Jack Thomspon disbarrment made official

Jack Thompson, the Miami attorney who was a constant thorn in the side of many games developers, has now been officially disbarred following a recommendation and investigation from Judge Dava Tunis this September.

Thompson had become notorious among the games community for his fight against violence in computer games and the numerous connections he put between computer gamers and murderers. Thompson was especially vocal on his contempt for

Netflix uses Silverlight to support Mac, Linux

If you've been waiting for Microsoft's Silverlight to get a big marketplace win before considering it as a serious contender to Adobe's Flash, it might be time to take a second look at the technology.

According to BetaNews, web-based video streaming outfit Netflix is to use Microsoft's rich-media Silverlight system to allow users without access to Windows Media Player 11 – previously required due to the DRM used on the videos available through the service – to stream paid-for video content. The

AMD's Shanghai chips appearing at resellers

If you're still waiting for AMD's answer to the current offerings from market leader Intel, you might be one step closer to being satisfied today.

According to CNet, the first 45-nanometre server chip to come out of AMD – the quad-core 'Shanghai' Opteron processor – is starting to see availability at selected resellers, despite not officially launching until 13th of November.

The processor ranges – Opteron 837X and 838X – don't come cheap, however: the relatively high-end 8384 model, which features quad 2.7GHz processing cores and takes a surprisingly low power draw of 75 watts, is listed on reseller's sites for a whopping $2,350 (£1,443) per chip.

New Riddick game next Spring

Atari has confirmed that it has picked up the rights to publish the new Chronicles of Riddick game, which will be released next Spring.

The new game was originally supposed to be published by Sierra, but was one of many titles sent into limbo when the publisher fell into trouble after the Activision and Blizzard merger. Now, Atari has snagged up the rights to the game on the sly.

The new Chronicles of Riddick

GTA IV PC delayed, system requirements

Rockstar has confirmed the rumoured delay of GTA IV PC that puts the release of the game all the way back until December 2nd. The announcement confirms the change in retailer dates that were first spotted on retailers websites.

The delay puts the release of the game back by two whole weeks, though Rockstar haven't explained what exactly the reason for the slip is.

The good news though is that Rockstar has at least released the minimum and recommended system requirements for the game, which appear similar to those which had previously been leaked by Microsoft's Games for Windows website before they were removed, Check them out below.

Hot Topic launches DRM-free downloads

These days it seems that everyone wants a piece of the music download pie, with even the most unlikely companies getting involved in the digital download biz: US-based wannabe-goth clothing retailer Hot Topic, for example.

According to BetaNews, the popular clothing chain has launched a new "lifestyle portal" dubbed ShockHound.com which features – amongst other things – a DRM-free MP3 download service from a range of genres. While it's always good to see a company go for the DRM-free option, I'm just a trifle confused what made Hot Topic decide to enter the increasingly crowded – and notoriously profit-free – digital download sector.

StarCraft II will have casual appeal

Blizzard has said that although it is trying to ensure that StarCraft II will have some hardcore appeal, it'll also strive to have a strong appeal in the casual market - or as the games producer puts it, 'mom-friendly'.

Speaking to MTV, Blizzard's Chris Sigaty confirmed that although Blizzard recognises the importance of StarCraft II as a hardcore and e-sport title, the casual market also can't be ignored.

New Elder Scrolls by 2010?

With Fallout 3 practically done now (aside from maybe some after-sale support) we imagine that the team over at Bethesda is taking a long and well-deserved rest - but we don't expect that reprieve to last for long.

In fact, according to Paul Oughton, publishing executive for Bethesda, the team could be re-assembled and put to work on their next project pretty sharpish. Apparently, Oughton is hopeful of a new Elder Scrolls

11 percent of gamers have unopened games

You'll have to chalk this news story up under 'matter of mild interest' rather than 'exclusive and amazing news story', but what the hell. According to recent survey figures, around 11 percent of gamers have games that they still haven't opened after six months.

The news comes from Gamasutra, who have reported that according to figures from the NPD sales-tracking group, around 11 percent of gamers have games that they haven't opened after six months.

PlayStation 3 'unlikely to break even'

According to research firm DFC Intelligence, Sony is unlikely to even get close to breaking even on the PlayStation 3 in the current economic climate - even judging by entire lifetime sales!

According to Gamasutra, who were covering a report given by DFC Intelligence at the Game On Finance even in the US, Sony is likely to lose a huge amount of money on the PlayStation 3 even when game sales and licensing payouts are factored in.

Asus asks public for notebook designs

If you want to have a say in the next generation of laptops and netbooks, Asus and Intel would like to have a word with you.

According to Engadget, the two companies have joined forces to launch WePC, a collaborative design site open to the public. Simply sign up and start designing your own laptop innovations, and if you're really lucky you'll get to see Asus and Intel make a mint off your work.

The idea is simple: designers from both companies lurk on the site and take note of exactly what it is the public are clamorouring for. If enough people give a design the thumbs-up, it's more than likely that aspects will be integrated into future notebook models. Neat, but there's certainly no mention of profit share should your design hit the big time.

Fallout 3 DRM detailed

Fallout 3 uses SecuROM DRM technology, but Bethesda has claimed that it isn't as draconian as some other games which use the system such as BioShock, Mass Effect PC and Far Cry 2.

While the game does use SecuROM DRM, Bethesda claims that it does so in a way that doesn't infringe on the rights of the customers and doesn't come bundled with bloat or malware.

"We do NOT limit the number of installs. We do NOT use online authentication or any other SecuROM functionality except for a disc check when you install the game and when you launch the game,

Rock Band 2 out before Christmas?

Rock Band 2 will finally be up for grabs in the UK before Christmas, at least according to one of EA's PR outfits who issued the announcement in a press release yesterday…and then subsequently retracted it.

Searching for clarification, Eurogamer decided to call EA and double check if this release date was correct or not. Unfortunately, it turns out that MTV, Harmonix and EA have still not set a UK release date for the game – so, just a slight slip-up there then.

Enermax to shut up shop in the UK

We've just had confirmation that Enermax will shut its UK base of operations entirely within the next few months. Distribution will continue with a single supplier, but there will no longer be a UK RMA base, so should your Enermax PSU go wrong it'll cost that much more to return abroad in years two and three.

As consumer purchasing is down due to the current state of the UK economy, and how generally expensive it is to operate here, we can sympathise to some degree. We heard from the UK office, based in Milton Keynes, that it was looking for a rehousing to a smaller premises, but within the last few days this decision has turned into a complete termination instead.

ECS tips hat to X58B-A Black Series

There’s one thing I have to give ECS credit for – its PR and marketing tries hard. While its products are sometimes less than fantastic at least its new X58 motherboard has come a long way from what they once were and the design below actually looks pretty neat: sort of, flamey.

Although, on second thoughts, maybe the association with fire is not a good one.

Anyway, ECS was keen to tell bit-tech that its Black Edition products are of higher quality than before, while not targeting the very high-end, ECS will try to appeal to the more value concious "middle-high level". At just US$260 the ECS X58B-A Black Edition should certainly appeal to more cost concious upgraders.

TMS launches 20TB SSD-based SAN

If you're wondering what SSD technology would look like if you had a near-unlimited budget, try asking Texas Memory Systems – they'd be more than happy to sell you a rack filled with 20TB of solid-state storage.

Dubbed the RamSan-5000, the device – aimed at datacentres more than home users, granted – is a full-size 40U 19" rack containing between 10 and 20TB of solid-state SSD goodness with multiply-redundant systems to ensure a minimum of downtime.

Windows 7 UI previewed

If you're hoping that Windows 7 will be a step in the right direction for Microsoft, you might want to cast your eyes over some details revealed at the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference.

