Gaming affects schoolwork

A study has confirmed that young boys who are given games consoles may fail to advance as far academically as their Wii, Xbox and PlayStation-less peers, says Reg Hardware.

A team from the Denison University in Ohio led by psychologists Robert Weis and Brittany Cerankosky gave PlayStation 2s to 32 boys out of a group of 64 aged between six and nine years old. None of them had a console already.

Half of the children given a console got it at the start of the study, the rest at the end. The test ran for four months. During that time, parents kept a record of their children's activities from the end of the school day until bedtime.

Orange is releasing a gaming service in conjunction with HMV, according to Tech Radar.

HMV Mobile Games, powered by Orange, opens this week to provide users with java-enabled handsets from any network with games.

The library of games runs to 400 games ranging from big names like Fifa Manager 10 to the omnipresent Tetris. Games range in price from £1 to £5 and users will be able to download free demos.

Razer is preparing to release its first ever mouse designed for left-handed gamers, with the eventual release planned for 24 March, reports Bit Tech.

The mouse will be based closely on the right-handed version of the Razer Deathadder and will be available worldwide, bearing the moniker of 'Razer Deathadder Left Hand Edition'.

The mouse will sport all the usual Razer features as standard and will have five programmable buttons, a non-slip surface and 3.5G Infra-red sensor that reads up to 3500dpi.