Motorola Atrix pictured and videoed

You remember the Motorola Atrix, right? My favourite thing to come out of CES?

Of course you do, well, today Motorola has launched it, in the consumer orientated sense. Nerds are all for CES releases, but the consumer at large tends to be unaware until the more public launches.

However, these consumer launches are good for us too, because we generally get some prettier pictures, and some really feature descriptive videos.

Catch said video after the read more link.

Sony announces PSP 2, aka NGP

Sony has unveiled a new addition to the PlayStation franchise. Coupled with the Xperia Play it looks as though they really want to push mobile gaming still.

The new PSP (codenamed NGP - Next Generation Portable - although as above, branded PlayStation) will not feature a UMD drive - but unlike the PSP Go which relies purely upon downloaded games, the NGP will use micro SD cards, preloaded with games, and space reserved for save game data.

Sony are calling it out as having great integration with the PS Suite for Android, which is flying along nicely with the Xperia Play - allowing non PS branded phones to get in on the action.

It features a quad core ARM CPU - the Cortex A9, along with a new and improved GPU: SGX543MP4+. Attracting most attention will be a 5" 960x544 multitouch OLED and dual analogue nubs, without the Go's silly slide out mechanism.

[More after the link]

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Google launches HTML5 Gmail notifications to Chrome

Chrome user? Within a couple of clicks, you too can have these slick notifications pop up for Chat and Gmail.

If you're not a Chrome user, however, you'll have to wait a while. Or you could just go get Chrome, you're need a new browser anyway, right?

Read on to see how to set it up.

Google censors filesharing searches

In a strange move, or a company generally favouring the "we provide whatever you want" model - and disputing with China over it, Google has taken the necessary steps to stop auto-completing and showing instant search results for your searches "bittorrent" and the like.

Humax HD-FOX T2 (Freeview HD) Review

Recently, I reviewed the Humax Freesat HD, but then I thought: what if I don't want a satellite fitted - what if I really want the plug and play functionality and ease of not waiting for the professionals come around and hook you up? 

So I took a good look at the market for these bad-boys and found that you can actually get a Freeview HD (DVB-T2) box pretty cheap from your local, Argos or from Amazon. So, off I trotted looking for the best deal, and eventually deciding that I could not be bothered with any hassle, so I nipped into Argos and parted with £149.99 of my hard earned cash, all in exchange for the HUMAX HD-FOX T2 HD receiver.

Humax FoxSat-HDR 320GB (Freesat HD Recorder) Review

This is the last of my Humax STB reviews for now, but I’ve probably saved the best until last. 


This little box is a combination of all that I’ve previously reviewed, it combines the pleasing aesthetics, a sleek UI, internal HDD storage and near perfect picture quality. To create a product which any AV rack would be proud to store, and any TV would be proud to offer a display of.

O2 launching nation-wide WiFi hotspot

Not so much a 'hotspot', as a blanket of general heat, O2 is intending to provide a technology and service to "enable a seamless customer experience", which will "at least double the number of premium hotspots currently offered by BT Openzone and The Cloud combined by 2013".


Bold claims, and to make such a service "free to customers" too, just why are they doing it?


Well, they worded it well, the service may be free "to customers", but you can rest assured they will be getting their pay cheques from the ad companies. The other benefit will be ease on existing 3G, and future 4G networks.

USB Connector whacks in whichever way up

Ma Xi Xuan has developed a concept for a USB connector, that connects, both ways up. Thus eliminating the never-ending frustration of many Serial Bus using dudes, Universally.

"DoubleUSB" works (or, conceptually works) by using a springy 'middle bit', which flicks over to the appropriate side when you ram it home inside a USB port.

To be of any use, though, it has to be widely adopted by hardware manufacturers. There's no way I'm buying a van load of these and replacing all my existing connectors.

AMD Radeon 6990 - The Dual GPU, 4GB GDDR5 Pixel-Punching Beast

The Dual GPU, 4GB GDDR5 Pixel-Punching Beast is pretty much the official name. I think.

The reference card (pictured above by 4Gamer.net) has been shown off by AMD (ATI) at the Asia Pacific tech event. The 6990 4GB will fill the slot of 6xxx answer to AMD's older dual-GPU card; the 5970 2GB.

It will likely be based on the 6970's GPU, of the Cayman architecture, giving it a total of 3,072 stream processors. It could, however have slightly less and be based on the 6950 - a move I don't think AMD would pull unless they intend to have two dual-GPU cards occupying the top spot (perhaps a dual-6950 based 6980?).

Round back, we can see four mini DisplayPort outputs, along with a single DVI slot. That's no Eyefinity 6 - but then MSI, Asus, Evga, XFX etc. love to handle that themselves. Of course, some crazy folk will chain a couple of these bad-enough-as-it-is boys up in CrossFireX.

Here's awaiting more info.

Sony's "Xperia Play" PlayStation Phone - impending launch!

The guys over at Engadget just nabbed themselves an exclusive preview of Sony's much talked about PlayStation Phone.

It's a very nice looking device - with a fantastic rear - and you should definitely check out their full impression.

Bringing a whole new meaning to PSP, (as it is far more likely to be called that than "Xperia Play" by enthusiasts) the PSPhone is packing an upto 1GHz Qualcomm CPU, with an Adreno 205 GPU. 

It runs Android 2.3 and supports emulators for your old PlayStation and GameBoy games. That's pretty sweet backwards compatibility.

More info, including pricing should appear at MWC.

Apple Store goes down, rumours fly, excitement drains

The much anticipated (am I the only one who does not know why?) white iPhone 4 was once again 'sure to be launched' following the Apple Store's global downtime, earlier today.

This follows recent appearances in Verizon and AT&T inventories over in the US. The white version of Apples mobile phone was originally delayed, due to "unexpected manufacturing difficulties".

Not too sure how hard it is to switch out black pigment for white, but whatever.

Nvidia launches GTX 560 Ti

You know what day it is today?

Yup, that's right, 25th Jan - scheduled launch date for the 5xx series update to Nvidia's fantastic GTX 460.

Well it's happened. The GTX 560 Ti is here. The 460 was a very capable GPU (still is), very overclockable, and getting inredibly cheap now too.

So can the 560 live up to the hype? Read on to find out.

Amazon buy LoveFilm rental and streaming service

Amazon have agreed to buy all the remaining shares of the EUs favourite film and game subscription service. They used to run a service much akin to LoveFilm, which was absolved into LoveFilm in exchange for a 42% chunk of the company.

LoveFilm are assuring us that "the name of the service will remain as LOVEFiLM", along with the usual spiel about billing dates etc. remaining the same.

The most interesting aspect of the release is that they say there are "a number of exciting opportunities for the future", which, while a fairly bland way of saying "we have nothing to announce" - I can't help but feel a little excited for the future of LOVEFiLM with Amazon.

Head past the read more find out why.

Apple's AirPlay gets unofficial Linux support

First there were Apple products. Then there was XBMC. Third-party device manufacturers joined the party to, officially. A Windows hack was also created, to couple with the XBMC hack. And now, Linux. Good old Linux, without XBMC, has recieved the love, nice and simply, courtesy of a plug-in for Totem Media Player.

The plug-in will allow your Linux box to communicate with devices such as the iPad, iPhone, et al over Apple's 'AirPlay' protocol.

AirPlay now features some pretty nifty features - such as continuing video playback on your TV, once you arrive home and pick up WiFi. This kind of seamless integration is a rare treat, and one we're sure you iGuys will snap right up.

Video after the break.