July 1 - 12:40pm EDT   Large PC builders are dragging their feet when it comes to environmental promises, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has once again updated its Guide to Greener Electronics, which assigns relative rankings to major high-tech corporations. A new development is the assignment of "penalty points" to major PC builders, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The companies have delayed plans to strip PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from computers, Greenpeace says, and in the case of HP, none of its current systems have reduced toxicity. [full story]

June 25 - 4:15pm EDT   Sony spokesman Al De Leon today teased that Sony is considering downloads of non-game software for the PSP. In an early demo of the upcoming PSP Go, De Leon told Crave that most of the downloads from the soon to be expanded PlayStation Network store will be games but that there's a chance "non-gaming applications" will be available. What these would entail isn't mentioned, but Sony already incorporates utilities such as Skype in PSP firmware. [full story]

June 25 - 10:55am EDT   Sonic Solutions, the company behind Roxio, on Thursday announced its streaming movie service CinemaNow will be made available for the Nintendo Wii. Sonic will partner with Fujisoft to bring the former's content to the game console via the latter's video-on-demand Everyone's Theater Wii service. While the announcement only covers Japan, its successful integration potentially leads to the service arriving in other countries as well. CinemaNow offers more than 1,500 streaming movies, short films, and concerts to buy or rent. [full story]

June 12 - 11:05pm EDT   Microsoft's Project Natal could not just be an add-on for the Xbox 360 but the foundation of a new Xbox altogether, according to fresh rumors. Those at 1UP hear that the full body motion controller will be the "cornerstone" of a new console and come with it. Details of the new Xbox itself aren't clear, but it's believed the machine could be an evolution of the Xbox 360 that has extra performance but which could still run legacy games. It would ship in fall 2010 and could be announced as early as the Game Developers Conference in March of that year. [full story]

June 9 - 3:30pm EDT   ASUS vice chairman Jonathan Tsang today said in an interview that his company intends to beat Apple in design in the US. Even though the Eee PC line has been successful in the country, Tsang tells the New York Times that ASUS has little recognition in the US and that it plans to rely on engineering to boost its name, with Apple's MacBooks as the conspicuous target. The company's focus on product design reportedly leaves little room for a marketing budget and thus gives it little room to depend on advertising. [full story]

June 9 - 10:35am EDT   Sony is rumored to be getting ready to drop the price of its PlayStation 3 gaming console to coincide with the next release of EA Sports' Madden this fall, according to a Monday IndustryGamers report. Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia notes that Madden is due for an August 18th release and claims that "industry sources" know the console should lower in price in time for the game's appearance, which could potentially boost sales. [full story]

June 4 - 3:05pm EDT   Nintendo in a late E3 update today added special colors for the Wii and DSi in its home country. Normally only available in white, the Wii will now come in a special black; the DSi has already been available in multiple colors but will get a bright red color trim. Both should sell at the same prices as regular colors. [full story]

June 2 - 3:00pm EDT   Sony this afternoon confirmed the existence of the PSP Go, its first major redesign of its handheld console. The new slider design reflects a shift towards download-only content and drops the UMD disc loader entirely in favor of 16GB of built-in flash memory that helps it slim down. Users can either download software directly over Wi-Fi or transfer it from a PC or PS3. A Memory Stick Micro slot gives it extra room. The PSP Go also gets Bluetooth to pair with headsets or cellphones themselves for communications. [full story]

June 2 - 1:05pm EDT   Nintendo chose its E3 press event to give an early look at the Wii Vitality Sensor. The add-on attaches to a Wii remote and measures a player's pulse rate by inserting a finger into its slot. Rather than try to stir up gamers, the sensor can be used to encourage them to slow down their pulses and relax, the company's Satoru Iwata says. [full story]

June 1 - 5:05pm EDT   PC and games console peripherals maker Nyko has recently announced the upcoming release of two new peripherals, the Zoom Case for the portable Nintendo DSi gaming system and the Type Pad Pro for the Nintendo Wii console. The former adds an 8x optical zoom to the DSi's 640x480 camera thanks to a detachable lens and has the added benefit of protecting the DSi as it wraps it entirely. [full story]

May 30 - 1:10pm EDT   (Updated with PR shots) A leak Saturday morning on Sony's own PlayStation forums has confirmed major details of the PSP Go now expected to debut at E3. Spotted in a Qore episode slipped out early, the device is as rumored and switches to a slider design that renders it much more portable. It now also has 16GB of internal memory (plus a card slot) that gives it a much greater role as a media player and signals a shift to download-only PSP games; the PSP Go drops the UMD drive entirely. [full story]

May 28 - 8:40am EDT   A source today claims that Sony's slim PS3 and PSP Go are real but that they may not launch exactly as planned. Referring to the same contact that accurately leaked other hardware details, Ars Technica says the smaller PS3 is enroute but that it may not be announced at E3. As it won't ship until August or September, Sony is reportedly hoping to draw down existing stocks of the full-size models before replacing them with newer consoles. [full story]

May 20 - 2:50pm EDT   Nintendo entered into the world of portable exercise hardware on Wednesday through the imminent launch of its latest addition to Personal Trainer: Walking game for the DS and DSi. Each copy of the game will ship with two Activity Meters, or advanced pedometers, that sync wirelessly with the gaming system and count and record steps during a given period of time. The game's software then converts these into statistics. Each Activity Meter can store up to seven days of data, while the DS/DSi game card can hold up to five years' worth of downloaded data. A single game card can store four users and their data. [full story]

May 15 - 8:30am EDT   Microsoft's Zune HD will have a much stronger emphasis on games and could be the start of a new, unified online store for the company if a detailed rumor is accurate. Referring to tips reportedly corroborated by multiple sources and dating between August of last year and January this year, TeamXbox says the device will make the Xbox platform an important focus and will let users play certain Xbox Live Arcade games both on an Xbox 360 and on the Zune HD. It should also have a variant of the New Xbox Experience (NXE) interface given to Xbox 360s late last year, but will use touch for its input. [full story]

May 14 - 10:40am EDT   Rumors of a slimmed-down PlayStation 3 have gained fuel today through a series of Chinese photos that appear to show the console itself. The shots show a much thinner design that, despite its dimensions, nonetheless manages to fit two USB reports and, significantly, a 120GB hard drive. They also show product packaging and a a change away from Sony's heavily used Spiderman font in favor of one closer to the PS2. [full story]