IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

MS: "Windows still a first-class gaming platform"

Although Microsoft has made some rather substantial cut-backs in their gaming divisions, terminating the entire Flight Simulator studio in the process, the company says that it still believes that Windows is a first-class gaming platform.

The comments come at the same time as Microsoft appoints a new general manager for the controversial Games for Windows Live division which has been met with scorn from many gamers. Chris Early is apparently being replaced with Ron Pessner, who is being taken from Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, according to Kotaku.

Nvidia appoints new Chief Scientist

Nvidia has announced that Professor William Dally has been appointed the company's new Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at the Santa Clara-based graphics juggernaught.

Prof. Dally's previous role was Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Standford University and will replace David Kirk who now becomes an Nvidia Fellow.

"Bill is legendary in the computer industry. He has made fundamental contributions, from parallel computing architectures to interconnects to low power designs to super fast I/Os,

Nvidia appoints new Chief Scientist

Nvidia has announced that Professor William Dally has been appointed the company's new Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at the Santa Clara-based graphics juggernaught.

Prof. Dally's previous role was Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Standford University and will replace David Kirk who now becomes an Nvidia Fellow.

"Bill is legendary in the computer industry. He has made fundamental contributions, from parallel computing architectures to interconnects to low power designs to super fast I/Os,

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

Nvidia appoints new Chief Scientist

Nvidia has announced that Professor William Dally has been appointed the company's new Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at the Santa Clara-based graphics juggernaught.

Prof. Dally's previous role was Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Standford University and will replace David Kirk who now becomes an Nvidia Fellow.

"Bill is legendary in the computer industry. He has made fundamental contributions, from parallel computing architectures to interconnects to low power designs to super fast I/Os,

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

Nvidia appoints new Chief Scientist

Nvidia has announced that Professor William Dally has been appointed the company's new Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at the Santa Clara-based graphics juggernaught.

Prof. Dally's previous role was Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Standford University and will replace David Kirk who now becomes an Nvidia Fellow.

"Bill is legendary in the computer industry. He has made fundamental contributions, from parallel computing architectures to interconnects to low power designs to super fast I/Os,

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

Nvidia appoints new Chief Scientist

Nvidia has announced that Professor William Dally has been appointed the company's new Chief Scientist and Vice President of Research at the Santa Clara-based graphics juggernaught.

Prof. Dally's previous role was Chairman of the Computer Science Department at Standford University and will replace David Kirk who now becomes an Nvidia Fellow.

"Bill is legendary in the computer industry. He has made fundamental contributions, from parallel computing architectures to interconnects to low power designs to super fast I/Os,

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

IE trails browser benchmarks

Vindication for anyone who ever tried to convince friends and family to switch away from Internet Explorer came this week, courtesy of a series of benchmarks showing the latest version of the browser up as an extremely poor performer.

ZDNet's Alex Serpo and Chris Duckett carried out a series of benchmarks on the alpha and beta releases of the next generation of web browser, and the graph they've build makes interesting reading.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

Mozilla offers grant to develop Ogg

Open standards for media on the web got a shot in the arm this week with the news that the Mozilla Foundation – the group behind the popular Firefox web browser – has given $100,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation to fund further development in the Ogg Theora and Vorbis technologies.

Reported over on Ars Technica yesterday, the grant will be used to fund development in the Ogg container format and the two main media codecs used therein: the Theora video codec and the Vorbis audio codec.

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

The Twitt-a-watt

If you've always thought that the one thing missing from your Twitter feed was the ability to follow your house's electrical systems, an answer may be at hand thanks to a neat hack involving XBee radio chips and cheap power monitors.

Make Magazine's entry for the Core77 & Greener Gadgets Design Competition – via Hack a Day – the Tweet-a-watt is based on a design by Phillip Torrone and Limor Fried, in which the pair created a modified Kill-a-watt power monitoring system which allows for wireless communication back to a central computer.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

Mozilla offers grant to develop Ogg

Open standards for media on the web got a shot in the arm this week with the news that the Mozilla Foundation – the group behind the popular Firefox web browser – has given $100,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation to fund further development in the Ogg Theora and Vorbis technologies.

Reported over on Ars Technica yesterday, the grant will be used to fund development in the Ogg container format and the two main media codecs used therein: the Theora video codec and the Vorbis audio codec.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

Mozilla offers grant to develop Ogg

Open standards for media on the web got a shot in the arm this week with the news that the Mozilla Foundation – the group behind the popular Firefox web browser – has given $100,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation to fund further development in the Ogg Theora and Vorbis technologies.

Reported over on Ars Technica yesterday, the grant will be used to fund development in the Ogg container format and the two main media codecs used therein: the Theora video codec and the Vorbis audio codec.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

UK Government will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has said that he will not advise the government to force ISPs to pursue file-sharers despite mounting pressure from the music and games industry to crack down on piracy.

While other countries like France have teamed with ISPs and industry groups to crack down on file-sharers and pirates, Mr Lammy believes that using similar legislation in the UK would be "too complex", the BBC reports today.

Gears of War PC certificate expires

If you’ve tried to play a copy of Gears of War PC today then you’ve probably noticed that something isn’t quite right – namely that the game doesn’t work.

The reason for this is apparently a certificate problem caused by the ever-popular Games for Windows Live service.

Players who attempted to start the game recently found themselves with a error which reads that "This certificate has expired or is not yet valid

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

UK Government will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has said that he will not advise the government to force ISPs to pursue file-sharers despite mounting pressure from the music and games industry to crack down on piracy.

While other countries like France have teamed with ISPs and industry groups to crack down on file-sharers and pirates, Mr Lammy believes that using similar legislation in the UK would be "too complex", the BBC reports today.

UK Government will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has said that he will not advise the government to force ISPs to pursue file-sharers despite mounting pressure from the music and games industry to crack down on piracy.

While other countries like France have teamed with ISPs and industry groups to crack down on file-sharers and pirates, Mr Lammy believes that using similar legislation in the UK would be "too complex", the BBC reports today.

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

MS: "Windows still a first-class gaming platform"

Although Microsoft has made some rather substantial cut-backs in their gaming divisions, terminating the entire Flight Simulator studio in the process, the company says that it still believes that Windows is a first-class gaming platform.

The comments come at the same time as Microsoft appoints a new general manager for the controversial Games for Windows Live division which has been met with scorn from many gamers. Chris Early is apparently being replaced with Ron Pessner, who is being taken from Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, according to Kotaku.