Ars Technica's coverage includes confirmation from Microsoft that Windows 7 will be based on the core work carried out for Vista, with no major changes to the underlying architecture of the OS. Instead, Microsoft is concentrating on improving the user experience via an enhanced UI which carries on the work done in Vista's Aero.

Violet launches smart RFID tagger

If you're sick of seeing the wonderfully geeky technology of radio-frequency ID (RFID) tags being mis-applied and abused by big corporations and even bigger governments, check out the fluffier side of the contactless chips with Mir:ror.

According to the preview over on Gizmodo, the oddly named Mir:ror tech from Violet comes in two parts: an RFID reader for your PC, and self-adhesive Ztamps which you attach to everyday objects so that your PC – via the reader – can recognise them.

Intel exec rubbishes ARM chips

While UK chip maker ARM is hoping to get the next generation of its RISC-based processors out of the smartphone and into the netbook, rival Intel opts for the ever-professional public badmouthing tactic.

According to BetaNews, the director of ecosystems at Intel's Ultra Mobility Group – and yes, that is a real job title – Pankaj Kedia got involved in a discussion at the Intel Developer's Forum about the Apple iPhone and made the ill-advised comment that "

Silverstone addresses FT01 issues

During our review of Silverstone’s FT01 uni-body aluminium case, we noticed a couple of rather concerning build quality problems, most notable of which was the fact that the included fans rubbed audibly against the case’s removable dust filters.

However, we’re happy to report that our review sample was one of the first off of the production line and Silverstone has since caught the problem, which was caused by incorrectly selected cooling fans.

Nintendo: Wii production might not meet demand

Nintendo has again been forced to confess demand for the Nintendo Wii might exceed the supply this Christmas as families seek to buy a console of their very own.

In an interview with the LA Times (via Joystiq), Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said that though the production has been increased in anticipation for the holiday season, it's still very likely that the Wii will sell out.

Nintendo is now making a staggering 2.4 million consoles a month, which is a production increase of 33 percent and up from last years 1.6 million consoles a month, but demand is still emptying shelves faster than Nintendo can fill them.

Sony: No PS3 price cut this Christmas

Sony has again confirmed that it will not be offering a price cut on the PlayStation 3 this Christmas as it is still trying to maximise profits and is concerned that a price cut is not in the interest of its share holders.

Speaking to Videogamer, Sony Computer Entertainment executive Ray Maguire said that the company must seek to do the right thing for shareholders first and therefore there is definitely not going to be a price cut this year, meaning the PlayStation 3 will remain the most expensive console on the market.

Sony: PS3 browser is faster than IE7

Sony has just updated the official PlayStation 3 firmware to include a faster browser and Flash 9 support and is now boasting that the console's internet browser is now faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7, despite only have being in development for a short time.

Sony apparently began work on the new version of the PlayStation 3 browser last year and had to re-code many features in order to get Flash 9 support included, but it is adamant the work has paid off.

Samsung posts profit warning

Samsung's claims that it's SanDisk's poor profit potential that nixed plans to purchase the flash memory specialist may not have been completely honest if figures released this weekend are accurate.

According to ExtremeTech the South Korean giant has posted a 44 percent drop in quarterly net profit due to massive reductions in the value of flat-screen displays and memory chips. Accordingly, the stock market has responded with a 14 percent drop in Samsung's share price.

Gigabyte shows bit-tech its final X58 boards

Gigabyte will launch three X58 motherboards in a few weeks – the Extreme, the UD5P and the UD5. All will feature Ultra Durable 3 with Gigabyte’s new 2oz copper layer in the PCB, Dynamic Energy Saver advanced, 50-squillion hour Jap caps and Dolby Home Theatre audio with the premium Realtek AL889a sound codec.

Style wise, Gigabyte has heard our (and others) concerns and updated its design massively, with a largely positive effect. While adamant that it doesn’t want to follow down the “black PCB = enthusiast” route, we think its blue-white-silver approach looks really something fresh. While I personally would have loved Gigabyte to have gone

Call of Duty 5 to have co-op zombie Nazi mode

Treyarch announced this weekend that the new Call of Duty game, World at War, would include a controversial new co-op mode that will be unlockable after the singleplayer campaign is complete.

The game mode will be a survival variant that features up to four players who must work together to survive continuing waves of Nazi zombies who have an awful craving for fresh, patriotic flesh.

This survival mode will apparently have some strategy elements woven into it too and, by wiping out swathes of these unliving national socialists players will be able to earn money that can be invested in various upgrades. Players will apparently be able to unlock and buy new weapons as they progress, as well as add new defences on to the base they are defending.

Hellgate: London closure dated

Namco Bandai has now announced that it will close all the servers for the ill-fated Hellgate: London, ending the online portion of the game, on the 31st of January, 2009.

The game, which was published by Electronic Arts and developed by Flagship Studios, proved to be a failure on both critical and financial fronts and resulted in the closure of Bill Roper's Flagship Studios earlier this year.

The failure also forced the cancellation of Flagship's other project,

Confirmed: Some ATI Radeon HD 4830s are gimped

We have just received confirmation from AMD that some ATI Radeon HD 4830 boards have only 560 stream processors enabled, instead of the 640 that there should be. A limited number of these have made it into the channel.

It's something we'd been scratching our heads over for a few days now, after finding that the performance data we'd collected didn't make a lot of sense. We've heard various stories from AMD, from it being a "known issue" to there being problems with the application calculating the number of stream processors.

Noctua Xeon coolers and free Core i7 kit

Noctua dropped off some new kit earlier this week - first of all we cracked the latest NH-U9DX Xeon workstation coolers out of their boxes and fitted them in our cases in order to reinstate the sanities of both Tim and I. If you've ever used a Xeon workstation or server before, you'll know the Intel stock heatsinks are incredibly noisy and cool very poorly, so we were keen to swap them out for something different. Even though we see plenty of LGA775 heatsinks come through

ARM hints at Cortex-based netbooks

If you're in the market for one of those 'netbooks' that everyone keeps talking about but fancy something a little different, ARM might have just the thing: systems based around its latest Cortex chip.

According to CNet, the UK-based processor maker is looking to branch the Cortex A8 and A9 range of reduced instruction set chips out from their current homes in smartphones and PDAs and into the burgeoning netbook market.

Good Old Games goes to open beta

Good Old Games, the digital download service for classic PC games has finally reached open beta stage and is ready for business according to the latest announcement.

The Good Old Games service is similar to Valve's Steam platform in many regards in that it allows users to download and play old PC games on modern systems for a fraction of the usual prices. The service, which is backed by Polish developer CD Projekt, has won the adoration of many fans too for being completely free of DRM. Once you buy a game from Good Old Games, you own it forever and it's yours to take responsibility for.

Major Windows security patch released

Microsoft has broken its monthly patch cycle to release an urgent update for Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and 2008 in order to fix a critical security vulnerability which is already being exploited in the wild.

The bulletin, released yesterday, outlines a flaw in the Server service which allows for remote code execution upon receipt of a specially crafted RPC request – which is to say that this vulnerability does not require user interaction to exploit, making it a particularly nasty little bug. While the flaw requires that your firewall rules allow RPC requests in, it's certainly easier to exploit than most modern Windows vulnerabilities – and trivial from within a local network.

Army of Two movie in the making

EA has reportedly licensed the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum to make a film based on the co-op shooter Army of Two according to Variety magazine.

Scott Z. Burns, who was also apparently attached to make the Halo movie, apparently approached EA Montreal and expressed an interest in making a film based on the game. Electronic Arts quickly agreed, signed itself on as a producer to the project, and the film is now in pre-production.

The USB-based door lock

If you're looking for a clever way of keeping your kid sister out of your room, how about a deadbolt that unlocks when you insert a specific USB key?

