Topic: News

Plextor has started to ship the TurboPlex PX-800A DVD Super Multi Drive. Fully compatible with the new Windows Vista operating system, the new DVD+/-R/RW CD-R/RW drive also boasts a new level of performance and features, including 12X DVD-RAM and a software bundle that includes Roxio Easy Media Creator 9.

Although Hitachi-LG, Toshiba-Samsung, Lite-on IT and Japanese brands have been making efforts to lower production costs of Blu-ray Disc (BD) and HD DVD burners to promote the adoption of the two blue-laser standards, CMC Magnetics and Ritek, the top two makers of optical discs, are comparatively conservative about investing in the production of blank BD-R and/or HD DVD-R discs to match the potential demand for such burners, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Matsushita Electric Industrial and CMC Magnetics Corporation (CMC) jointly announced today the settlement of a patent infringement suit that MEI brought against CMC and two of its US affiliates in the United States regarding MEI's DVD patents.

The DVD+RW Alliance announced today it has released the specifications for 12x/16x DVD+R DL recording.

NAND flash shortages are about to arrive in the second half of 2007, according to Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business president Chang-Gyu Hwang at a recent mobile solution forum in Taiwan.

Earlier this year Seagate confirmed it would ship a 1TB hard drive before the second half of this year. With the first quarter of this year already over, the launch window for Seagate's next generation drive is rapidly shrinking.

The two Malaysian sniffer dogs that we have previously reported as having a bounty placed on their heads by local pirates have made their second big discovery of pirated movies, leading investigators to a hidden stash worth more than $430,000.

UK residents will soon be able to catch Eastenders, The Apprentice and Doctor Who on the go following a deal with Orange, Vodafone and 3 with the BBC.

Pinball game publisher Zuxxez decided to chase down British file sharers after discovering that illegal downloads of its best-selling Earth 2160 outstripped its retail sales 35 times, clocking up nearly one million pirate copies.

Corel have announced the release of Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6 Plus, according to the company the consumer DVD authoring package is the first consumer entry-level product to offer HD DVD burning capability and is also the first new product to be launched since Corel completed its acquisition of InterVideo and Ulead last December.

Apple and EMI have announced that iTunes is to sell large chunks of EMI's music catalogue free of digital rights management (DRM) software.

Nintendo has altered the circuit layout of its Wii games console in order to block the increasing use of modification chips (modchips). However, new-generation modchips capable of working with the revised Wii consoles may become available in less than a month, according to retail channels in Taiwan.

Not one to give up a fight easily, the HD DVD Promotional Group has announced that it plans to release over 70 HD DVD titles in the coming months. The news comes on the back of massive price drops in the US from Toshiba to boost sales of its range of players.

Diehard gamers around the world finally got their hands on new Sony Playstation 3 games consoles after midnight launches in Europe, the Middle East and Australasia.

In a complaint filed in New York federal court, the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) argues that the satellite radio operator's "XM + MP3" music service skirts copyright laws by allowing radio listeners to make permanent copies of on-air tracks through devices like the Pioneer Inno player without permission and without properly compensating songwriters.

Malaysian movie pirates have put a bounty on the heads of two sniffer dogs who busted a fake DVD ring with a seizure of discs worth about $3 million.

Sony has said that 220,000 PlayStation 3s will be available in the UK when the games console is launched on Friday.

Companies across Europe face criminal sanctions, including prison time for employees, if their networks, software programs or online services are ever used to carry illegally copied material such as music or film, according to a draft law from the European Commission supported by a committee of the European Parliament.

Samsung has unveiled four new drives at this years CeBIT, a 20x burner in both internal and external varieties, and a 4x Blu-ray burner, both internal and external.

Continuing their aggressive push to lower HD DVD player pricing, Toshiba has announced they will reduce the cost of both of their second-generation decks beginning April 1st.