The Orion spacecraft blasted high above the White Sands Missile Range in a successful 97-second flight this morning, but there was no gigantic launch vehicle underneath. That’s because NASA was testing its launch abort system, consisting of three sets of rocket engines designed to separate Orion from an exploding launch vehicle. It worked.

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LG has revealed the reason it is to bring both active and passive 3D technology to homes in the UK – and it’s all down to consumers asking for the technology. Speaking at the launch of the Freeview HD platform, where LG showed off its LE7900 range with the platform built-in, we quizzed the company on conflicting reports that its passive 3D TV range would be only in pubs. Launching passive in the home A spokesperson confirmed that its passive 3D TVs – the LD360 range – will indeed be available to consumers, as well as its active-shutter LX990 3D TV range. “We had great success [...]

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Orb Audio describes itself as a ‘high-end manufacturer’, which subscribes to an ‘innovative direct business model’. The model in question is direct sales from manufacturer to end user, bypassing the traditional retail chain, and the inevitable cost mark-ups that this involves. Specifically, Orb claims that the system sampled here, which currently appears to be its only product, though it is available in various versions, ranks above many speaker systems that retail ‘north of $2500′. Also that direct sales cuts at least 50 per cent off the manufacturer’s [...]

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Any Windows user who is serious about photography has one good option for software that will let him or her manage their collections and edit photos: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. On the Mac, though, we also have a solid competitor and it’s from Apple itself: Aperture 3. The timing of the release of Aperture 3 is awkward. The next version of Lightroom is in public beta, but we think it’s unfair to compare a beta release to a shipping product, so throughout this review, we’ll be referring to the currently shipping version, Lightroom 2. (Lightroom 3 promises, among other features, [...]

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Onkyo has refreshed its budget/mid-range home cinema products, equipping them with features for a 3D world Its receivers, speakers and Blu-ray players have all been given an update, but prices have stayed more than reasonable – with nothing announced creeping above the £400 mark. 3D ready receivers First up is the company’s TX range of receivers. The entire range is equipped with handling HD audio codecs, such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, and the flagship model (TX-SR608) is also THX certified. The SR608 is a 7.1 setup, offering seven x 160 watts power output, HDMI 1.4 connectivity [...]

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JVC has showcased its latest camcorder range this week, highlighting the tech that makes the camcorder’s tick. Top of the range is the GZ-HM1. This is a Full HD camcorder which – deep breath – sports a 10.62MP back-illuminated CMOS, 10MP stills functionality, Optical Image Stabilisation, Advanced Image Stabilisers and ‘Super LoLux’ for brighter shooting in low light. First shown off at CES 2010, the cam is equipped with 64GB Flash memory and if that’s not enough, there is also a SDHC/SD memory card slot. New range The announcement of the Gz-HM1 comes a month after JVC [...]

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The Sony Bravia KDL-55X4500 has an interesting trick up its LED sleeves that’s not matched by any of the other LED models: RGB dimming. The technology for this is much more expensive versus the white dimming found on the Sharp LC-52LE700E LED TV. But the reward for your money promises to be a wider colour gamut. Also, if 55 inches is a little too big, then you might want to consider looking at the smaller set in the range, the KDL-46X4500. Sony has also gone to town with the KDL-55X4500′s design – especially in the way a pair of pole-style speakers have been integrated into the [...]

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Sony has announced its latest range of style headphones, with the MDR-570, MDR-370 and MDR-EX77LP and MDR-EX57. The ‘murder’ range – as we’ve decided to call them due to their unfortunate letter selection – is all about the looks. “Add a splash of colour to your favourite music with this season’s new collection of great value headphones from Sony,” says the company. ‘Whether you’re listening to your favourite downloads, catching up on the latest podcasts or gaming in private with your handheld console, you’ll enjoy sensational sound plus [...]

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Dell is one of the world’s best known laptop manufacturers and makes a broad range of machines for both business and consumer markets. The Latitude E6400 XFR is a fully-ruggedised laptop that offers comprehensive protection for your data, and is the ideal travel partner to take with you to the ends of the world. Dell has gone to extraordinary lengths to ruggedise this laptop. Its exclusive Ballistic Armor Protection system is the first line of defence. It utilises a chassis metal called PR-481 which ensures that the laptop can be dropped from a height of three feet, while the screen is open [...]

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Disappointed by the bad sales performance of its first Snapdragon powered Windows Phone the TG01, Toshiba decided to kick of this 2010 MWC with a shiny new TG02. Like most handset nowadays our TG02 features a capacitive screen with a 4.1″ size and the usual VGA resolution and the same old 1GHz snapdragon. Running Windows 6.5 the TG02 also features a new fancy 3D Menu desperately trying to catch up with HTC UI. Now if you prefer devices with a full QWERTY keyboard, well you are in luck and behold the Toshiba K01. Beside its new OLED screen and keyboard, specs of the K01 are in fact pretty [...]

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