Hack a Day are currently showing off the work of the Makers Local 256, who have built a mechanical deadbolt system that relies on a certain USB device being inserted before the lock is released. Where it gets clever is that the system will work with any USB device – similar systems rely on storing a 'key file' on a USB-presented mass storage device. Basically, you can unlock your door with a mouse, a keyboard, an MP3 player – anything with a USB interface.

AMD introduces ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card

AMD today introduced the ATI Radeon HD 4830, billing it as a product that raises the gaming performance bar for sub-£100 graphics cards.

It's based on a cut-down version of the excellent RV770 GPU that is behind the rest of the Radeon HD 4800 series, featuring 640 stream processors (128 five-way superscalar shader units), 32 texture units, 16 ROPs and a 256-bit memory interface.

The GPU, which is known as the RV770LE, is clocked at 575MHz while the 512MB of GDDR3 memory runs at 1,800MHz (effective). This should deliver some excellent performance at under £100.

Hardcore Computer launches immersion cooled PCs

Some of you might remember the Amari XMP we had a look at when we visited i34, an ultra high end system where the components were completely immersed in a bath of supercomputer coolant rather than such archaic methods as air or mere water. While it was an unquestionably cool piece of kit, we never thought we’d see the concept make it to retail – the cost of the coolant alone made it highly impractical.

How wrong we were then, as US based system builder Hardcore Computer has just launched its Reactor line of premium systems, featuring a patented total coolant immersion system which allows even triple SLI GeForce GTX 280 setups to operate without any fans at all – all the heat is carried away from the components using custom heatsinks which disperse the heat into the coolant, which is then cooled using a radiator.

EA rumoured to be making new Syndicate

It's just a rumour for now, but the word on the grapevine is that Electronic Arts is creating a new Syndicate game, with Starbreeze developing.

The original Syndicate game is definitely considered an all-time PC classic and is one of the great strategy games to come from Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog in the nineties. Starbreeze meanwhile is a relatively small studio who have mainly focused on dark, broody FPS games such as

Samsung withdraws SanDisk offer

Samsung's plans to buy flash memory specialist SanDisk have been scrapped – and SanDisk's shares have taken a nose-dive on the news.

First spotted yesterday by BetaNews, Samsung has released a public statement claiming that the decision to back out of its plans to buy SanDisk for a valuation of $26 per share was "made in considerations [sic] of the growing uncertainties in SanDisk's business, its stand alone value, and the current difficult economic climate.

Mygazines.com closes its doors

The first rule of life is that if something seems to good to be true, it usually isn't: alas, this seems all too accurate for magazine sharing site mygazines.com.

As we reported back in August, mygazines.com was a recent startup which aimed to offer a Flash-powered interactive magazine service – you could literally read a magazine right there in your browser, complete with turning pages. The problems started when the company decided to eschew agreements with content publishers and instead encourage users to scan in copies of magazines to make available to the rest of the userbase – a sort of Napster for magazines, if you will.

Nvidia GPUs support DX10.1 features in Far Cry 2

A few days ago, we learned that Ubisoft's hugely anticipated free-roaming shooter Far Cry 2 would support DirectX 10.1 extensions for cards that support the latest-available version of Microsoft's API.

Today, we have gathered some more information from Ubisoft on the implementation and it's quite an interesting one because the capabilities are also enabled on all Nvidia GeForce 8, 9 and GTX 200 GPUs, even though they don't comply with DX10.1's requirements.

Fallout 3 looks worst on PS3

According to an exclusive review in PSM3 magazine, the PlayStation 3 version of Fallout 3 is the least impressive visually of all the different versions of the game.

In their exclusive review of the game, PSM3 mentions that the "The PS3 version compares poorly to its Xbox and PC counterparts," which is news that should certainly keep PC gamers smiling a bit about this important title. Not only was it first pirated on consoles almost a month in advance of the release, but it also plays and looks best on a non-console platform.

3D Realms change mind about Max Payne movie

Just a few days ago Scott Miller of 3D Realms was slating the Max Payne movie, but it appears he has now changed his tune after the game managed to top the box office over the weekend and bring in more than $18 million USD.

Miller, who was producer of both Max Payne games, was quoted as saying that the film left him bewildered and confused, thanks to "several fundamental story flaws". Miller was especially critical of the way that the film presented the death of Max's family, something which motivates him throughout the entire game but which is only shown at the half-way point of the movie.

Far Cry 2 has cropped widescreen

Uh-oh. We've seen this particular sequence of events before. It seems that, just like BioShock, Far Cry 2 has a problem with widescreen displays and doesn't render in true widescreen formats.

Spotted by the same group that found the problem with BioShock, WidescreenGaming has discovered that the game instead crops off the top and bottom of the screen when displayed on a 16:9 display. The result is that you see even less of the game than you might on a standard sized screen.

Opera launches new Mobile beta

Clearly not wishing to be outdone by the work going on over at the Mozilla Foundation, Opera brought its latest builds to the table yesterday with a new beta release for Opera Mobile – Opera Mini's bigger brother.

According to Download.com, this latest beta includes new code for Windows Mobile smartphones and a brand-new first-ever beta for Symbian UIQ handsets. Additionally, an alpha version for Symbian S60 handsets is available – but only as part of the Opera Widgets software development kit.

Google releases Android source code

If you're more interested in the potential of hacking Android itself around, rather than simply playing with a pre-made handset running a stock version of Google's mobile platform, then I've got some good news: yesterday, the project official went open source.

According to a post on the official Android Open Source Project blog, the teams at Google and the Open Handset Alliance have finally released all the code for the mobile platform just ahead of the official retail availability of the first commercial product to use the system, the T-Mobile G1. Describing the project as "

LucasArts, BioWare unveil Star Wars MMO

LucasArts and BioWare have now officially unveiled the new Star Wars game, an MMO called The Old Republic - a game which has been so expected and anticipated that it hardly needed an official announcement anyway.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is currently in development for the PC only, is being developed by Bioware and is set in the pre-movie universe some 300 years after the events of Knights of The Old Republic

Nvidia to encourage partners to develop for Mac

Following last week's announcement that Apple is to use Nvidia GeForce 9400M chipsets and GeForce 9600M GT graphics cards in the new line of MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Airs, Nvidia has revealed that it’s looking to start significantly promoting the Mac as a gaming platform.

We went down to the GeForce 9400M launch and had the chance to pose a few questions to Rene Haas, Nvidia General Manager for Notebook GPUs, who revealed that Nvidia would most certainly be using the

Dennis Publishing acquires bit-tech.net

I am delighted to announce that bit-tech.net has taken another giant leap into the next chapter of its life – the publication has been acquired by leading technology publisher Dennis Publishing Ltd.

bit-tech has been on an incredible journey for the last seven and a half years, and those of you who have been with us since the original days of 2001 will have seen the website go through many evolutions.

Apple to kill off Mac Mini?

If you've always wanted to get your hands on one of those oh-so-cute Mac Minis, you'd better get a move on: they might not be around for much longer.

According to a post on Gizmodo yesterday at least two major European retailers have been denied any more stock of the diminutive MacOS X-based machine, which means one of two things: a new version is due to ship real-soon-now, or the system is to be discontinued in favour of its more popular MacBook and Mac Pro brethren.

3D Realms not pleased with Max Payne movie

Scott Miller, CEO of 3D Realms and the producer behind both of the Max Payne games, has added his voice to those displeased with the movie adaptation of the game starring Mark Wahlberg.

The first Max Payne was released in 2001 and tells the story of an undercover cop whose family was murdered and who is made the victim of corruption in the police force and forced to go on the run.

The movie however has changed certain elements of the plot - and not for the better according to Scott Miller.

