The VoodooPC inspired HP Firebird system announced today at CES highlights two design themes that HP believes will be prominent in 2009: power efficiency and affordability. VoodooDNA based PCs haven't been described as affordable or power efficient in the past--the flagship Blackbird system is known for its powerful hardware and equally intimidating price, but the coming year is going to be challenging for consumers and industry trends in component design have opened the door for power-efficient gaming systems.

The new HP Firebird system shares the same floating-wedge shape as the Blackbird 002, but in a much smaller package, roughly one third of the size of the Blackbird chassis. Designers achieved the space savings by switching to smaller, power-saving components and by moving the power supply to an external 350W power brick. You won't find an Intel Core i7 CPU or dual GeForce GTX 280 cards in this system, but the Firebird will have plenty of gaming performance with its Intel Core 2 Quad processor and Nvidia GeForce 9800S GPUs. Power-efficient components don't generate a lot of noise because they don't need as much active cooling and the Firebird will be quieter than most PCs thanks to its liquid cooling system.The GeForce GPUs come in laptop MXM modules which are great for power and heat, but will make upgrading difficult if not impossible later on because aftermarket GPU upgrades generally aren't available in MXM format.

We just met up with Jack Buser the director of PlayStation Home for Sony Computer Entertainment to get a sneak preview of what's going to be available in the Home open beta. Just to be clear, the "open beta" is the official launch of PlayStation Home. Tomorrow, PlayStation 3 owners all over the world will be able to download and try out the service from the PlayStation Network menu in the XMB. Sony is calling tomorrow's launch an open beta because they view Home as an evolving world that's going to get constant content updates moving forward, similar to how an MMO expansion may launch but have new content patched in later.

Players that have been testing the closed beta will find several changes in Home when they log into the service. Sony developers have redesigned the entire Central Plaza area with new graphics and a new interactive "Saucer Pop" game where up to 4 players fly individual flying saucers and compete against each other in a competition to gather stars and fuel while avoiding bombs. The entire game takes place over a pond in the Central Plaza, so you'll see everyone walking around in the background as your UFO whizzes by. The Central Plaza also has an updated Listen@Home jukebox in the dance area that lets players vote on the next song to be played.The Mall will soon get a couple of new stores based on real life designers. Players will be able to get virual items from clothing company Diesel and furniture from Ligne Roset.

Logitech has a solution for all of us PC gamers that have ever had the urge to affix personalized images on top of our gaming mice. We can now order a customized G9 Laser Mouse ID Grip from Logitech's Website . The G9 Laser Mouse, as you may remember, already comes with two interchangeable grips, so snapping on a new grip isn't a problem.

You can select from premade images on Logitech's site--we saw an eyeball, flames, a couple of Red Alert 3 shots, and a variety of abstract designs with names like "Trance" and "Swircle," but serious mousing enthusiasts will want to upload their own pictures. Product marketing manager Vincent Tucker showed us a few sample grips emblazoned with his Tauren warrior from World of Warcraft.

Here's a tip if you're in a race using Fanatec's Porsche 911 Turbo racing wheel: Watch those buttons. Like any racing wheel worth its salt the 911 Turbo features assignable buttons--nine in fact on the face of the wheel itself. Perhaps due to the shape of the wheel face and how your hands sit on top of it, assigning the pit speed limiter button in your favorite racing sim to a button on the upper right or upper can have disastrous results.

We speak from experience. While speeding through a tight corner in SimBin's Race 07, we were gripped the wheel during a hard left turn and inadvertently hit the top left button with our palm just below the thumb. Immediately our car slowed down to the pit speed limit and our race was ruined. Oops. A quick exit out of the race and into the menus to re-assign the pit speed limiter to another button, and we were back on track and back in action.

We spent more time investigating the hard disk game installation feature included with the New Xbox Experience. We pulled The Orange Box, Command & Conquer 3, NBA Live 09, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed out of the GameSpot game library to measure installation times and to see how game load times improved with hard drive installations.

We found that installation time varies depending on the size of the game which isn't surprising because the installation process copies the data from the DVD to the hard drive--bigger games are going to take longer to rip. Installing the 4.7GB Orange Box disc took 6 minutes and 57 seconds while it only took 5 minutes and 35 seconds to get Command & Conquer 3's 3.6GB onto the hard drive. The Force Unleashed, weighing in at 6.6GB, extended out the installation time to 9 minutes and 47 seconds and it took 9 minutes and 7 seconds to install NBA Live 09's 6.3GB of data.

The load time benefits are fairly respectable, but you're not going to see anything close to instant game loads. Getting Orange Box from the dashboard to the game's start menu took 30 seconds when playing from disc, but only 25 seconds when launched from the hard drive. Command & Conquer 3's game launch time improved the most, dropping from 33 seconds to 17 seconds. NBA Live 09 only improved by 8 seconds, going from 45 seconds to 37 seconds. The Force Unleashed yielded a larger percentage drop, going from 33 seconds to 25 seconds.

Sony announced that both the PlayStation 3 and PSP will receive firmware updates that will fix bugs and add new features. The PlayStation 3's firmware will be upgraded to 2.50 and the PSP will hit 5.0. Sony representatives did not reveal a firm date for launch, but mentioned that the updates will be released in October.

The biggest update to the PSP gives it native access to the PlayStation Store. You won't have to navigate the store using the web browser anymore or use a PC to create accounts, download games, trailers, and other files. The new store interface will allow users to redeem PlayStation cash cards from within the interface. In addition, the PC based version of the PlayStation store will receive a refresh.

The PSP will get a new QWERTY style text input system. Users who favor the original input scheme will still be able to access it via an option. Other minor updates include a new sleep timer for the PSP's music player.

The PlayStation 3's new firmware will bring a broad set of updates to the console. Bluray playback will receive an innovative feature that lets users browse movie scenes in 1,2, and 5min intervals. Each scene will show up as a thumbnail and will show an accompanying video preview when selected. In action, the new feature certainly seems impressive, and should make finding exact moments in a movie relatively easy. Users of video files will get sequential playback, which will play back-to-back videos seamlessly and without interruption.

Sure to bring smiles to many gamers, the PS3 will now have the ability to take in-game screenshots. Sony revealed that when a certain combination of buttons are pressed, the PS3 will automatically take a screenshot and save it to the photo section of the console. After that, users are free to create slide shows and even copy them off the console for use. Sony indicated that the game must support the feature, and that numerous upcoming games would do so.

On the power front, the PS3 will now have an auto-shut off feature that can be set at various time intervals. Users will also be able to queue up downloads and have the console automatically shut down after the files have been received. To further save energy, the PlayStation 3 will now support auto shut off for controllers.

The PS3's trophy system will also receive a bit of an update. Users will now receive an icon to represent their overall level based upon how many trophies they have and of what quality they are(bronze, silver, gold). You'll also be able to browse and compare your trophies to those of your friends for specific games. Friends lists will now include a notification of when a user last logged on.

A new info board will give users up to date information on game releases, movies, and other pertinent information along with direct links to the content.

Sony's PS3 Bluetooth headset will now have auto-syncing capabilities using the USB cable. The update will also let you see how much battery life is left on screen and will enable High Quality (HQ) voice chats.