If you want to try out Windows 8 and can't wait until launch day then you'll be happy to learn that Microsoft has announced the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is now available to the general public and you can head on over and download it right now. Head on over and get your very own "preview" copy of Windows 8 as well as a bunch of information about Windows 8.

It's Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It's an all-new touch interface. It's a new Windows for new devices. And it's your chance to be one of the first to try it out.

Give it a try and make sure to post your thoughts in the forums using the link below.

This week on Weekly Tech Update we discussed how Google+ was hitting 90 Million users but it didn't appear like any of those users were actually using the service for very long thanks to a new report published over at the Wall Street Journal. Obviously to Google+ users this isn't too much of a newsflash as activity on Google+ has been dropping over the past couple months.

TheWeek takes a look at some of the numbers when comparing Google+ to Facebook which is only natural as Google+ was supposed to be the Facebook killer..

Google launched its Google+ social network with much fanfare last year in an attempt to compete with industry behemoth Facebook. Today, Google+ boasts an impressive roster of tens of millions of members — most of whom are barely spending any time on the site, according to an embarrassing new report from comScore. Google+ is a "virtual ghost town," says Amir Efrati at The Wall Street Journal. 

Gizmodo has put Apple's Siri up against Google's Voice Commands on Android in an attempt to determine which one actually does a better job at certain tasks. They've broken it down into categories which is always nice since not all users care about the same functionality. Overall its pretty interesting to see how far this technology has come and chances are pretty good that when we look back in a year both of these voice technologies will look pretty archaic.

Motorola created a bit of a stir yesterday when it released a video compared Android's Voice Actions on the Atrix 2 with iOS's Siri on an iPhone 4S. Fanboys screamed foul in the comments, so we decided to test it out for ourselves. And yes, there's a very clear winner.

You'll note that this is not the Atrix 2, because we didn't have one on-hand. Instead we used the Galaxy Nexus which has very similar specs. They both have dual-core TI OMAP processors (though the Nexus is clocked at 1.2GHz vs 1.0GHz on the Atrix) and a gig of RAM. The point is the software, however, and the specs are close enough to make Voice Actions perform identically. The tests were conducted over Wi-Fi, so no need to call 4G shenanigans.

Last week the rumors were flying that the Sony PlayStation 4 may be using a AMD GPU instead of NVIDIA. This week the rumor is that the PlayStation 4 might be ditching the Cell CPU and going with an AMD CPU instead. This could mean that the PS4 will be using a CPU/GPU on one chip (like the AMD Fusion) which would probably make sense and make it easier for game developers to port games between consoles and PCs. These are all still rumors, and due to the fact that the PS4 is still quite a ways away who knows if this will actually materialize or not. Kotaku has all the details.

The PlayStation 4 will not use Sony's Cell processor nor any possible successor to the vaunted chipset that was introduced to the world through the PlayStation 3, gaming industry sources tell Kotaku.

What we're hearing from sources follow a Forbes rumor last week that chip-maker AMD would make the graphics chip for a PS4, a shift from the PS3's use of a graphics chip from AMD rival Nvidia.

CES Press day is Monday (today) and we spent some time yesterday getting things ready, eating some food, doing the annual run to Fry's and having a good time.  It's been nice to have more the the BCCHardware crew here, although we do miss those who can't be here this year (Tigger, Ironman, Onion, HooRaH).

Stay tuned as we'll have a lot more coverage - including live press event coverage from Samsung as well as coverage from the very last Microsoft keynote - all coming to you here at BCCHardware.com

We'll have more CES pictures happening here - and more daily coverage and events happening here.  Bookmark them and stay tuned!

We are on the road to CES 2012 and we setup a 3-man roadLAN.  It was Eldon vs. Sean & I and we destroyed him.  It's amazing that an Android phone can be a backbone for an actual network - and that we all ran UnrealTournament (yes, the original) on our gear.  There will be lots more CES fun and festivities to come - so stay tuned!