News written by Andre Yoskowitz (September, 2007)

Demonoid is finally back online after a week of downtime in which rumors swirled that the tracker was taken down by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Although the rumors proved to be somewhat true, the tracker and website are still being hosted on a Canadian ISP but now must block all Canadian traffic.

A note on the Demonoid homepage had this to say, "We received a letter from a lawyer representing the CRIA, they were threatening with legal action and we need to start blocking Canadian traffic because of this. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for any inconvenience."

This latest decision mirrors the recent situations with other public trackers Isohunt and TorrentSpy which were forced to block access to US users.

Although the forums and the site in general still seem to be in somewhat of disarray, the admins promise to have it up and running at full pace in a few days.

Source:
TF

Many savvy and paranoid torrent downloaders have noticed that the latest episodes of "Heroes" and "Prison Break", released on EZTV, are being tracked by none other than MiiVi.org, the trap site set up by MediaDefender to entrap pirates.

However, the tracker is another ingenious idea by the guys over at The Pirate Bay and nothing to be worried about. The new tracker describes itself "as a tribute to the fall of MediaDefender" and was registered to the admins of the The Pirate Bay. EZTV will now be using the tracker "tv.mivii.org" for its TV releases.

Just another parting shot at MediaDefender as it dies slowly.

Source:
TF

Dreamworks Animation has announced the specs for the upcoming "Shrek the Third" HD DVD and it includes a few never-before-seen features including "branching PIP commentary" and the "most comprehensive web-enabled content yet."

The "Animator's Reel" will present a completely alternate version of the movie in storyboard form and will also utilize HDi technology to "offer a contextual seamless branch" to lost scenes and other content."

The new movie should also have the broadest web-enabled content seen to date for HD DVD. Dreamworks says a few of the extras available will be a "full-length subtitle trivia track, a movie guide with files on characters and talent in the film, plus an interactive coloring book feature that allows you to digitally paint your favorite scenes."

Another innovative feature is that the disc will allow users to customize their own menus based on their favorite "Shrek" characters and the menu the user selects will become the default, even after is ejected.

Although they have lowered manufacturing costs of the Xbox 360 by switching to the 65nm CPU, internal marketing pictures have shown that Microsoft will most likely not be lowering the price of the console but instead just bundling games and perhaps accessories.

The bundled games would be "Forza Motorsport 2" and "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance" on both the Premium and Elite consoles.

In Canada, bundling games has been a standard practice with the Best Buys and Wal-Marts already bundling 360 Premiums with Forza and Amped 3 or Forza and NHL 2k8.

Source:
Dailytech

According to a banner on its main portal web page Yahoo is notifying users that it will be shutting down its podcast service on October 31st and that it will have important news to tell customers, and possibly investors, tomorrow.

"Today we're planning some changes that also have our user and customer experiences in mind," reads a message on Yahoo's corporate blog from entertainment and video head Vince Broady, entitled, "Finding Focus in Hollywood. "We are streamlining the structure of one portion of our Santa Monica presence - our entertainment division - with a vision of offering a more integrated entertainment experience. That means we'll be creating more synergies between our music, games, movies, TV, and omg! properties, making them more personal and engaging for entertainment hounds."

The statement has many believing that Yahoo's Unlimited Music store will either be pared down or closed down entirely, with the company then moving those resources to Yahoo's free, ad-supported services.

More updates after Yahoo makes its statement.

Source:
BetaNews

The National Legal Policy Center (NLPC), a copyright watch-dog group that conducts spot checks on video sharing sites in search of copyright violation recently conducted an investigation on Google Video and said the results were stunning.

Between September 10th and 18th the group checked Google Video and found over 300 videos featuring copyrighted material including 60 motion pictures released in 2007. These 300 pirated films received over 22 million videos over the past year, said the group.

"While Google faces numerous legal challenges related to the posting of copyrighted content on its video sharing websites, there is a growing chorus who believe that evidence of Google's seemingly indifferent attitude towards internet video piracy has resulted in a legitimization or 'mainstreaming' of video piracy which will have broad and damaging implications for all intellectual property owners," stated the NLPC in a letter to Congress.

The NLPC also added that Google never fulfilled its promise to add filtering technology to Video and YouTube which it announced late last year.

Bringing data figures to the table that they probably cannot back up, the NLPC said that internet piracy costs the film industry $2.3 billion USD per year in lost revenue.

Seeing that television broadcasts are gradually moving from standard-def to high-def and that DVD recorders will soon not offer enough storage, Sharp will be soon shipping Blu-ray recorders for the Japanese market that include 1 TB of storage.

The players, available in December will include HDDs with 1TB capacity and the ability to write to dual layer Blu-ray media. According to Sharp, 1 TB should hold 127 hours of HD video.

