Microsoft have confirmed that the Xbox One's new and improved Kinect sensor will be made available to Windows PC users.

Speaking to ShackNews, Kinect's program manager Scott Evans revealed that Microsoft "will bring [Kinect] to PC", stating that more details would be brought to light "soon".

The Windows PC community of hackers proved invaluable to the original Kinect - while gamers were jaded with the peripheral's lack of accuracy and poor software support, the PC community of Kinect owners found many memorable and potentially useful applications for the technology.

While no firm release date for Kinect 2.0 for PC has been given (unsurprising considering we are still waiting on a firm release date for the Xbox One console itself), if the release timing of the first model is anything to go by, expect to see the new sensor made available to PC users within its first year of release.

Now able to process as much as 2Gbits of data a second, the new Kinect's camera will also be able to recognise more advanced gestures and movements. Capturing 1080p video and recognising more advanced skeletal maps with more joints and articulation points, the sensor's voice recognition technology has been updated to allow for more conversational control commands to be stated.

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Xbox One - Everything you need to know: All the official specs, features, release date

Nvidia have finally revealed pricing and pre-order details on their intriguing gaming device, the Project Shield.

Now known simply as the Shield, it will be up for pre-order from May 20, priced at $349 in the States. A straight conversion to Great British Pounds puts that at around £230, but we'd imagine it to be a little more expensive than that come its UK launch.

Looking much like a games controller with a fold-up 5-inch 720p touchscreen display, the Shield runs off a Tegra 4 SoC processor (classed as the fastest ARM chip in the world), alongside 16GB of on board storage. With Android it's operating system, it'll run any game on the Google Play store without a hitch.

What's most interesting however is the system's ability to stream high-end games from a Windows PC to the Shield, letting you play the likes of Skyrim or Bioshock Infinite away from your desktop machine in the palms of your hands. You'll need a compatible top-end Nvidia graphics card to do it, but it's likely an investment that hardcore PC gamers will be very interested in.

Either Acer have struck gold with their freshly-revealed Aspire R7 laptop / tablet hybrid, or they've gone crazy.

A drastic re-imagining of the laptop, it's an ultrabook/tablet hybrid that features an incredibly flexible screen and an unusual trackpad placement, putting it behind rather than in-front of the keyboard.

"With the Aspire R7, Acer has redesigned the notebook with an approach that's based on how people interact with their PCs and devices," said Oliver Ahrens, president, Acer Europe.

"Its progressive design redefines the computing experience, so whether consumers are touching or typing, the R7 adapts to allow consumers to create, browse and share content in ways they never have before."

It's certainly a bold move. With a 15.6-inch touchscreen sitting on what Acer describe as an "Ezel Hinge", the R7 can be used in four different ways. There's the standard notebook set up, working like a clamshell laptop, a "Display mode" that sees the screen used like a standing tent for playing back movies and sharing presentations, a "Pad mode" that sees the touchscreen rotate so that it faces up when closed over the keyboard like a convertible laptop or tablet, and the unusual "Ezel Mode".

When in Ezel Mode, the R7's touchscreen controls are pushed to the fore, with the screen lurching over the keyboard on its arm-like hinge. Hence the unusual trackpad placement, with Acer believing you'll more likely use the touchscreen controls (and by extension, this set-up) than the trackpad in a standard configuration, preferring to give unrestricted access to the entire keyboard.

The specs under the hood sound pretty impressive too. As well as that 15.6-inch Full HD touschscreen, you've got an Intel Core i5 processor, as much as 12GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive or an optional 256GB SSD. The keyboard is backlit, while the chassis hold a HDMI port, an SD card reader, audio jacks and three USB ports, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Sound is provided by four 8 watt speakers.

It's definitely bonkers, and we're a little bit in love as a result. Windows 8 really comes into its own when used with touch controls, but no PC manufacturer has come up with a satisfying way to make touchscreen controls comfortable on a laptop-like machines. This looks like it could be a really smart answer to the problem.

Hitting stores in June, you'll be able to pick the Acer Aspire R7 up from a starting price of £899.

Nvidia's Titan graphics card is a beast of a GPU, not only because of its power, but also thanks to its £800 RRP. And despite only being revealed at the start of the year, it looks as though it's already about to be superseded by a new batch of high-end cards from Nvidia.

Though the Nvidia GeForce GTX 700 series was thought to be launching in 2014, Tom's Hardware are now reporting that it may launch a hell of lot sooner. As soon as this month in fact.