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

Empire: Total War release dated

Sega and Creative Assembly have now finally announced a definite release date for the latest game in the Total War series - Empire: Total War.

According to Sega, the strategy epic will be available to buy in American and Canadian stores on March 3rd, with a Steam release for the rest of the world on the main day. The game will then become available in stores across the rest of the globe, as well as on Steam for US users, a day later.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

Take-Two hates second-hand sales

Take-Two has said that it is getting more and more frustrated by second hand sales in stores like GameStop and GameStation, according to GI.biz.

As such, the publisher said, it is increasingly moving towards online authentication systems to try and combat second-hand sales, as well as releasing DLC that encourages players to keep hold of their games.

Second-hand sales have long been a contentious issue for the industry as although they push up sales figures and profits for the stores, the publishers and developers accrue no extra profit from them.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

Boom Blox 2 announced

Say what you will about Electronic Arts and the Nintendo Wii - Boom Blox is still one of our favourite games on the console and its appeal has proved both accessible and long-lived if you ask us.

We consider it great news then that Steven Spielberg has announced that he'll be teaming up with Electronic Arts again to make a sequel to the game, this time with more of a multiplayer twist; Boom Blox Bash Party.

UK Government will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has said that he will not advise the government to force ISPs to pursue file-sharers despite mounting pressure from the music and games industry to crack down on piracy.

While other countries like France have teamed with ISPs and industry groups to crack down on file-sharers and pirates, Mr Lammy believes that using similar legislation in the UK would be "too complex", the BBC reports today.

UK Government will not legislate on piracy

The UK's Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy has said that he will not advise the government to force ISPs to pursue file-sharers despite mounting pressure from the music and games industry to crack down on piracy.

While other countries like France have teamed with ISPs and industry groups to crack down on file-sharers and pirates, Mr Lammy believes that using similar legislation in the UK would be "too complex", the BBC reports today.

Empire: Total War release dated

Sega and Creative Assembly have now finally announced a definite release date for the latest game in the Total War series - Empire: Total War.

According to Sega, the strategy epic will be available to buy in American and Canadian stores on March 3rd, with a Steam release for the rest of the world on the main day. The game will then become available in stores across the rest of the globe, as well as on Steam for US users, a day later.

Motorola ditching Windows Mobile?

Rumour has it that Motorola is ditching the Windows Mobile platform for its smartphone handsets in favour of Google's new Linux-based Android.

As reported over on BetaNews, the company has announced to the State of Florida that it is to shut down its Windows Mobile development centre in Plantation, Florida – with 77 jobs for the chop as a result, added on to the 4,000 jobs the company has already 'restructured' this month.

Motorola ditching Windows Mobile?

Rumour has it that Motorola is ditching the Windows Mobile platform for its smartphone handsets in favour of Google's new Linux-based Android.

As reported over on BetaNews, the company has announced to the State of Florida that it is to shut down its Windows Mobile development centre in Plantation, Florida – with 77 jobs for the chop as a result, added on to the 4,000 jobs the company has already 'restructured' this month.

Motorola ditching Windows Mobile?

Rumour has it that Motorola is ditching the Windows Mobile platform for its smartphone handsets in favour of Google's new Linux-based Android.

As reported over on BetaNews, the company has announced to the State of Florida that it is to shut down its Windows Mobile development centre in Plantation, Florida – with 77 jobs for the chop as a result, added on to the 4,000 jobs the company has already 'restructured' this month.

Motorola ditching Windows Mobile?

Rumour has it that Motorola is ditching the Windows Mobile platform for its smartphone handsets in favour of Google's new Linux-based Android.

As reported over on BetaNews, the company has announced to the State of Florida that it is to shut down its Windows Mobile development centre in Plantation, Florida – with 77 jobs for the chop as a result, added on to the 4,000 jobs the company has already 'restructured' this month.

Postal 2 displayed in Nobel Museum

Controversial developer Running with Scissors has announced that Postal 2 is to be included in a new art exhibit at the Nobel Museum in Sweden that will focus on free speech.

According to MTV the gory and totally-NSFW game will be included in an exhibit about free speech titled How Free is Free?

Postal 2 attracted much attention when it was first released, giving players the chance to stalk and torture passers-by, as well as urinate on enemies (or allies). The game was also heavily negative in it's portrayal of Muslims and was full of swearing and exorbitant gore.

Postal 2 displayed in Nobel Museum

Controversial developer Running with Scissors has announced that Postal 2 is to be included in a new art exhibit at the Nobel Museum in Sweden that will focus on free speech.

According to MTV the gory and totally-NSFW game will be included in an exhibit about free speech titled How Free is Free?

Postal 2 attracted much attention when it was first released, giving players the chance to stalk and torture passers-by, as well as urinate on enemies (or allies). The game was also heavily negative in it's portrayal of Muslims and was full of swearing and exorbitant gore.

Games outsold DVD and Blu-ray last year

According to sales figures from Media Control GfK International, the video games industry managed to outsell both DVD and Blu-ray combined last year thanks to a huge growth in the format.

The sales figures show that while DVD and Blu-ray sales dropped by six percent last year, videogames grew by a staggering 20 percent and grew a lead over movie formats of more than £1.5 billion GBP.

According to the analysts at Media Control a huge amount of this growth comes down to the popularity of the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, says GI.biz.

Midway making more Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon has confirmed that he is already working with Midway on a new game in the long-running Mortal Kombat series, despite the critical financial situation of the publisher.

Midway ran into financial trouble a while back, culminating in an announcement last year that the publisher lost $100 million USD in 2007, forcing the company to close studios and cancel numerous games. Midway even faced being de-listed on the New York Stock Exchange if the situation didn't improve.

AMD to cut CPU production

If you're hoping that your next upgrade is going to involve an AMD processor, you might have a fight on your hands – the company is going to aggressively reduce the number of chips in the channel.

According to an article over on ExtremeTech, the company is responding to slowing customer demand by massively reducing production for a while – and then resuming production below demand, to ensure that it avoids the trap of excess inventory in these troubled financial times.

AMD sells hand-held division

With AMD following Intel's lead in cutting prices for mainstream quad-core processors, the company has to find a way to make up the shortfall – and it's the hand-held graphics division which is going to have to pay.

