Microsoft has been showing off all sorts of new things at MIX10. New things like… Internet Explorer 9, which was previewed at the developer event, and here’s what we know thus far. As expected it will support HTML5 video, boast a new Microsoft JavaScript engine which is codenamed “Chakra,” and it’ll support new-fangled web technologies like CSS3 and SVG2.

Microsoft says one of its main goals with IE9 is to provide a faster browsing experience — always good news. Preliminary ACID3 tests on the preview show the IE9 scores a 55/100, up from IE8’s dismal 20/100 — a ‘huge’ leap forward no doubt. Microsoft has also confirmed that IE9 will not support Windows XP, but the preview Microsoft is showing off plays nice with Vista SP2 and higher. Microsoft’s also made the first developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 available for download today.

Now I understand the marketing hate that Steve Jobs has against Bill Gates. They need each other.

Remember Clippy? That default character in the old Microsoft Office suites? Yea, annoying little fella. Well, if you thought he was dead, guess again.  He’s just been drinking and giving people more advice via twitter.

iF U tYpE LiKe tHiS, it implies you’ve added an unconventional artistic touch to your writing. Also, that you’re an idiot.

Did you just choose Comic Sans? Comic Sans. Really? Why not just type “I’m A Virgin” in 72 point font.

Clippy finally tells it like it is.  So, I suggest you follow him for more thoughtful advice.

Razer had one hell of setup at CES this year feature their new, upcoming XBOX360 controller and headset, plus their Sixense controllers. The XBOX360 controller, which was prototyped for the show, brought a whole slew of features. Their hyper responsive buttons employ a switch rather than the standard membrane. What does this mean? Its freaking easy to click, and has nice audible feedback. It has a lit edge, rubberized grip and is a pretty comfortable shape. On the top of the controller are two new shoulder buttons that are programmable via two sliders on the controller back. These two buttons can mimic the functions of any face button, including analog clicks. Speaking of the analog sticks, each has an independent tension dial to allow you to get the “just right” feel on either stick. Its MSRP is slated at $49.99 and will be available in the near future.

The XBOX360 headset was a nice piece of work as well. It features a wired base station that doubles as a charger and 5.1 surround support. When the system is powered off, the base station allows audio pass through so there will be no need to switching your receiver around. For tournament play, the headsets cab ne daisy chained together to provide a private voice chat network. The headset was also a prototype and is said to have an MSRP of $129.00 sometime in the near future.

For me, these two products were pretty nice, but were far out shadowed by the Sixense devkit that was on site. Sixense has been a work in progress and was only recently paired with a custom build of Left for Dead 2 with the help of Valve. We got to see the devkit in action as its developers showed off the motion input controls. Sixense will inevitably be compared to holding two Wii-motes but that would be a VERY bad place let it end. These controllers use a 12’ low-power magnetic field to provide absolute positioning and positional awareness. This product is probably one year from seeing a release but it already looks freaking amazing.

Words alone can not do it justice, pictures and video after the break…

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So, if you’ve been watching the CES coverage at all, you probably will have seen some hands on with the D-Link Boxee box. It’s an off angle cube powered by Tegra 2 and dishes out all the Boxee goodness straight to your TV. But wait, you can already run Boxee on an Apple TV, Windows, Mac or Linux and the XBMC spin-off has just made the beta available to the general public.

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At first glance these Psyko headsets look a bit odd, but upon closer inspection you realize that they are … well, REALLY odd. That is a good thing, and we have been waiting too long for someone to break the mold and innovate damnit! The surround provided by the headset we tested on the show floor was, barring the low volume compared to the ambient hall, really cool. Five speakers mounted in the cross piece of the headset pump the sounds into tubes that carry the sound to the front and back of your ears. This natural flow allows sounds to be correctly processed by your brain and you get really pinpoint directionality. During our demo the sources of the gunfire in the game were relatively easy to locate. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that the ear covers are vented, so no sweaty-head during those marathon game sessions.