Those hoping that the GeForce GTX 700 series would follow the relatively-affordable pricing structure given to the 600 series could be in for a shock though.

According to the report, the top end GTX 780 card will be closer to the £800 mark than the £400 pricing first rumoured.

That's said to be because the card will be based on the same GK110 silicon found inside Titan. Which begs the question, what now for Titan? Already an anomaly in Nvidia's catalogue, is it being put out to pasture so soon? It's looking likely that it was now always planned as a testing ground for the 700 series.

We'll be keeping a close eye on what Nvidia get up to in the next couple of weeks, and will bring you all the official news as we get it.

You can read our full Titan review by clicking here.

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MiiPC, the Kickstarter-funded, family-orientated Android PC, is to offer a spec bump for backers based on the demands of those who've pledged to support the machine.

The mini computer will now also be available with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage space (up from 1GB/4GB respectively) for just an extra $15 dollars to those who back the campaign before it closes in a week's time, showing just how much influence crowd-funding backers can have over the development of such a product.

Young Soung, Founder of MiiPC, explains: "Throughout the campaign our backers have enquired as to whether they can upgrade the memory of their MiiPC, and we have been listening. We are very excited to offer the double memory option to all of our Kickstarter backers and new backers alike at an affordable price, for those who want to get more performance headroom with their MiiPC devices".

Based on a modified version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the PC hooks up to an external monitor over HDMI and is designed to be used in a desktop scenario, playing nicely with a keyboard and mouse set-up. Parents can use a companion mobile app to keep a close eye on what their children are getting up to on the PC.

The MiiPC has reached nearly triple their original funding goal of $50,000 with just under a week to go. Costing $89 for the basic model (around £60), early-bird backers can expect to recieve their MiiPC by July of this year.

A new line of MacBook Pro computers packing in Intel's next-generation Haswell processors are tipped to be the headline hardware act at Apple's WWDC 2013 event.

That's according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities in a note (acquired by Apple Insider), whose usually pretty accurate with his predictions, also stating that a new version of Mac OS X is likely to feature alongside the new computing hardware at the Moscone Center.

Apart from a spec-bump, Kuo doesn't expect to see any design shake-ups hit the line - Retina MacBook's will still be slim and sans optical drive, while the regular MacBook Pro will hold onto the disc drive.

The Intel chip rumour makes sense; a worthy year-on-year upgrade over last year's Ivy Bridge models, with the Haswell line being revealed on June 3rd, a week ahead of WWDC 2013.

As for the rumoured MacBook Air computers with high-resolution Retina displays, Kuo suggests we shouldn't hold our breath. More likely is a first look at iOS 7, Apple's mobile operating system, which is well overdue a revamp considering the shaky launch of iOS 6. Under Jony Ive's new leadership, it could be an interesting upgrade for the iPhone/ iPad operating system.

WWDC 2013, aimed at developers working on Apple platforms, sold out in just two minutes last week, with the 5,000 person capacity event shifting all of its $1,599 tickets.

Looking to court business users who need both a laptop and a tablet, can't be bothered packing both into their neat little briefcases, Toshiba are preparing to launch the Portégé Z10t, an 11.6-inch detachable ultrabook/tablet hybrid.

Running Windows 8 with a 10-point multitouch full HD screen, the Portégé Z10t can convert into a more portable tablet with the press of a button, detaching the touchscreen from its full-size keyboard base.Offering the "latest Intel processors for Ultrabook" (we'll give you specifics once we get them), the machine will be available in configurations with variable-sized SSD storage depending on wallet size, 1 USB 3.0 port on the tablet and 2 USB 2.0 ports on the keyboard base, HDMI out, Bluetooth 4.0, optional Wi-Di screen sharing and a HSPA/LTE module.

Being aimed at enterprise users, Toshiba are pushing the machine's security features heavily too, with Intel Anti-Theft and vPro features protecting against unauthorised access and offering remote device disabling controls.

Toshiba will also be offering a sold-separately DigitizerPen stylus, letting you sketch notes on the screen and have them turned into typed, digital text through the machine's handwriting recognition software.

Hitting UK stores in Q2 2013, there's no word yet on pricing. We'll keep you posted.

Pricing has leaked for Intel's next-generation Haswell architecture processors. Set to replace the Ive Bridge generation, a June launch for the chips is expected to bring 10 percent sequential CPU performance increase, twice the vector processing performance, and as much as double the GPU performance over predecessors.

