TeliaSonera launches world's first LTE network, awaits phones eagerly

TeliaSonera has today flicked on the green light for its LTE networks in Stockholm and Oslo, officially starting the countdown for LTE-enabled phones. For the moment, keen mobile webstronauts will only be able to hook up their laptop or other USB-equipped device via the Samsung-provided 4G modem, but 100Mbps download speeds on the world's first commercial LTE network are still nothing to sniff at. This rollout is in fact slightly ahead of schedule, and the other major cities in Sweden and Norway are likely to soon get treated similarly well, while TeliaSonera makes a point to mention it has a license to do similar damage to Finland's 3G operators. The US might not be too far behind, either, given that the modem in use in Scandinavia recently cleared the FCC. Now if only we had phones that could ride these massive waves we'd be all set.

Spike TV Announces 2009 'Video Game Awards' Winners

'UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES' CROWNED GAME OF THE YEAR

Legendary Musician Stevie Wonder On Hand To Pronounce The Beatles: Rock Band As Best Music Game of 2009

LIVE Show Unveils World Premiere Footage From Twelve Of The Industry's Most Anticipated Titles

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Featuring world premiere footage from twelve of the gaming world's most hotly anticipated releases and a slew of unbelievable moments, Spike TV's seventh annual "Video Game Awards" was a night to remember as the network celebrated the outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the gaming industry over the past year. The two-hour event premiered LIVE on Spike TV Saturday, December 12 at 8:00 PM, ET (tape delay west coast) from The Event Deck @ LA Live in downtown Los Angeles.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060322/NYW096LOGO )

The night's most memorable moment belonged to 25 time Grammy® Award winner Stevie Wonder, who was on hand to present The Beatles: Rock Band as Best Music Game of 2009. After being welcomed to the stage by a three minute standing ovation from the adoring crowd, the icon challenged the gaming industry to create video games specifically designed for those with disabilities.

Another of the night's signature moments occurred when former heavyweight boxing champion "Iron" Mike Tyson teamed up with another Mike, "The Situation," and his "Jersey Shore" castmates to present Best Shooter to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The gaming industry's most influential developers as well as luminaries from the world of entertainment were on hand as Sony Computer Entertainment and Naughty Dog moved into "Uncharted" territory, as their smash hit UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, was named Game of the Year. The title also took home awards for Best PS3 Game and Best Graphics, nothing a total of three Vector Monkeys, making it the year's winningest game.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 tied with X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition in taking home the second most honors, with the former netting a pair of awards for Best Shooter and Best Multi-Player Game, and the latter winning Best Cast and Best Performance By A Human Male due to Hugh Jackman's outstanding work.

Viewers were treated to performances by Snoop Dogg as he stirred the crowd with his latest single, "I Want to Rock" and The Bravery, who rocked the house with "Slow Poison," the first single from their new album, "Stir The Blood" and closed the show out with "I Have Seen the Future."

The 2009 "VGAs" featured twelve exclusive world premieres, the highest number in the show's seven year history. First look world premieres included Halo: Reach, UFC 2010 Undisputed, Tron, Medal of Honor, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Crackdown 2, Bonanza, Spec Ops, Rock Band, Deadliest Warrior, True Crime and Star Wars.

The "VGAs" pays tribute to the outstanding achievements of games, designers, animation, breakthrough technology, music and performances of the past year in the world of video games. The awards also provide a glimpse of the future of gaming - including exclusive sneak peeks and world premiere footage of some of the hottest and most anticipated games of 2010 and beyond.

A full list of winners is included below:

    GAME OF THE YEAR     UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)      STUDIO OF THE YEAR     Rocksteady Studios      BEST SHOOTER     Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Publishing / Infinity Ward)      BEST RPG     Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts / BioWare)      BEST FIGHTING GAME     Street Fighter IV (Capcom / Capcom/Dimps)      BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME     UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ / Yuke's Media Creations)      BEST HANDHELD GAME     Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Games / Rockstar Leeds)      BEST GRAPHICS     UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)      BEST MUSIC GAME     The Beatles: Rock Band (MTV Games / Harmonix)      BEST DRIVING GAME     Forza Motorsport 3 (Microsoft Game Studios / Turn 10)      BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME     Assassin's Creed II (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)      BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME     NHL 10 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)      BEST SOUNDTRACK     DJ Hero (Activision Publishing / FreeStyleGames)      BEST XBOX 360 GAME     Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve)      BEST Wii GAME     New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)      BEST PS3 GAME     UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog)      BEST PC GAME     Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts / BioWare)      BEST ORIGINAL SCORE     Halo 3: ODST (Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie)      BEST MULTI-PLAYER GAME     Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Publishing / Infinity Ward)      BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE OR TV SHOW     South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! (Microsoft / DoubleSix)      BEST CAST     X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition (Activision Publishing / Raven Software)      BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE     Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition (Activision Publishing)      BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE     Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen / Activision Publishing)      BEST VOICE     Jack Black as Eddie Riggs (Brutal Legend / Electronic Arts)      BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME     Shadow Complex (Microsoft Game Studios / Chair Entertainment)      BEST COMEDY GAME     Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard (D3Publisher / Vicious Cycle)      BEST DLC     Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony (Rockstar Games / Rockstar North)      BEST INDEPENDENT GAME FUELED BY DEW     Flower (ThatGameCompany)      MOST ANTICIPATED GAME     God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica) 

The official sponsors of Spike TV's "Video Game Awards 2009" are Burger King, Mountain Dew, Verizon Wireless, GameStop, Energizer and U.S. Army.

Albie Hecht, Oscar®-nominated producer and Casey Patterson, senior vice president, event production & talent development for Spike TV will serve as executive producers of Spike TV's "Video Game Awards 2009." Beth McCarthy will direct. Greg Sills is supervising producer.

Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom ( VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV's Internet address iswww.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV's press site athttp://www.spike.com/press.

SOURCE Spike TV

Halo: Reach Trailer Introduces the Squad

The world's first trailer for Halo: Reachis now out in the wild, thanks in part to Spike TV's 2009 VGAs which aired on December 12. The event in recent years has lured viewers by promising exclusive announcements and trailers, this year being no different. Thanks to the internet, even if you missed the event you can still watch the Halo: Reach trailer to your heart's content.

Halo: Reach will be a prequel to the original Halo: Combat Evolved and takes place on the planet Reach, a military hub. The game may introduce some history behind the Spartan Program, which recruited elite military veterans and armed them with the Mjolnir-powered assault armor.

The trailer shows off a couple of interesting characters, including a solider with a skull-painted helmet and a scarred up female soldier. These two, and a few others, will be members of the player's six-person squad, with the main character joining as the new "number six." The squad's commander tells the him to "leave that lone wolf stuff behind," whether that is a hint to Reach's gameplay or not. The trailer ends by revealing that Halo: Reach is scheduled to release in Fall 2010.

Steorn invites us to 'get real' with fairy-powered Orbo free energy device, we invite it to do the same (video)

Oh, Steorn, how we've missed you. The company rushed onto the scene in the summer of 2007 promising free energy for all, then said "we screwed up" when its demonstration failed to show anything but red faces. Naturally the screw-up wasn't thanks to an ill-advised attempt to break the laws of physics, instead blamed on a bearing failure. Now, coffers filled again after assuredly brisk sales of USB-powered divining rods, the company has rented another demonstration space, this time in Dublin. In the promotional video below Steorn pledges that this week things will "get real" by mocking those who have mocked the company, including our very own reference to power divined from the Fay and other mythical sources. We're going to firmly stand by our disbelief -- but to say that we're jazzed about the prospect of another exciting demonstration would be a huge understatement.

Seagate's Momentus Thin to ship in 160GB / 250GB sizes this January

We weren't waiting on too many more details surrounding Seagate's 7mm thin laptop hard drive, but one critical tidbit has just now been unearthed by the outfit itself. The Momentus Thin will make its official unveiling at CES here in just a few weeks, where it'll be available in 160GB and 250GB capacities and with 8MB of cache, a 5400RPM spin speed and a SATA 3Gbps interface. We're also told that it'll be far less expensive than similarly sized 1.8-inch HDD options, which means this bugger could soon be planted into Atom D410 / D510-based netbooks. The drive is slated to ship to OEM and integrator partners next month, though specific price points have yet to be mentioned. Have a peek at the first press shots below.