Fullscreen capture 21052013 165115
microsoft
Watch the New Xbox Launch Live Right Here

Microsoft's dropping the new Xbox 6PM tonight (hopefully literally, that'd really liven proceedings up), and this being 2013, you can of course watch a live stream of proceedings. We'll also have live updates coming in a breathless fashion straight from the event, so set the corn to pop, stick yer feet up, and get ready to watch men in suits get hot and bothered about silicon and skin shaders. Read More >>

how-to-customer-service
how to
The Secret Tricks to Cut Through the Crap of Customer Service

Modern electronics can be fickle. With so many things to break, it's no surprise that one in four bits of consumer electronics gets returned to the manufacturer at some point in its life. But dealing with customer service is a nightmare of head-banging Greensleeves-playing call-centre torture, and if you're going to survive in that world, you'll need all the help you can get. Read More >>

google all access uk
how to
How to Get Google’s All Access Music in the UK, Right Now

Google has a new streaming music product, and that's all good and well, but it's only available in the US. We can't let the Yanks have all the fun, though, so here's how to suckle on the sweet, musical breast of Google from a UK IP address. Read More >>

android-developers
tweakmodo
The Dummy’s Guide to Android Rooting: Everything You Need to Know

Although we do our best to write comprehensive guides to rooting various Android phones, there are more handsets out there than we ever thought humanly possible. So, to give you a good starting point, we've put together a more general guide and jargon-buster, so that when some dick insults you on a forum, at least you'll know what he's saying. Read More >>

v2BL14_Dias_Medium_06
speakers
Bang & Olufsen’s New ‘Affordable’ Surround Sound System Looks Like an Army of Vengeful Metal Flowers

Normally, we wouldn't consider £2,500 to be affordable for a set of surround-sound speakers. But when said speakers come from Bang & Olufsen, legendary purveyors of stupidly expensive stuff, and they've got a rather exciting aluminium design, well, then we're cooking on gas. Read More >>

art-explainer-go
chatroom
The Tate’s Taking Away Explanatory Text Panels; How Screwed Are We?

I'll be honest: I'm terrible at interpreting modern art. A soup tin is, well, a soup tin, and I won't get an extistential experience out of looking at it unless there's a plaque next to it, explaining why it's a symbolic representation of the downfall of society. That's why I'm kinda bummed the Tate is taking down all their explanatory plaques, leaving interpretation up to you (and the audio guide, of course). Read More >>

Google-Glass
google glass
Google Glass Explorer: Marketing Brilliance, or a Brag Too Far?

Amidst the hubbub of the first wave of real people getting their hands on the fabled Google Glass, something's being ignored: the Explorer programme is a tech launch, done as we've never seen before. Thing is, it hasn't been a no-holds-barred success for Google. Read More >>

shutterstock_64165480-640x360 (1)
internet
Report: It’s Easy to Make Fibre Broadband Twice as Fast

Getting bummed 'cos you're only getting 80Mbps on your fibre-optic broadband line? Well, there's no need to do a Hyundai yet, because researchers reckon that we're only using around half of fibre's capacity at the moment, leaving a whole 'nother chunk of bandwidth ready for the advent of 4K 'movies'. Read More >>

crazy-woman
wtf
Pissed-Up BBC Radio DJ Gets Dragged Off Air

Leaving drinks are, of course, a tradition on your last day at work -- but it's advisable to start them after you're actually finished for the day. It's especially important to do so if you're the presenter of a local radio station. Read More >>

dolby atmos
monster machines
Dolby Atmos: The Incredible Prototype Cinema Behind the Future of Movie Sound

Tucked in a corner of Soho Square, cosied up against ad agencies and seemingly every media firm in London, is the London HQ of Dolby, who you may remember from the title credits of just about every film ever. Hiding in the heart of this otherwise-ordinary building, though, is arguably the coolest cinema in the country, created at enormous expense to demonstrate the next gen of cinema tech. Read More >>

star-wars-uk
movies
Next Star Wars Film Will Be Shot Here in the UK

An announcement from the well-known fantasy film maker George Osborne has revealed that owing to cunning tax breaks, the upcoming Disney-powered Star Wars will be shot in the UK. So we can rule out the Tattoine scenes then. Read More >>

root-galaxy-s4-guide-how-to
tweakmodo
How to Root the Samsung Galaxy S4

So, you've been all pioneering-Lone Ranger and dived headfirst into buying a Galaxy S4 -- good on ya. But before you get too settled, you should think about rooting and pimping that beast, to get the very best out of it. To help you along the way, we've got a dead-simple guide to hold your hand and show you exactly how to root -- it's probably easier than you think. Read More >>

google-chrome-blocked-extension-install
how to
Five Awesome Banned Chrome Extensions (and How to Install Them)

Occasionally, Google (and some of its users) don't quite see eye-to-eye. Extensions to Google Chrome which provide functions that are both legally and morally dubious fall into that category, which is why they generally get removed. But if your morals are loose and your scruples few and far between, you can still get at the forbidden fruit -- including Spotify downloads -- it just takes a bit of work. Read More >>

skynet-US-navy
military
The US Navy is Testing a Centralised Drone-Control System (A.K.A. Skynet)

'A centralised control computer for robots on land, air or sea' sounds suspiciously like the Terminator-wiki description of Skynet. But actually, it's just the SparkNotes version of the US Navy's latest test project, the Common Control System, which is going to kill us all. Read More >>

audiodesk
lightning review
La Boite Concept LD120 Speaker-Desk: So Beautiful Yet So Hipster

The La Boite Concept LD120 is a Bluetooth-powered desk with 120 watts of speaker packed inside. Made of real leather, piano wood and old-school tactile knobs, it's probably the most beautiful speaker you've ever laid eyes on, but at one-thousand-bleeding-quid, it's also damn expensive. Read More >>