It’s about that time again – the time when we like to squeeze the morning’s biggest tech stories into a bite-sized chunk for your eyes to devour while your mouth devours a bowl of soup/BLT/Meatball Marinara (delete as applicable). Yep, it’s the lunchtime lowdown!
January, 2009
Eidos has announced that it has received a preliminary acquisition bid for the company, which holds the rights to the iconic Tomb Raider series. The UK publisher has stated that talks are at “a very early stage” and hasn’t yet revealed the name of its suitor.
UPDATE: Sony is rumoured to be planning on buying out Ericsson. Does it want to release a PSP phone by itself?
Sony Ericsson loves slapping those well-known Sony sub-brands on its phones – hence the Cyber-shot cam-phones and Walkman music phones – but according to Mobile Today they won’t be doing the same with the PlayStation name. Why not? Because Sony won’t allow it, that’s why not.
The report claims that Sony Ericsson had made a pitch to the Sony board in an attempt to get a PSP phone in development, but that the board refused to sanction the use of the PlayStation brand – prompting a bit of a fall out between the two parties.
Freeview TV on the move? It’s nearing reality on netbooks and mobile Internet devices thanks to a new chip from Telegent Systems, which makes receiving and rendering live TV of any format you care to mention a doddle.
A material that can bend electromagnetic radiation could lead to improved mobile reception in built up areas, according to a new study.
Okay, it’s about as vague and speculative as rumours can get and we reccommend you take it with Liberty City sized tower of salt but this rumour is one that any GTA fan will be eager to hear… A brand new, full-sized Grand Theft Auto game could be out in time for Christmas 2009.
Think of it as supercharged 3G, or the next generation of HSDPA. Vodafone is looking to push mobile broadband into the speed-o-sphere by trialling HDPA+, which uses multiple antennae in order to serve up download speeds of up to 16Mbps. That’s more than double the 7.2Mbps downloads Vodafone currently offers its mobile broadband customers.
Of course, this is just a trial, and Vodafone admits that in reality speeds will probably top out at 13Mbps “in good conditions” and average out at just over 4Mbps in most places. Not quite as impressive as 16Mbps, sure, but not bad all the same.
We’re not quite sure why they didn’t do this at CES, but Panasonic has lifted the lid on no less than four new compact digital cameras: the FS6, FS7, FS15 and LS85.
The FS6 and FS7 are slim snappers with 8.1 and 10.1 megapixels respectively. Both have an F2.8 Leica DC lens and 4x optical zoom, plus the usual mix of tech wizardry including Face Detection, an optical image stabiliser to reduce blur from hand-shake, and Intelligent Scene Selector to automatically adjust the settings for whatever situation you’re about to shoot in. Both are out in February, with prices to be confirmed.