We take each week's best rumours from around the world and list them here in the Weekly Rumour Mill. This week, more companies trying netbooks, crazy takeover rumours, Apple cutting prices, and a PSP redesign.
Sony to take on the Eee PC?
Known for making the slickest (and most expensive) ultra-portables on the market, Sony may be changing tact and going ultra-cheap. Rumoured to be using components built by Foxconn, a report in the Twainese Economic Daily News speculates Sony are well on their way towards mass production of a netbook device
Apple to debut a netbook too?
Don’t get too excited, it’s probably not going to qualify as ultra cheap. But a macbook under $1000? That’s more likely, according to the writers over at CNN money, who are predicting the price cut later this year. Yes, it’s cool to be cheap again (but not if you're trying to afford the latest iPhone plans
But if not a netbook, then this rumoured Mac tablet looks stunning, and could be released as early as october, says Macdailynews.
And a HP netbook, that isn't the Mini-note 2133?
So, the release of the Mini-Note 2133 didn’t exactly set our pulses racing. Our first look showed it to be excessively hot, overly priced and lacking performance. But we still love that keyboard!
At a recent HP product launch, HP product bosses hinted at firm development plans to bring an Eee PC styled netbook to market later this year. And while decidedly coy about the news, they did say it would be significantly cheaper than the Mini-Note and may use the new Atom chipset.
A new version of the PSP? The PSP 3000? Sweet
Last week we reported on the news that one writer was predicting the impending death of the PSP. But with this news, his ranting now sounds crazier than a talking horse, and instead, it looks like just the opposite may be occurring: a glorious PSP revival.
Kotaku are showing what are purported to be leaked photos of the new PSP 3000. And then, there's a source over at the China BSB forums who is claiming (in Chinese) that the new PSP will be released just in time for the Christmas holiday shopping bonanza this year.
Details of the new PSP 3000 include a thinner, smaller body with an imbedded microphone; perfect for skyping. But seriously – they’re going to relaunch the PSP with just an extra microphone? What about GPS at the very least?
Well, it’s lucky you asked because,
PSP to launch GPS
According to an interview with Sony’s senior marketing manager, John Koller, we can expect to see a GPS add-on for the PSP next year and even cooler, the release of GPS enabled games. Although, for the life of us – we can’t think of a single obvious reason why you’d actually need GPS functionality in a game. Any ideas? Maybe this site is good hint of things to come next year.
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Mass Effect for Xbox only – debunked
An international geek brawl over the plan to release Mass Effect exclusively as an Xbox trilogy has been traced back to an Australian Xbox360 site, which claimed the dubious rumour in an interview with BioWare boss Ray Muzyka.
A recent update by the guys over at Gamedaily suggests the comments were taken out of context and have been since debunked as hogwash by a Bioware rep.
Nokia’s secret iPhone weapon – leaked?
Leaked images from the interface of the Nokia S60 phone have surfacedshowing what some are calling the big future challenge to the iPhone, with features such as “Wi-Fi, 640x360 resolution and a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash”, according to the report.
Of course, every phone with a decent touchscreen is being heralded as the next iPhone killer these days and nothing even close to the iPhone’s touch perfect functionality has made it through the market unscathed as yet.
Awesomely powerful Nvidia graphics card set for release?
Well, that’s the way we’re seeing it based on the ‘so called’ specs of the rumoured Nvidia GTX 350.
It’s probably a fake, but we thought it would be interesting to imagine how good the card could be if it was released. The rumoured specs include (among others): GT300 core, 55nm technology, 512bit and DDR5 2GB memory, doubling the GTX280 model. That’s one pretty piece of hardware!