Xbox isn't the only device buddying up with the US's largest DVD rental / online movie streaming service; in autumn, the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will hit US shelves bringing Netflix streaming to Blu-ray players for the first time.

Netflix account users will still need to add movies and TV shows to their list from a web browser as with other Netflix streaming boxes, but once they're queued up, you'll be able to access your selection instantly from the player. Playback should begin within thirty seconds. With the LG BD300, the Roku box and the Xbox 360, Netflix is setting some pretty high benchmarks for other rental services to live up to.

The player itself offers all the usual niceties of Blu-ray playing, including DVD upscaling to 1080p, and will cost something "well under $500". So then, Microsoft has Netflix streaming, Blu-ray players have video streaming... over to you PlayStation 3.

(via Gizmodo)

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Seeing as I work from home, I don't have an awful lot of use for home security gadgets. However, it struck me, during a recent power cut (when nearly every house in the local vicinity decided to chime their annoyance at the lack of electricity throughout the remainder of the afternoon) that standard burglar alarms are pretty much useless.

Unless a would-be thief is actually bothered by the loud ringing, assuming that they can even hear it through their buzzing smack withdrawal, then there's little chance that anyone else is interested either. Unless you can actually see a broken window, or a front door hanging off its hinges, then it's more than likely to just be another glitch in the burglar alarm system. That is, in a nutshell, the problem that AlertMe hopes to overcome.

The AlertMe system, as the name implies, is designed to let you - the owner - know when someone has broken into your house. It can do this by making quite intricate but clever use of the internet. As you can see, the standard AlertMe package comes with a standard Hub and a wide range of sensors for you to arrange however you like around your home. Once alerted, it will send you a text message to let you know.

You can complain all you want about the Wii being just a party gaming machine that doesn't cater to the 'core gamers, but at the end of the day it is a GREAT party gaming machine that doesn't cater to the 'core gamers. However if you want to have a proper Wii party, you'll need three other noobs a full collection of Wii remotes. The trouble is, they will invariably run out of batteries mid Kart race and you'll be left desperately searching for fresh ones inside old TV remotes and that 'massage' device your wife keeps.

What you need is a Wii remote charging station. Or better yet, a remote charging station that does four remotes at once. And that's exactly what peripheral manufacturer Penguin has come up with. The 4X Quad Charge Station charges FOUR remotes at the same time, in case the '4X' and 'Quad' part of the name, the above picture and the header of this post didn't give that away.

Disappointingly few people know that Sony and Nintendo aren't the only purveyors of handheld games consoles (no I'm not counting that Gizmondo nonsense). Both of these companies also have a particularly unfriendly view of the homebrew applications, seeing as it tends to go hand in hand with piracy. Gamepark, however, is all about the homebrew scene. It has already released a number of handheld consoles of varying spec and is now gearing up to release a third - the GP3X.

As well as a platform for budding indie developers, Gamepark's Linux-based handhelds also support commercial development and most importantly, emulators. The latest model has emulator software for the Neo Geo, Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, NES, PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16, MAME.

You! You're bored, right? Do you want to make some silly noises so that the annoyance of others mildly alleviates your own tedium? Of course you do. Here's an idea then - how about a plastic, credit card sized turntable that you can scratch and, errr, scratch some more. You can probably even freestyle rap over the top of it. Then you'll be down, yo.

The Plastinkus is soon to be found flooding shelves at Clinton Cards or some other purveyor of gimmicky tat, right next to the hilarious keyrings with an incorrect spelling of your name on them.

Can you afford a 62" telly? No you can't. Can you afford a 62" telly that moves WITH YOUR HEAD? No, you can't. But neither can this guy, and he's got off his arse and found a solution:

He has not sold his eyes to experimental science; he's bought a pair of Vuzix iWear VR920s (and spent the rest of his money on a lady who can do something quite incredible with her tongue, by the looks of it). The Vuzix iWear VR920s are a set of virtual reality glasses that simulates the effect of watching a 62" screen being viewed from 8.5 feet away. Immersive, even if the inability to see what's happening around you is somewhat hazardous.

The Rocket Racing League launched its first ever rocket-powered racing plane this week in what it hopes will be the first of many high speed, highly combustible, aerobatic demonstrations.

The event is hopes to become the "NASCAR for the skies", presumably because it wants all the glamour, spectacle and excitement of NASCAR, not because it wants a load of planes flying around in a big boring circle for hours on end.

"Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice," reads a message from Scrabulous' makers to players on Facebook. The removal of the Scrabulous application follows the lawsuit from Hasbro, the company which own the distribution rights to the Scrabble board game, which Scrabulous very closely resembles.

Facebook has stated that it did not want to get involved in the case, and seems to have stood its ground. A Facebook spokesman stated that "We did not take the application down," which means it must have been the Scrabulous developers themselves, although we can only guess at what legal pressures they were under to do so.

However, there's nothing that the internet loves more than a big nasty corporation attempting to squash a cheeky but loveable young upstart with its mighty corporate boot. So it's of absolutely no surprise that within hours, hackers had already screwed up the official Scrabble application on Facebook.