPU architecture

AMD promises completely different CPU architecture

Giuseppe Amato, AMD's European Technical Director of Sales and Marketing, has said that the company's next-generation CPU microarchitecture promises to be completely different from what is currently shipping.

Valve releases big TF2 update

Valve releases big TF2 update

Valve has finally gone and done it - the first major update for Team Fortress 2 has now been released and should be automatically downloading itself to Steam accounts everywhere.