According to Ars Technica's Jon Stokes, chip maker AMD is looking to boost its bottom line by ridding itself of some of the leftovers from its acquisition of ATI – specifically, the hand-held graphics division.

Brain Training doesn't help learning

According to a new piece of research conducted by scientists from the University of Rennes, France, Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? game offers no significant advantages over paper-based learning techniques and can actually harm memory functions.

The study was done by splitting a sample of ten year-old children of similar ability into four groups and evaluating their maths and memory performance through a series of tests. The first two groups did a seven-week course of learning on

Ubisoft confirms seven new games this year

Ubisoft has confirmed seven new releases for the 2009/1010 fiscal year, which starts in April. The new releases include some previously detailed, some rumoured and some newly announced titles for the coming year - all of which will be released by next April.

The first and probably biggest game on the list is the sequel to Jade Raymond's Assassin's Creed that was released in 2007 and then later re-released on PC as Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut

Ubisoft confirms seven new games this year

Ubisoft has confirmed seven new releases for the 2009/1010 fiscal year, which starts in April. The new releases include some previously detailed, some rumoured and some newly announced titles for the coming year - all of which will be released by next April.

The first and probably biggest game on the list is the sequel to Jade Raymond's Assassin's Creed that was released in 2007 and then later re-released on PC as Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut

America's Army 3 announced

The US Army has today announced that there will be a third game released in the America's Army series of military shooters and that the game will be released later this year.

The game, which is inventively dubbed America's Army 3, will be available as a PC exclusive title and will be free to download and play, just like the other games in the series.

Really more of a military simulation than a game, the new game will continue to focus on teaching players about real-life military strategies and what role the US Army fulfils in the real world. Players will have to take part in training missions and communicate with each other as a team if they want to stand any chance of success.

Microsoft announces job cuts

The credit crunch continues to hit some big names in the technology sector, with Microsoft announcing a drop in earnings bad enough to prompt 5,000 job losses.

As reported by CNN Money yesterday, Microsoft announced its earnings report for its second financial quarter ahead of schedule – and the news wasn't good. Earnings per share were down at 47 cents, compared to 50 cents last year – analysts were hoping for at least 49 cents even in the current financial climates.

Ubisoft confirms seven new games this year

Ubisoft has confirmed seven new releases for the 2009/1010 fiscal year, which starts in April. The new releases include some previously detailed, some rumoured and some newly announced titles for the coming year - all of which will be released by next April.

The first and probably biggest game on the list is the sequel to Jade Raymond's Assassin's Creed that was released in 2007 and then later re-released on PC as Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut

Belkin in "astroturfing" furore

Electronics manufacturer Belkin has found itself at the centre of a public relations furore with the news that the company has been hiring people to write false 5-star reviews of its products on shopping websites.

First spotted by The Daily Background – via Engadget – the evidence comes in the form of a posting on Amazon's Mechanical Turk site – which offers "artificial artificial intelligence," allowing companies to pay small sums of money to hire individuals to perform mundane or repetitive tasks – from Belkin's Mike Bayard asking for people to "

America's Army 3 announced

The US Army has today announced that there will be a third game released in the America's Army series of military shooters and that the game will be released later this year.

The game, which is inventively dubbed America's Army 3, will be available as a PC exclusive title and will be free to download and play, just like the other games in the series.

Really more of a military simulation than a game, the new game will continue to focus on teaching players about real-life military strategies and what role the US Army fulfils in the real world. Players will have to take part in training missions and communicate with each other as a team if they want to stand any chance of success.

America's Army 3 announced

The US Army has today announced that there will be a third game released in the America's Army series of military shooters and that the game will be released later this year.

The game, which is inventively dubbed America's Army 3, will be available as a PC exclusive title and will be free to download and play, just like the other games in the series.

Really more of a military simulation than a game, the new game will continue to focus on teaching players about real-life military strategies and what role the US Army fulfils in the real world. Players will have to take part in training missions and communicate with each other as a team if they want to stand any chance of success.

Microsoft announces job cuts

The credit crunch continues to hit some big names in the technology sector, with Microsoft announcing a drop in earnings bad enough to prompt 5,000 job losses.

As reported by CNN Money yesterday, Microsoft announced its earnings report for its second financial quarter ahead of schedule – and the news wasn't good. Earnings per share were down at 47 cents, compared to 50 cents last year – analysts were hoping for at least 49 cents even in the current financial climates.

Belkin in "astroturfing" furore

Electronics manufacturer Belkin has found itself at the centre of a public relations furore with the news that the company has been hiring people to write false 5-star reviews of its products on shopping websites.

First spotted by The Daily Background – via Engadget – the evidence comes in the form of a posting on Amazon's Mechanical Turk site – which offers "artificial artificial intelligence," allowing companies to pay small sums of money to hire individuals to perform mundane or repetitive tasks – from Belkin's Mike Bayard asking for people to "

Belkin in "astroturfing" furore

Electronics manufacturer Belkin has found itself at the centre of a public relations furore with the news that the company has been hiring people to write false 5-star reviews of its products on shopping websites.

First spotted by The Daily Background – via Engadget – the evidence comes in the form of a posting on Amazon's Mechanical Turk site – which offers "artificial artificial intelligence," allowing companies to pay small sums of money to hire individuals to perform mundane or repetitive tasks – from Belkin's Mike Bayard asking for people to "

World of Goo soundtrack released

There's good new for all music-lovers and World of Goo fans today, who'll be pleased to know that indie development outfit 2D Boy has decided to release the entire soundtrack for World of Goo - and it's totally free.

The soundtrack to the game, which is mostly full of little pieces of music that fit well with the small, ever-so-twee levels, was written and composed solely by game designer Kyle Gabler. As RPS point out, he really is a sickeningly talented man.

Encyclopaedia Brittanica goes wiki

While Wikipedia might come under criticism for the quality and impartiality of some of its user-generated articles, it looks like the big boys have noted its success with interest – and the Encyclopaedia Britannica fancies a bit of that for itself.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald – via CNet - Encyclopaedia Britannica's president, Jorge Cauz, let slip that the web-based edition of the popular information source would be introducing the ability for users to edit, amend, and add to existing entries.

Sony: Cuts won't affect game releases

Sony has confirmed that the recently announced cost-cutting measures being enforced across the company, including substantial lay-offs, will not affect Sony's internal games development teams.

