Microsoft are really wanting to make Windows 8 stand out, bigger than most operating systems they've released before. Today, the Redmond-based company have announced that Windows Media Center is not going to be included with Windows 8.

If you'd like to have access to Windows Media Center, you'll need to pay for it. You're thinking this is bad, ridiculous, how could they? Well, Microsoft are promising that Windows 8 will "deliver a world-class video and audio entertainment experience", and they've made it clear that DVDs are not part of this. Windows Media Player will continue to be included with Windows 8, but the ability to play DVDs, will not.

ZDNet's Ed Bott has noted:

According to the latest reports and numbers from Jon Peddie Research, predictions are being made for PC gaming hardware sales, where the research group are predicting total sales of $23.6 billion and by the end of 2015, this should grow to $32 billion.

They cite strong demand which will fuel growth over the coming years, especially in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries where systems, accessories and upgrades are expected to get close to $4.7 billion this year, and $7.7 billion by 2015.

JPR also expects to see the average selling price for some components to drop in 2013, as competition heats up. This is always good news for end users, with unit shipments expected to rise, which will smash any dip that would otherwise show up as a result of the lowered prices. These numbers should have confidence in them, as this year we're expecting some truly kick-ass titles such as Diablo III, Max Payne 3, and more.

The Expendables was an all-out 90s action star lover's wet dream, it featured a bunch of muscled-up, washed-up action stars, together again, kicking ass on the big screen. The Expendables 2 amps this up by putting more stars in it, for longer, and introducing more 90s old-school action.

The Expendables 2 features Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chuck Norris, Liam Hemsworth, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, all in the same movie. Yes, I'm out of breath too from excitement.

The trailer doesn't show much, but the bit with Willis and Schwarzenegger in the hybrid, bitching, is hilarious. This movie has nothing to do with technology, but what tech fan doesn't want to see a movie like this? It's the opposite of movies like Transformers, and has some great 90s action stars. The Expendables 2 opens on August 17.

iLounge are reporting they've received information for the next-generation iPhone, that it would sport a 4-inch display by increasing height of the device. In order to accomodate the tallet screen, the body of the next iPhone will also become slightly taller. We should also see a 20-percent (or so) reduction in thickness. They go on, adding:

What we've learned: the new iPhone will indeed be longer and thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S. Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm-a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width. According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic. Our artist's rendition provides a rough idea of what this change will look like; it echoes the current-generation iMac design, to be sure.

The report also teases of a new dock connector, which is smaller, has fewer pins, and is universal across new devices. Whether this information is true or not, is another story in itself, but it does have a "RumorTT" title, after all. Strange, because I remember the late Steve Jobs saying that Apple's ecosystem couldn't handle a bigger screen. Fingers and thumbs would have to extend, and so would apps and their graphics/UI. But in normal Apple fashion, they eventually catch up and once this is done it'll be marketed as "magical", "resolutionary", and "4-inchary" or something to that effect.

It has been a long time coming, but we're finally hearing about The Elder Scrolls Online, which will be unveiled in the June issue of Game Informer. The Elder Scrolls Online is being developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, where the game merges the exploration of rich worlds that the Elder Scrolls franchise is known for, with the scale and social aspects of an MMORPG.

The Elder Scrolls Online is set 1000 years before the events in Skyrim take place, as daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull of Tamriel into his demonic realm. Game director and MMO veteram Matt Firor says:

It will be extremely rewarding finally to unveil what we have been developing the last several years. The entire team is committed to creating the best MMO ever made - and one that is worthy of The Elder Scrolls franchise.

While there's been yet another Call of Duty announced in the form of Black Ops 2, but Battlefield 3 is still pumping away. We should receive Battlefield 3's first expansion in June which will begin an entire new world of Battlefield 3 fun.

During a recent interview, DICE's Patrick Bach said that the studio is focusing on giving players between 12 and 18 months of value in Battlefield 3 through DLC and expansions. Whilst speaking to VG24/7 regarding Battlefield 3's upcoming DLC, Close Quarters, Bach said:

We make sure that if you're a Battlefield player, there should be plenty of Battlefield for you to spend your days on. And again, we are focusing on giving you 12-18 months of value for Battlefield 3 and the expansion packs we're releasing.

As I reported yesterday, users of the iOS Rock Band app received a message that they would no longer be able to play the game and thanked them for 'rocking out with us.' Users, of course, flipped out and started posting bad reviews on the app and demanding their money back across a plethora of online communities.

The developers of Rock Band were caught off guard by the message, so they redirected all questions to EA Mobile. Apple additionally directed questions to EA, who remained quiet in the face of it all. EA has finally come out with a statement blaming the message on an error and that the game would still be playable.

Rock Band for iOS will remain live-the in-app message users received yesterday was sent in error. We apologize for the confusion this caused. We're working to clarify the issue that caused the error and will share additional information as soon as possible.

Overclocking guru K|ngp|n has managed another incredible feat. It wasn't too long ago that he managed to take an NVIDIA GTX 680 up to 1957MHz with the help of some extreme cooling. This time he has managed to push an EVGA GTX 680 up to 1442MHz on basic air cooling alone. That is quite the feat and proves just how great the Kepler architecture is.

K|ngp|n used an EVGA GTX 680 SC, which features a default frequency of 1058MHz (1124MHz at Boost). He pushed 1.212V through the core of the GPU to achieve this feat. That voltage is at the very top of the voltage limit set by NVIDIA. The memory was also overclocked to 1812MHz which is also a big improvement.

Of course when you are running a card like that, especially at those clocks, you need a strong system to run with it so that it doesn't bottleneck. In this case, K|ngp|n used i7-3960X CPU (overclocked to 4.98GHz)and memory clocked at 1245.7MHz (2490MHz effective). This achieved a 3DMark 11 scoring of P12745.

The Samsung Galaxy S III comes with a load of new features, with many of them as suspected prior to launch. Several new things have also been added to the phone are extremely cool. For one, the front-facing camera tracks the user's gaze so that the screen will not lock while the user is looking at the screen.

The device features the new Exynos 4 Quad-Core 1.4GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16, 32, or 64GB of storage, and radios for Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, and NFC connectivity. The front side features a 1.9MP camera which is used in the above described feature. The backside features an 8MP camera which can take HD video along with burst photos.

The screen is a 4.8-inch 720p Super AMOLED display. The device seems capable of accepting voice commands and also senses when you pick it up to make a call. It can also wake on a voice command. It is available in two colors: "Pebble Blue" and "Marble White."

On May 29, Arctic Cooling will release a new product that the market has never seen. This product combines air cooling and liquid cooling for graphics cards in a self-contained system. The idea here is to lower the heat and noise that is often produced by a high-performance graphics card.

Arctic Cooling is billing the new product as a graphics card cooler for enthusiasts. Arctic Cooling says the following:

The graphics cooler supports almost every graphics card going all the way back to the NVIDIA GTX 4XX series and the AMD HD 4XXX series. However, for some reason, it seems to miss supporting the HD 7970 and 7950 for some reason. Why someone would leave that out of support is beyond me, as it is the high performance GPUs that need cooling.