We've talked about this a few times, but the latest news to float onto the surface that is the sea of the Internet is that Valve were hiring hardware engineers, that myself, and other tech sites presumed was for their unannounced Steam Box home console. I was wrong. It seems as though Valve are hiring for something quite different: wearable computing.

Google are doing it, Apple will wait a few years and do it and call it revolutionary, but it seems Valve are also getting into the mix. Games Industry reports from a recent blog post by Valve developer Michael Abrash where he revealed the fact that Valve are hiring for wearable computing. The project is inspired by Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, where Abrash has taken it upon himself to try and shrink computers down to the point where you can have one on you at all times.

Abrash says:

Samsung's 5.3-inch GALAXY Note smartphone is enjoying a life of great sales numbers, user feedback and now, an Ice Cream Sandwich update that is imminent. Samsung have shown off the GALAXY Note ICS update, which provides a slew of new features and options.

S Note is included, which is a unique tool that combines your notes and sketches with other digital content, this gives GALAXY Note owns a new way to create stories. Also included is the ability of shape- and formula-match functions, instant digitization of tables, and grids as well as knowledge search engines. S Note seems quite powerful with 7 easy-to-use templates including Note, Meeting Note, Idea Note, Magazine, Travel, Diary and Recipe. Each with a new style and layout.

S Note also sports a floating "Productivity tools" bar, which can be moved with the S Pen like you would click-and-drag within an operating system like Windows or OS X. From here, you can use the S Pen to draw shapes within a plan, such as boxes, and even if the boxes aren't dead-straight lines, Shape Match has automatic shape correction and will on-the-fly correct your shapes to perfect squares, triangles, and more. S Note also has the ability of letting you choose from existing shapes, creating your own, and easily editing the size and color of the shapes, too.

Google on their quest for world domination are releasing Google Drive next week, according to The Next Web. The service is expected to launch next week, include 5GB of storage, and should be available at https://drive.google.com.

Google will roll out Drive for free, and everyone starts with 5GB of storage. You can purchase more if you want, that is up to you. Google Drive is said to work "in desktop folders" on both Windows- and Mac-based machines, but there's still a few question unanswered with how it all works.

Then we have some information from TechCrunch, where they've got a teaser pic of the Google Drive app for OS X. The version they were given is 1.0.2891 and they've said it works without any problems. John from TC was able to log in to his Gmail account, but other than that there's not much he could do, he was prompted with "Google Drive is not yet enabled for your account".

Meizu is finally releasing details on their next smartphone, the MX Quad-core. The device sports a Cortex-A9-based, 32nm HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) quad-core Samsung Exynos chip, but we don't have any details on clock speed, or RAM. Engadget thinks it'll be the Exynos 4412 that ramps right up to 1.5GHz.

Meizu goes as far as to say that the MX Quad-core will save up to 20-percent of CPU power consumption when compared to its dual-core counterpart. Battery-wise, we're looking at it being bumped from 1,600mAh to 1,700mAh. The back covers can also be changed, with one of the five optional colors shown in the picture above.

MX Quad-core will sport a Meizu-customized Ice Cream Sandwich OS (Flyme OS), although the company did promise to simultaneously release a vanilla ROM-based handset, but we shall see. FIlling out the specs is a 4-inch 960x640-pixel ASV display, an 8-megapixel BSI camera, and it'll come standard with 32GB at the same price as the current 16GB MX, something quite good from Meizu.

Until today, music streaming services in Australia have been quite lacklustre, if existant at all. Yes, you could use a VPN or other methods, but its not the same and most people don't know how to do it, which means the masses are left without anything like Spotify, etc. Until today.

Telstra has announced a deal with subscription music service, MOG, where they will soon offer unlimited, on-demand access to more than 15 million songs, streamed to their smart device (mobile, tablets, etc), computer, or certain Smart TVs. The service will be ad-free, and offer unlimited music on connected devices for less than the price of a CD each month.