The prices (coming courtesy of VR Zone Chinese), are yet to be confirmed by Intel, but give a hint at what to expect for the boxed retail editions. If accurate, they seem more or less in line with the pricing established by the Ivy Bridge generation processors. The leaked prices are as follows:

• Core i7 4770K - 3.5GHz (3.9GHz) (84W) - $327


• Core i7 4770 - 3.5GHz (3.9GHz) (84W) - $292


• Core i7 4770S - 3.1GHz (3.9GHz) (65W) - $285


• Core i5 4670K - 3.4GHz (3.8GHz) (84W) - $227


• Core i5 4670 - 3.4GHz (3.8GHz) (84W) - $209


• Core i5 4570 - 3.2GHz (3.6GHz) (84W) - $189


• Core i5 4570S - 3.0GHz (3.6GHz) (65W) - $182


• Core i5 4430 - 3.0GHz (3.2GHz) (84W) - $175

If prices are to reflect a direct conversion rate in UK Pounds, that puts the top Core i7 4770K model at £214 and the lower Core i5 4430 at £115. The prices are also said to be excluding US tax, so factor that in too.

If the leak is indeed the real deal, we'd urge those looking to upgrade their processors to hold off a few months. For a slightly longer wait, the Haswell chips will offer improved performance and greater efficiency for what seems to be little-to-no extra cost. Even the prices leaked here prove to be too low, waiting either way until the Haswell launch will see Ivy Bridge generation chips fall in price.

Name: Nvidia GeForce Titan

Type: DirectX 11 compatible graphics card

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price as reviewed: From £839

Housing the most powerful single GPU in the world, the Nvidia GeForce Titan card is an absolute beast. But is its graphical grunt a match for the dual GPU GTX 690, especially considering its extraordinarily high cost? Check out our full review to find out!

Nvidia's GeForce Titan takes the company's £2,800 Tesla K20 "supercomputer" board and reworks it for a luxury consumer market. Dubbed the GK110, it's got a stonking price tag, with the card selling for upwards of £800. That's twice the price of Nvidia's next-best single GPU card, the GTX 680. Can it justify it?

Key Specs

CUDA Cores: 2688
Core Clock: 837 MHz
Boost Clock: 876 MHz
Texture Fill Rate: 187.5 Gigatexels/sec
Memory Amount: 6GB GDDR5
Memory Data Rate, effective: 6.0 Gbps
Memory Interface: 384-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 288.4 GB/sec
Power & Thermal: 250 W
On-board Outputs: DL-DVI-I, DL-DVI-D, HDMI, DisplayPort
Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0
Size: 10.5" x 4.37", dual-slot

Put the Titan against the GTX 680 and you can quickly see what that extra money is going on, with 2688 CUDA cores in the Titan (with 896 double precision cores that can be switched on and off in the Nvidia control panel for intense computing tasks) against 1536 in the GTX 680. Onboard RAM is tripled too in the Titan to 6GB of GDDR5 against the GTX 680's 2GB, while bandwidth leaps from a 256-bit bus in the GTX 680 to a 384-bit interface in the Titan.

If the Titan is looking flabby by comparison anywhere, it's in terms of clock speeds - the Titan has a core clock of 837 MHz and a boost clock of 876 MHz, while the GTX 680 has a core clock of 1006 MHz and boost of 1058 MHz. With the Titan the larger chip, it'd inevitably run at incredible temperatures if clock speeds weren't dialled back a bit, which would render the system unstable if not kept in check.

We've been running the Titan in a PC Specialist Vanquish Prodigy Titan pre-built system (Core i7 3770k @ 4.4GHz, 8GB RAM), which you can pick up here for £1799.

Benchmarking

3D Mark 11 Graphics Score:
Titan - 4530
GTX 680 - 3031

3D Mark Fire Strike Graphics Score:
Titan - 4571
GTX 680 - 3122

Gaming Framerates

Throwing the dual-GPU GTX 690 into the mix, the GTX 680, GTX 690 and Titan all make mincemeat of 1080p gaming benchmarking tests. The following benchmarks therefore are performed at maximum DirectX 11 graphics settings at 2560x1600 resolutions.

Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11 tessellation FPS performance (higher is better)
GTX Titan: 56
GTX 690: 70.3
GTX 680 : 40

Batman: Arkham Asylum FPS performance (higher is better)
GTX Titan: 99
GTX 690: 105.4
GTX 680: 66

Sleeping Dogs FPS performance (higher is better)
GTX Titan: 34
GTX 690: 39.3
GTX 680: 23.3

The Titan seems less powerful than the GTX 690, which is capable across the board of higher benchmarks. However, the GTX 690 is a dual GPU card, and with it you'll have to contend with SLI scaling and SLI profiles, not to mention microstutter issues and the usually-lengthy wait for driver optimisation. Weighing up whether or not the GTX 690 performance boost and cheaper price wins out over the convenience of the Titan isn't an easy question to answer. Titan's increased 6GB VRAM compared to the 2x 2GB of VRAM in the GTX 690 could prove useful over time as higher resolutions become the standard, while it's significantly less power hungry than the GTX 690, running cooler (and thus quieter) too. Likewise, running two GTX 680 cards in SLI is a marginally more affordable way to reach similar heights (potentially faster too depending on your set-up and overclocking courage), providing you've got the power and cooling necessary to keep things stable.

If the Titan can't always manage double the speed of the GTX 680 at roughly double the price however, what you're left with is really a niche product. The convenience of the single GPU will likely mean it's most often found in pre-built systems, the sort of "money is no object" set ups that wealthy PC gamers with no desire to go under the hood are courted by. Enabling the double precision CUDA cores will make this a very attractive card for 3D modellers on a tight budget though, with the card's supercomputer heritage putting its computing pedigree to the fore.

Verdict:

An impressive card, wrestling with whether or not the Titan is worthy of its high price is an argument you're going to have to sit and have a long, hard think about. There's unlikely to be a single GPU that comes anywhere near the Titan for sometime, but those looking to save a fair few quid and are prepared to work an SLI set-up into their build may get more bang for their buck.

Crucial Ballistix Elite 16GB RAM

Type: Memory upgrade

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price as reviewed: £128.39 direct from Crucial

A power-user's dream, Crucial's Ballistix Elite RAM packs offer great overclocking potential and neat temperature management. Check our findings on the 16GB pack in our full review.

Aside from installing an SSD into your ageing desktop PC, there are a few better upgrades that can be made than by popping a few extra gigs of RAM into your machine. While 4GB of RAM is enough for the average user, anyone looking to do some hardcore gaming or video processing work should be looking to squeeze in as much RAM as they can possibly manage.

For PC gamers, 8GB has been the standard for the last few years, with the current crop of console's relative lack of memory leading to constrained RAM requirements for console-to-PC game ports. However, with the next generation of consoles on the horizon, complete with improved RAM allowances, it's only a matter or time before 8GB is the bare minimum. 16GB of RAM now looks to be the safest future-proofing option for enthusiast PC gamers looking to smoothly play the next few year's top games.

To this end, we've been testing out Crucial's 16GB DDR3 Ballistix Elite RAM pack, made up of two 8GB sticks, and aimed at overclocking enthusiasts with the most stringent of performance requirements.

With high-end PC cases as much an excuse to showcase your components aesthetically as in terms of performance, we'll spare a quick paragraph on the looks of the sticks. Black PCBs with a mirrored strip on front edge, the Elite has a sizeable finned heat spreader that stands quite tall, making for a tight-squeeze into small form factor cases or those already busily crammed with components.

Stock speeds and voltages are phenomenal. Using two 8GB modules, you'd expect to see higher timings and voltages at slower speeds, but this dual-channel kit rings in at 1866 MHz with flat timings of 9-9-9 at just 1.5v. At this level the Elite is already performing admirably, but it wasn't particularly difficult to get the modules at 2133 MHz at 9-9-9 timings with the Vdimm at 1.65. Tighter clock speeds at lower frequencies didn't cause much of a problem either.

Those heat spreaders work a charm too, keeping ambient temperatures down even when the voltages were pushed. Crucial's Ballistix MOD temperature tracking software never wen't above 30C even when pushed hard.

As far as a RAM upgrade goes, the Elite isn't exactly the cheap options, but it's definitely among the more powerful and flexible module packs you can buy, which enthusiasts tinkerers will appreciate.

Verdict:

Crucial's Ballistix Elite 16GB pack is a lot of money, but money well spent. If you're looking to future-proof your system's RAM for the next few years, there's few module packs we'd recommend more highly, if any.