Mythic: Battle with WoW is a marathon, not sprint

Mythic CEO Mark Jacobs has taken issue with the reveal that over half of the players who had emigrated from World of Warcraft to Warhammer Online had gone and made the return journey after all, telling Blizzard that the battle between the two MMO giants is a marathon and not a sprint.

In an interview with GI.biz, Jacobs responded to the figures that Blizzard had released and said that it didn't altogether prove that players were leaving

Sony has no plans to fix PSP-3000 display

PSP fans may originally have been mightily impressed by the new PSP-3000 model, which boasts an improved microphone and new brighter, anti-glare screen - but issues have since emerged that compromise that greatness. Worse, Sony has announced it has no plans to fix the issue.

The new screen on the PSP-3000 was in part designed to address complaints of image ghosting on older PSPs, but the new display has issues of its own it seems as complaints have sprung up on the PlayStation forums (Via Kotaku) of visible scanlines and interlacing effects that can be seen during gaming and video playback.

Take the Dolby Sound Survey and win prizes!

bit-tech has teamed up with Dolby to find out your views on sound technology in the PC industry by completing a short survey.

Respondents will be entered into prize draw and bit-tech readers will have the chance to win an Asus Eee PC 1000H netbook. Three runners up will each receive a Plantronics Gamecom 777 headset.

All you've got to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these prizes is to spend a few minutes of your time completing the survey as accurately and honestly as you can.

Firefox not coming to iPhone, Android

If you're an iPhone or even an Android-phone owner hoping to get in on some of that Firefox Mobile Alpha lovin', I've got some bad news: it's unlikely to transition to those platforms any time soon.

In an interview with SiliconRepublic.com, Mozilla's director of mobile engineering Christian Sejersen has stated that development for the iPhone is certainly not going to happen due to two restrictions Apple places on developers: firstly, that you can't write an application which duplicates built-in functionality as Firefox Mobile would for Safari; and secondly that you cannot run background processes on an iPhone.

Microsoft patents auto-censorship

If you like your video streams to turn the air blue, you might want to avoid content from Microsoft in the future: the company has received a patent on technology designed to automatically censor words from an audio stream.

According to Ars Technica, the company has been granted the patent by the US Patents and Trademarks Office and is now free to implement the system – which uses a predefined blacklist of banned words and a real-time monitoring system which can immediately react and censor the offending word – in its existing products as well as apply it to future technologies.

Islamic group debates LittleBigPlanet recall

An Islamic non-profit group called American Islamic Forum for Democracy has commented on Sony's recall of LittleBigPlanet and said that it doesn't see it as A Good Thing.

Sony recalled all copies of LittleBigPlanet, as well as delaying the European release of the game, after they discovered that there was two lines from the Qur'an inserted into one of the pieces of background music. Sony never received any official complaints about the game, but decided to recall it anyway in order to avoid causing offence and the issue has since flared into a serious discussion.

Adobe launches Flash 10

Fans of the rich-content made available on the web by Adobe's Flash Player will be pleased to hear that yesterday saw the official launch of Flash Player 10.

According to BetaNews, the latest Flash release coincides with the simultaneous RTM of Creative Suite 4, Adobe's premier content creation software. The delay due to wanting a simultaneous release with CS4 may go some way to explaining why Adobe managed to get pipped to the post with Microsoft launching the second release of its Flash competitor Silverlight two days earlier, and also why the latest build had a longer than usual six month beta period.

PC Gaming Alliance lashes out at Lucasarts

The Force Unleashed was available on pretty much every platform from the DS to the PlayStation 3, but it failed to make an appearance on the PC much to the chagrin of the PC Gaming Alliance. Now, PCGA President and Intel boss Randy Stude has hit back at Lucasarts and accused the Star Wars team of making uneducated excuses.

Lucasarts had previously explained that the reason for a lack of a PC version for The Force Unleashed

Adobe launches Flash 10

Fans of the rich-content made available on the web by Adobe's Flash Player will be pleased to hear that yesterday saw the official launch of Flash Player 10.

According to BetaNews, the latest Flash release coincides with the simultaneous RTM of Creative Suite 4, Adobe's premier content creation software. The delay due to wanting a simultaneous release with CS4 may go some way to explaining why Adobe managed to get pipped to the post with Microsoft launching the second release of its Flash competitor Silverlight two days earlier, and also why the latest build had a longer than usual six month beta period.

PC Gaming Alliance lashes out at Lucasarts

The Force Unleashed was available on pretty much every platform from the DS to the PlayStation 3, but it failed to make an appearance on the PC much to the chagrin of the PC Gaming Alliance. Now, PCGA President and Intel boss Randy Stude has hit back at Lucasarts and accused the Star Wars team of making uneducated excuses.

Lucasarts had previously explained that the reason for a lack of a PC version for The Force Unleashed

New MacBook Pros have dual-GPU, no SLI

If you were hoping that Apple's latest dual-GPU sporting MacBook Pro would give you ultimate performance in the latest games, think again: the system does not support the GeForce Boost SLI technology required to get both chips working at once.

According to the guys over on MacRumours, although the new MacBook Pro units feature both an on-board Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU for low-power graphics processing on the go and a beefier GeForce 9600M GT discrete card for better performance when hooked to the mains, there's no possibility of combining the two in a hybrid SLI rig.

Microsoft to call Windows 7, Windows 7

Mike Nash, a vice president in the Windows Product Management Group at Microsoft, has announced Windows 7 will be called Windows 7, sparking a return to the good old days before Windows 95 showed up.

Nash revealed the software giant's intentions on the Windows Vista blog, where he wrote a rather lengthy post explaining why Microsoft had moved away from version numbers in the first place.

"We've used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or "aspirational" monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense,

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 released

If you're a Firefox fan that just has to be on the cutting edge, you'll be pleased to hear that the Mozilla Foundation has released the first public beta for Firefox 3.1.

According to Download.com the main change for 3.1 above the current Firefox 3.0 release is a different JavaScript engine with vastly improved performance, alongside a smartened user interface for switching between tabs, and improvements to the so-called 'Awesome Bar'.

Boris Johnson decides games are good

Boris Johnson, the semi-hilarious mayor of London, has had a change of opinion and decided that games are a good thing now.

While the much-ridiculed politician who has appeared on shows like Have I Got News For You may have previously said that games are to blame for "ignorance, underachivement " and "poverty", and turning children into "blinking lizards", it seems he's had a change of heart.

Anti-piracy PRO-IP bill passed

Monday saw the RIAA- and MPAA-backed PRO-IP bill signed into law by president Bush in a move which will create tougher penalties for pirates caught acting within US borders.

The bill – which was also backed by the US Chamber of Commerce – will toughen existing criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting in the US in addition to the creation of an intellectual property czar whose responsibility it is to advise the presidency on how to defend copyrights both within the US and internationally, according to Reuters. The costs that can be sought from a pirate have also been dramatically increased under the Act.

BioShock 2 unveiled?

The PlayStation 3 version of BioShock may be late in getting to market, but it looks to be worth something after all thanks to a new teaser for the sequel.

The PS3 version of BioShock has been released almost a year after the game first appeared on the PC and Xbox 360 - and check out our monstrously in-depth BioShock review for more about that - but has repayed PS3 by treating them to a 15-second teaser for..THE SEQUEL!

Android features kill-switch

Although Google are taking a different approach to a mobile 'phone operating platform than Apple with the new Android OS, there's at least one thing they're borrowing from the iPhone: the application kill-switch.

According to ComputerWorld, the terms of service documentation for the Android Market, on which developers can publish applications to be purchased and downloaded for handsets running Android, states that "Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement [...] in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion.