On top of the unlimited music, the service offers:

We all know Windows 8 is baking very nicely in Microsoft's ovens right now, and they're just some more information surface now in the form of the editions we should expect. Microsoft are going to release Windows 8 in three editions: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 RT.

The differences? Well, the first two edition's are for x86-based systems, both in 32- and 64-bit. Windows 8 will be the OS for most people, as it includes most of the features you need, plus an updated Windows Explorer, Task Manager, better multi-monitor support as well as the ability to switch languages on the fly, which was previously an exclusive feature to the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows.

Next up is Windows 8 Pro, which is designed for tech enthusiasts and business/technical professionals. It includes all of the features of Windows 8 as well as encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity. Windows Media Center is now considered an economical "media pack" add-on for Windows 8 Pro. Finally, we have Windows 8 RT. This is the newest member of the Windows family, which is something Microsoft have been calling Windows on Arm, or WOA.

Let's first start this rumor off with a note: EA denies this rumor, however, its statements in regards to it seem to indicate that it is true.

A Mr. Derek Andersen from Startup Grind is claiming that he has confirmed with multiple sources inside Electronic Arts (EA) that the company is planning to layoff somewhere between 500 and 1100 employees. This equates to somewhere between 5% and 11% of the workforce could be on the chopping block. The layoffs were supposedly set for April 9, but have since been pushed back.

However, he claims that they are coming very soon. This year has been rough of EA: Star Wars hasn't matched goals and they were voted 'Worst Company In America' in a poll held by The Consumerist. Additionally, stock prices have fallen from $61 down to the current $16. Zynga has also cleaned out a large portion of EA's management.

It seems like the creators of the eye-candy that is Crysis have caved, at least somewhat, to demands that the series return to the jungle for this third installment. Instead of returning to the jungle, they have turned New York City into 7 unique environments dubbed the "7 Wonders." From raging rivers to urban rain forest, this new game is sure to have some incredible eye-candy, that is if your computer can run it!

Due to the new environments, new weapons have been developed. Prophet, the protagonist of the series, will be equipped with a lethal composite bow, an enhanced Nanosuit and devastating alien tech. An excerpt from the announcement of the game:

Players take on the role of 'Prophet' as he returns to New York, only to discover that the city has been encased in a Nanodome created by the corrupt Cell Corporation. The New York City Liberty Dome is a veritable urban rainforest teeming with overgrown trees, dense swamplands and raging rivers. Within the Liberty Dome, seven distinct and treacherous environments become known as the Seven Wonders. This dangerous new world demands advanced weapons and tactics. Prophet will utilize a lethal composite bow, an enhanced Nanosuit and devastating alien tech to become the deadliest hunter on the planet.

A second Mac OSX Trojan has been discovered, but is likely not to be as widespread as the Flashback Trojan due to the process by which it infects the computer. As opposed to the Flashback Trojan which could be caught simply by surfing the internet, this new Trojan requires users to download a malformed Word doc.

Similar to the Flashback Trojan, this new Trojan requires no entering of a username and password so it could catch Mac users off guard. This Trojan should be less widespread due to the fact that users have to download a malformed Word document file. Once opened, it exploits Word and opens a backdoor for hackers to steal information or install further code.

The security vulnerability is actually pretty old. It comes from June 2009, so as long as you keep your Microsoft software up to date, you should be safe from this Trojan. With all of the recent outbreaks of Trojans, it won't surprise me if they start coming more frequently with more capabilities to do destructive things.

Today is a good day for storage geeks. Intel released their new 330 series solid state drives and Western Digital has released this monster of a drive. This new addition to the VelociRaptor line of hard drives brings a 1TB drive into the 10,000 RPM range. This is the single largest drive that operates at 10,000 RPM.

"WD is committed to providing customers with the best performing and most reliable SATA hard drives and our WD VelociRaptor family of drives underscores that promise," said Darwin Kauffman, vice president and general manager of WD's enterprise storage. "With ever-increasing demand for greater capacity, the new 1 TB WD VelociRaptor drive delivers the ultimate combination of speed and storage for the power user."

Features of the new drive include: