Techinfo-4u

PS3 To Get HD Movies From Major Movie Studios

Robert — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:09:03 +0000

You may love your Playstation, perhaps because you can play Call Of Duty or watch your favourite movies in blu-ray and browse the web. Well Sony has now announced a deal that they signed with the major movie studios, now allowing Sony to bring even more High Def releases to the PS3.

Now the fact that you can download movies to your PS3 is nothing new, but the PS3 will now be the first console to offer HD Movies from every major movie studio. Sony have now partnered with 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros to bring you all the latest releases to your game console.

So we can now expect to see movies like; Fantastic Mr Fox, Up, Star Trek and District 9 available for download, either to buy or rent.

This service has already gone live in the US, with with films currently around $5.99 to rent and $19.99 to own in HD. We havent got a date for the rest of the world, but Sony have confirmed that it’s coming to the UK soon.

First 3D Sony TV’s Coming June 10th

Robert — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:25:02 +0000

There was a whole rake of 3D TV’s announced at CES but we are yet to see even one of them on the shelves as yet. While we have been told a couple of release dates, you can’t go and buy a 3D TV let alone get any 3D content.

Sony one of the worlds biggest TV manufacturers, have now announced that their first 3D TV’s will be available from June 10th, in Japan at first, and then coming to other regions not too long afterwards.

Sony’s first model will have a 46-inch screen for 350,000 yen or $3,875. That’s steep compared to the non-3D equivalent TV Sony already sells for $2,100, but it is new technology. Each set will come with two pairs of 3D glasses.

Rivals Panasonic are set to begin selling their first 3D TV’s in May, but to the US only. But as I mentioned earlier, there is still very little 3D content available. Most are predicting that Avatar 3D will be the blockbuster hit to get 3D technology at home to take off, but I don’t think it will be enough. This form of home entertainment has come along way, but it still has a lot further to go and needs to come down in price before it’s widely adopted by the people.

Steam For The Mac On The Way, With Games

Robert — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:09:18 +0000

Those of you who are gamers will be familiar with Steam, a gaming platform for Windows PC’s. It allows you to buy and download games direct to your PC and play them. Now let’s face it, the Mac hasn’t really got a great number of games available, but maybe now with Steam coming to the platform we may see an increase in the number of titles.

We’ve been teased with images from Valve themselves hinting towards a release of Steam for the Mac, but it was only today they finally gave in and told us.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

But what’s even more exciting is the new feature called “Steam Play,” This allows you to be playing a game at work on your Windows PC, and then come home and continue from where you left off on your Mac. So what does this mean? Well basically Mac and PC users won’t have to buy double copies of games anymore, and that’s always a good thing!

Portal 2 will be the first game to be released on both Mac and PC at the same time, taking advantage of this new feature.

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.”

So there you go Apple boys, maybe you will finally get some decent games after all!

Motorola Backflip Now Available On AT&T

Robert — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:03:24 +0000

The Motorola Backflip has now gone on sale from AT&T. Why do we care? Well this is the first Android smartphone that AT&T have ever sold. You can have it for the nice price of $99.99 after a mail in rebate and a 2 year contract.

Complete with Motorola Blur and a slide out QWERTY keyboard, Android 2.1, 3.1-inch touchscreen, and a 5 Megapixel camera it should be all you need.

What do you think of it?

Let us know in the comments

Source:

AT&T

New Xbox 360 Prices And Form Factors On The Way?

Robert — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:02:43 +0000

Steve Ballmer was recently at conference in the University Of Washington and it appears he accidently leaked out some information we probably weren’t meant to hear about some possible new form factors for the Xbox 360. In a transcript of the subsequent Q&A session, Steve is shown to have delivered the following statement on the topic of large-screen televisions and Microsoft’s related hardware strategy:

For that big screen device … there’s no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.

We can almost certainly assume that the new form factors will be a smaller chassis for the large 360 console, much like what Sony have done with the Playstation. I wouldn’t expect to see a whole new model from Microsoft for a while as game consoles tend to have an approx 10 year life cycle.

We may however see an Xbox form factor with Project Natal built into it which would be pretty cool

Source:

Engadget

iPad To Be Released April 3rd – Pre Orders March 12th

Robert — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:27:50 +0000

All of you eagerly waiting in anticipation of Apple’s much wanted iPad better be getting your credit cards at the ready. In an announcement today, Apple finally revealed the release date of the Apple iPad.

Pre-orders for all iPad models, Wi-Fi and 3G will begin on March 12th and the first Apple iPad’s will be Wi-Fi only ones which will be available on April 3rd to the US only. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

So it seems that the “manufacturing bottleneck” which would delay the release of the iPad was true and it will only be available in the US at first.

So if your outside of the US I’m afraid you will have to wait even longer.

Here’s pricing again for you

16GB WiFi only — $499
32GB WiFi only — $599
64GB WiFi only — $699
16GB WiFi + 3G — $629
32GB WiFi + 3G — $729
64GB WiFi + 3G — $829

For all you need to know about the iPad check out our post here

Source:

Apple

Sony Launching New Line Of Handheld Gadgets

Robert — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:38:12 +0000

According to our good friends at the Wall Street Journal, Sony are getting ready to launch a new smartphone and some sort of tablet based device. We could almost call the smartphone a PSP phone as it will be able to play playstation games, and the tablet device will be some combination of a Netbook, e-reader, and PlayStation Portable, according to “people familiar with the matter” who spoke to the Journal.

