Topic: News

BT is putting its entire archive of old phone books online for genealogists, or anyone else, to browse, and a commercial genealogy company is opening up access to all UK burial records since 1538.

While Toshiba has enjoyed exceptionally booming sales of its HD-A2 HD DVD player in the North America market, Blu-ray Disc (BD) appears to have gained the upper hand in the PC-use drive segment.

LG has officially today announced the release of the first Blu-Ray/HD DVD Super-multi DVD burner capable of writing at 6x on Blu-Ray media.

Nero and TiVo today announced that they have entered into an agreement to further enable the connected digital home by integrating TiVo's television user experience with Nero's PC software.

France is to set up a new Internet authority with powers to suspend or cut access to the web for those who illegally file-share, under an agreement.

IBM is seeking to patent technology that would place adverts at crucial points in DVD playback without the viewers ability to skip them.

Hackers have created a proof-of-concept exploit for an Apple QuickTime player streaming media vulnerability.

With the release of v6.2.0.1 of AnyDVD HD, you can finally rip any BD+ disk with a single mouse click. We can't recommend this software enough and heartily recommend you buy a copy so you can watch your legally purchased movies on your legally purchased hardware, something nearly impossible to do if you don't buy it all at once from a single vendor.

20th Century Fox recently announced that it will add a "Digital Copy" version of "Die Hard 4" to a two-disc special-edition DVD release, while other studios are also expected to embrace the concept.

The BBC Trust have announced plans for a high definition channel to be available on the Sky satellite service. Despite calls from some for the BBC to broadcast 4 hours of Freeview hi-def content per day, the governing body decided against that course because it would require equipment that would likely be obsolete after the official Freeview HDTV standard is complete.

Nintendo have announced the "DS-TV" on their Japanese site, a cartridge with an attached antenna that would allow DS and DS Lite owners to watch their favourite programs on the go.

Rumour has it that European optical media distribution giant E-Net distribution are moving to a custom built site close to Edinburgh Airport. The Hi Tech Business pace which strangely enough is called E-Net park is also in close proximity to the local sea shipping port in Grangemouth on the main M9 motorway.

When we contacted John Gillen the business development manager for e-netpark he said “sorry we don’t comment on rumours” nice try John…

The E-netpark website

Pioneer announced today its latest series of 20x dual format DVD writers, offering C /DVD/DVD-RAM writing support in SATA and PATA versions, as well as a new feature for accurate reading of Audio CDs.

DVD kiosks located in supermarkets, fast-food restaurants and other high-traffic locations will expand their share of the rental market to 20% to 25% within about three years, predicts the chairman and CEO of No. 3 kiosk operator DVDPlay.

A Pioneer-created TV service will soon enter public testing and allow consumers to download unlimited numbers of TV shows for a monthly fee.

CNet and the Wall Street Journal are up with scoops on a long-awaited device from Amazon, a thing that could either be quite grand but that odds say will prove a bust: an e-book reader.

Paul McCartney is predicting the Beatles' catalog will make its long-awaited arrival in the digital realm next year.

SanDisk have a new Flash-Based accelerator called Vaulter Disk to speed up system performance in consumer laptops and PCs.

If you bought one of Seagate's Maxtor Basics consumer hard drives recently, check it for viruses. Especially if you're a gamer.

The heads of the global recording industry have traveled to Brussels to meet with EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, to emphasize the piracy and market access problems faced by the music companies in China.