Hold the front page! Apple has finally dropped what it calls Apple TV Take 2, otherwise know as their second attempt at collaring the streamer market.

The new edition ties in with iTunes Movie Rentals, something that us UK film lovers won't be getting our hands on until later this year.

If you've got one of Cupertino's silver boxes under your telly, you can get the free update right now, downloading it via your gogglebox.

The system's been given a complete makeover, with a whole new interface, full YouTube access and the chance to look at all the vids stashed on your Mac, as well as rental goodies.

The box still costs £199 for the 40GB version, £269 for the weightier 160GB model.

Now all we need is Apple to give us a launch date for rental movies and up its frankly weak offering of US tellies on iTunes here in Blighty. Come on guys, we're desperate.

Filed under: Announcements

It’s hard to think back to a time when Peter and I longed to do our very own cellphone-centric Engadget spinoff — those were the days that a 1GB microSD card was pretty impressive, HTC phones were frequently EDGE-only (the more things change…), and Ballmer was predicting $100 smartphones were still a year or two out. But exactly two years ago today we also finally launched Engadget Mobile, and it’s been a crazy amount of fun watching it grow into its own as the go-to place for handset news ever since. Much love to Chris, Sean, and the rest of our regular EngMob contributors — and, of course, the cellphone fanatics that keep coming back to feed their sick, wireless addiction.

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Looks good, performs well and kicks ass. But enough about us; this laptop pleasures us too. Tosh have come up trumps with their HD offering, but with the super slim Portege on the prowl how does this beast fare?

The screen is a whisker off full HD, but you'd be hard pushed to tell, as movies whisked from the HD-DVD drive look awesome. Colour and contrasts is on par with a number of big telly's and for such a small screen we didn't lose any of the drama of Transformers. It's deep OK?

If films aren't your thing, this lappie has got gaming licked too, packing enough poke to give silky smooth frame rate in Crysis, and as a bonus, the Harman Kardon speakers pump out some of the best laptop audio around.

The sole bum notes are provided by its weight, clocking in at an offensive 3.8kg. With a power supply that's only slightly smaller than Battersea power station, this is not the laptop you want to be lugging around in your man bag.

Mimicking the PSP's UMD format, the Movie Phone from Indian firm Spice Corp Ltd. plays movies from tiny optical discs that you slide in the back.

Not much bigger than an SD card, the 1GB Vmedia discs are far smaller than UMDs, and can hold a three-and-a-half hour Bollywood epic. And you won't see them anywhere else - they've been made specifically for use with this mobile, just like Sony's UMDs were exclusively for the PSP.

Makers Vmedia say quality is 20% higher than a DVD, and they'll sell for the same price and come out on the same day. We saw one blown up on a 50-inch plasma, and it looked pretty darned impressive.

Talks are being held with top Hollywood studios to bring Western flicks to the format. Which of course will decide its success when it launches in Europe at the end of the year. Those lucky Indians will get it in the summer.

Also from the same company is a phone for the blind, with braile on the keys and which speaks the numbers as you dial them. Looks like Japan and Europe are getting some serious competition when it comes to mobile innovation.

GTA IV's online multiplayer section looks like it could be heading to the 360 only if gossiping Microsoft execs are to be believed.

Our thumb twitching mates at CVG have sniffed out news that the two suits from the Big M described the game's multiplayer as 'unique to 360' and that punters would get the 'premium experience on our platform.'

The idle chatter was part of a gaming podcast, which you can check out by hitting the link down below.

If it turns out to be true, it'll be a major coup for the Xbox. The online portion of the game has had us us salivating since we first heard word of it way back last year.

GTA Iv hits the shelves on April 29th, having initially been slated for an October 2007 release. Word on the street is that once again Rockstar are not going to disappoint.