The new tablet gadget is intended to compete with the Apple iPad, whenever it comes out as well as a wave of other tablet devices that are expected to be released. Were being told that both the “PSP” phone and Tablet device are due to be released this year but there’s no word on dates or pricing.

In a statement, Sony said,

“As already announced, Sony and Sony Ericsson have been strengthening their collaboration in the networked mobile space. However, it is not our strategy to discuss future products or business plans before we make a formal announcement. Any media report that suggests details of the product or business is based on speculation.”

Sony seem to be gearing up to take a bite out of the Apple, they recently announced a new digital music service called Qriocity (pronounced “curiosity”), later this month as a rival to iTunes. Movies, TV shows, music, and video games will be available for download, and these new devices are intended to work with the service.

Source:

Wallstreet Journal via Cnet

Apple iPad Going On Sale March 26th?

Robert — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:07:44 +0000

We’ve heard all sorts of things about the iPad before its even been launched. We’ve had reports that the iPad will be in short supply at launch and will be only available in a limited numbers due to a “manufacturing bottleneck” and as a result the iPad will only be available in the US at launch. And that they launch will occur a month later than expected.

We’ve also heard that there will be pre orders starting on March 25th. We’re now hearing that the iPad will go on sale on March 26th. But there has been whispers going around that the iPad will be going on sale at retail stores on Friday, March 26th at 6 p.m.

A blog post from the Examiner now makes similar claims of a March 26th launch date with Apple store employees getting training on the device starting on March 10th. The author also claims that the commercials will start beginning on March 15th.

So hail, rain, snow, sun whatever, everyone is determined that the iPad will go on sale sometime this month, however, we still haven’t heard a thing from Apple. According to Apple’s press release the 3G version will go on sale 30 days later.

Source:

Macrumors

Porsche 918 Spider Hybrid Concept

Robert — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:21:51 +0000

Hybrid cars are yet to take off in a big way and I can’t name many that would win first prize in any fashion contest. That was of course until I just came across this new Porsche 918 Spider Hybrid. I mean Wow!, if I turns out to be anything like what it looks like in the pictures below I will be amazed and I wouldn’t mind owning one myself, not that that would ever happen.

So it certainly looks the part, but what’s really under the hood of this machine?

Well for a start there’s a 3.4-liter V8 petrol engine that’s combined with electric motors to pump out an impressive 500bhp. Understandably it’s not to bad on the acceleration front either, 0-62mph (100 kmh) in just 3.2 seconds. You’ll then find yourself travelling at a cool 198mph flat out, all the while aware that your doing your bit for the environment managing 78mpg.

However who knows if it will ever go on sale, but if you want to see more of it, head on over to the Geneva Motor Show or have a look at some of the pics below

Source:

Engadget

Lenovo Ideapad U1 – A Tablet & Laptop In One

Call Of Duty 6: Tips And Tricks – Part 2

Robert — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:40:02 +0000

Our Guest writer is back with Part 2 of his Call Of Duty tips, please let us know what you think in the comments below and as always if your interested in doing any guest posts please have a look here

So last time I wrote to you guys, I left you with a small bit of a challenge; the flanking tactic. If you’ve mastered that you should be getting some pretty awesome killstreaks and having a fun time picking off those annoying noobs that used to kill you.

So i’ve been trying out some new tactics myself, particularly in Search and Destroy. If there’s one thing i’ve underestimated severely, it’s the Riot shield.

The thing is, it really is awesome. Most people reckon it’s too cumbersome and heavy in-game to do enough damage and get the killstreaks in those short rounds of S&D, but i’ve got news for you, it’s not.

Why? Simply because too few people realise the advantage you bring to your team with a riot shield strapped on. First off, those complete idiots who forgot to silence their weapons in a S&D match? They’ll show up on everyone’s radar when they start popping shots off trying to nail the “idiot with the riot shield”. Second, you get to rush up the middle of crowded maps; Invasion, Skidrow and Highrise are all your oysters when you become the “idiot”. Thirdly, how hard is it to kill someone who knows what they’re doing with their shield?

The one thing I will say, is there’s probably only one or two perk combos I’ll use with my “Idiot” class. Marathon, Lightweight, Commando. Secondary is a no-brainer; M93 Raffica (silenced if possible). And the icing on the cake – the Throwing Knife. It is the quickest way to kill someone when you’re using the shield – no questions asked. You think bashing an enemy is fun? Try waiting until he’s hopelessly unloaded his clip into you and he’s starting to reload, then throw a knife at him. The chances this guy won’t have a small heart attack are slim, to none.

One small bit of advice, the throwing knife is hard to use with the riot shield on. So before you start lashing out like a ninja, have a small think back to this article.

Get some blu tack or some cellotape and string, and stick it exactly where you’re crosshairs are. It’s that simple. When the riot shield is on, you can’t see you’re crosshairs, so the makeshift aimer you just made up on your TV screen – that’s going to get you throwing knife kills, and let you throw your stun grenades without having to hold the riot shield off for 3-4 seconds while you aim.

So that’s it for this article. I’ve got no pics for you this week, but as always feel free to add me on PSN with the username Am29, i’ll gladly show you the way around with a riot shield.

Thanks To AM29 for that, please be sure to lets us know what you think in the comments