Tim Hanlon

Harmonix has opened beta registrations for the Rock Band Network, a service that allows independent labels and bands to publish songs as paid downloadable content for Rock Band and Rock Band 2. For now, it's Xbox 360 only, with plans to launch on PS3 eventually. Bands can "suggest" a price point of either US$1, $2 or $3, and take home a 30% revenue share.  Read More

They first showed it in June 2009, then teased us with a Q2 2010 release, now Sony Computer Entertainment has pushed back the worldwide release window for the still-tentatively-named Motion Controller for the PlayStation 3. Wii-less gamers won't be waving their arms around like lunatics, or smashing their expensive HDTVs until some time in Q4 2010 - presumably in time to catch the Christmas retail wave.  Read More

With the Wii's MotionPlus already old news, and Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's PlayStation Eye-based equivalent likely to hit this year, it's easy to wonder when motion controls will find success in the PC world. ASUS's Eee Stick tried, but merely proved that strong software support for new hardware peripherals is absolutely crucial for success - which is why we're excited to see Valve, developers of hit series such as Half-Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal, showing support for Razer and Sixense's new, as-yet-unnamed motion control hardware for the PC.  Read More

Qualcomm has revealed what's in store for the Snapdragon platform, which powers Google's Nexus One smartphone, among other things. By the end of January, the 45nm 1.3GHz Snapdragon 8X50A will be available to manufacturers, and should be appearing in products by the end of 2010 - but where things get really exciting is the move to dual-core.  Read More

We've aggregated all the latest news on the Nexus One so you don't have to. An impressive market share on debut, worldwide release on Vodafone, European multi-touch, 3G reception issues on T-Mobile, 150 million good reasons why the Nexus One will succeed, and...an angry Dick. Read on for more.  Read More

The Cell microprocessor made famous by the PlayStation 3 was developed as a joint venture between Sony, Toshiba and IBM, with Toshiba taking over the majority of manufacturing duties in 2007. Toshiba plans to make the most of the Cell with a new range of Cell-powered TVs for the US market - read on to find out what 200 gigaflops can do inside a TV.  Read More

If you've ever lost your phone without having a backup of your contacts, you'll know what a painful experience it is. Enter IDrive Lite, a free service that allows you to backup the contacts on your phone into the cloud. Previously available for iPhone and BlackBerry, it's finally made its way to Android.  Read More

Sony and Panasonic have announced a new technology that would increase the capacity of a single-layer Blu-ray disc from 25GB to 33.4GB. The new technology, dubbed i-MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation) evaluation index, is achievable using existing Blu-ray laser diodes, and can subsequently be added to existing Blu-ray players with a firmware upgrade.  Read More

Motorola today unveiled the Backflip, follow up to the Android-powered Cliq released last year. Like the Cliq, the Backflip includes Motorola's Motoblur service, which aggregates data from sites like Facebook, Twitter and Gmail and presents it coherently on your home screen - but it's the hardware that really stands out. Read on for the details.  Read More