The worldwide PC market may be shrinking, but just one company controls almost half the profits for the entire industry. It's not market leader HP, and it's not even Dell. It's Apple, whose range of MacBooks, iMacs and Mac computers account for 45% of the profits of the entire PC market.

While the machines may sell in smaller volumes than those of competitors Dell and HP, Apple's computers benefit from a more efficient supply chain, a well-branded small portfolio of machines and premium pricing.

"The real problem for the PC vendors is not that they have such low margins," said Horace Dediu of research firm Asymco.

"They've had low margins for decades. It's that the volumes which 'made up for' low margins are disappearing."

Indeed, the latest shipment figures from IDC and Gartner both showed that Apple too had seen a drop in the overall volume of sales of their Mac devices, in part cannibalised by sales of their own massively popular iPad tablet line.

"Apple is not immune to a gradual erosion of Mac volumes, but they have positioned themselves for growth with devices and content commerce and services.

"They have essentially "escaped" PCs and indeed caused the need to escape in the first place."

Alienware, one of the world's leading gaming PC hardware manufacturers, has revealed a new variant of its Alienware X51 gaming PCs that comes complete with Canonical's Ubuntu Linux operating system.

Designed for the living room through its small form-factor, with its original Windows-based release revealed last January, the console-sized Linux machine is powered by a dual-core or quad-core Intel Core i3/i5/i7 microprocessor and Nvidia GeForce GT 645 or GTX 660 graphics card with 1GB/1.5GB of memory.

Configuration options include up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, a 2TB hard drive and an optical Blu-ray drive, with prices landing between $599 and $1049 (£390 and £682) depending on build. By comparison, the Windows-based versions of the X51 start at $699.

The computer's release is particularly interesting given the rumours surrounding a Steam Box console from Valve. Valve, developers of the Half-Life, Left 4 Dead and Portal games, as well s being the influential team behind popular PC gaming download store Steam, have revealed that they are working on their own small-form-factor PC aimed at the living room, dubbed the Steam Box. Like this new Alienware release, it's said to be using a Linux OS, and Valve will be encouraging third-party hardware manufacturers to release their own-branded Steam Box units, as was seen with the Xi3 Piston.

The use of Linux and Ubuntu stems from Valve boss Gabe Newell's distrust of Microsoft's Windows 8 platform, something he called "a disaster" (likely due to the way it encourages gamers to buy game's through Microsoft's stores as opposed to his own).

Alienware seem keen to support the possible Steam Box boom. See this as the company testing the water ahead of the expected influx of third-party Steam Box machines later in the year, and don't be surprised if you see an Alienware machine launch specifically under the Steam Box banner.

There's a neat all-in-one Windows 8 PC from Medion doing the rounds at Asda at the moment, letting you pop a computer in your trolley along with your "big shop" groceries.

A budget all-in-one that has sharp looks if basic internal hardware, the Medion Akoya P2004 is a 23.6-inch non-touch machine packing all its processing tech into the back of the Full HD 1080p screen.

A dual-core 3.2GHz Core i3 processor backed by 4GB of RAM won't set the world on fire, while the 1TB hard drive and DVD burner are standard features.

The cost however is pretty reasonable, landing at £499.99 with a 24 month warranty as an Asda supermarket exclusive. That's Asda price.

The full specs list is as follows:

* Model MEDION AKOYA P2004
* CPU 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i3-3220 Processor
* Panel 23,6" screen with Full HD 1080p and LED backlight technology - non touch
* Graphic Intel® HD graphics 2500 (on board)
* Chipset Intel® H61 Express Chipset
* Memory 4096 MB DDR3 RAM
* HDD 1000 GB HDD - SATA
* Webcam 1,0 MP Webcam incl. Microphone
* Optical Drive Multiformat DVD/CD Burner with DVD-RAM and dual layer support1
* Sound 6 Channel Audio
* Wireless LAN Wireless LAN 802.11 n Standard included
* Connectivity Rear: 2x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, 1x HDMI In, 1x HDMI out, 1x Mic in, 1x Line out, 1x LAN in. Side: 2x USB 2.0, 1x Mic in, 1x Headphone, 7-in-1 Multi-card reader3
* Keyboard/Mice Wireless Keyboard and optical Mouse
* Operating System Microsoft Windows 8 64 Bit
* Office Software Office 365 Home Premium (one-month free trial version) - Buy Microsoft Office to activate the full range of functions in Office software.
* Application Software 1 CBL W8 DVD Combo (DT-A) Software Pack
* Anti-Virus Software Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 (90 Day Trial)[4]
* Warranty/Service 24 Months Warranty

PC shipments worldwide continue to slide in the wake of the tablet and smartphone revolution, with the first quarter of 2013 seeing only 76.3 million machines ship, resulting in the PC market's biggest ever decline.