The headset’s inventor, and Psyko’s “Head Psyko”, James Hildebrandt told us that he spent a long time disassembling traditional speakers in an attempt to learn how sound works in our heads. By moving them around and contemplating how the sound reached his ears, he made the breakthroughs present in Psyko’s psychoacoustic masterpiece.

All of this auditory bliss is handled by the headset; your computer will not know the difference between this headset and any other 5.1 surround device. Yes, this is currently only available to the PC market, and demand has been steep. There is a bit of a backlog of orders as peoples’ orders are outpacing Psyko’s manufacturing. XBOX360 models, also with mics, are currently being tested and should be out around midyear.  Once the PC ordering blitz calms down I would personally love to pick up a pair.

Move over books.  Feel the power of National Geographic on a Hard Drive.  Honestly you probably don’t need this but think of the future of our children?

Windows:
-Intel Pentium III 1GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM
-Windows 7, Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 and SP3, Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows 2000 SP4, and Windows 2003 Server

It’s that time again, time to review some of my cherry picked smaller stories of the week for those that might have missed them. This time round we’ve got an Adobe Flash update that doesn’t suck. OK, sucks a little less. Flash 10.1 beta was unleashed to the willing public with GPU video acceleration for certain Nvidia cards on Windows, but perhaps more importantly reduced CPU usage across all platforms. What does this mean? YouTube that doesn’t make your Mac or PC red-line that’s what. A step in the right direction Adobe, maybe Flash isn’t a lost cause after all. I’ve certainly seen some improvements on my netbook and Mac.

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Welcome to Pixelated Geek’s Weekly Tech Wrap-up, a quick and humorous run through of some smaller stories from the world of consumer electronics and technology.

First batter up is the hideous looking OpenOffice Mouse. This beast features a full 18 buttons, 63 programmable profiles and even an analogue joystick! What more could you want from an instant carpel tunnel surgery inducing monstrosity? How about a soon to hit street price of $75 (£45)? Obviously not a fan of the Magic Mouse, a World of Warcraft-loving gamer decided his mouse didn’t have enough buttons and went ahead and set up a company to do it better. WarMouse is aiming this at the OpenOffice, MMO playing crowd and they might go potty over it, but I think I’ll stick to my trusty Logitech thanks.

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In recent years, few graphic cards have managed to capture the imagination of the PC building community. The recent release of the ATI 5800 series has turned the market on its end and people are lining up to get their grubby little paws on the latest iteration, the 5870 series. Its the first card on the market with native DirectX 11 graphics technology, the card boasts 2.15 billion 40 nanometer transistors, pumping out 2.75 teraflops of power,  1600 stream processors, a memory bandwidth of 153.6GB/sec and a clockspeed of 850mhz. The graphics powerhouse supports up to 3 displays simultaneously with independent refresh rates and resolutions or they can be combined into one large display using the new ATI Eyefinity system. Dual-Link DVI and displayport with a resolution of 2560×1600 is included as is HDMI 1.3 with a native resolution of 1920×1200.

The 5870 can support up to four cards in CrossfireX mode for an incredible boost in power. This beauty definitely has the hunger of a beast, requiring at least 500 watts (600 is recommended for crossfire) to run a complete system. It also requires two six pin PCI-E connections. This baby is fantastically powerful, vastly outperforming its brethren, but this greatness comes at a terrible cost. Finding one of these beauties for sale has proven difficult. Retailers like Microcenter and Newegg have had a hard time keeping the cards in stock and with good reason; ATI has had major supply issues trying to churn this thing out. With demand well outpacing production, we may not see another large shipment of the 5870 till very close to the holidays. While this powerhouse does exist (and exist very well it does!) it certainly doesn’t feel like it does. Overall ATI’s new top dog very much lives up to its own hype and is king of the pack when it comes to graphics processors. Nvidia, the ball is in your court.