Hot on the heels of the successful Asus Eee PC is global computing giant HP. With a desire to get it’s part of the action, HP will be pumping an incredibly large number of their version out. How incredibly large? Well the rumour is 2 million units worldwide, according to DigiTimes. Putting this into context, Asus considered the Eee PC a success after shifting 350,000 units last year, and for HP, 2 million units would make up 10% of their global notebook sales over that period. HP are so confident that, as reported on Engadget, this is a purchase that “you won’t even need to consider”.

With people expected “not to consider” this purchase, how are they going to move 2 mil. units? (Aah, see what I did there…)

Just when you thought things were starting to slow up on the Wii Virtual Console release schedule, this gem of information comes at us from Europe. It looks like your old favourite C64 games are coming to a Wii near you. The first releases are listed to be International Karate and Uridium, with the hope that more will follow. They look like they’ll cost 500 points, which is about on par with NES releases.

We just can’t wait to relive childhood sessions of Frogger without having to wait through that sufferable load screen as the game loads up from a tape. More news on this as it comes to hand…

So it’s the time when all high definition TV owners with a regular DVD collection have been waiting for. You can finally put to rest your fears of buying into an obsolete format (a big shout out to any owners of consumer Betamax, Mini Disc, pre-recorded DAT tapes, etc.) and jump in to the HD disc foray now that Blu Ray has been declared the winner of the recent format wars (There are plenty of articles out there if you wanted to pass by slowly and read up on the HD-DVD demise like the latest motorway accident…this ain’t one).

That’s all well and good, especially for Sony and the otherss in the Blu Ray camp, but what now for Toshiba, the guys behind the soon-to-be defunct HD DVD format? Once they’ve finished shutting down their manufacturing plants and flogging off their discontinued stock on unsuspecting consumers, they’ve been invited to jump on the (already quite packed) Blu Ray bandwagon. Frank Simonis, from the Blu-Ray Disc Association, had this to say: “Of course we have always said that Toshiba and Microsoft, and any other company, is more than welcome to join the Blu-ray Disc Association. We are an open organisation, with an open disc standard. If Toshiba decides to drop HD DVD we would extend the hand of friendship to them, they are always welcome to join.”

With an indication that Tosh might have lost a fair bit of cash battling through this format war, they might not be making the transition to Blu-Ray right away.

More info from techradar

Today’s edition of Convergarama looks at the evolving capabilities of the PS3. So far, it can be used for gaming, DVD/Blu Ray player, media extender, media hub, web browser, and ‘SlingBox’, amongst other things. One of the next pieces of kit to be coming to the PS3’s arsenal is the PlayTV device. This will effectively allow you to use your PS3 as a PVR, even having the functionality to record one program and watch another at the same time. Not only that, by using the Remote Play feature, you will be able to watch Free to air digital broadcasts from your PSP anywhere you have WiFI access. And, because it’s being developed to be compatible with European DVB-T standards, it is ideally suited to also be ready for Australian viewers a little later this year. The inital release date was pencilled in for March, but we’re guessing a mid-year launch.

Check out the PlayTV demo video after the break.

Continue reading…

Looks like there were a couple of key updates from the Apple folk.Probably the most important for us folk would be the 32Gb version of the iPod Touch. While still lacking in storage space when compared to the available Apple Classic cousin (which maxes out at 80Gb), most people don’t use all of that space anyway, so 32Gb may well be enough. 

So, early adopters, you can grab the new iPod touch version if you have a lazy $629 lying around. Those who can wait 6-8 weeks, save up and be prepared to (probably) pay less than $629 for the 32Gb iPod Touch.

Guitar Hero + your lesser-experienced Guitar Hero buddy + Singstar + that mate who insists on playing the air drums = Rock Band!

As the much-awaited launch of Rock Band for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii creeps closer, we’ve been trying to keep the ears to the ground for any firm release dates or pricing.

A poster on the DTV forums has not only rocked into Harvey Norman and pre-ordered Rock Band, but also passed on the fino that ther eis 25% off for pre-orders.

Looks like the local pricing will be:

Game: $119 less 25% preorder discount $89.25
Band Kit: $199 less 25% preorder discount $149.25

We haven’t heard these confirmed, so take it with a grain of salt. But based on US retail prices, this price minus the 25% is very appealing. Just check if HN have a clause that allows them to raise the price once it becomes official.

All the news of the potential Microsoft/Yahoo! tie-up is going to be around for a while. With Microsoft’s officical bid for Yahoo! being worth just under AU$50 billion, this deal is far from done. It’s only a matter of time until numerous regulators form an orderly line to question the size of the deal.

So what does this mean for us?

Firstly, it could throw the cat in with the pigeons in terms of all of the (Microsoft) hotmail.com and yahoo! email addresses we all have out there. How are the spammers gonig ot send me more information about a random Nigerian prince wanting to transfer large sums of cash to my bank account if I give them my details, my passport, and the keys to my house?

Secondly, it could have a distinct impact on television in Australia, with Microsoft and Nine linked with nineMSN, and Yahoo! and Seven linked in via Yahoo!7. Would this lead to a wierd merger between Seven and Nine, where they would comine their individual stables of mediocre programming into one doubly mediocre collection of shows. I mean, honestly, have you seen the ads for that Monster House show??

While i’d usually be all for mergers that brought competition (and therefore innovation) to a market with such a dominant player (Google), Google isn’t doing a while lot wrong for me to vote against them right now.