In the last few years, Virtual Reality headsets have taken off as a kind of ‘next big thing’ type of hardware. Oculus were the first to come to the gaming community’s attention, with other people like Sony beginning to follow suit after. Now we’ve got an entry into the field from Razer with an open-source version.

Revealed yesterday at CES, it combines open-source software and hardware into an initiative named “OSVR” which stands for “Open-Source Virtual Reality” and there was already a headset to show off and for people to have a go with. The reason that they’re aiming to make the project open-source (revealing every detail of the headset and the software that makes it work) is that they aim to accelerate the speed at which virtual-reality headsets, the software it uses and all related technologies are being developed because they’re tired of the dev kit/prototype limbo it seems to be stuck in at the moment. In other words, if Oculus started the train, Razer are planning to increase the speed its racing along the track towards ‘perfection’.

They hope that by having everything available to the public enterprising creators can develop their own methods of use and make improvements to the model they provide. They’re even going to put together and make available what they call a “Hacker Dev Kit” and hopefully have it out for June.

The headset itself that was shown at the event used a 5.5-inch FHD display screen and used two pairs of lens, one concave and the other convex in an attempt to minimise edge distortion around the frame of your VR viewpoint. Otherwise technologically it isn’t more impressive than any other showing, but as it’s meant to be a platform on which others can build it doesn’t really need to be.

Razer’s taking a chance that their base headset will provide the means for someone to make the next big step in VR technology, and that could be just what is needed to make sure that virtual-reality headsets aren’t just a temporary craze.

Hot off the heels of its existing MHL 3.0 cable spec that delivers 4K Video over MicroUSB and keeps the device charged, The MHL Consortium has taken the wraps off of SuperMHL, which goes even further. SuperMHL – which appears to be geared towards being a HD Cable replacement – not only increases the maximum picture resolution up to 16 times that of “Full HD” 1080p – in other words, what other media is referring to as “8K HD” – but is cable of a wider range of colours. 281,474,976,710,656 of them in fact, thanks to support for up to a 48-bit colour space, which should allow for more true-to-life shades. Future devices that support the new standard – which aren’t even available to the public as yet – will also be able to use the cable for linked communications; so theoretically if one had a TV, receiver and Blu-ray player all linked up using SuperMHL cables, then one remote could control them all.

Both ends of the SuperMHL Cable

The new standard is capable of delivering power output up to 40 Watts, even while it delivers video, meaning it will also be capable of simultaneously charging a device while you watch. 40 Watts is powerful for most high-end tablets to charge efficiently; it might even be in the range for certain laptops. As for Audio, there’s also support for all-encompassing sound technologies like Dolby Atmos and DTS-UHD for clear, crisp HD sound as well. Finally, the cable is reversible; allowing it to be used either way around much like USB Type-C. The cable technology will be available later this month – but devices that use it are likely to be a while away still, so while the technology will be in our hands shortly it will still be a long wait before we’re watching 8K TV regularly.

If you’ve somehow not been put off by the debacle that has been Assassin’s Creed Unity, or you own the game and actually want to get a little extra content you might be interested to know that a release date for the DLC is available, along with a trailer.

The DLC, entitled Dead Kings, will add Saint-Denis to the map of Paris for Arno to leap, jump and murder in, an open world with diversions and a single-player campaign that will take you underneath the city into a large necropolis. This necropolis was built to house dead royalty so will be filled with long-gone royal dead and all of their secrets, as well as the enemies you can assassinate of course. It’s been made free after originally being part of the Unity Season Pass that got cancelled due to all of Unity’s… problems since its launch. It will launch on January 13th.

Check out the trailer below!

With the growing trend of late being to listen to music at the highest possible quality (even when it doesn’t actually make a discernible difference to the human ear), Sony took to the stage at CES today to reveal its second high-resolution music player: the Walkman ZX2. Designed both to upscale the quality of more compressed music formats and online streams using DSEE HX tech; and to keep music of all kinds sounding crystal clear with an S-Master HX digital amp, this new aluminium-bodied offering from Sony is designed to offer the best quality music whatever your format, with MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, AIFF, WAV and ALAC including DSD files supported at bitrates up to 192kHz/24-bits. A sizeable 128GB of internal memory is on-board, but should you have a music collection at half as big as that of one of our DJs here at Sanitarium.FM, a microSD card slot is also available for extra space; or you can use the built-in Wi-Fi to stream your music from online radio stations (cough) or download your tracks from online music stores.

In terms of the software on board, the Sony Walkman ZX2 takes the unusual step of running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, though Sony say using such an old build of Android as the base for their new music player was a concious choice due to its stability. By being Android-built, the Walkman ZX2 will also be compatible with many music and other Apps from Google’s Play Store, although apps targeting only newer Android versions beyond 4.2 will obviously be out. You will be able to use services such as Tidal and many other high-res streaming services though. You’ll also be able to listen to the music through compatible wireless headsets through Bluetooth, which will also make use of LDAC tech for enhanced clarity – though this is likely to cut into the battery life. Still, with the device rated to last 60 hours on a single charge, there should be plenty of power available to let you rock out until you crash out if you so choose.

Sony are not yet confirming a price point for the new device, which press rumours place at a range around $1,100 to $1,200; however, representatives state that a final decision on pricing will be made soon in time for the device’s planned release this spring.

Ever since Nintendo revealed upgraded new models of its popular Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL Handheld consoles (called, appropriately, the “New Nintendo 3DS” and “New Nintendo 3DS XL” respectively), Nintendo fans around the world have been eagerly awaiting their launch. Both models hit store shelves in Japan last October, followed by Australia and New Zealand a month later, but elsewhere in the world Nintendo has kept quiet on their plans – all we know for sure is an international release is planned for “2015”. Now though, we have a hint that a European release may not be far away.

Similar to what it did for the launches of the Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has announced a new Ambassador Promotion giving additional rewards to early adopters of the new console. Although the promotion is currently limited to selected Club Nintendo members, interestingly this does not seem to be limited to people in the original 3DS ambassador program – so all Club Nintendo members may want to check their inbox in the next few days to see if they’re eligible.

Should you be lucky enough to qualify, the exclusive Ambassador Edition set will be available to you at an asking price of £179.99. For this, you’ll receive a white New Nintendo 3DS model (note this is not the XL, which does not seem to have a similar promotion at this time) in a special ‘Ambassador Edition’ box; along some exclusive Ambassador Edition cover plates, and a slick Super Smash Bros. set in case you want to mix things up. Nintendo is also throwing in a charging cradle, stylus and a 4GB microSDHC card.

Although Nintendo are still keeping mum on the final launch date for the New Nintendo 3DS existence of this special, limited-availability promotion (which is basically a glorified invitational pre-order bonus) suggests that we may not have much longer to wait.