Instead, the electronics division will be the worst hit of all the Sony departments, facing the closing of a whole plant and a 30 percent reduction in the total number of staff. Ouch.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves has told GamesIndustry.biz that the games division however will be mostly safe from similar cuts and that Sony is still dedicated to providing good games for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users. An internal memo given out by Reeves also confirms this, despite rumours to the contrary.

Acer announces 10-inch Aspire One

Acer has this morning announced an updated version of its hugely popular Aspire One netbook which comes complete with a 10-inch screen, Windows XP and integrated Bluetooth.

Weighing in at 1.18kg, the new Aspire One should extend Acer's penetration into the netbook market, as it has rapidly moved on from smaller, sub 10-inch form factors adopted by earlier netbooks like the original Aspire One.

It combines a typical 10-inch LED-backlit LCD panel with a 1,024 x 600 native resolution and most of the remaining specifications will be familiar to anyone who has followed the netbook market over the past twelve months.

Remembering the '1984' Super Bowl Mac ad

The fact that the Los Angeles Raiders humiliated the Washington Redskins in a 38-to-9 victory is a mere afterthought. Super Bowl XVIII's lasting legacy has been a single advertisement sandwiched somewhere in the third quarter: Apple Computer's iconic "1984" commercial.

It began, in a clear nod to George Orwell's novel of the same name, with tense strains of music, the image of figures marching through a tube across a dank industrial complex, and the start of a bizarre monologue: "Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives."

The Macintosh at 50

Over the past 25 years, the ideas behind the original Macintosh have become industry standard. Any 2009 computer user could sit down at an original Macintosh and use it to write and format a letter; the same can't be said of a PC from 1984.

A:\> is no longer an interface, it's an emoticon. Someone grinning in a clown hat. Meanwhile, the Mac ideals of simplicity, elegance, intuition and clarity have won the day.

But it isn't all purity of vision today's Macs have absorbed things such as command lines, feature bloat and even run a version of Unix under the hood. The hardware has become functionally identical to that of PCs. What the Mac at 50 will look like if the idea of individual computers is even still current will be what most computers will look like. We asked around the office and the internet to find out what people thought.

Security market soars after Mumbai attacks

INDIA--India's IT sector has stepped up surveillance measures and introduced integrated security products as safety concerns rise across the country.

Earlier this month, Nasscom (India's trade body and chamber of commerce for the IT-business process outsourcing industry) sent out invites for the India Leadership Forum 2009, to be held in Mumbai in February. A note at the end of the invite said: "At Nasscom, we understand the security concerns that you might have following the unfortunate incident at Mumbai. In all our conferences, we ensure that the security measures are stringent and foolproof to the best of our ability."

New Jobs health hoax targets Wired

It is a hoax, Wired reported Thursday - an article that looks like a story on Wired.com and that claims Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a heart attack.

"A widely-circulated URL which points to an image that purports to be a wired.com story about Steve Jobs health is a hack job," Wired.com said. "We won't provide the URL here but the Twitterverse quickly surmised that the item was not correct." It appears to have first been reported by Mashable.

Online customer service could be more important than offline

Commentary--While many companies bend over backwards to set up systems that provide exemplary service to their customers in the real world, they are often at a loss as to how to manage customer relationships in an online world.

Seagate admits firmware foul-up

After numerous reports from end users have been popping up on the web, Seagate has admitted that an error in the firmware supplied with certain models of hard disk is leading to premature failure and loss of data.

According to a thread started on Seagate's support forum back in December, users of Seagate's popular Barracuda 7200.11 drives have been experiencing a far higher than average failure rate – so high, in fact, that users have dubbed the thread the "

Intel slashes quad-core pricing

If you're an Intel fan, there's good news in the pipeline: the chip manufacturer has announced massive price cuts for the bulk of their quad-core product lines.

According to BetaNews, the manufacturer is cutting prices on quad-core 'mainstream' chips by up to forty percent in response to the launch of the Phenom II X4 range from rival AMD. In order to compete with the Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHz processor – which is sold in batches of 1,000 for $275 – Intel is slashing the cost of its 3.0GHz Core 2 Quad Q9650 from $530 to $316.

The DIY calculator wristwatch

If you've ever wanted the ultimate in geeky wristwear accessories, you'll want to check out the first home-made scientific calculator wristwatch.

Created by David Jones to replace a broken Casio CFX-400 calculator watch – and featured over on Hack a Day – the µWatch is just about the nerdiest thing you'll ever wear on your wrist.

Featuring both reverse Polish notation and algebraic modes, the watch was designed and built by Jones when the wrist band support on his aging Casio watch broke – and he was unable to find a product on the market that would match it for usability.

MS: "Sony is out of touch"

The war of the words continues evermore it seems, with Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg calling out Sony's Kaz Hirai on his comments that the PlayStation 3 is the best and accusing Sony of being out of touch with the modern market.

Sony spokesperson Kaz Hirai yesterday proclaimed that Sony's PlayStation 3 made it the clear, official industry leader in console development - despite the fact that Nintendo is leading in sales figures. Nintendo doesn't count, argued Hirai, who said that the Wii could only play games, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 could do so much more. Sony made the claim despite the fact that even using that definition the Xbox 360 has still outsold the PlayStation 3.

ModDB: Mod of The Year voting begins

We're now getting well and truly stuck into 2009, with 2008 a distant and fading memory. Christmas is a dimly remembered gluttony and New Year has been wiped from our minds entirely - but there's still one thing to be done before 2008 can truly close and that's to declare the best PC Mods of the year.

ModDB has today announced it'sTop 100 Mods of 2008. The list is a mix of reader-voted and hand-picked choices, which is readying to enter a second round of voting before a winner is selected and prizes - which include free games, magazines and engine licenses - are awarded.

GameStop not selling Dawn of War 2 anymore

According to recent reports on Kotaku, the North American video game store chain GameStop (which is currently expanding into the UK) is now no longer selling or allowing pre-orders for THQ's upcoming Warhammer RTS, Dawn of War 2.

GameStop was apparently still taking pre-orders for the game back on January 15th, even offering an exclusive 'Chapter Command Wargear Set' as an unlockable item to those who pre-ordered through them. Now though, the game has been completely removed from both the online and retail stores.

