GameStop ditches Zune

About a month ago, GameStop decided it would stop offering Zunes and sell its remaining stock of the digital media players online. However, the official announcement was only recently disclosed, reports Ars Technica.

A GameStop spokesperson has been quoted as saying: "We have decided to exit the Zune category because it just did not have the appeal we had anticipated. It [also] did not fit with our product mix."

The last part refers to the fact that GameStop primarily sells video game-related material (no iPods for instance). The timing is a bit odd, considering the release of the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP now allows the development of games for the Zune.

The browser, that porthole onto the broad horizon of the Web, is about to get some fancy new window dressing, says The New York Times.

Next month, after three years of development and six months of public testing, Mozilla, the insurgent browser developer that rose from the ashes of Netscape, will release Firefox 3.0. It will feature a few tricks that could change the way people organise and find the sites they visit most frequently.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft recently took the wraps off the first public test version of the latest edition of Internet Explorer, which is used by about 75% of all computer owners, according to Net Applications, a market share tracking firm.

As the cost of living continues to rise, the news that video game profits have risen by 47% year-on-year in the US was met with some surprise, reports The Times.

Perhaps no one told gamers that the stuff they do between stages ‑ like eat or drive to work ‑ will cost them more than it used to.

Though the massive sales of GTA4 are partly responsible for the $1.23 billion (R9.4 billion) spent in the US in April on video games and hardware, analysts are pointing to Nintendo as the main money-spinner in the gaming industry.

Forget conference calls or video crosses - beaming your hologram interstate for a live chat is closer to becoming a household reality, states The Sydney Morning Herald.

In what Telstra says is a national first, the telco beamed a mobile three-dimensional image of its CTO, Hugh Bradlow, from Melbourne to Adelaide to give a live business presentation.

"In Melbourne, we have a high-definition video camera which is filming me as I stand here," Bradlow told journalists.