NEC have acknowledged it has been the victim of a large-scale piracy ring that sold both counterfeit NEC goods as well as NEC-branded products including blank CD and DVD media.

In a surprise announcement, Nintendo have revealed the new name of its forthcoming game system: Wii. "As in 'we'," the official statement adds.

Pioneer has unveiled its BDR-101A, one of the world's first PC-use Blu-ray Disc (BD) DVD burner, for sale at US$995 (£560). Due to the high price, the model caters to professional users and enterprise users, according to general manager Shannon Yu for Pioneer's Optical Disc Drive Sales Division in Greater China.

DVD Blinding Light Flash has been in contact with news about a quick tip he recieved that should work to disable the new anti-piracy pop-up nag that comes with Window's Genuine Advantage.

BenQ and Philips remain on their schedule to launch their Blu-ray DVD burner in Q3 of 2006, and promise compatibility with the CD and DVD formats.

Lite-On has landed PC-use FVD (forward versatile disc) orders from a leading U.S.-based distributor with shipment slated to start in June, according to Derray Huang, deputy general director of the Opto-electronics and Systems Laboratories (OES) at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).

Researchers of the super-fast Internet2 network unveiled on Wednesday their new networking speed record of 8.8 Gbps per second, nearing the Internet2's current theoretical limit of 10 Gbps, which is thousands of times faster than standard home broadband connections.

Yahoo released a beta version of its Yahoo Go for TV software that turns a PC into a digital video recorder. Once the software is installed, users may plug their computer into their television's video and audio input connections.

Seagate has come up trumps with the recently released perpendicular recording format for hard disk drives releasing a monster 750GB drive for the desktop.

Warner have announced that it plans to begin shipping hybrid DVD / HD-DVD titles in May. The discs will feature standard 480p DVD content that will work on any DVD player on one side, and 1080p HD-DVD content on the other side.

TDK have demonstrated the first printable versions of Blu-ray discs at the NAB tradeshow. Two different versions were shown - Rimage showed a thermal printable BD-R, while Primera had an inkjet printable at its booth.

Microsoft has been quietly piloting its Software Genuine Advantage programme in Norway and in Sweden since November. This week, the scheme has been be extended to the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Several second-tier makers of pre-recorded discs in Taiwan, under competitive pressure from China, Russia and even South Korea, have approached leading makers in Taiwan with proposals to merger in order to remain in business.

Apple has announced that iTunes users will have to put up with advertising on its free content.

If you believe the RIAA, Gertrude Walton has been apparently down loading more than 700 songs off peer-to-peer networks and deserves to have the book thrown at her.

With Japan-based TDK and Panasonic recently announcing their production plans for Blu-ray Disc (BD) discs, Taiwan-based CMC Magnetics and Ritek indicated that they are currently sampling next-generation BD discs with customers, with mass productions for both companies slated for the third quarter of 2006.

Panasonic have announced that it will provide a wide variety of support for broadcast coverage, with its newest high-definition (HD) broadcasting products, for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Nero have announced the retail release of Nero PhotoShow Deluxe 4, a new edition of its photo solution software.

Microsoft have detailed innovations coming in Windows Vista that the company believes makes the operating system superior in the delivery of multimedia. This would include several enhancements to Windows Media itself as well as expanded functionality within Windows Media Center, now standard in Vista.

Negotiations between Apple and the four major music labels; Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Universal have apparently reached breaking point, with record executives expressing their inability to convince Steve Jobs to allow variable pricing.