No Final Fantasy XIII in Europe, US this year

Square Enix's president, Yoichi Wada, has confirmed that the upcoming Japanese RPG Final Fantasy XIII won't be available in the US or Europe until 2010 in a comment to Reuters, via The Guardian.

The PlayStation 3 RPG will still be launching in Japan by the end of the year however, according to Wada.

More depressingly, Square Enix will not even begin working on the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII

Apple updates MacBook spec

If you're a fan of Apple's polycarbonate MacBook systems you'll be pleased to hear that the little white marvel has received a timely hardware refresh, bringing the device closer in specification to its younger brother.

The system, which remains at its US retail price of $999 after the update, was spotted with its new specification by Engadget – despite no official word from Apple itself.

So, what's changed? The 2.10GHz Core Duo processor has been swapped out for the better performing 2GHz Core 2 Duo at a higher bus speed, the RAM has been doubled to 2GB of DDR2, and the onboard Bluetooth module has been upgraded to version 2.1 of the specification.

Tackling contamination

A new analysis method can detect the kidney-damaging chemical melamine, which was used to contaminate infant formula in China last September, at very low levels within a matter of seconds.

A research team at Purdue University created the analysis method to detect levels of melamine in the low parts-per-billion in milk and milk powder in about 25 seconds.

An estimated 50,000 Chinese children fell ill and several died after drinking the melamine-contaminated formula.

Safer delivery

Traditional forceps used to assist with the delivery of babies have been linked to death and long-term damage. Hence, many mothers-to-be are opting for often unnecessary forms of assisted childbirth, such as Caesarean sections.

Now, however, it is hoped that the development of a new design of forceps will restore confidence and transform how instrumental deliveries are perceived.

The company behind the new Safeceps product is PRO Medical Innovations (PMI), a spin-out venture of the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC).

Speedy diagnosis

Researchers at Cardiff University's School of Medicine and the Gray Cancer Institute Oxford have developed a novelsystem that has the potential to speed-up disease diagnosis and drug screening.

And now, Cancer Research Technology Limited and the Technology Partnership plan to develop the so-called CyMapsystem further after signing a technology transfer agreement with Cardiff University.

CyMap is one of the inventions emerging from the Optical Biochips Consortium led by the university’s professor of cancer biology, Prof Paul Smith.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Display breakthrough

Dr Tim Wilkinson from Cambridge University's Photonics Research Group has made an exciting breakthrough. He has combined liquid crystals with vertically grown carbon nanotubes to create a reconfigurable three-dimensional liquid crystal device.

This offers a completely new way to control molecules in liquid crystals, since it allows the crystals to move in a variety of directions to create optical components such as lenslet arrays.

This technology is still in the early phase of development, but recent trials indicate that potential applications exist in adaptive optical systems such as the wavefront sensors used in optometry, digital video cameras, optical diffusers and emerging head-up display devices.

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Google to close offices, ditch services

The spending slowdown is starting to affect even the traditional industry stalwarts, with giant Google announcing cutbacks and service changes in order to curb spending.

In a series of announcements from each individual Google department – collated and listed by BetaNews yesterday – the company announced a series of job losses and office closures worldwide, alongside changes to services the company current offers.

Valve: "Pirates are under-served customers"

Valve has taken to discussing the piracy problem lately, commenting that computer game pirates are really just "under-served customers" who turn to pirating games because they are tired of waiting for regional releases of titles.

Valve's business developer Jason Holtman cited the Russian market as the main example and said that launching a game in all territories at the same time could easily convert undiscovered customers.

Splash Damage: Metacritic is a strain on devs

Splash Damage boss Paul Wedgwood has spoken out on what he deems a ridiculous arrangement between developers and publishers where pressure is put on developers to achieve certain Metacritic review scores in exchange for bonuses and better royalty agreements.

The Quake Wars developer said that the entire process was flawed and that journalists should abandon percentile scoring systems and instead use 'out of ten' scores. Otherwise, Wedgwood reckons, journalists are under pressure to justify such precise scores, which can lead to overly negative reviews.

Study: Violence doesn't change game appeal

A new study into violence in computer games has found that violent gameplay does not make games more appealing to players, despite the popular consensus.

The study was published on Friday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (Via Kotaku) and told how researchers polled more than 2,500 gamers before conducting four separate tests on a sample of 300.

The test involved given groups two different Half-Life 2

Google to close offices, ditch services

The spending slowdown is starting to affect even the traditional industry stalwarts, with giant Google announcing cutbacks and service changes in order to curb spending.

In a series of announcements from each individual Google department – collated and listed by BetaNews yesterday – the company announced a series of job losses and office closures worldwide, alongside changes to services the company current offers.

Google to close offices, ditch services

The spending slowdown is starting to affect even the traditional industry stalwarts, with giant Google announcing cutbacks and service changes in order to curb spending.

In a series of announcements from each individual Google department – collated and listed by BetaNews yesterday – the company announced a series of job losses and office closures worldwide, alongside changes to services the company current offers.

Google to close offices, ditch services

The spending slowdown is starting to affect even the traditional industry stalwarts, with giant Google announcing cutbacks and service changes in order to curb spending.

In a series of announcements from each individual Google department – collated and listed by BetaNews yesterday – the company announced a series of job losses and office closures worldwide, alongside changes to services the company current offers.

Google to close offices, ditch services

The spending slowdown is starting to affect even the traditional industry stalwarts, with giant Google announcing cutbacks and service changes in order to curb spending.

In a series of announcements from each individual Google department – collated and listed by BetaNews yesterday – the company announced a series of job losses and office closures worldwide, alongside changes to services the company current offers.

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

EA: "We want to make quality games"

EA's CEO John Riccitiello has re-iterated that he is trying to lead the company away from it's reputation of making cheap and cheerful cash-ins and repetitive sports games and more towards innovative, quality titles.

That said, he does admit that the company need to make a profit too - but he doesn't believe there needs to be a distinction between profit and quality.

"Some of my greatest beliefs regarding gaming are that our art form is today - or certainly has the potential - to be recognised as the peer of the best of Hollywood movies. I want to help others see that.

Logitech's income drops 70 percent

More bad news for anyone employed in the tech sector, with peripherals manufacturer Logitech announcing a whopping 70 percent drop in net income – and a series of job cuts to bring things back in line.

According to figures quoted by BetaNews yesterday, the company is facing a massive slump in income for the last financial quarter – not helped by some acquisition initiated before the scale of the global economic slowdown was apparent.

