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SONY has unveiled the latest in its Playstation Portable line of hand-held devices, the PSP Go, as it races to catch rival Nintendo in the mobile gaming arena.

“We call it the worst kept secret of E3,” said Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai. “There will be more content that is easier to get on your PSP. It’s entertainment everywhere.”

Go, which is half the size of the original PSP, can download and store video, pictures and games and has built-in wireless Internet and Bluetooth capabilities. All future PSP videogame titles will be available for digital download, skipping any need to buy software on disks, according to Sony.  A new Sense Me feature analyses music stored in Go devices and then creates playlists to suit the user’s moods. Go gadgets will also be built with a video delivery service Sony launched last year. Hot videogame franchises including Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil are creating new games tailored to Go devices, according to Sony.

The gadget goes on sale October 1 in the US and Europe for about $US249 ($303), before hitting stores in Japan November 1st.

Sony Australia said the Go would be released locally on October 1 but could not confirm a price.

Sony aims to sell 15 million units of the PSP – which competes with Nintendo’s DS – in the financial year to March, up from 14.1 million units a year earlier.

Nintendo’s gaming consoles and hand-held devices have in past months outsold its rivals’ products. It’s DSi, released in the United States on April 5, sold roughly 800,000 units in the month, far outpacing Sony’s PSP handheld.

The DS franchise overall sold more than 1 million units.

The UK government has signalled its commitment to ensuring everyone in the country has access to broadband speeds of two megabit per second by 2012. Earlier this year Lord Carter set out his interim recommendations for Digital Britain, in which he proposed a Universal Service for broadband.

He recommended a minimum of 2Mbps, which the government has now backed.

The Treasury said the cost would be met in part by underspend from the BBC’s promotion of Digital TV switchover. The government’s backing of 2Mbps was contained in the Budget Report

That speed would “allow virtually everyone to experience the benefits of broadband, including the increasing delivery of public services online”.

It added: “It will also offer advantages to UK businesses, both those located in areas that will benefit from the network upgrade and those that make use of online channels to engage with their customers.” The government said Universal Service would be complemented with “further support to improve basic digital skills and promote broadband take-up”.

BT is to roll-out super-fast broadband to all of its 4.8million customers at no extra charge.
The company, Britain’s biggest broadband service, will start offering the upgrade to 20 megabits per second to any customer, even those on its cheapest package, which costs £15.60 a month.
The rollout is part of the firm’s planned upgrade of lines to so-called ADSL2+ technology. The firm said the rollout would start with 40% of the UK this summer and reach 55Existing customers will have to sign a new 12-month contract to get the boost, while throttling of video streams in peak hours for some customers remains.

Earlier this week BT was criticised when it was revealed it cut the speed of customers on its cheapest broadband package to below 1Mbps in peak hours when using services like the iPlayer and YouTube.
That so-called traffic management will remain in place with the new speeds. Download caps for the cheapest two packages, of 10 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes, will also continue, the firm said.
A DVD quality film, which currently takes just under 3 hours to download, should be able to be downloaded in just over half an hour.
In a statement, Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Retail, said: “Unlike other providers, BT is upgrading customers to 20Mb/s for free. High-speed broadband provides a faster and more reliable service that will transform the way we live, work, learn and play.”
BT said it was starting trials of its fibre optic 40Mbps service in Whitchurch, South Wales and Muswell Hill, London this summer, with the aim of offering these speeds to 40% of the country in the future.
The speed boost to 20Mbps is less than the firm’s originally stated aims of offering up to 24Mbps. On its website, BT says in tests “we’ve found that only a tiny number of customers can actually get 24Mb”. % of customers by March 2010.

The next generation of Windows is coming out with a brand new sensitive touch screen which could spell the end of the mouse.

Microsoft’s new PC operating system now has a final launch date. This week the company revealed that it will make Windows 7 available to the public on October 22. That should be a huge boost for the OS as new PCs will have it installed and ready for the busy holiday shopping season.

Microsoft decided to go ahead with the launch date following a good response to the already released release canidate version of Windows 7. Microsoft also plans to have a program where people who buy a Windows Vista PC close to the release of Windows 7 to upgrade to the new OS

Last year the software giant made about a third of its £60bn income from selling the operating system. Windows Vista has been attacked for being too complicated and Microsoft bosses hope the new system will restore public confidence in the product.

Users with touch-sensitive screens will be able to control their computers with the touch of a finger, rather than with a keyboard and mouse. The device, as popularised on the iPhone and iPod Touch by Apple, is a direct challenge to Microsoft’s arch-rival. Microsoft is battling against a growing market in netbooks – smaller PCs ideal for surfing online and emailing. One of the leading manufacturers, Acer, has become the first to announce a line of small PCs to run Google’s new Android operating system.

Free upgrades to the new system will be offered to computer buyers shortly ahead of the launch. Microsoft said: “We’ve produced the best Windows operating system ever, designed according to how people want to use it.”The primary focus throughout the development of Windows 7 has been quality.”