IDC, which has tracked PC shipments since 1994, saw the number of devices shipped fall 13.9% over the same quarter in 2012; a far greater decline than the 7.7% forecasted.

Defining PCs as desktops, portables, notebooks and workstations (but not x86 servers or tablets), HP stayed on top as the leading vendor with a 15.7% marketshare. But even that was as part of a 23.7% decline in shipments overall compared to the previous year. Lenovo saw now growth in second place with a 15.3% market share, while Dell sat in third with an 11.8% market share and a 10.9% overall decline. Acer suffered massively, sitting in fourth place with an 8.1% marketshare and hit with a whopping 31.3% decline overall. ASUS round out the top five with a 5.7% marketshare and a 19.2% drop in growth.
"Although the reduction in shipments was not a surprise, the magnitude of the contraction is both surprising and worrisome," said David Daoud at IDC.

"The industry is going through a critical crossroads, and strategic choices will have to be made as to how to compete with the proliferation of alternative devices and remain relevant to the consumer."

While tablet and smartphone sales take most of the blame for the decline, poor marketing of Windows 8 is also raised as a potential factor by IDC.

"While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices," said Bob O'Donnell at IDC.

However, even tablet market leaders Apple with the iPad have seen the tablet market spike have an adverse effect on their own computer sales. At the company's Christmas-season earnings call the company say Mac sales sitting at 4.1 million, down from 5.2 million the previous quarter.

Apple may be preparing to update their Mac line of computers with a new super-fast Wi-Fi standard, according to coding uncovered in the beta release of the forthcoming OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4 update.

Devs speaking to 9to5Mac have spotted code in the OS's Wi-Fi framework that references the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which wasn't present in OS X 10.8.3, the current public release.

The 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is faster and more stable than current Wi-Fi offerings, and it is thought that Apple are teaming up with Broadcom to put new Wi-Fi tech that can capitalise on it in forthcoming machines. Broadcom can provide gear capable of 1.3Gbps throughput with three antennas to take advantage of the standard.

According to Broadcom, it'll offer extended range as well as the ability "to watch HD-quality video from more devices, in more places, simultaneously".

Apple would be following ASUS's lead, who employed the new Wi-Fi standard in their ASUS ROG G75VW gaming laptop last year.

It's not clear yet whether the technology is ready for a wide-spread roll-out, but with a MacBook refresh due in the coming months, it seems that Apple are at least keeping their options open with the technology.

Three British members of the LulzSec "hacktivist" hacking circle, responsible for cyber attacks on the Sony, Nintendo, the NHS, CIA, 20th Century Fox and News International, have pleaded guilty to computer hacking charges.

Ryan Akroyd, 26, admitted to the Southwark Crown Court to one count of carrying out an unauthorised act to impair the operation of a computer during the spree of attacks that rocked the web back in 2011. Akroyd would have faced a trial for the above offences.

Speaking of Akroyd, Crown Prosecutor Prosecutor Sandip Patel told the court: "He was the hacker, so to speak; they turned to him for his expertise as a hacker."

Also pleading guilty were co-defendants Mustafa Al-Bassam, 18, and Jake Davis, 20, also known in hacking circles as Topiary.

Sentencing will be laid down on May 14.

The latest LulzSec developments follow the arrest and charging of Ryan Cleary, 21, who pled guilty to six computer hacking charges last June.

The Mac Pro was once the powerhouse of the Apple computing family, but has over the years fallen out of favour in Cupertino as shiny Retina MacBook Pro laptops and slimline iMac all-in-one desktops have stolen the limelight, alongside a mobile and tablet focus. They've gone without a major update for some years now (barring the odd minor spec bump), but that may be set to change in the coming weeks.

Mac Daily News are reporting that Apple is planning an April reveal for an all new Mac Pro model. Stating that this reveal could potentially slip to May or June depending on production successes, the site is quoting a trusted tipster. However, there are no details on the form of the new Mac Pro, be that a continuation of the tower design or something else entirely.