HP extends warranties for Nvidia flaw

It looks like Nvidia's problems with the bad batch of GPUs it's been selling are far from over, with box maker HP joining the list of manufacturers warning customers to expect faults from systems fitted with the dodgy chips.

First spotted over on Slashdot by user Barence, HP has issued what it is describing as a "Warranty Service Enhancement" for a range of Pavilion slimline desktop PCs due to faults which can occur due to the same Nvidia on-board GPU chip that has been causing Dell and Apple such problems with their laptop ranges.

Max Payne film fails to wow critics

Initial reviews are out on the new Max Payne movie adaptation starring Max Wahlberg and the news isn't good - not that it usually is for Hollywood adaptations of game franchises.

Unfortunately, while films such as Doom and Silent Hill at least weren't totally awful in our humble opinion, the early reviews for Max Payne label it as having very few redeeming qualities.

"Horrid dialogue, surprisingly bad acting across the board, and some really dodgy sound editing...helped to drive an already sub-standard plot further into the ground,

Valve may unveil Episode 3 by January

Valve, in a typical teasing of Half-Life 2 fans, has hinted that it may be readying to show off Half-Life 2: Episode 3 (Manchester United: 0 - Ed) by the end of the year.

Doug Lombardi, in a chat with Kikizo, confirmed that although the development process for Episode 3 will be longer than the gap between Episode 1 and Episode 2, the first looks may be ready by the end of the year.

Apple intros new MacBooks, 24" LED Cinema Display

Apple has announced its new range of MacBooks and its first LED backlit Cinema Display at a press conference at its Cupertino headquarters.

The company presented new 13.3" MacBook and 15.4" MacBook Pro designs – the chassis are, like the rumours suggested, built from a solid block of aluminium.

There were two new MacBook Pro models announced, both featuring a 15.4" LED-backlit display with a glossy covering that will undoubtedly split opinion down the middle. What's more there's no matte option available with

Blizzard: Our next MMO won't be WoW2

Despite speculation that Blizzard is currently looking to create a sequel to World of Warcraft, the company has claimed otherwise in interviews recently.

Speaking to Wired recently, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime was quite clear on the matter and was adamant that the next MMO the company looks to create will be a wholly different game to World of Warcraft and definitely not a sequel.

"We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released,

Treyarch to keep Call of Duty in World War II?

With the Call of Duty franchise reaching new heights with the modern twist, it was strange that Treyarch would plunge the game back into the historic depths of the second World War. Still, many have assumed that this will be the last historically set Call of Duty game. It makes sense, right?

Well, according to Treyarch's Noah Heller, it can't be ruled out that future Treyarch games in the franchise will continue to be set in WWII.

EA reveals two new Spore expansion

Electronic Arts has officially unveiled the first two expansion packs for Spore - the Cute and Creepy Parts Pack and a new Adventure Maker and space expansion.

The Cute and Creepy Parts Pack had already been unofficially revealed, but EA today announced some of the details and revealed that the expansion will cost $19.95 USD or about £11 GBP. The Parts Pack will be compatible with both the full version of

Left4Dead available for pre-purchase

Valve has announced that co-op zombie shooter Left4Dead is now available for pre-purchase on Steam. That's pre-purchase by the way - so for clarification you'll be paying the full price for the game, with a ten percent discount.

Those who want to take the plunge and pay for the game ahead of time can expect to fork out $44.99 USD thanks to the ten percent discount, which is about £22.50 GBP. The game is not currently available for pre-load though, so don't expect to be downloading the content or actually playing it just yet.

Airlines introduce pron filter to WiFi

With more and more airlines jumping on the in-flight WiFi bandwagon, the restrictions on the service are getting ever greater.

It was always the case that in-flight voice over IP (VoIP) services such as Skype would be blocked – if only because they would negatively impact the revenue gained from the extremely expensive in-flight 'phones most airlines offer – but according to news over on the Wired blog the airlines are planning to block pornographic content, too.

Konami comments on Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was an important, big game for the PlayStation 3 and the fact that it's only on the PlayStation 3 has definitely helped boost Sony's sales...but it's also upset a lot of fans and potentially limited Konami's sales.

Now, Konami's Yoshitaka Arai has commented (again) on whether or not gamers can expect to see an Xbox 360 version of Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Xbox 360 while at the Tokyo Game Show.

EA: Nobody cares about DRM

EA Boss John Riccitiello has voiced his own personal thoughts on the SecuROM DRM solution used in several EA games on the PC, but claims that the majority of gamers don't care.

Speaking to Yahoo! (via Kotaku), Riccitiello said that the SecuROM DRM system that is used in games like Spore and Mass Effect PC is inconsequential for most gamers.

"We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it,

LittleBigPlanet has global recall for Qur'an quote

LittleBigPlanet, Sony's flagship game for the PlayStation 3 has had a European delay turned into a full worldwide recall by Sony after it was discovered that background music for the game quoted sections of the Qur'an, an Islamic holy text.

The European delay for the game was originally reported earlier today by GI.biz, who noted that some retailers had pushed the release date for the game in Europe back from October 24th to November 14th. Sony however has now confessed that it will be issuing a global recall for the game, as well as delaying the European release.

Pay-for-customisation confirmed for WoW

Blizzard has quietly confirmed rumours that the company will be looking to add in paid-for character customisation to World of Warcraft in the future.

Rumours that the company was investigating using such a system first arose when wily coders looked into the beta files for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft and found mention of 'Paid Character Customisation', but Blizzard refused to respond to questions until now.

Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has again dispelled rumours that the Xbox 360 will be getting a Blu-ray drive attachment after the collapse of the Microsoft-backed HD DVD medium. Instead, Microsoft believes that there is no future in optical media and that the film distribution should instead be handled digitally.

"We have no plans to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience," Greenberg told Major Nelson.

"We believe that we shouldn't force consumers to pay for things they don't want. We also believe that the future's digital, and that's why we've invested in a massive library of entertainment content.

Apple admits Nvidia flaw in MacBook Pro

It would appear that Dell isn't the only company looking to help out customers on the wrong end of the faulty Nvidia GPU debaclé, with Apple announcing that it will replace or repair MacBook Pros containing the affected chips.

Despite claims by Nvidia that Mac systems weren't affected by the reports of faulty graphics chips the company made, Apple has decided to play things safe. According to BetaNews, the Cupertino-based company is following Dell's lead and offering an extension to existing warranties and free repairs for systems affected by the manufacturing flaw.

Apple admits Nvidia flaw in MacBook Pro

It would appear that Dell isn't the only company looking to help out customers on the wrong end of the faulty Nvidia GPU debaclé, with Apple announcing that it will replace or repair MacBook Pros containing the affected chips.

Despite claims by Nvidia that Mac systems weren't affected by the reports of faulty graphics chips the company made, Apple has decided to play things safe. According to BetaNews, the Cupertino-based company is following Dell's lead and offering an extension to existing warranties and free repairs for systems affected by the manufacturing flaw.

Apple admits Nvidia flaw in MacBook Pro

It would appear that Dell isn't the only company looking to help out customers on the wrong end of the faulty Nvidia GPU debaclé, with Apple announcing that it will replace or repair MacBook Pros containing the affected chips.

Despite claims by Nvidia that Mac systems weren't affected by the reports of faulty graphics chips the company made, Apple has decided to play things safe. According to BetaNews, the Cupertino-based company is following Dell's lead and offering an extension to existing warranties and free repairs for systems affected by the manufacturing flaw.

Church of England: Games are a force for good

In a recent round table discussion between the Church of England and a collection of some of the leading charity groups in the UK, the Church of England came to the surprising conclusion that games can be a force for good in the modern world.

The discussion, which was organised by Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), included the experts from the computer and video games industry as well as those from the Church of England. ELSPA organised the talk to investigate why some groups fear that children can be negatively affected by videogames and to try and dispel the myths that all violent video games are bad.

