If you happen to live in the UK and want a speedy Internet connection, you might be pleased with news that initial trials by Virgin Media managed to deliver 50MB broadband to the Berkshire village of Woolhampton thanks to the use of telegraph poles. Homes that are hooked up to Virgin Media’s fibre optic network directly will be able to increase broadband speeds by over ten-fold compared to BT’s copper network. There is no word on a national rollout by Virgin Media yet, but you can be assured that when it is available, many more people will jump aboard the torrent bandwagon.

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With OpenGL 4.0, non-Windows platforms will finally have access to all the features of DirectX 11 (DX11) hardware. Tessellation is now available (it’s the star feature of DX11) for game programmers, but there’s also an integration of general purpose computing that is better than in DirectX 11.

General purpose computing lets developer use the massive computing capabilities of GPUs for tasks that are not graphic (physics is a good example). D≫ has Direct Compute, which is an API for performing such non-graphic tasks, but Direct compute is really aimed at game developers. OpenCL, the computing equivalent of OpenGL, has a less specific approach and is seen as being more flexible by many. Finally, today’s advances in OpenGL 4.0 will eventually find its way to OpenGL ES, the mobile version. More info at opengl.org

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Asus has recently announced that they will be updating the Eee PC 1005PE by introducing a more visually pleasing matte lid on the device, which makes the update a purely cosmetic one since everything else inside remains the same. If you’re interested in a better looking Eee PC 1005PE, then you might as well drop $389.99 for one at Amazon.

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Asus is certainly milking its Eee PC brand for all it is worth, throwing in a couple more lines for you to consider before you part with your hard earned money the next time round. We’re talking about the Eee Pc Diary and the Eee PC Prime, where the former will be a bunch of netbooks that target folks who are always on-the-go (isn′t that who netbooks are meant for in the first place, anyway?), boasting a long battery life with a stronger focus on reliability and mobile connections. As for the Eee PC Prime, it is not a secret Autobot ready to save the world from the clutches of the Decepticons, but will be a high-end Eee PC instead. As for the Eee PC Seashell line, well, that’s a bunch of affordable Eee PCs.

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OCZ is back with their new Onyx SATA II 2.5″ SSD which aims to offer you the best bang for your buck, where it relies on multi-level cell (MLC)-based SSDs with 64MB of integrated cache to store your data. Performance-wise, you get data transfer speeds of up to 125MB/s while reading, and up to 70MB/s during write operations. Since there is a considerable lack of moving parts compared to regular hard drives, the Onyx SSD is more resistant to shock and temperature fluctuations, coming with a mean time before failure (MBTF) rating of 1.5 million hours. You can give this a skip if capacity is your main priority since the Onyx will initially come in only one size - 32GB at that, retailing for under $100.

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Toshiba is currently working on rolling out its own tablet range that will go up against the iPad from Apple, and the Japanese company hopes to see this line of devices to arrive sometime later this year at best, or early 2011 otherwise. Toshiba isn’t exactly new to the tablet scene since they rolled out the Journe Touch to folks living in Europe late last year. We still have no idea as to the type of operating system which Toshiba’s new tablets will run on, but if history is of any indicator, we are probably looking at a form of Windows to grace these tablets.

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Check out this Dell Mini 10v that has been hacked to include a touchscreen display instead of the regular one, giving you access to its icons with but a single tap instead of double clicking. Using an $85 kit from Hoda, it is unfortunate that none of the cables packaged with the display would work with the Mini 10v’s innards, so it required some tinkering on Weathejx’s part to get it working thanks to reassembled parts from a USB hub. It took a few attempts of reassembling the Mini 10v before it could get going. Definitely not for the faint hearted!

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Folks looking out for an ultra portable notebook will want to take note that Acer has launched its Acer Aspire One 752 notebook. Aside from its 1.3GHz Intel Celeron ULV743 processor, the rest of the specifications of the laptop seem fairly interesting. While there isn’t any official information on pricing just yet, specifications of the Aspire One 752 include:

• 1.3GHz Intel Celeron UL𕋗 processor
• Intel GMA 4500MHD chip
• Up to 4GB of RAM
• 320GB hard drive
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Gigabit LAN
• Dolby audio
• HDMI port
• Battery life up to 5 hours

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It looks like Google has placed further commitment to its online app store business, as it has just officially announced the Google Apps Marketplace. This is targeted at customers who are currently using the Google Apps service, and the apps featured in the Google Apps Marketplace will be able to integrate well it, making things less disjointed within companies. Installed apps, with administrator approval, will be able to interact with calendar, email, documents and contact data, providing a productivity boost. Another benefit of this centralized system is that users won&rsquot have to remember passwords for various accounts, nor worry about the hassle of syncing and sharing data. Currently there are already more than 50 companies selling applications in the Google Apps Marketplace. It looks like we&rsquove taken one more small step into the world of cloud computing. Video after the jump.

Official announcement.

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You might remember the Great Long Brother for its rather interesting name, or the fact that it tried to sue Apple over the iPad’s design. Now it seems that the relationship between the two companies aren’t going to get any better as the Chinese manufacturer has given its P88, the device in the center of the storm, a UI makeover. A quick glance in the P88&rsquos direction will give you the impression that it&rsquos running OS X, though in reality it&rsquos still powered by Microsoft&rsquos Windows 7, albeit skinned very well to look like OS X. It&rsquoll be interesting to see if this affects Great Long Brother&rsquos legal case against Apple&rsquos iPad.

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