Xbox 360 Slim Could Be A Reality

That gigantic white box you have sitting in your lounge may finally be getting the upgrade it has deserved for a long time. By upgrade I mean downsize, to something a little bit easier to stomach. The picture you see before you might well be the mini motherboard for an upcoming Xbox 360 refresh.
I find it hard to believe that the GPU and CPU are now one (as you would assume from the image), but maybe Microsoft have worked some magic in that area. All we need to know now is if the red ring of death is now smaller and cuter to look at as you lose you temper, and if you will need to add another room to your house to accommodate  the power brick.

Via [Gizmodo]

Diamond iPad Was Bound To Happen

Every Apple device eventually get Diamond encrusted so why not the iPad? Sure it is probably the cheapest device Apple has ever made, but can’t it be cheap and have ‘11.43 carats of diamonds’? Best 20 grand you will spend today!

Via [GIZMODO]

NVidia GTX 480 Vs ATI 5870

If I was a betting man, I would have put all my cash on the GTX 480. Luckily I’m not a betting man.
NVidia have published an official video of its GTX 480 against ATI’s own heavy weight 5870. While the are results pretty even, it is a little disappointing the NVidia (which hasn’t been released as yet) didn’t bring home the punishment. Maybe with some real gaming benchmarks and some pricing we may get a better idea of NVidia’s plan is.

Check Engadget for the full video

Nvidia 196.75 Could Mean Fiery Death

NVidia have recently pulled their 196.75 driver due to suspected issues. Apparently the driver is causing the GPU fan to work incorrectly therefore causing over heats.
If you are unfortunately enough to have already installed the driver roll back. If it is to late i’ve heard ATI’s graphics cards are pretty good these days.

Via [Engadget]

Another Asus E-Reader That Isn’t Released

Asus seem to be one of the best companies at showing off interesting concepts, that then take forever to come to market. They start out with some fantastic idea (EeeKeyboard), then talk it up until you decide you need one in every room and push it back until it is obsolete by the time it hits the street.
This time it is the DR-900 (brother to the DR-950). Asus’s first 9-inch E-Reader which also comes with Wi-Fi, 3G and battery life good for 10,000 pages.  Engadget also believes it will feature the same 1024 x 768 pixel Sipix panel as the DR-950, and also have support for such formats as PDF, TXT, MP3 and ePUB. Mix into that the possibility of it being a touch screen device with what appears to be a very sexy looking case and you have something lust-worthy.
Nothing is known about release date or price, but I’m hoping it will be sometime this year. Knowing Asus  I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Via [Engadget]

Google Losing Search On Own OS?

Lately it seems a lot of people are attempting to bring down the juggernaut that is Google. Starting with Apples move to rid all things Google from the iPhone and then the recent push for antitrust lawsuits (that are possiblity coming from Microsoft). Now it seems Android, its very own OS, is kicking Google out for Yahoo.
It is only AT&T doing it at the moment, but how interesting it is. Spend millions to make an OS that is pretty much free, hoping and dreaming that one day you will make money from the services rendered on the device, and then someone comes along and strips those stinking services out.
This is AT&T’s first Android handset (Motorola Backflip), so after it is a gigantic flop, they may just realise that people only buy Android because of the included Google apps. Then, even if AT&T are too arrogant to do it, some enterprising hacker will re-add the Google goodness.

Via [Android And Me]

Palm’s WebOS Gets Flashy

We were all told it was coming, but who could believe it? After Apple being so confident that Flash wouldn’t be a good experience on a mobile device, it has happened anyway.
WebOS, the OS Palm’s Pre and Pixi uses, has Flash support as well as video recording capabilities. The official version is 1.4 and is currently be pushed out by Sprint,O2 and Movistar (all US I believe). I hope it is works great for you Palm, you could really use the luck bro.

Via [E ngadget]

Not Quite Free BlackBerry Enterprise Server

I was dumbfounded after seeing the Microsoft announcement (WinMo 7), but this isn’t far off big news either. The one thing that has stopped a lot of smaller shops from going BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) has now been lifted with a free version (BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express) for small business’s.
It currently only supports Microsoft Server SBE and Exchange, so you will still have to buy those, but to gain Blackberry’s superior compression and push technology, you can’t pass up the price tag. Expect to be able to download in March.

Via [Gizmodo]

Windows Mobile 7 Is Beautiful

What a pleasant surprise (sort of surprise) Microsoft has spread out with the newest Windows Mobile. So different to the past alliterations. If it wasn’t for the Windows logo, you wouldn’t have guessed (especially when compared to the previous ‘leaked’ images).
It is simple and clean, it reeks of smart design and it rids itself of legacy. These are the things all version of Windows should excrete, but never do. I would go as far as saying, this may actually do the basics better then Apple.
I am glad to see Microsoft release something that I might actually want for a change, but I am still skeptical. While a pretty interface is nice, it still lives upon a Windows CE base (version 6). Also they haven’t announced any substantial apps for its own app store and may still have a flawed web experience (it runs an updated IE browser).
Only time will tell, but if the underneath is as attractive as the ontop they might onto a winner. Not a game changer as I refuse to call it, but definitely something that is lust worthy for a geek like me.

Via [Gizmodo]

Microsoft BlackBerry

No, Microsoft didn’t just make a good decision and buy BlackBerry to replace their not 1 but 2 failing mobile divisions (they bought Danger yaknow). Actually, now I think about it is more worrying then that.
It seems BlackBerry has decided that their hardware is horrible and to rejuvenate the  BlackBerry software for WinMo phones. Well, I might have lied a little about the hardware part (I have a 8800), but the software part is true.
If you need proof, you can now go to the  XDA-Developers website and attempt to get it working on your ugly slow Windows Mobile phone (don’t even bother denying it fan-boy). When you work out that you need a BIS or BES ISP account to actually use it and find out that the BlackBerry browser may actually be worse then the WinMo IE browser, you will probably give up and buy an iPhone.