Hasta La Gadget!

Jasper, the next version of the Xbox 360 motherboard, has been leaked and apparently it comes with new unannounced goodies. Apart from the rumored 65nm graphics processing unit—the unit uses a 150W power supply, 25W less than before, which signals a lower consumption most probably caused by the reduced GPU footprint—the new units allegedly come with a new south bridge and, surprise surprise, a 256MB flash memory chip for internal storage.

According to Xbox Scene, the new 256MB chip will allow to install the entire new NXE dashboard without requiring the hard drive or any external flash memory unit. It will also allow you to store XLBA games, save gamesave information, or whatever you want. The rest of the motherboard layout stays the same, except for the RAM memory configuration, which changes from the previous version. [Xbox Scene]

We have a soft spot for genius comedian-actor-writer-gadget-juggler Stephen Fry here at the Giz. He speaks things as he sees them, as an end user, with his usual wit. Lately he has been playing with a BlackBerry Storm and, like our review, he thinks that it’s no you-know-who killer. In fact, he completely smashes it in his condensed Twitter review:

Been playing with the BB Storm. Shockingly bad. I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity.

Yes, I blame n’works more than RIM. Problems are terrible lag: inaccurate t’screen, awful, slow and fiddly text input. I SO wanted to like it.

Plus the GPS maps won’t work – issue with BIS connections. I see from forums postings this is widespread in the UK. iPhone killer? Ha!

Apparently, his views are so respected among gadget lovers in the Perfidious Albion that BBC’s dot.life Rory Cellan-Jones thinks he may crush Vodafone’s Storm marketing efforts on his own. Stephen has a different view, but agrees he may have an influence and reiterates his “throw it out the window” review of the Storm.

Crumbs Rory! Do I have the power to kill a gadget? Of course, like all pusillanimous people I enjoy the idea that I could make a gadget – but break one?

If I really thought my influence was that great it might make me a little wary of being quite so definite and it would probably force me to be more specific about all the features/pricing/services, as a responsible tech journalist should be. As it is, I hope people know I am no more than an enthusiastic, passionate amateur (I’m including the French sense of the word amateur – lover). It gives me no pleasure to be negative about the BB Storm and I know that many people have been looking forward to receipt of theirs and were very disheartened to hear my loud disappointment. But, honestly: play with the Storm for two days as I have and you will admire my patience at not throwing it out of the window… I do like the Bold though. Could live with that. But to return to your point. The net should make us all equal in our influence. Okay – more equal.

Having only played with a Storm for a few seconds at the office, I don’t have a solid verdict like him, Matt or Pogue (who also hates it). But my gut feeling is that if I had to use that clickety-clack touchscreen for two days, I would have not thrown it out the window. I would have crushed it with a hammer, then dip the remains in a sulphuric acid bucket, set it on fire. And then throw it out the window into the Hudson river. [BBD dot.life]

The biggest shopping day of the year is at hand and manufacturers are trying to spur TV sales by highlighting massive price markdowns online. In the last week, we’ve even seen some of the most discount-averse companies offer eye-opening sales of their best displays.

But with the economic recession on everyone’s mind, is anyone taking advantage of the discounts? Or are there deals out there that are just too good to pass up?

We’ve been watching the early Black Friday deals roll in and we can safely say that if you have the money to spend, you should definitely consider the top crop of displays. The bottom ones, well, not so much, even if it seems like a great deal to buy a massive 67-inch DLP TV for less than $2,000 (yes, we’ve changed our mind on that one).

These recommendations are based not only on the initial large price drops, but also with the understanding that when buying the TVs, you should make sure to get a 30-day price guarantee from the retailer, as we mentioned last week. Follow the (likely) continual price drops over the next month and you’ll be sure to get the best price without leaving your couch.

Check out a screenshot of our top TV deals below, and then check out our Google Docs spreadsheet with the larger list. We based our rankings on overall quality of the display, type (LCDs usally fare better than Plasmas in the near-term), and general savings. If you disagree with the rankings, let us know in the comments.

And if you find any new deals propping up on the net throughout the day (in between the gravy chugging), let us know and we’ll add it to the list.

It’s the weekend, and that can only mean one thing – it’s time to gorge yourself on the top multimedia tech treats from Stuff.tv

German firm set to slot Blu-ray playback into its upcoming range