In a bid to set themselves apart from their increasingly inevitable competition, Vudu made a bold claim: , with 1100 HD movies, including about 150 in the fantastic HDX codec, they've got the largest HD movie library in the world, physical formats included. This sounds suspect until you consider that Netflix, Xbox Marketplace and Apple TV all offer under a thousand HD films, and that Blu-ray.com, which lists all available titles, only contains ~1030 discs, including some television shows.

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VUDU has over 120 new HD flicks available for rent this week, but the big news is that half of those films are in their new HDX format—downloadable HD that looks a lot better than the current downloadable, highly compressed "HD" we're accustomed to. Read on for the full new HD and HDX lists.

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CrunchGear got their meaty hands on the new HP HDX16 Blu-ray notebook we previewed back in September, and it's pretty shiny. And I say "meaty" because they damn near broke some of those flashy, flush buttons during the initial feeling up. Keep those paws away from the 16:9 high def widescreen and I think we'll be OK, fellas. [CrunchGear]

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Vudu's new HDX 1080p movies—promised to be "Blu-ray quality"—go live today. David Pogue has the first look, and while HDX movies are not literally Blu-ray quality (which would be an impossible with our crappy broadband), they are indeed "insanely sharp" and compared to other movie downloads, it's like "seeing a movie on VHS videotape and DVD side by side."

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One of the products unveiled at last week's HP event in Hong Kong was this mean looking desktop machine. It's part of the new HDX lineup that we showed you last week, although this particular machine will only be released in China.

The HDX900 features mechanised drive doors at the front of the full tower ATX chassis. Inside, there's the latest Intel Core 2 Quad processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9600GS or 9800GT 3D graphics card and Vista Home Premium. There's also a 15-in-1 card reader, a convenient carry handle and behind the bay doors lies a HP Pocket Drive Bay and space for up to 4 5.25-inch disc drives for Blu-ray or DVD.

There's plenty of freedom to upgrade as well, with toolless component switching and an easy open side panel to get at the insides.

No word on whether we'll ever see this in Australia, but if we do, it probably won't be considered cheap...

HP are one of the biggest (if the not the biggest) seller of notebooks in Australia (and the Asia-Pacific region), yet they don't have that whole "high-end" PC entry into the premium market. well, they didn't, anyway. This week they announced their new HDX brand - a high performance label that brings a high-definition experience (HDX, get it?) to their users around the world.

HP admit that they've learned a lot from their acquisition of the Voodoo brand in the US, and the HDX is their attempt to bring those lessons to the market. That doesn't mean we'll never see Voodoo in Australia, but it's unlikely in the near future.

Available in a 16-inch and an 18.4-inch model, the HDX range features the new Fluid imprint across the outside front cover and palm rest. Inside the HDX16, you get Vista Home Premium SP1, a 1366 x 768 BrightView Infinity Display (upgradeable to 1080p version), up to 8GB RAM, Blu-ray disc drive, Express Card Slot, integrated HD tuner, Altec Lansing speakers, webcam with microphone, 6-cell Li-ion battery and a fingerprint reader. It weighs in at 3.205kg with battery, and measures 37.85 x 33.5 x 4.32 cm.

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HP has dropped two notebooks catering to portable home theatre addicts. Both computers run Windows Vista SP1 and come with Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processors, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M graphics chips, 4GB DDR2 RAM, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a DVD±R/RW drive. The HDX16 has a 16 inch 1366x768 pixel Brightview display and comes with a 320GB hard drive while the HDX18 boasts an 18.4 inch 1920x1080p LCD screen and gives you an extra 180GB storage.

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HP has two new mice out dedicated to gaming. The HDX Laser Mouse gives you five mouse setting profiles, five programmable macro buttons, and is allegedly eight times faster than conventional mice. The slightly more advanced Laser Gaming Mouse with Voodoo DNA gives you everything the regular laser mouse has, plus HP's VoodooDNA GUI software for even speedier mousing. The company also released pictures of its wireless Vector Mouse, but no details as of yet. The regular Laser Mouse will set you back US$40, while the Voodoo DNA version is US$60.

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