Register Hardware Register Hardware - it's just like The Register, only harder - brings you the hottest personal technology news and reviews every day. The gadgets that grabbed the headlines this week: PS3, Apple TV, HD DVD, and gaming chippery from Intel and AMD.

Glee for PS3

Some Brits may actually at long last have got their hands on a Sony PlayStation 3, now that it has finally launched. Many in London were disappointed last night as local government and the police acted to limit the number of shops opening at midnight to prevent purchase-happy punters from being relieved of their PS3s by robbers.

Italians, on the other hand, fared rather better when retail chains, fearing that their rivals would beat them to it, began selling the next-gen console two days early.

 

Look out, laptops

HTC's Universal was a pretty chunky PDA phone, but its X7500 Advantage - released in the UK this week as the T-Mobile Ameo - is even bigger. Mind you, this clamshell does pack in a 5in VGA screen, 8GB hard disk and almost every mode of wireless connectivity under the sun.

Nvidia 'nside

Not-yet-announced Nvidia chips made two earlier-than-planned appearances this week - one courtesy of a major notebook manufacturer. Yes, Samsung revealed its upcoming shiny black laptop, the R70, will have a "Nvidia GeForce 8000M" on board - Nvidia's next-gen mobile GPU. Meanwhile, an "Nvidia partner" happened to mention that the chip maker will have a new top-of-the-range chip, the gamer-friendly GeForce 8800 Ultra out next month.

Intel announces next-gen chipsets, AMD's leak

Intel finally admitted what every PC hardware fan already knew: it's next-gen 'Bearlake' chipset will ship as the X38, P35, G35, G33 and G31, some supporting 1333MHz DDR 3 memory, a 1333MHz frontside bus and PCI Express 2.0. AMD's answer to Bearlake, the HyperTransport 3-supporting RD790+, appeared in a leak, alongside the less well known RS780, next-year's mid-range chipset.

Toshiba highlights HD DVD

Toshiba loves HD DVD and it wants you to love it too. Having last week vowed to fight to win the battle to be the top next-gen optical disc format, Toshiba was this week revealed to be planning to take an axe to the PlayStation 3 - sorry - the prices it charges for its three HD DVD players in the US by up to $200.

The Japanese giant is also going to offer more HD DVD-equipped laptops this year, including the lower-end Satellite line. Mind you it'll have to: last week a senior Universal Studios executive admitted rival format Blu-ray already has a "five to one" hardware advantage.

Apple Telly selly

Apple finally began shipping its Apple TV set-top box. But while the thin white jukebox was touted for its HD, next-gen Wi-Fi friendliness, it's pretty accomodating to folk stuck in the SD era. But where's the DivX support, everyone wondered?

Rumours surfaced that the iMac's in for a radical new redesign - again - this time to make it even more like a white widescreen TV.

 

Best of the rest

Aussies fume over 'frozen' digital TVs
Mag bets on black Xbox 360 for April
Second LG Shine phone to fold... literally
Sony Micro Vault Tiny capacity now not so tiny
Samsung conjures up Gold, Brown Magic phones

Hot reviews

Sony PlayStation 3 It's no snip at £425, but it's gonna blow your socks off.

Orange E600 SPV mobile phone One of those kids picked on at school, but grew up to be an influential executive.

Sony Vaio VGN-TX5XN Solid, if a little unexciting. Small enough to take everywhere, yet big enough to do some real work on.