It's been a troubled few months for the Mac Pro line. New regulatory requirements have seen the machine banned from sale in Europe, as unprotected fan blades make it potentially hazardous. A new model addressing this issue could be reason enough for Apple to speed up the reveal process.

Apple has also reportedly told resellers on the continent looking to sell the machine once more that a significant update to combat the new regulations is on the way, due by Spring 2013. It seems now would be the perfect moment for Apple to unleash the new Mac Pro.

Nvidia are making aggressive moves in the budget end of the PC gaming graphics card market today, introducing the Nvidia 650 Ti Boost card. Less than a week since the unveiling of the rival new AMD HD 7790, it seems Nvidia are in no mood to lose any ground to their competitor.

The third card with the GTX 650 prefix (sitting between the GTX 650 and GTX 650 Ti), the Boost offers 782 CUDA cores, a base clock of 980MHz and a TDP of 140W. That up from 769 CUDA cores , a base clock of 928MHz and a TDP of 110W on the GTX 650 Ti.
By Nvidia's own admission, the lower end of their Kepler range hasn't quite hit the performance heights intended from the architecture, but with closed door tests promising constant 62pfs at 1080p for Blizzard's new Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm on its highest visual settings (and apparently even besting the AMD Radeon 7850 in some tests), and it looks like the sweet spot has finally been found.

Add in two-way SLI capabilities and the budget gamer is on to a winner.

Two configurations will be on offer from the GTX 650 Ti Boost. A 1GB edition will cost £124, while the superior 2GB model costs a fraction more at £144. 2GB builds from ASUS, EVGA, Gainward, KFA2, Gigabyte, Inno 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY, Point of View, and Zotac are available immediately, with the 1GB version launching in early April.

A new Kickstarter campaign is aiming to launch a family-friendly Android-based PC.

The MiiPC project is looking for $50,000 (round £33,000) of funding to launch the pint-sized $89 (circa £60) computer.

Based on a modified version of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the PC hooks up to an external monitor over HDMI and is designed to be used in a desktop scenario, playing nicely with a keyboard and mouse set-up.

Where the MiiPC gets really interesting is with its parental controls: parents will be able to set up multiple accounts on the device (tied into the Android app ecosystem) and monitor exactly how much time their children are spending on the computer, setting up limits and restricting access to inappropriate items.

A companion mobile app is also planned, allowing parents to remotely stream exactly what's being done on the MiiPC at any time and restricting access to apps and websites on the go. Interestingly, the app is showed in the launch video below running on an iPhone rather than an Android smartphone.

"MiiPC came out of my experience with my two kids," said Young Song, co-founder of eMachines and MiiPC mastermind.

"We think the Internet has opened up all sorts of possibilities and I love that my children have access to information for their classes at the tip of their fingertips. However at the same time the Internet poses significant challenges for parents. Traditional software or hardware solutions simply block kids from going to certain websites. This is inherently limiting and it also does not address what we believe is a key challenge with kids and the Internet: its addictiveness."

The full specs list is as follows:

• Processor: Marvell® ARMADA® Family Series Dual Core1.2GHz SoC / Memory: 1GB DDR System RAM


• Storage: 4GB Internal Flash (expandable via SD Slot and USB port)


• Connectivity: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), Ethernet Port, and Bluetooth (4.0)


• Connect to TV: HDMI (1080p/720p) output


• I/O: 2 USB 2.0 Ports, Speaker & Microphone Jack


• MiiPC Companion Mobile App for iOS and Android

Click here to find out more about the MiiPC Kickstarter campaign. Early-bird backers can expect to recieve their MiiPC by July of this year.

Dell's latest attempt to bring the worlds of mobile touch and desktop computing together have been on show at this year's SXSW festival.

The company have been showcasing their new XPS 18 All-in-one machine, an 18.4-inch Windows 8 computer with touchscreen smarts and a kickstand, letting it work as comfortably as an on-the-go tablet as it does a stationary desktop computer.

Well, as comfortable as an 18.4-inch machine ever is - it's hardly iPad Mini portable, but weighing less than five pounds at least it wouldn't give you a hernia trying to move it about.

Aside from the full HD resolution of the screen and the near-certain baked in flash storage, little is known about the XPS 18 All-in-One. We'll keep you posted with full specs, pricing and release info as we get it.

It's not the first time we've seen machines of this ilk however - last year we saw Sony's Vaio Tap 20 hit stores, while ASUS took a slightly different path with the docking 18.4 inch dual-booting Transformer AiO this year.