Church of England: Games are a force for good

In a recent round table discussion between the Church of England and a collection of some of the leading charity groups in the UK, the Church of England came to the surprising conclusion that games can be a force for good in the modern world.

The discussion, which was organised by Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), included the experts from the computer and video games industry as well as those from the Church of England. ELSPA organised the talk to investigate why some groups fear that children can be negatively affected by videogames and to try and dispel the myths that all violent video games are bad.

Church of England: Games are a force for good

In a recent round table discussion between the Church of England and a collection of some of the leading charity groups in the UK, the Church of England came to the surprising conclusion that games can be a force for good in the modern world.

The discussion, which was organised by Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), included the experts from the computer and video games industry as well as those from the Church of England. ELSPA organised the talk to investigate why some groups fear that children can be negatively affected by videogames and to try and dispel the myths that all violent video games are bad.

Intel team gives Eee 5-second boot

If you're looking to put a full-fat Linux distribution on your Eee PC but don't want to lose that stunningly quick boot time, help is at hand: Intel is working on a system to allow a standard Eee to boot into a Fedora desktop in just five seconds.

First reported over on LWN.net, the work has been carried out by Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok, two Linux developers at Intel's Open Source Technology Centre. Rather than attempt to merely improve the boot time, the pair started with the that attitude that "

Intel team gives Eee 5-second boot

If you're looking to put a full-fat Linux distribution on your Eee PC but don't want to lose that stunningly quick boot time, help is at hand: Intel is working on a system to allow a standard Eee to boot into a Fedora desktop in just five seconds.

First reported over on LWN.net, the work has been carried out by Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok, two Linux developers at Intel's Open Source Technology Centre. Rather than attempt to merely improve the boot time, the pair started with the that attitude that "

Intel team gives Eee 5-second boot

If you're looking to put a full-fat Linux distribution on your Eee PC but don't want to lose that stunningly quick boot time, help is at hand: Intel is working on a system to allow a standard Eee to boot into a Fedora desktop in just five seconds.

First reported over on LWN.net, the work has been carried out by Arjan van de Ven and Auke Kok, two Linux developers at Intel's Open Source Technology Centre. Rather than attempt to merely improve the boot time, the pair started with the that attitude that "

Mozilla Labs introduces Geode

If you've always wanted an easy way to get location specific information when out and about with your trusty laptop or netbook, the Mozilla Foundation has your back: enter Geode.

The Geode system, currently in the beta stages over at Mozilla Labs, is an implementation of the W3C's Geolocation Specification – a system whereby web sites are able to request accurate location information from the client that you can then optionally provide. With the ability to use ultra-accurate data sources such as trusty old GPS or the slightly spookier WiFi-based geolocation alongside simple manual entry, the system is already looking promising.

Firefox Mobile alphas due 'in weeks'

If you're salivating at the thought of getting your sticky mitts on a workable build of Mozilla's Firefox Mobile, you might not have too long to wait after all.

During an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Mozilla Foundation's chief executive officer John Lilly revealed that the much-vaunted mobile build of the popular open-source Firefox web browser could hit alpha status as soon as the end of the month.

Describing the project as an attempt to ensure that "

Spore Competition winner announced!

We've had a fantastic response to the competition we've been running the past few weeks in association with Electronic Arts to celebrate the release of Spore, Will Wright's long awaited life sim, by giving away a great prize!

The prize was an custom made one of kind Spore 3D model based on the winning design.

We received many creative entries for this popular competition but sadly there could only be one winner! Our congratulations go out to Ben Mansell of Godalming whose horned cow cross-breed creature caught the attention of the judges.

Analysts urge Sony to drop PS3 price

The prohibitively high price of the PlayStation 3 is going to be a real barrier for Sony this Christmas, according to analysts from EDAAR who are advising the console-maker to strongly consider a price cut this quarter.

According to EDAAR analyst Jesse Divinich, who spoke to GI.biz about the matter, even top-quality software like LittleBigPlanet may not help Sony to shift consoles this Christmas thanks to fierce competition.

WiFi competitor uses visible light

If you're tired of unreliable WiFi connections but still want to do your browsing sans wires, the common light fitting might offer some hope for the future.

According to Cellular News, a team at Boston University's College of Engineering is currently working on the ability to use LED lighting as a data communication channel, removing the need for a tethering wire while cleaning up the radio-frequency spectrum at the same time.

Tom Clancy's Endwar PC delayed due to piracy

We can predict the forum discussion already as it's pretty much the same whenever the topic of piracy is broached. One side says piracy is bad, while the other says that games are too expensive and that every pirated game doesn't equal a lost sale - so it goes, endlessly.

Apparently though, some publishers are through trying to find a way to solve the problem and are instead tackling piracy in a more direct way by just not releasing a PC version. That's what Ubisoft's Shanghai director Michael de Plater has confirmed is happening with

Seagate joins enterprise SSD market

Despite CEO Bill Watkins' opinions on the long-term feasibility of solid-state storage for laptops, it appears that Seagate is going full steam ahead with its own SSD models anyway.

According to CNet, the company is looking to enter the SSD market as a serious competitor beginning next year. Rich Vignes, senior manager of market development at Seagate, states that "as solid-state comes online, we're embracing this new media type,

Asus ships malware with Eee Boxes

Asus has officially confirmed that certain versions of its pint-sized Eee Box desktop PC shipped with a virus on the hard drive's second partition.

The Windows XP-based computers came with a copy of the W32/Usbalex worm according to an article over on The Register. By placing an autorun.inf file on the D: drive, the worm – disguised under the filename of recycled.exe – is able to get itself automatically executed when a user double-clicks the second partition in My Computer. Once the program is run, it attempts to copy itself to the main system partition and any removable drives currently attached to the system.

YouTube to start selling games

Google has announced that it is to start selling games through YouTube soon thanks to a partnership with Amazon.com, as well as MP3s through a deal with Apple's iTunes store.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is one of the most popular sites on the internet thanks to the plentiful amount of LOLcats, faceplants, sneezing pandas and other truly fantastic videos, but has so far not managed to turn a single penny of profit.

Fallout 3 already pirated for the Xbox 360

See - we told you that pirating wasn't a PC-only problem, didn't we? And we were right.

More than 20 days before release and on the same day that the game goes gold, the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 has been leaked as a torrent.

The torrent has only been available for a few hours and we've checked on a number of torrent sites to see how available the pirated version is - and it's very available, unfortunately. Worse, the code has only been available for a few hours at most and has already clocked up between 15,000 and 20,000 downloads at a conservative estimate.

Yahoo-AOL merger likely by month end

While Yahoo was unwilling to do business with Microsoft, it looks like the company isn't entirely against the idea of a merger with a larger corporate overload: Time Warner, for example.

According to news over on TechCrunch, Yahoo is currently in the latter stages of negotiations with Time Warner over a possible merger – read acquisition of ailing content provider AOL – that could take place as soon as the end of this month. While this isn't the first time the two companies have discussed the possibility of joining forces, it's certainly the first time an almost-firm completion date has been uttered by either party.

AMD announces manufacturing spin off

During a conference call this afternoon, AMD confirmed the rumours that have been circulating about its plans to spin off its foundry business into a separate company.

There have been rumours of AMD considering an asset smart strategy for some time now and today it has announced a partnership with Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi.

The processing powerhouse will sell a 55.6 percent stake of its manufacturing business to ATIC, who will form a new entity called The Foundry Company for the time being - the corporate identity of the new company will not be revealed until the deal closes at the beginning of 2009, providing everything goes to plan.

Moskowitz to leave Facebook

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz has quit the company in order to begin a seperate venture with fellow Facebooker Justin Rosenstein.

