Brilliant new tech that's just around the corner

AMD Bulldozer
AMD bulldozes back into the processor war

We've spent a lot of time in Deus Ex: Human Revolution lately, and we reckon its vision of a yellow-hued dystopian future is way off the mark. This week we've seen the future of everything, and it's all brilliant.

First up there's Ice Cream Sandwich, the next generation of Android. It's an important release because it unifies the codebase - no longer will there be one Android for smartphones and another for tablets - and you won't have to wait much longer to get your paws on it.

According to Google's Eric Schmidt, it's coming in late October or early November - and there will be a new Google phone to go with it, the Google Nexus Prime.

Ice Cream Sandwich isn't the only new OS on the horizon. There's Windows 8, too, which of course we've covered in great detail.

The latest news on Microsoft's 2012 OS is that it may run Windows Phone apps - or at least, that's what Nvidia boss Jen-Hsun Huang reckons.

As Kate Solomon notes, it's an interesting idea: "it would solve problems for Windows developers who are torn between developing apps for tablet-friendly Windows 8 or smartphone-focused Windows Phone 7."

Bulldozer ships

We already know that Windows 8 will support ARM processors for devices such as tablets, but the battle isn't just between ARM and Intel. AMD's new Bulldozer chips are finally shipping, albeit only to manufacturers so far.

Should we care? Jeremy Laird says we should, because Bulldozer is no minor upgrade.

Here comes the science bit. "Instead of conventional CPU cores, Bulldozer has modules," Laird says. "Each module contains a pair of integer engines and a shared floating engine. The overall goal is to create a unit that delivers the performance of two conventional cores using die space closer to a single core. That should mean more performance for less money." It also means a marketing war, because AMD will be flogging eight-core desktop CPUs while Intel's next desktop chips will have six.

TV heaven

We haven't just seen the future of phones and PCs: we've had a glimpse of the living room's future, too. Tivo's just unveiled "the word's most advanced set-top box", boasting four tuners and a 2TB hard drive - big enough for 300 hours of HD content and smart enough to record four programmes while you watch a fifth. Does it have THX certification? It does. Can it output 1080p? It can. Is it compatible with home automation kit? It is. Can you get one? You cannot.

When we asked Virgin Media if quaddy the quad-tuner tellybox was coming to the UK in the next generation of Virgin Media boxes, they gave us a bunch of PR bumph: "continues to evolve... range of exciting new features... enhance the service... viewing experience." So that's a maybe, then.

The new Tivo may be the future of personal video, but what about the future of TV? We've seen that too, in the form of Samsung's £4,299 UE60D8000. It's a sixty-inch, 3D-capable, Smart TV-enabled flatscreen, and we reckon that "no other TV on the UK market can match it for sheer wow factor"; it's "dangerously seductive", with "mindblowing bigscreen images, mesmerising design and class-leading smart functionality". It sounds like just the thing to play Deus Ex on.

The TechRadar hive mind. The Megazord. The Voltron. When our powers combine, we become 'TECHRADAR STAFF'. You'll usually see this author name when the entire team has collaborated on a project or an article, whether that's a run-down ranking of our favorite Marvel films, or a round-up of all the coolest things we've collectively seen at annual tech shows like CES and MWC. We are one.