The week in technology

It's been a fantastic week to be a technology buff - and not just because we got an extra day off work to spend in front of our computers and playing with our gadgets.

First up, I told you last week about Microsoft Bing - their new 'decision engine' which they hope will revolutionise searching on the internet. Funnily enough, in my brief playing with it, I haven't found it that useful.

Undoubtedly it will get better - it's still in its early stages - but so far the only decision it's helped me make was to go back to my old search provider!

However the week wasn't a total bust for Microsoft. The legendary E3 convention happened this week and Microsoft's Natal project was, arguably, the star of the show. The X-Box 360's version of the Wii-mote managed to both amaze and creep out at the same time.

If this takes off I might have to fork out for an X-Box 360 and somehow fit it onto my television stand beside the DVD player, DVD recorder, Amp, centre speaker, MySKY Hdi and PS3. Not sure where, though...

Having said that, E3 was about much more than Project Natal. Sony announced their PSP Go, which looks like a cross between a gaming machine and a top-of-the-range mobile phone.

It looks interesting, and with the removal of the UMD disc player it's a bit smaller and lighter than the current version, but for a fat-thumbed geek like me I'm going to have to try it out before deciding if the small controls are usable or not.

The new PSP has also attracted some criticism for its pricing and some concern at the lack of storage space for its new digitally distributed games (it has a 16GB hard drive, but UMD discs contained up to 1.8GB so you could easily run out of space...)

E3 is also as much about software as hardware, so the following games look quite interesting and might be worth checking out when they're launched:

Assassin's Creed II, God of War III, Modern Warfare II, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Saboteur

I love the iPhone (but sadly have to make do with an iPod touch instead) but the rumours of a third generation version have increased since Telecom confirmed they were in negotiations with Apple to stock it on their XT Network.

This screenshot seems to indicate that a new version may be close and it may be called the iPhone Video. Don't try to replicate it, because the option now doesn't exist in that drop-down menu but other websites say this fits in with what we know about the third generation phone.

Will it turn out to be true? Who knows, but it'll be interesting to compare the rumours to reality when it's formally announced.

That's just about enough for this week, but as an added bonus here are some other things that caught my eye:

Wolfram Alpha isn't intended on being a Google killer - it's designed to provide hard facts that other machines can use. But this nod to the Terminator films is both timely and a little too self-aware to be entirely comfortable. Okay, I'm kidding. It's obviously a joke!

I've discussed Twitter a few times, and there's no doubting how useful it is. But do we really expect the women of the LPGA Women's Tour to provide real-time updates on their round via social network sites? Well, apparently someone did and now the female players are fighting back. Via Twitter, ironically.

And finally, the BBC are reporting people who file-share copyrighted works over the internet may be forced into a 'slow-lane' with their internet speed dropped. With the internet now widely accepted as being a necessity in today's world, this is preferable to cutting people off the internet completely.

My own ISP, Orcon, already throttles Bittorrent traffic during peak times so it'll be interesting to see if this idea takes off further in New Zealand to replace the badly thought-out 'Three Strikes' policy that was chucked out a couple of months back.

What's been your tech highlight of the week? Will you buy a PSP Go? And have you searched your own name on Bing? Let me know!