According to CNet the departure has been confirmed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who describes Moskowitz as someone who "has always had Facebook's best interests at heart and [who] will always be someone I turn to for advice."

Moskowitz was one of the first employees of the social networking giant when it moved from a project by Harvard students into a real business, and is responsible for a lot of the behind-the-scenes engineering both for the main Facebook system and for several side projects like the Facebook for BlackBerry application released recently.

Bleszinski: Gears of War 2 will have casual appeal

Gears of War 2 lead designer Cliff Bleszinski is keen to welcome the casual games audience with his latest game, claiming that the casual games movement is definitely a good thing and that other developers shouldn't be intimidated by casual gamers.

"Thanks to the success of Guitar Hero and Wii, we've seen a lot of new people play games, and we've seen a lot of ex-gamers get back into gaming," Bleszinski noted in an interview with Develop, via EG.

Intel has "serious questions" about AMD spin off

Intel said last night that it has some serious questions about AMD's intention to spin off its manufacturing facilities into a separate business unit currently known as The Foundry Company.

Intel and AMD have a cross-licensing agreement which regulates many aspects of CPU design and manufacturing - AMD pays Intel royalties for an x86 license, for example, and that is believed to be a part of the licensing agreement between the two companies.

DSi games to be region locked

In a move that's sure to annoy many Nintendo fans, the company has just revealed that games for the new DSi will be region locked. While the standard DS games will not be, the DSi cartridge games and those which are to be made available through the DSi's new online functionality will be.

Nintendo announced the new DS a short while ago, revealing that the new model will have two cameras built into it, improved WiFi and online downloads and a new SD card slot. The GameBoy Advance cartridge slot however will be absent.

All future Sony MMOs to be on consoles

Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed that all of the MMOs it will be involved with in the future, which isn't a small list, will be available to play on consoles.

SOE boss John Smedley confirmed in an MTV that this will include some classic PC MMO titles too, such as Everquest, which spectacularly failed to make any impression on the market with the previous PS2 attempt EverQuest Online Adventures.

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First Deus Ex 3 details emerge

News has started to creep out about the massively anticipated sequel to one of the best PC games ever, with Deus Ex 3 now confirmed as a prequel to the first and monstrously significant game.

Originally created by Warren Spector's Ion Storm team, the widely acclaimed first game told the tale of technologically augmented secret agent JC Denton as he unravelled a conspiracy that reached through the highest levels of world government.Negative reaction to the second game however means that many are watching

Manhunt 2 gets UK release date

Controversial and massively explicit slaughter-em-up Manhunt 2 has finally been given a UK release date more than a year after the game was finished and made available in the US.

Now though, after a successful appeal to the BBFC and many modifications to the game, Take-Two has formally announced (via IGN) that Manhunt 2 will be available in the UK from October 31st on the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

Thomson and Leadtek prep Cell graphics

If you've been convinced of the awesomeness of the Cell processor as used in the PS3, I've got some good news: soon you'll be able to add Cell goodness to your PC in the form of a discrete graphics card add-on.

According to PC World, the SpursEngine – based around four Cell Broadband Engines – developed by Toshiba and featured in several laptops from the company has been sold to video card manufacturers Thomson and Leadtek for them to base products around. Due, allegedly, in the next few weeks and hitting a price point of around £150-£250 the cards aren't aimed at your average gamer.

DSi to invite further piracy?

Developers are certainly getting very excited by the promise of media storage on the new DS system that was unveiled yesterday, but could that be offset by fears of piracy? That's certainly something that has some developers worried.

The new DSi handheld system was unveiled yesterday and houses two cameras, improved online functionality, larger screens and a new SD card slot that replaces the GBA cartridge slot. It's that last bit which will be a problem apparently.

Molyneux: PC gaming is 'in tatters'

Peter Molyneux obviously isn't all to keen on PCs these days and in the run-up to the Fable 2 launch as an Xbox 360 exclusive the respected developer of Black and White and Theme Hospital has been sharing his views on the PC market.

Molyneux, who it is worth remembering got started with the PC market and who knows it very well thanks to his time at Bullfrog and Lionhead, goes as far as to say that the PC scene is 'in tatters' in an interview with Videogamer.

Motorola working on Android products

If you're hungering for an Android 'phone but don't fancy the look of T-Mobile's offering – even assuming you can get your hands on one – keep an eye on Motorola.

According to BetaNews, the company has confirmed that it is currently developing a series of products based around Google's open-source mobile platform, and is allegedly boosting its Android department from 50 to 350 developers to achieve its goals.

A Motorola spokesperson has said that the company is "

Nintendo reveals Wii storage patch

As of Spring 2009, Nintendo has announced that Wii users will be able to download games straight to an SD card to help compensate for poor storage capacity on the Wii. The bad news though is that the update has only been discussed in Japan so far.

The plans were unveiled at the Nintendo Press Conference yesterday which also saw the unveiling of the Nintendo DSi, the successor to the phenomenally successful DS Lite.

Nintendo's Satoru Iwata admitted during the conference that the poor storage capacity of the Wii was a big issue for some gamers who were unable to use the Wii to the fullest thanks to an undersized disc drive which can quickly become littered with WiiWare, photos, savegames and Virtual Console releases.

ARM preps Common Platform SoC

The next palmtop or mobile phone you buy just might have a significantly better battery life thanks to work being done by ARM in conjunction with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, IBM, and Samsung.

The companies have joined forces to develop the next-generation of 'system-on-a-chip' devices for mobile computing, and the tech is already shaping up to look pretty impressive. Based around 32nm and 28nm gate lengths built on high-k metal gate fabrication that's a generation or two smaller than Intel's current 45nm, the SoC devices will allow for major power savings over existing ARM-based chips while still offering impressive performance.

Nintendo unveils DSi

Nintendo has just unveiled the new DS handheld, dubbed the DSi, which comes with a whole load of improvements over the DS but manages to squeeze them all into roughly the same sized clam-shell design as the DS Lite.

Looking at specifics, the DSi looks to be ever so slightly thinner than the standard DS Lite, thanks mainly to the fact that it no longer has a slot for accepting GBA games. We'd be upset about that, but we never really used it anyway.

Western Digital to buy Fujitsu Storage

The hard-drive world just got smaller with the news that Western Digital is looking to snap up rival Fujistu – or their storage division, at any rate.

An article on PC World yesterday claims that Fujistu is looking to leave the storage media marketplace and is hoping that Western Digital is looking to buy. If the deal goes ahead, it could leave Western Digital entering 2009 just five percent behind rival Seagate in terms of market share.

Misco Expo '08 "a success"

Yesterday, we attended the Misco Expo at Old Billingsgate in Central London to learn a bit more about the ecosystem surrounding the company's operations across Europe.

It's fair to say that Channel Expo, or CTS as it's sometimes known, is on its last legs – the UK IT industry appears to be moving away from the trade-only show held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and is instead looking towards a more distributed events calendar.

MI6 camera sold on eBay

Just in case you thought it was just absent-minded public officials who mislaid CDs and left laptops in the backs of taxis, here's something to give cause for concern: even the security services aren't paying attention.

At least, that's the only conclusion you can draw from the news that a camera previously belonging to MI6 was sold on eBay for the princely sum of £17 while holding snaps of suspected terrorists, rocket launchers, and a document rated 'Top Secret' giving details of the encrypted computer network used by MI6 field agents. Whoops.

bit-tech September PotM winner announced!

Congratulations to forum member Peter, also known as Whisperwolf, who achieved first place in September's Photo of the Month competition, themed "Blue".

We also want to congratulate OleJ, who claims second place with his entry "Late", while third place went to Akpoly with his entry "Lost Footsteps".

