I’ve spent the past week with a pair of the flagship headphones in Sony’s new "eXtra Bass" range – the MDR-XB700. I did promise a review, so read on to see what you’ve got to look forward to when they hit the shops in April.

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Forget higher definitions and bigger screens, 3D is the next video battleground. It’s not actually that complicated to produce or view 3D images and various technologies have been around for decades to do the job (remember the red/green glasses you used to get in cereal boxes?)

The problem though has always been making it consumer friendly. Historically you’ve always needed glasses or special projectors in order to see the 3D effect.

Given some of the technology demos I’ve seen over the past 6 months at CES and MWC I think it’s safe to say that problem is coming close to being solved. SpatialView are launching a clip-on screen in the shape of the 3DeeFlector that fits “any 13.3” notebook” (so that’s a macbook then).

The screen will make 3D content visible without the need for glasses although I presume there’s still be some pretty specific requirements on the video card.

Available from April this year, price TBD.

Sony have kindly loaned us one of the first pairs of MDR-XB700 headphones to hit UK shores, so we’ll be putting them through their paces over the coming days to see if the bass-tastic claims are warranted. Look out for a review shortly, after I’ve had a chance to find some suitably testing tunes…

With MWC behind us, it’s time to catch up on some of the other (non mobile related) news that happens last week!

To start with, Sony launch a new range of Bravia TVs, starting with the WE5 “Eco TV”. These 40 and 46 inch LCD models sport numerous power saving technologies but my favourite one is the “presence sensor” that detects body heat and turns the screen off when you leave the room  (leaving the sound running so you can still hear when the commercials finish).

Amusingly, the press release also makes a point of having a physical, manual power switch that when pressed turns the set off to draw zero power. It says something about technology that the presence of a hard power switch is now a “feature” but I’m not sure what…

You also get a 1080p panel and the latest Bravia engine 3. More images and the full press release / specs after the jump

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To all the hip hop and Drum ‘n Bass fans out there trying in vain to get any bass out of the things Apple laughingly call headphones: Sony might just have the answer for you.

The recently announced XB (eXtra Bass) line of cans promises fat (should that be phat?), booming bass without compromising the higher frequencies.

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The Will Ferrell comedy Step Brothers hit the UK last week in Blu-ray format with some unique online extended features. Making use of the BD-Live function built into recent players (I bet you never even knew you had it) the disk includes a ‘Boats N Hoes’ video editor that lets you cut clips of the movie together to form your own version of the song featured in the film.

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I resisted the urge to get SkyHD when it came out. The original thought was “When my sky+ dies, I’ll replace it with HD”. I didn’t figure on the original Sky+ box being built like a tank and still going after 5 or so years of fairly heavy use.

Looks like they might have finally persuaded me though – the current deal drops the price of the HD box to £49, which is about as cheap as I can see it getting without them giving it away.

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With the economy the way it is at the moment, everybody’s looking for a bargain and this USB TV receiver from bizarrely named technology company August international might just hit the spot.  It needs a fairly strong signal for the best reception but if you have that then it’s a cheap and simple way of getting your Big Brother (shudder) fix on your laptop.

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