If you're still having trouble tracking down Samsung's SpinPoint M6 to boost your PS3 HDD storage space, Western Digital is now shipping a PS3-compatable 500GB 2.5-Inch drive ($220), with a whopping 1TB drive expected by 2010.
To quote: WD has just announced that it has started volume shipping its 500GB 2.5-inch Scorpio Blue drive, a notebook drive with 250GB per platter and a 5,400rpm spin speed. Seagate expects to ship its half terabyte 2.5-incher before the end of the year.
Our sources say WD and Fujitsu will have 750GB 2.5-inch drives by mid-2009 and 1 terabyte units by early 2010, if not the end of 2009. WD is building quite a track record of pipping Seagate by introducing notebook drives at progressively higher capacity points first, doing t... More »
Planning to buy a Blu-ray player? Hold on. It's already battling public indifference, technical problems, laughable features and downloadable movies. Is it any wonder Blu-ray is doomed to fail? Here are five reasons why it's heading for the grave...
1. HD movie downloads
OK so the picture quality's not quite there yet, but Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and others have already seen the future of movie viewing at home - and it doesn't come on shiny 12cm discs.
Instead services like iTunes, Xbox Live and Vudu already offer HD movies over the internet, enabling you to see the movies you want without having to hack down to the video store in the pouring rain.
With fibre-to-home broadband slowly being rolled out in the UK, who knows what the next few years will bring.
2. BD-Live
Have you seen the demos? BD-Live is a joke. It's a second-rate attempt to offer interactive features that HD DVD did first and much... More »
GamePro has given us the low-down on how to super charge your PS3 with the only PS3-supported 500GB hard drive - the Samsung M6. They claim it is the only available 500GB drive on the market to support the PS3, read on for the simple steps to supercharged success...
Step #1: Purchase the Samsung M6 500GB hard drive (widely available online for around $230). Important note: The M6 is the only 500GB internal hard drive that will fit into the PS3. Use the PS3's Backup function to transfer saves and other content to a USB drive.
Step #2: Unplug the PS3 and ground yourself. Open the PS3's hard drive access port, located on the side of the unit, with your fingernail.
Step #3: Carefully unscrew the blue screw using the correct screwdriver bit (Philips Precise) using gentle pressure, taking care not to strip the screw. Pull out the metal hinge, and slide the hard drive tray out.
Step #4: Unscrew the four screws that attach th... More »
We have had quite a few requests as to how the BD-Emulator on a PS3 TEST console works, and thought the best way to show how it works is through a video!
After formatting a USB HDD (in this case, a 500GB EIDE Drive hooked to the PS3 via an old USB CDROM enclosure) in the PS3, it is transferred to a PC. Once transferred, a properly decrypted, patched and remastered retail game is written to the drive. The drive is then plugged back in via USB to the PS3 TEST, while off.
The Drive is then turned on, followed by the PS3. Once the PS3 is on the BD-Emulator is set to USB. DEV is for a PS3 TOOL, which has an additional internal HDD for BD-Emulator purposes, and BD Drive is self explanatory. The PS3 then gets rebooted.
Upon reboot is where the video starts, it first shows the previous settings in the PS3, and then the game that was remastered, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is started from BD-Emulator. The BD-Emulator ... More »
The X360 needs a new SKU, and this is what it should include...
Look left, look right and there is nothing but good games on the horizon as far as the eye can see, especially for the Xbox 360. To one side you have an awesome catalogue of hits, from Dead Rising to Halo 3 and Just Cause to Mass Effect.
On the other there’s Fable 2, GTA IV, Too Human, Halo Wars and more coming our way. But look directly in front of you at the machine that can play all these wonders and there is a maligned console struggling to keep up with the pace. Microsoft needs to get serious and release a new SKU for their console that gives it a fresh image, and a fresh sense of purpose. And here's how...
Before we start, we should point out that we love the gaming we've had on our Xbox 360s, were just not oblivious to its flaws. This is not an attack: it is a call to arms, a request to Microsoft, to do something positive to make video gaming better for everyone.
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Samsung's Spinpoint M6 is the world's first 2.5-inch, 500GB HDD. Standing in at 9.5mm tall, the M6 will easily fit most existing laptop hard drive bays. For those of you worried about sloth like performance, the Spinpoint M6 has a 5400rpm spindle speed, an 8MB cache, as well as a 3.0Gbps SATA interface.
A Free-Fall Sensor can be added as an optional extra. Not content with breaking the world record for the HDD with the smallest size / biggest capacity, Samsung are also introducing the industry's fastest DVD burner.
The WriteMaster SH-S223 will offer high speed DVD burning on low speed media; 16X and 8X media will be written to at 22X and 12X write speeds, respectively. The SH-S223 will be able to write at the following maximum speeds; 22X DVD±R recording, 12X DVD-RAM recording, 16X DVD+R Dual Layer recording, 12X DVD-R Dual Layer recording, 8X DVD+RW recording and 6X DVD-RW recording.
Time wise, 4.7GB of data can be burnt to a DVD±R disc in ap... More »
Buying a new computer is probably the most confusing shopping experience for techno-newbies.
As soon as you're in the door you see rows of seemingly identical computers, plastered with stickers full of technobabble.
But it's not as confusing as it first looks. You don't have to understand the ins and outs of microprocessors to make a smart buy.
The first choice you'll have is between desktop and laptop. Dollar for dollar you'll get better value from a desktop, but most people prefer the smaller size and convenience of a laptop computer.
If you can afford it you can buy a laptop with enough grunt to play the latest video games, but generally desktops are a better option for this because you can add new graphics cards or upgrade the RAM much more easily and cheaply to keep the specs current.
For day to day stuff a laptop is a better option for most people. You'll pay a bit more for the same power but it takes up less room a... More »
Just a few hours before our live coverage of the XStreamHD press event (11am PST) with Michael Douglas; many of the details have been released and we have to say this thing looks so incredible, we don't see how it can live up to the press release -- this is one of those times when we'd really love to be wrong.
For starters, the service promises to deliver "the latest content from leading studios" in 1080p (MPEG-2 and x.264) with 7.1 channels of lossless DTS-HD Master Audio (96kHz/24bits) to your home via satellite, and if it stopped there it would be impressive enough, but no. The content is stored on the internally in your "Virtual Personal Library" until you access it with up to four simultaneous DLNA devices on your gigabit Ethernet home network.
If you run out of space, you can use the extra drive bays to expand up to 2TB of storage. And because there is so much great OTA HD content, it features three ATSC tuners which can be used with a "Network Video R... More »
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