Pioneer launches its 400W LX01BD integrated Blu-ray Home Cinema System

Pioneer’s all-in-one Blu-ray and surround sound option for the common man has launched in Europe, with shoppers able to experience its “3D” sound charms from today. Here’s what all the bits look like when photographed under laboratory conditions and without any messy cables in shot.

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As well as a Profile 1.1 Blu-ray player, the LX01BD comes with “compact dodecahedron technology derived satellite speakers that generate sound fields in all directions,” with that sound being sprayed around by an integrated 5.1 channel amplifier capable of managing both DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD soundtracks…

Wrath of the Lich King launch party details announced

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Are you a big World of Warcraft fan? So big that you fancy hanging around in central London until midnight on 12th November, just to be the first to take home a copy of Wrath of the Lich King? Well, here’s all the info you’ll need.

At midnight on the 12th November (that’s midnight between the 12th and 13th, not 11th and 12th) show up at HMV Oxford Street, a short walk from Tottenham Court Road tube station. Blizzard COO Paul Sams and associate producer Lee Sparks will be signing copies and meeting the slightly sweaty fanboys and girls….

CONFIRMED: T-Mobile launching the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 in the UK this November

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Google, HTC and T-Mobile have all just pulled the covers off the T-Mobile G1 – the official name of the long-awaited “Google Phone.”

The handset features the “Android Market” – its equivalent to Apple’s App Store – and it does indeed use the Amazon MP3 shopping service as rumoured this very morning. As for release dates – the US gets it on October 22, the UK gets it in “early November,” while the rest of Europe must wait until early 2009…

Government says Phorm is phine – the spying ad software can be rolled out in the UK

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The UK government has said the incredibly controversial Phorm software can be rolled out in the UK – but users must be told first and allowed to opt-out if they wish.

The Phorm system, which anonymously tracks your internet usage so it can offer you targeted advertising, was secretly tested on a small group of BT users without their knowledge, creating uproar among the sort of people who like to create uproars about privacy issues. The EU then got involved, asking for clarification about the hows and whys of Phorm, thinking that it might be a BAD THING.

So, the UK government investigated and has decided it’s OK and that Phorm is fine. Here’s what it told the EU investigators about its Phorm phindings and how users will be put in charge of turning it on and off…

People who know people say T-Mobile's revealing its Android phone plans on September 23

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The sort of “insiders” who can’t be named or they’ll get sacked reckon that Google and T-Mobile are very, very near to announcing official facts regarding the retail arrival of a Google Android mobile.

The two companies are planning a revelation for this month, with the same undercover sources hinting that a September 23 launch date announcement is definitely possible. September 23 is, at the time of writing, 12.5 days away…

Google to start archiving 30 glorious years of Page 3 stunnas, with its Newspaper Search

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Google will soon start the mammoth task of scanning in decades worth of old newspapers, allowing us to finally search information and news from before the internet period. Everything that happened in the 1980s will start to exist again.

In a similar fashion to Google’s impressive but under-the-radar Book Search, the newspaper service will let us browse through old papers, bringing entire pages up as zoomable, Google Maps-style images. The Times already does…

MTV launching HD music channel across Europe, from September

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Staring from September 15 you’ll be able to scrutinise the skin of your favourite pop star in more detail than ever before, as MTV and its parent company Viacom launch an HD music channel for quite a chunk of Europe.

Initially shaming Britney Spears in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland and Sweden, the channel will feature “new music” and “programming for kids,” all in English…