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GameSpot: Sony PSP-3000 Hands-On

Sony announced its updated PSP-3000 system at last week’s Leipzig Games Convention. Pictures of the new system have already popped up online, but GameSpot has the first hands-on look at the new PSP at the United States.

GameSpot: Sony PSP-3000 Hands-On

Tags: SonyPSP-3000, PSP, PSP-2000

Tons of New Features with IE8

From: DailyTech

IE8 could give Opera and Firefox a run for their feature money

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) is the king of the hill when it comes to web browsers. That is despite the fact that many computer users feel IE is a much less usable browser than its main competitors like Opera and Firefox.

For instance, Microsoft was way behind its competitors adding features as basic as tabbed browsing, which only showed up in IE7. It appears that Microsoft is intent on making a browser that competes with the newer browsers on a much more complete basis feature wise with Internet Explorer 8.

IE8 will offer a wealth of new features starting with Activities. Activities allow you to open links to external web services within the context of a page you are looking at. If you are looking at the webpage for a store or restaurant, you could get driving directions with Live Maps or send the information to another web application.

Webslices is another new feature that allows users to subscribe and bring content on the links bar as they surf the web. IE8 also comes a long way on standards compliance and offers three different rendering modes — Quirks mode, Strict mode, and IE8 standards mode. Quirks mode supports IE5 and legacy browsers, strict mode supports IE7 and is accessed through an emulate IE7 button.

IE8 is compliant with cascading style sheets (CSS) 2.1 and offers HTML improvements intended to fix cross browser inconsistencies. IE8’s get/set/remove attributes are now compatible with other browsers and default attributes for HTML are supported. IE8 also includes integrated developer tools. This will allow web developers to debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a visual development environment included with the web browser.

CNET News reports that IE8 Beta 1 has some significant new security features. One of the features is a cross-site scripting filter. Microsoft says this is one of the first scripting filters on a mainstream browser. This feature is meant to protect a user from a malicious webpage that tries to execute a script on a user’s browser without them knowing. When a page requests a cross-site script to be executed, IE8 changes the content on the web page being viewed with a notice that the script wants to run. When IE8 recognizes a malicious script, it keeps the script from executing.

Another significant new feature is called InPrivate. The feature allows users to browse the internet without having IE8 cache the content being viewed. When the function is activated, you can keep the rest of your browsing history intact. IE8 also adds ActiveX components security, which eliminates drive-by downloads. IE8 has Microsoft malware protection built-in — a feature that Opera and other competitors feature.

One of the best new features of IE7 was the addition of tabbed browsing. IE8 takes tabbed browsing to the next level for Microsoft. IE8 will also users to reopen the last few tabs that were closed. This is a great feature if you have ever accidentally closed a tab while working. Tabs opened from the same page are also color coded to make keeping groups of tabs easier. IE8 also offers the ability for the browser to suggest new websites similar to the websites you have previously viewed. The option is turned off by default.

IE8 competitor Firefox set a record for the most downloads in 24 hours when its latest version launched recently.

Tags: IE8, activities, internet explorer, firefox, opera, browser

Sony unveils 240Hz LCD TV

Hold your breath until December (in the US), because that’s when Sony’s 240Hz LCD TVs will be available to the public. Currently LCD TVs are topping out at 120Hz for consumers, and that’s already a significant improvement in speed over the standard 50-60Hz of normal (for want of a better term) LCD TVs. The new 240Hz technology promises to provide the smoothest, most lifelike, movement ever from an LCD TV and will be great for gamers using next-gen consoles especially. We’re still a little concerned about 240Hz with movies though. As it is 120Hz makes TV and movies look a little fake.

The 240Hz technology will be available in the KDL-46W1 and KDL-40W1 that boasts full-HD, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, BRAVIA Engine 2 and 24p support.

This isn’t the only big step forward from Sony though, they have also shown off the KDL-40ZX1 LCD TV that is just 9.9mm thick. It’s not thin on features though. With BRAVIA Engine 2, 120Hz technology and 3,000:1 contrast ration, imagine having one of these bad boys in your room!

We have no doubt Sony’s 240Hz models will make our top ten list of gaming TVs when they are launched, but until then, check out the current top ten list here.