Earlier on today I did an unboxing video of the brand new and upcoming ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboard. This new board based on Intel's Z77 Express Ivy Bridge chipset is due out soon and comes with plenty of features packed in such as ASRock XFast 555 technology (XFast LAN, XFast USB, XFast RAM), Lucid VirtuMVP, Intel Smart Response, Intel Smart Connect and much more.

ASRock told us to say that this board supports 2nd and 3rd generation Intel Core processors and not "Ivy Bridge" processors, but at this stage of the game we're going to say Ivy Bridge, because we all know what we are talking about here.

ASRock's Z77 Extreme6 motherboard features a stylish and attractive gold and black color scheme which looks really great. The PCB is black and gold comes into the theme by way of the gold touches on the coolers as well as the Japanese golden caps. The board includes three PCI Express x16 slots for up to three-way SLI and CrossFireX support. ASRock does claim that the board can support Quad SLI, which it can, but only by way of using two dual-GPU video cards such as the GeForce GTX 590.

Apple's just-released iTunes 10.6 sports the ability for users to option higher quality audio conversion bitrates when syncing songs to iOS-based devices like the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Before iTunes 10.6, users were given the option to down-convert higher bitrate songs to a crappy 128kbps level.

This allowed more songs to be synced to devices, but some users would rather higher quality audio, than savings to their device's storage capacity. With iTunes 10.6, users now have two options: to down-convert audio to quality levels of 192, or 256kbps, giving users three options of bitrate when syncing music to their mobile device.

iTunes purchases are encoded at 256kbps, but CD rips are at 320kbps, this means that the new setting allows people the option to reduce the quality slightly down to 256kbps when syncing to a mobile device, whilst keeping the higher quality 320kbps rip stored on their main desktop or notebook.

Apple announced the new iPad just last week, and people haven't been able to drag their jaws from the floor yet. Once they did, they began the feverish clicking of their mice or tapping of their fingers to pre-order the latest and greatest tablet from Apple.

The original release was slated for March 16th, but Apple have experienced (in the words of Obama, as he uses the word about 3 times every second) unprecedented demand for the iPad 3, and have been forced to now push back delivery times for online buyers. Originally, those who pre-ordered were to expect delivery of their brand new 2048x1536-sporting iPad on launch day, as Apple had set aside stock for pre-order customers.

But they have sold out of this pre-order stock, as demand is "off the charts" according to an Apple spokesperson. For those who ordered online and are based in the US, you'll have to wait until March 19th for delivery, with a two device limit on orders. The lucky people who pre-ordered before stock ran out will receive them on launch day.

The original Razer "the world's first true gaming laptop" Blade is loved by swarming groups of fans, but there are of course, critics who don't like it. I'm one of those people. Don't get me wrong, I love Razer gear. I rock their mouse and keyboard combos and love them. My BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth Edition sits on my desktop as my everyday keyboard, and my Mamba, I love her to bits.

But the Blade was a bit of a miss for me, it had a lacklustre GPU that really made the Blade struggle when compared to other gaming laptops. The GPU in question was the GeForce GT 555M, which to me, just isn't powerful enough to let Razer claim its the "world's first true gaming laptop", but, it still sold in supreme numbers. Selling out, not once, but twice.

So it doesn't really matter what Razer baked into the Blade, it sold well, and that's all that matters. Time moves on, and now we're staring down the barrel of the Razer Blade 2.0 eventually hitting the hearts and souls of gamers around the world. The Bright Side of News is reporting that they've heard rumbles from within the industry that Razer is preparing a refresh of the Blade.

Google is my browser of choice. Everytime I use it, I feel like a cowboy in the western era, pulling my gun out of my holster and swinging it around my finger and then shooting some tin can at 100-feet. More exciting news, though: Google have confirmed they're working on a version of Chrome that will run in the Metro environment found within Windows 8, says Mashable.

The Google spokesperson told Mashable that the new version of Chrome would be based on the desktop browser, as opposed to the Android-based version. The representative has been quoted:

It's here! Samsung have just announced through their Facebook page that the upgrade for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is now available for their flagship Galaxy S II smartphone. Samsung have announced it will be served up in European countries first.

The first to get it are Poland, Hungary, and Sweden, as well as Korea. It should roll out around the world over the coming days. Samsung have also said that the ICS-based upgrade should roll out to other Galaxy-branded phones soon, with the Note, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 all getting the delicious upgrade.

On top of this, Samsung will offer Android 2.3 Gingerbread firmware upgrades to Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab 7-inch, Galaxy S Plus, Galaxy S SCL (Super Clear LCD) and Galaxy W from the end of March. The new firmware upgrades for Galaxy S sport features such as Facebook Unlock, Snapshot, Photo Editor, and more.

The team behind Crysis, Crytek, have just released a new video showing off some next-generation CryENGINE 3 graphics. If that's not enough "cry's" in one sentence, then sit back and relax with the nearly 4 minutes of the updated graphics engine below.

Impressed? I am. It looks gorgeous. But, we'll never see those graphics. Right now, I'm putting my foot down and declaring we will never see those graphics, in all that detail, smoothly, in any game from Crytek (or anyone who licenses that engine) for a very long time. Why? First up, we never see tech demo graphics make it to the final game, it's just too much. Secondly, how much detail can be inserted into a pillar, or water... look at that water for example. It looks absolutely beautiful.

That's the problem, there is so much wasted computational power used for something that will never see the light of day. Even if it did, all that water is, is scenery. It's not an actual useful item within the game, it's background graphics. Unless it plays some pivotal role within the next CryENGINE 3-based game, it means nothing to me.

According to The Verge, ASUS are working on a major Ultrabook refresh, which should slide right onto shelves close to the time that Intel unleashes their Ivy Bridge CPUs, with The Verge getting their mits on the full spec sheets, oh boy!

Currently, we have the UX31 and UX21, with the replacement models the UX31A and UX21A, respectively. The similar model numbers may fool some, but the upgrades are pretty serious. Matte screen options are said to be available on both new models, with the highest spec sporting a 1920x1080 resolution, with an IPS-based display. Hot. Another bonus is, that's for both the 13.3-inch UX31A and the 11.6-inch UX21A.

If you opt for the IPS-based display, you'll be greeted with 350 nits of brightness, with the LCD-based display only sports 300 nits of brightness, and a drop of resolutions to 1600x900 and 1366x768 for the UX31A and UX21A, respectively. Intel Ivy Bridge-based processors will be found inside the new ASUS Zenbooks, with the low-voltage (17W TDP) models making an appearance, from the simple Core i3 model, right up to the powerhouse Core i7:

Heavy Rain, to me, was great. It had its problems (frame rate, and the whole "Jaaasssooonnnn" bit) but it was a completely different game to the usual genres out there. The mastermind behind the game, David Cage, and his company, Quantic Dream are back again, and want your socks blown off, again.

Enter Kara. Kara was shown off during GDC, where it was again a PlayStation 3-exclusive, and just a technology demo that was showcasing the company's new game engine. Cage says:

The $25 wonderchild that is the Raspberry Pi has been delayed, reportedly due to a manufacturing problem. The company behind the Raspberry Pi have posted on their website saying that they're found a problem in their networking hardware.

The first batch of Raspberry Pi devices have been delayed, with the company citing a hardware parts substitution that was made in the factory by accident. What exactly happened was that the specific jacks with integrated magnetics in the BOM and schematics, the factory had actually soldered in non-magnetic jacks.

Without the magnetics, it means no network connection. They've known about this for a few days now, and haven't been able to say anything about it until they had done proper testing, which they have done now and should start shipping the fixed parts within the next week or two.