AMD also cuts processor prices

Within hours of Intel cutting its processor prices, AMD has responded by trimming the prices for its new 45nm Phenom II CPUs.

Although the prices haven't affected AMD's official price list, Novatech and Newegg have reduced the price of both the 940 and 920 processors.

In the UK, the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition was selling for around £220 including VAT and Novatech is now selling a boxed retail Phenom II X4 940 for under £190. Meanwhile, the 920 was selling for about £190 and Novatech now has it down at £160.

Microsoft launches 'tagging' app

If you've always wished there was an easy way to be advertised to – sorry, I mean access web-based information from your print media – while you're out and about, Microsoft may have the answer for you.

As demonstrated over on DownloadSquad, the company is launching a beta of a 2D barcoding application which uses multicoloured triangles to pack far more information than is possible with the single-colour 1D traditional approach.

Game to start rental service

Game, one of the major dedicated games retail shops in the UK and Europe, has announced that it is to launch a new rental service for customers who don't want to buy games outright.

Game currently deals mainly in the sales of retail and pre-owned games, but this new offer is to be borne of a new partnership with SwapGame and will adopt a LoveFilm-esque business model according to MCV.

What that means then is that players pay a monthly fee and can rent as many games as they want a month, but can only have two games at a time. You can keep the games for as long as you want, with no late fees and so on.

Thermacore to develop heatsinks for DARPA

If you've always thought that the thing missing from top-end consumer computing devices was military technology, your dreams might just be coming true courtesy of Thermacore and DARPA.

According to ExtremeTech, Thermacore – a manufacturer of heatsinks and other chip cooling devices – has been given a $9.5 million contract due to run through to 2013 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to improve air-based cooling systems in military equipment.

Batman game behind Pandemic closure

Pandemic's Brisbane studio has confirmed that it has been 'set free' by owner Electronic Arts and that it will continue to operate separately from the mega-publisher. What's more though, the developers have detailed exactly why they were shut down.

Shut down may be a bit of a strong term of course, apparently EA has allowed the team to keep all the resources they currently have - machines, premises, software - but has told them that they will need to find a new publisher in the future.

Steve Jobs takes medical leave from Apple

Apple has released a statement which reveals that company CEO Steve Jobs will be taking an extended leave of absence from the company for health reasons.

Jobs has frequently been the subject of health-related rumours ever since he underwent surgery to remove a pancreatic tumour in 2004. While Jobs' tumour was a less aggressive type than in many forms of pancreatic cancer, the Apple CEO has continued to be hounded by gossip.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Steve Jobs takes medical leave from Apple

Apple has released a statement which reveals that company CEO Steve Jobs will be taking an extended leave of absence from the company for health reasons.

Jobs has frequently been the subject of health-related rumours ever since he underwent surgery to remove a pancreatic tumour in 2004. While Jobs' tumour was a less aggressive type than in many forms of pancreatic cancer, the Apple CEO has continued to be hounded by gossip.

Nvidia warns of 50 percent revenue dip

More bad news from the financially struggling tech sector was revealed this week with Nvidia announcing that it is to slash its fourth quarter revenue figures by up to fifty percent.

Nvidia says it is blaming a massive dip in customer demand for its high-end graphics and system chipset hardware for a sudden drop in revenue.

In a statement, the company said that "total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 is now expected to decline forty percent to fifty percent sequentially as a result of further weaknesses in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain.

Nvidia warns of 50 percent revenue dip

More bad news from the financially struggling tech sector was revealed this week with Nvidia announcing that it is to slash its fourth quarter revenue figures by up to fifty percent.

Nvidia says it is blaming a massive dip in customer demand for its high-end graphics and system chipset hardware for a sudden drop in revenue.

In a statement, the company said that "total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 is now expected to decline forty percent to fifty percent sequentially as a result of further weaknesses in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain.

Steve Jobs takes medical leave from Apple

Apple has released a statement which reveals that company CEO Steve Jobs will be taking an extended leave of absence from the company for health reasons.

Jobs has frequently been the subject of health-related rumours ever since he underwent surgery to remove a pancreatic tumour in 2004. While Jobs' tumour was a less aggressive type than in many forms of pancreatic cancer, the Apple CEO has continued to be hounded by gossip.

Nvidia warns of 50 percent revenue dip

More bad news from the financially struggling tech sector was revealed this week with Nvidia announcing that it is to slash its fourth quarter revenue figures by up to fifty percent.

Nvidia says it is blaming a massive dip in customer demand for its high-end graphics and system chipset hardware for a sudden drop in revenue.

In a statement, the company said that "total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 is now expected to decline forty percent to fifty percent sequentially as a result of further weaknesses in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain.

Infinitiy Ward: Beware fake COD5 beta invites

Infinity Ward is advising gamers to ignore any emails they receive which claim to be beta invites for Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2 as the beta

According to Infinity Ward's Community Manager Robert Bowling a new phishing scam has been set up under the guise and all beta invite are illegitimate and unofficial.

The emails are being sent out from Cod5beta@infinityward.com and are a word for word copy of the beta invites sent out for

Mirror's Edge DLC dated, priced

Electronic Arts has announced the release date and price for the Mirror's Edge downloadable content, confirming that the content will be available on the PC platform as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The downloadable pack was formally announced back before Christmas and will consist solely of new Time Trial and Race maps. There'll be seven of the former, nine of the latter included in the pack.

If you're looking forward to more skyscraper-climbing and cloud-touching brilliance though then you may have to check your expectations at the door; EA has shown that the new levels will be heavily stylised, abstract structures floating in space. The idea is to break away from any limitations that a conventional city layout might impose on ideal level design. You can check out a trailer for the levels at the official

Nvidia warns of 50 percent revenue dip

More bad news from the financially struggling tech sector was revealed this week with Nvidia announcing that it is to slash its fourth quarter revenue figures by up to fifty percent.

Nvidia says it is blaming a massive dip in customer demand for its high-end graphics and system chipset hardware for a sudden drop in revenue.

In a statement, the company said that "total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 is now expected to decline forty percent to fifty percent sequentially as a result of further weaknesses in end-user demand and inventory reductions by Nvidia's channel partners in the global PC supply chain.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Infinitiy Ward: Beware fake COD5 beta invites

Infinity Ward is advising gamers to ignore any emails they receive which claim to be beta invites for Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2 as the beta

According to Infinity Ward's Community Manager Robert Bowling a new phishing scam has been set up under the guise and all beta invite are illegitimate and unofficial.

