This Mad Catz $300 morphing game controller is absolutely insane

What on earth could make a game controller worth $300? Is it made of gold? No, the LYNX 9 from Mad Catz isn’t coated in precious metals, but it does have a few tricks up its sleeve. This whacky controller is designed to transform into numerous configurations to fit your gaming needs. Whether you’re playing on a smartphone, tablet, or PC, this screwball gamepad morphs to fit the platform. It’s not a bad idea, but is it worth spending five times the cost of a DualShock 4 or Xbox One controller for this monstrosity?

Pricy

The core chassis itself is actually three pieces, and it splits apart to fit whatever you choose to mount. It comes with a smartphone clip and tablet frame for mobile gaming, and even folds down into a compact size for travel. In addition, it has a built-in mic and a detachable thumb board for easy communication. Don’t want any of that? For PC gamers, it also morphs into a plain old controller in roughly the same configuration as a DualShock 4.

Virtual reality comes to the desktop, thanks to HP and Zspace

The VR is coming

The first time I donned a pair of special glasses and picked up a wired stylus to enter a virtual reality was over 25 years ago. It required extremely expensive hardware, and only allowed for a simple, low-resolution, experience of machining a part on a virtual lathe. But we were all sure that practical applications were just around the corner. It has taken much longer than most of us predicted, but with its new Zvr display, HP is bringing to market a practical and useful VR tool for educators, scientists, and other professionals that need to have accurate, simulated interactions with computer-generated models.

Sony apologises for PSN hack with PlayStation freebies

PS Plus extension and a nice little discount

It's likely that any PlayStation gamer reading this will be aware of the PlayStation Network outage that took place over Christmas, due to a DDoS attack from "hacker group" Lizard Squad.

The service is now running again smoothly, but to apologise for the downtime Sony has promised a couple of freebies to PlayStation users, as outlined in a blog post.

Anyone who had an active PlayStation Plus subscription or free trial on December 25 will have their subscription extended by five days, to be added at a later date. If a customer's account expires before it's applied then they'll be offered a five-day PlayStation Plus membership.

On top of that, Sony will be giving all PSN members a 10% discount token to be used on any PlayStation Store purchase, which will appear some time later this month. It's worth highlighting that this will be for the total cart purchase, so you'd be wise to grab yourself a few goodies.

Xbox Live suffered a similar outage on Christmas day. Lizard Squad have used the attacks as a marketing scheme for a piece of software called LizardStresser, which lets anybody carry out their own DDoS attacks.

Source: TechRadar

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Is Samsung ditching the Galaxy Alpha already?

Looking to keep costs down

RIP for the Alpha dog?

It's not a great start to 2015 for fans of the premium-looking, metal-banded Galaxy Alpha: rumours from inside the industry suggest Samsung is abandoning production of the handset in order to focus on devices that are a touch more affordable.

The Galaxy Alpha was a refreshing departure for Samsung in the way that it prioritised attractive looks over spec-list box ticking, though on the back of apparently so-so sales it may have been a departure too far, according to ET News.

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