Yet again, we have hooked up with OCZ Technology to give some awesome prizes away to the winners.

The wall-mounted render farm

If you've always fancied your own six-PC render farm but weren't sure how to hide such a beast from your significant other, take a leaf from Frederik Perman and Michael Stabile: flaunt it.

The pair, working for Perman's design form Pacific Design & Manufacturing, took an old six-PC render farm, some acrylic, the mandatory blue cold cathode tubes, and some nice strong wall anchors to create a system that was both functional and a good talking point for visitors to the company – located, as it is, in the foyer.

Activision signs in-game ad deal

In-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide has just announced that it has finalised and signed a deal with Activision to provide in-game adverts through a series of upcoming games, starting with Guitar Hero: World Tour. Bad news for many more discerning gamers, we're sure.

The good (or not so good) news though? The deal will only affect the PlayStation 3 platform and IGA has no right to provide ads for these games on other platforms, so the majority of console gamers in the UK will be unaffected.

AMD announces Radeon HD 4550 and 4350

AMD has this morning introduced the Radeon HD 4550 and Radeon HD 4350 graphics cards at the bottom of its Radeon HD 4000 series line up.

They're targeted more at the HD multimedia enthusiasts than they are at gamers, but AMD says that they should deliver good gaming experiences at their respective price points of $59 and $39 USD respectively.

Both cards are based on AMD's RV710 graphics chip, which is a cost-cut version of the excellent RV770 architecture.

Pandora pre-orders go live

The Pandora, the open-source handheld gaming platform, has just become available for pre-order and is selling out fast according to figures posted on the official site which show that the rush of pre-orders has claimed more than two thirds of the planned first batch in under six hours.

The Pandora itself is a completely open-source system that aims to become the king of the emulator and homebrew community. The design showcases a whole load of connectivity options ranging from WiFi to USB and SD slots, plus a miniature keyboard - yet all of it fits within a clamshell design just a little larger than a DS Lite.

Eidos to make Shellshock sequel

Eidos has a little Christmas surprise up it's sleeve it seems as the publisher has just announced that it will be releasing a sequel to Vietnam scare-fest Shellshock before the end of the year.

Dubbed Shellshock 2: Blood Trails, the game is set for a Christmas release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and should be suitably twisted and brutal. The game is currently in development at Rebellion, the same team behind the under-appreciated

MS: Xbox 360 outselling PS3 two to one

Well, it seems like there's nothing like a good ol' price cut to help shift units for Microsoft. The software and console giant has just announced that sales of the Xbox 360 have increased by 214 percent following the Xbox 360 price cuts and that the Xbox 360 is now selling two consoles for every one PlayStation 3.

The sales, which are supported by sales figures from Chart-Track, include only those from the past two weeks.

PlayFirst: Consoles are the niche, not PC

There's been a lot of talk recently about PC gaming being on the way out thanks to rising levels of piracy and spiralling budgets in AAA game releases, so it's good to see that not everyone is abandoning the PC. In fact, some people like John Welch, CEO of casual games maker PlayFirst, reckon that consoles are actually more of a niche than the PC ever will be.

Welch levels a lot of complaints at the current-gen consoles in an interview with VentureBeat, saying that the problem is that consoles are far too expensive to make and are often not profitable for manufacturers.

Epic: No Gears of War 2 PC

Gear of War 2 has been creating a bit of a stir in the bit-tech.net forums lately for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that the game is being definitely billed as an Xbox 360 exclusive. It won't be coming to PC.

In a discussion with TVG recently, Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski said that the reason there was not going to be a PC version of the game was simple; high-end users.

PlayFirst: Consoles are the niche, not PC

There's been a lot of talk recently about PC gaming being on the way out thanks to rising levels of piracy and spiralling budgets in AAA game releases, so it's good to see that not everyone is abandoning the PC. In fact, some people like John Welch, CEO of casual games maker PlayFirst, reckon that consoles are actually more of a niche than the PC ever will be.

Welch levels a lot of complaints at the current-gen consoles in an interview with VentureBeat, saying that the problem is that consoles are far too expensive to make and are often not profitable for manufacturers.

Epic: No Gears of War 2 PC

Gear of War 2 has been creating a bit of a stir in the bit-tech.net forums lately for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that the game is being definitely billed as an Xbox 360 exclusive. It won't be coming to PC.

In a discussion with TVG recently, Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski said that the reason there was not going to be a PC version of the game was simple; high-end users.

Yahoo's Zimbra exposes passwords

If you use Yahoo's Zimbra client to check your e-mails, you might want to think about changing your passwords – a flaw in the program reveals your private information in plain text.

According to an article over on CNet, Canadian hacker Holden Karau discovered the flaw in Zimbra whilst participating in the Yahoo University Hack Day, a programme aimed at encouraging developers and hackers to play with Yahoo APIs and invent new applications. Unfortunately, Yahoo got rather more than it bargained for from Karau.

Epic: No Gears of War 2 PC

Gear of War 2 has been creating a bit of a stir in the bit-tech.net forums lately for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that the game is being definitely billed as an Xbox 360 exclusive. It won't be coming to PC.

In a discussion with TVG recently, Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski said that the reason there was not going to be a PC version of the game was simple; high-end users.

G1 Android pre-orders unavailable

If you've been salivating at the thought of getting your hands on a T-Mobile G1 phone – previously known as the HTC Dream, the first commercial phone to run Google's Android mobile platform – you may be out of luck: the handset has vanished from the company's website.

Despite coming in for some flack regarding its rather outdated design and somewhat clunky interface, the G1 has proven extremely popular with enthusiasts and hackers hoping to get their hands on Google's open-source mobile platform, Android. It's been so popular, in fact, that T-Mobile has had to temporarily suspend pre-orders.

300 Director to make games with EA

In a move similar to the deal between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts, Zack Snyder has announced a three game deal with EA which will see the director of 300 and Watchmen teaming up to work on three new videogame IPs.

Previously, EA had announced a similar arrangement with Steven Spielberg which has so far resulted in the release of the hugely enjoyable Boom Blox, as well as two other unannounced titles.

Epic: No Gears of War 2 PC

Gear of War 2 has been creating a bit of a stir in the bit-tech.net forums lately for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that the game is being definitely billed as an Xbox 360 exclusive. It won't be coming to PC.

In a discussion with TVG recently, Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski said that the reason there was not going to be a PC version of the game was simple; high-end users.

300 Director to make games with EA

In a move similar to the deal between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts, Zack Snyder has announced a three game deal with EA which will see the director of 300 and Watchmen teaming up to work on three new videogame IPs.

Previously, EA had announced a similar arrangement with Steven Spielberg which has so far resulted in the release of the hugely enjoyable Boom Blox, as well as two other unannounced titles.

300 Director to make games with EA

In a move similar to the deal between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts, Zack Snyder has announced a three game deal with EA which will see the director of 300 and Watchmen teaming up to work on three new videogame IPs.

Previously, EA had announced a similar arrangement with Steven Spielberg which has so far resulted in the release of the hugely enjoyable Boom Blox, as well as two other unannounced titles.

Japan to get 1Gb/s in the home

If you didn't already suffer from broadband envy, prepare to turn green: homes in Japan are set to get a 1Gb/s connection to the 'net.

According to a Japan Today article quoted by Slashdot user ashitaka, Japanese telecoms firm KDDI is set to launch a fibre broadband service aimed at single-family dwellings which will offer a staggering 1Gb/s symmetric connection.

Unlike ADSL, which is asymmetric in that it offers a far lower upstream speed than it does downstream, the service from KDDI will offer a full 1Gb/s in both directions – perfect for people planning on uploading large quantities of data. There's no mention there of a monthly usage cap, either: that said, nor is there any mention of contention ratio.