The emails are being sent out from Cod5beta@infinityward.com and are a word for word copy of the beta invites sent out for

Mirror's Edge DLC dated, priced

Electronic Arts has announced the release date and price for the Mirror's Edge downloadable content, confirming that the content will be available on the PC platform as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The downloadable pack was formally announced back before Christmas and will consist solely of new Time Trial and Race maps. There'll be seven of the former, nine of the latter included in the pack.

If you're looking forward to more skyscraper-climbing and cloud-touching brilliance though then you may have to check your expectations at the door; EA has shown that the new levels will be heavily stylised, abstract structures floating in space. The idea is to break away from any limitations that a conventional city layout might impose on ideal level design. You can check out a trailer for the levels at the official

Infinitiy Ward: Beware fake COD5 beta invites

Infinity Ward is advising gamers to ignore any emails they receive which claim to be beta invites for Call of Duty 5: Modern Warfare 2 as the beta

According to Infinity Ward's Community Manager Robert Bowling a new phishing scam has been set up under the guise and all beta invite are illegitimate and unofficial.

The emails are being sent out from Cod5beta@infinityward.com and are a word for word copy of the beta invites sent out for

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Eidos unveils new Mini Ninjas game

Eidos has announced a new game and IP today, dubbed Mini Ninjas, which is due for a multiplatform release in Q3 this year. The game is coming to PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and DS. Sorry, PSP.

Mini NInjas is to be the start of a new franchise for Eidos and will be developed by IO Interactive, the same team behind the Hitman games, as well as the controversialKane and Lynch.

Not a huge amount is known about the game at this point, but it looks set to be a radical departure for IO Interactive and will favour a family-friendly and colourful take on Ninjas, rather than the gritty and gory, crime-focused gameplay from which the developer has wrought it's fame.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

EA rumoured to have closed Pandemic studio

This is still marked firmly under the rumour category for now, but according to some sources Electronic Arts has distanced itself from Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office.

Note that we say 'distanced' though, as a reliable source has told Kotaku that the studio hasn't been closed as such, but just seperated from the company. Apparently the development team has been allowed to keep all equipment and licenses they currently have, but will no longer work with EA.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Vodafone HSPA+ trials hit 16Mb/s

If you'd like to see the day when mobile broadband can compete with its wired equivalents for speed, you might want to have a word with Vodafone about its HSPA+ trials.

According to The Register the company has successfully completed a trial of the next-generation packet data technology on its mobile network in Spain, achieving impressive "actual peak download rates of up to 16Mb/s."

Based around the 64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) technology being developed by Ericsson and Qualcomm along with a similar MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna system as used in 802.11n wireless networks, the HSPA+ technology offers far greater speeds than currently available with standard HSDPA as used in 3G networks in this country.

Mirror's Edge DLC dated, priced

Electronic Arts has announced the release date and price for the Mirror's Edge downloadable content, confirming that the content will be available on the PC platform as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The downloadable pack was formally announced back before Christmas and will consist solely of new Time Trial and Race maps. There'll be seven of the former, nine of the latter included in the pack.

If you're looking forward to more skyscraper-climbing and cloud-touching brilliance though then you may have to check your expectations at the door; EA has shown that the new levels will be heavily stylised, abstract structures floating in space. The idea is to break away from any limitations that a conventional city layout might impose on ideal level design. You can check out a trailer for the levels at the official

Eidos unveils new Mini Ninjas game

Eidos has announced a new game and IP today, dubbed Mini Ninjas, which is due for a multiplatform release in Q3 this year. The game is coming to PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and DS. Sorry, PSP.

Mini NInjas is to be the start of a new franchise for Eidos and will be developed by IO Interactive, the same team behind the Hitman games, as well as the controversialKane and Lynch.

Not a huge amount is known about the game at this point, but it looks set to be a radical departure for IO Interactive and will favour a family-friendly and colourful take on Ninjas, rather than the gritty and gory, crime-focused gameplay from which the developer has wrought it's fame.

Mirror's Edge DLC dated, priced

Electronic Arts has announced the release date and price for the Mirror's Edge downloadable content, confirming that the content will be available on the PC platform as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The downloadable pack was formally announced back before Christmas and will consist solely of new Time Trial and Race maps. There'll be seven of the former, nine of the latter included in the pack.

If you're looking forward to more skyscraper-climbing and cloud-touching brilliance though then you may have to check your expectations at the door; EA has shown that the new levels will be heavily stylised, abstract structures floating in space. The idea is to break away from any limitations that a conventional city layout might impose on ideal level design. You can check out a trailer for the levels at the official

Youtube re-tailored for PlayStation 3, Wii

Google has launched a new and updated look for Youtube - one more compatible with those of us who like to watch Youtube videos on our TVs, via a PlayStation 3 or Wii.

The new consolified home for Youtube has a new layout that is supposed to be easier to navigate and use with a Wii remote or PlayStation 3 gamepad. The new page has bigger and clearer text too, which should help reduce eye strain if you're sitting way back on your couch.

Eidos unveils new Mini Ninjas game

Eidos has announced a new game and IP today, dubbed Mini Ninjas, which is due for a multiplatform release in Q3 this year. The game is coming to PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and DS. Sorry, PSP.

Mini NInjas is to be the start of a new franchise for Eidos and will be developed by IO Interactive, the same team behind the Hitman games, as well as the controversialKane and Lynch.

Not a huge amount is known about the game at this point, but it looks set to be a radical departure for IO Interactive and will favour a family-friendly and colourful take on Ninjas, rather than the gritty and gory, crime-focused gameplay from which the developer has wrought it's fame.

Eidos unveils new Mini Ninjas game

Eidos has announced a new game and IP today, dubbed Mini Ninjas, which is due for a multiplatform release in Q3 this year. The game is coming to PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and DS. Sorry, PSP.

Mini NInjas is to be the start of a new franchise for Eidos and will be developed by IO Interactive, the same team behind the Hitman games, as well as the controversialKane and Lynch.

Not a huge amount is known about the game at this point, but it looks set to be a radical departure for IO Interactive and will favour a family-friendly and colourful take on Ninjas, rather than the gritty and gory, crime-focused gameplay from which the developer has wrought it's fame.

Investment in IT drops 40 percent

Further evidence of the global economic slowdown was revealed yesterday with the news that investment in US-based IT startups dropped a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter 2008.

According to figures obtained by CNet – quoting a report by VentureSource – investment in IT related companies across the US fell by a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter, representing a loss of almost £1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Youtube re-tailored for PlayStation 3, Wii

Google has launched a new and updated look for Youtube - one more compatible with those of us who like to watch Youtube videos on our TVs, via a PlayStation 3 or Wii.

The new consolified home for Youtube has a new layout that is supposed to be easier to navigate and use with a Wii remote or PlayStation 3 gamepad. The new page has bigger and clearer text too, which should help reduce eye strain if you're sitting way back on your couch.

EA rumoured to have closed Pandemic studio

This is still marked firmly under the rumour category for now, but according to some sources Electronic Arts has distanced itself from Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office.

Note that we say 'distanced' though, as a reliable source has told Kotaku that the studio hasn't been closed as such, but just seperated from the company. Apparently the development team has been allowed to keep all equipment and licenses they currently have, but will no longer work with EA.

Youtube re-tailored for PlayStation 3, Wii

Google has launched a new and updated look for Youtube - one more compatible with those of us who like to watch Youtube videos on our TVs, via a PlayStation 3 or Wii.

The new consolified home for Youtube has a new layout that is supposed to be easier to navigate and use with a Wii remote or PlayStation 3 gamepad. The new page has bigger and clearer text too, which should help reduce eye strain if you're sitting way back on your couch.

EA rumoured to have closed Pandemic studio

This is still marked firmly under the rumour category for now, but according to some sources Electronic Arts has distanced itself from Pandemic Studios' Brisbane office.

Note that we say 'distanced' though, as a reliable source has told Kotaku that the studio hasn't been closed as such, but just seperated from the company. Apparently the development team has been allowed to keep all equipment and licenses they currently have, but will no longer work with EA.

Youtube re-tailored for PlayStation 3, Wii

Google has launched a new and updated look for Youtube - one more compatible with those of us who like to watch Youtube videos on our TVs, via a PlayStation 3 or Wii.

The new consolified home for Youtube has a new layout that is supposed to be easier to navigate and use with a Wii remote or PlayStation 3 gamepad. The new page has bigger and clearer text too, which should help reduce eye strain if you're sitting way back on your couch.

Mirror's Edge DLC dated, priced

Electronic Arts has announced the release date and price for the Mirror's Edge downloadable content, confirming that the content will be available on the PC platform as well as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The downloadable pack was formally announced back before Christmas and will consist solely of new Time Trial and Race maps. There'll be seven of the former, nine of the latter included in the pack.

If you're looking forward to more skyscraper-climbing and cloud-touching brilliance though then you may have to check your expectations at the door; EA has shown that the new levels will be heavily stylised, abstract structures floating in space. The idea is to break away from any limitations that a conventional city layout might impose on ideal level design. You can check out a trailer for the levels at the official

Investment in IT drops 40 percent

Further evidence of the global economic slowdown was revealed yesterday with the news that investment in US-based IT startups dropped a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter 2008.

According to figures obtained by CNet – quoting a report by VentureSource – investment in IT related companies across the US fell by a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter, representing a loss of almost £1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Nvidia releases GeForce GTX 285 graphics card

Nvidia has today released the GeForce GTX 285, a card it claims is the world's fastest single GPU graphics card.

Normally, we'd have a review online for your viewing pleasure, but we're working through a couple of issues that we hope to get to the bottom of in the next few hours, so stay tuned for our review either later today or first thing in the morning.

The card was unveiled for the first time at CES although the clock speed information we had wasn't final at that point.

Investment in IT drops 40 percent

Further evidence of the global economic slowdown was revealed yesterday with the news that investment in US-based IT startups dropped a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter 2008.

According to figures obtained by CNet – quoting a report by VentureSource – investment in IT related companies across the US fell by a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter, representing a loss of almost £1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Nvidia releases GeForce GTX 285 graphics card

Nvidia has today released the GeForce GTX 285, a card it claims is the world's fastest single GPU graphics card.

Normally, we'd have a review online for your viewing pleasure, but we're working through a couple of issues that we hope to get to the bottom of in the next few hours, so stay tuned for our review either later today or first thing in the morning.

The card was unveiled for the first time at CES although the clock speed information we had wasn't final at that point.

Investment in IT drops 40 percent

Further evidence of the global economic slowdown was revealed yesterday with the news that investment in US-based IT startups dropped a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter 2008.

According to figures obtained by CNet – quoting a report by VentureSource – investment in IT related companies across the US fell by a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter, representing a loss of almost £1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Youtube re-tailored for PlayStation 3, Wii

Google has launched a new and updated look for Youtube - one more compatible with those of us who like to watch Youtube videos on our TVs, via a PlayStation 3 or Wii.

The new consolified home for Youtube has a new layout that is supposed to be easier to navigate and use with a Wii remote or PlayStation 3 gamepad. The new page has bigger and clearer text too, which should help reduce eye strain if you're sitting way back on your couch.

Investment in IT drops 40 percent

Further evidence of the global economic slowdown was revealed yesterday with the news that investment in US-based IT startups dropped a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter 2008.

According to figures obtained by CNet – quoting a report by VentureSource – investment in IT related companies across the US fell by a massive 40 percent in the fourth financial quarter, representing a loss of almost £1 billion compared to the previous quarter.

Nvidia releases GeForce GTX 285 graphics card

Nvidia has today released the GeForce GTX 285, a card it claims is the world's fastest single GPU graphics card.

Normally, we'd have a review online for your viewing pleasure, but we're working through a couple of issues that we hope to get to the bottom of in the next few hours, so stay tuned for our review either later today or first thing in the morning.

The card was unveiled for the first time at CES although the clock speed information we had wasn't final at that point.

Nvidia releases GeForce GTX 285 graphics card

Nvidia has today released the GeForce GTX 285, a card it claims is the world's fastest single GPU graphics card.

Normally, we'd have a review online for your viewing pleasure, but we're working through a couple of issues that we hope to get to the bottom of in the next few hours, so stay tuned for our review either later today or first thing in the morning.

The card was unveiled for the first time at CES although the clock speed information we had wasn't final at that point.