Best of Tech.co.uk: week's round-up

Despite iPhone domination, the week has yielded some interesting news stories

It's been another iPhone-dominated week in the world of technology. Will the worldwide obsession with this Apple gadget ever break? Or will the hype machine keep turning until the iPhone version 2 rolls out of the factory?

Either way, there's been plenty of other interesting news over the last five days. Here's our weekly round-up of the week's best non-iPhone related news stories. More iPhone-only news coming soon...

Japan sales show Wii stretching lead over PS3
The latest games-hardware sales figures from Japan show that instead of Sony catching up on Nintendo there, the PS3 is actually falling further behind the Wii, which has increased its lead over last month

PS3 and Nintendo Wii 30 times more reliable than Xbox 360
The Sony PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii games consoles are 30 times more reliable than Microsoft's Xbox 360. According to games retailers, the failure rate for Nintendo and Sony's next-generation consoles are less than 1 per cent

Sony touts new televison for the blind
Sony has started a new campaign to get more TV manufacturers and broadcasters involved in making services for the blind. Bravia TVs now have Audio Description built in as standard; Sony says other manufacturers should follow suit

HD DVD has secret features in Blu-ray battle
HD DVD is set to make another fight-back in its big battle with Blu-ray. While Blu-ray's trump card has always been its higher capacity discs, the ace in HD DVD's disc tray is its internet connection. This is a feature which is only now starting to be used

Sony defends PlayStation 3's poor games
The Sony PlayStation 3 should not be judged purely on the quality of games available when the console first launched. That's the view of Sony games chief Phil Harrison, who defended the PS3 despite its perceived lack of quality games

Laser hard drives: 100 times faster
A group of researchers in the Netherlands has come up with the concept of a laser-powered hard drive which could mean data transfers up to 100 times faster. The times are so miniscule that they have to be measured in quadrillionths of a second

Universal won't renew iTunes contract
Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, has refused to sign a long-term deal with Apple's iTunes Store to sell digital music downloads of its catalogue. Universal's decision could pave the way for exclusive deals with other services

O2 slashes contract deals for handset-happy
O2 mobile phone customers can now get significantly cheaper monthly contract bills if they stick with their existing handsets and sign up to a new 'simplicity' deal

Arcam releases 400GB music server
Arcam has released what it calls the "world's finest sounding hard drive music server". Aimed at hi-fi fanatics, it's a £3,000 400GB music server that will play CDs and rip and can store up to 700 lossless music albums

World's smallest 1080p projector - UK details
Projectiondesign has finally released UK details for the M25 - the world's smallest Full HD home cinema projector. The M25 has the same footprint as an A4 sheet of paper. And yet it delivers images that wouldn't disgrace projectors three times the size

Blu-ray and HD DVD probed in EU investigation
The high-definition movie market could be set for a major shake-up. The European Commission is probing Blu-ray's exclusive studio deals among suspicions of unfair tactics and anti-competitive dealings

AMD quad-core debuts August, but only at 2GHz
AMD's long awaited quad-core CPU will finally appear in August with a maximum clockspeed of just 2GHz.That's the official - and frankly rather disappointing - news following an official AMD announcement

Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite edging closer to UK?
Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite console could be edging closer to being released in the UK. A sudden £50 price drop in the Xbox 360 Premium's retail price on Play.com to £229 has sparked off new rumours of the Elite's forthcoming release

James Rivington

James was part of the TechRadar editorial team for eight years up until 2015 and now works in a senior position for TR's parent company Future. An experienced Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce Optimization, Journalism, Digital Marketing, and Social Media. James can do it all.