Microsoft hypes Halo 3 launch

Thousands of video game fans waited in long lines across the US earlier this week to be the first to own a copy of Halo 3, says VOA News.

The first-person shooter video game is Microsoft's bestselling title for its Xbox 360 game console. Industry experts say Microsoft is pinning its hopes on the sequel to the popular Halo video game franchise to widen its lead in the lucrative video game market.

Hype and fanfare greeted the US launch of Microsoft's newest game. At a store in New York City, the line stretched around the block, as game characters kept fans entertained.

Microsoft and its hardware partners are trying to bridge the divide between home computers and TV sets this holiday season with the release of several "media extenders", says USA Today.

These TV set-top boxes will connect wirelessly to computers running the Home Premium or Ultimate flavours of Windows Vista. They will enable users to use their TV sets to watch movies, TV shows and Internet video that is stored on their computers.

Microsoft is expected to announce the prices and more details about the extenders today at the DigitalLife trade show in New York.

T-Mobile has added two new Sidekicks to its line-up: the Sidekick LX and the Sidekick Slide, reports Ars Technica.

The Sidekick LX was designed by Sharp and is available in midnight blue and espresso Zune brown, offers a 3-inch 400x240 resolution display, and "mood lighting". The mood lighting lets users know whether they are receiving a phone call, text message, e-mail, or other message depending on the colour of the lights designated by the user.

The LX offers the same swivel display found in earlier Sidekicks, a 1.3MP camera with flash, and is the first Sidekick to offer real multimedia messaging (as opposed to sending e-mails with images attached, like in previous models).