The recorder will not be cheap however. The 1 TB model will cost the equivalent of $2600 USD but Sharp did say it would be releasing lower end models without a HDD that would range from $875 to $1040.

Source:
Dailytech

Long before Halo 3 hit retail shelves, Microsoft boasted that the launch would be the "biggest day in US entertainment history." Judging by figures compiled for the first 24 hours, they can now back that claim up.

According to a press release from Microsoft, Halo 3 has generated $170 million USD in its first 24 hours of US availability, making it the biggest launch day in the history of the US entertainment industry. The sales beat out the "Spider-Man 3" movie as well as the latest Harry Potter novel, although it must be said that the game is fairly more expensive than either a movie ticket or a hardcover book.

In every copy of the game Microsoft also included a 48-hour trial for Xbox Live, which likely helped drive September 25th to be the busiest day in XBL history.

"Halo 3 has become a pop-culture phenomenon," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. "Not only is Halo 3 setting sales records, it's also redefining entertainment... Within the first 20 hours alone, we've seen more than a million Xbox Live members come online to play Halo 3 - that makes September 25 the most active Xbox Live gaming day in history."

Now that the summer box office frenzy has ended leaving broken records in its wake, the studios are hoping that they can see a similar boost in DVD sales and rentals when the movies debut in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Beginning with the worldwide hit "Knocked Up", 16 films that grossed more than $100 million domestically are expected to be released on DVD from now until the end of the year.

There is huge money at stake as well. The domestic home video business brings in around $25 billion USD annually as compared to under $10 billion USD annually for box office grosses.

However, the business has been in decline for most of the year, hitting a 5 to 10 percent decline.

Additionally, the biggest physical rental chains in the market have hit some speed bumps as of late. Blockbuster has hit a state of turmoil recently and Movie Gallery has been in such financial trouble that it was forced to close over 500 stores yesterday. The next-gen format war as well is in complete uncertainty, especially after Paramount threw its support solely behind HD DVD. Afterdawn readers know however that HD sales still pale in comparison to standard def totals.

And so, with that being said, the big question remains as to whether the strong box office return will lead to strong DVD sales and rentals in the fourth quarter and busy holiday season.

"That's the big question," concedes Paramount homevid topper Kelley Avery, who believes the industry will end slightly up by year-end. Read more...

Demonoid, the very popular torrent tracker, has allegedly been taken down by CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) as users have noticed that both the tracker and the website have been down for at least the last 24 hours.

Although Demonoid and CRIA have yet to deny or confirm the reports it is definitely a possibility that Demonoid's new Canadian ISP shut the site down after being pressured by CRIA. Recently, the ISP said it would pull the plug on Demonoid if it received complaints.

This would be the second time in recent memory that Demonoid has had major downtime, the last time being when it was still based in the Netherlands. The Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN asked the web host Leaseweb to take Demonoid down and hand over the admin's personal information but Demonoid relocated to Canada before anything could come of it.

It seems likely now that Demonoid will have to relocate again, or stay offline and be another huge blow to the BitTorrent community.

Amazon today launched the public beta of its new DRM-free digital music store, starting with a 2 million song offering.

Many believe the new store could prove to be a strong competitor to iTunes as it features tons of songs, but all DRM-free. All files are in MP3 format and encoded at 256kbs. The tracks are compatible with most portable devices including the iPod.

The new store will also be more affordable then iTunes as Amazon will offer all individual songs for 89 to 99 cents and albums for $6 to $10 USD. iTunes, in comparison, charges $1.29 for DRM-free tracks and $12.99 for albums.

Noticeably absent from Amazon's store is all labels under Sony BMG however, which includes Arista, Columbia, Epic, Jive and RCA records. Due to contractual obligations, all their tracks must include DRM.

Source:
BetaNews

In an effort to stay in business, the large movie rental chain Movie Gallery has confirmed that it will be closing over 500 of its brick and mortar stores around the US.

Although bankruptcy has been widely feared for the company, CEO Joe Malugen hopes the move will bring the company back to financial health.

“Closing these stores was a difficult, but necessary decision to help protect the future of this company,” he said. “These stores are being closed after evaluating a number of factors, including store profits and the terms of the leases at each location. This action will allow us to focus our resources on the approximate 4,000 stores that have a stronger operating performance and prospects for future growth.”

Movie Gallery did not go into details about how many employees would be laid off or be transferred to other Hollywood Video or Movie Gallery locations and also did not go into whether customer's accounts would be transferred to nearby locations.

Movie Gallery has seen its stock plummet in recent months mainly due to losing market share after the introduction of "Total Access" by its main rival, Blockbuster.

Source:
VideoBusiness

Due to their ongoing lawsuit from the MPAA, the admins at the popular torrent search engine IsoHunt will be blocking US visitors on their TorrentBox and Podtropolis trackers.

According to an IsoHunt statement,

"As of earlier today, we have disabled access from users in the US to our trackers. This goes for ALL trackers (torrentbox, podtropolis) we run. This is due to the US’s hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US. So, if you’re outside the US, you may notice less peers. We encourage you to add other public, unhampered trackers to torrents you post, in addition to Torrentbox and Podtropolis’s trackers."

This is the second time recently that sites have been forced to block access to US users including last month's shut down of TorrentSpy.

The MPAA believes that the only purpose of these trackers and engines is to share unauthorized copyrighted content, but the owner of IsoHunt does not agree. “We process copyright takedown requests daily, and have done so for hundreds of requests in the past, if not thousands. We work with all copyright owners, and even the RIAA email us routinely. The MPAA is the only organization unwilling to cooperate with us.”

Although it is widely credited with helping to bring both VHS and standard-def DVD to the mainstream, the porn industry has been surprisingly slow to embrace next-gen disc formats.

Many believed that the adult video industry would once again be a major factor in determining which of the rival formats would be victorious but so far the releases have been few and far between.

To date, DVD Empire only lists sixteen adult titles on HD DVD and a meager three for Blu-ray.

Industry analysts have put a few reasons forward as to why they believe the industry has been slow to adopt including the the fact that the discs are much more expensive to produce and that distributors are under the impression that it would be better to just leap frog the formats and focus on online content delivery of HD content.

More updates when they become available for all those interested in porn.

Source:
HDdigest

With the game ready to launch tonight, Microsoft has announced that it has already sold more than 1.5 million copies of Halo 3 in the US making it the fastest game to hit the milestone.

"The excitement and demand for Halo 3 has transcended a typical video game release and we’re preparing dedicated registers for its midnight release in our 24-hour stores," said Darin Dickson, video game merchandise buyer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "It’s clear that this is one of the most anticipated games of the year and that 12:01 am Sept. 25 will be a memorable moment for thousands of gamers."

There will be up to 10,000 US retailers open tonight at midnight, with a few even having special events.

"Our customers have been waiting for Halo 3 since the day after Halo 2 launched in 2004," said Jill Hamburger, vice president of movies and games at Best Buy. "Halo 3 is going to bring the experience to new levels, and we are excited to help our customers get the best possible game playing experience."

Halo 3 surpasses Halo 2 as the fastest pre-selling game in history and the game is expected to be released in 37 countries and in 17 different languages.

Source:
GI.biz

Virgin Digital has decided to shut down its digital music business and has stopped selling tracks or accepting new customers as of today.

According to the company, the shut down will be for good on October 19th. Also according to a note on the UK version of the site, "New sales of music will end September 29. Those customers who have a payment due before the shut off date will lose access the day their next payment is due."

The American site will also be closing, but differently than the UK site. Instead of losing all their unused credits, US users will be allowed to transfer their credits to the Napster online store.

If you have a subscription however, you will lose all access to your music on the 19th regardless. The closing of Virgin Digital is similar to that of MTV Urge which closed down a couple months ago due to ineffectiveness in competing with the like of iTunes and Napster.

Source:
BetaNews

This morning Starbucks announced that it plans to give away up to 50 million songs from iTunes as part of a large promotion aimed to bring interest to its new wireless music service that is starting soon.

Beginning in New York and Seattle, the popular franchise is set to launch the new service which will allow users that are "browsing the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store near a Starbucks, to view -- and download -- the currently playing song as well as the last ten played."

Apple and Starbucks say the service will be expanding to all stores with wireless access by 2009.

Starbucks said they would be giving away 1.5 million music cards each day from October 2nd to November 7th allowing the holder to download a special "Song of the Day" for free from iTunes. The first song given away will be "Joker Man" by Bob Dylan with a new song being offered each day.

Source:
BetaNews

PBS and WGBH Boston have announced that they will be joining their video distribution businesses, allowing both companies to more efficiently distribute products as rentals or online downloads.

PBS said executives from both companies would manage the partnership and all the funds generated to be put towards new TV programming and services. Programming will "continue to be created separately" however.

WGBH produces about 30 percent of PBS's primetime shows including the hits "Frontline", "Antiques Roadshow", "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Curious George".

“This is an extraordinary opportunity to combine efforts within public TV to better serve the public and the producing community,” said Andrea Downing, VP of PBS Home Entertainment and Partnerships. “Our new partnership will provide broader, more efficient distribution options for public TV producers, filmmakers, programmers and viewers.”

David Bernstein, VP and general manager of WGBH added, “By combining the scale and expertise of two successful distributors, we will be positioned to capitalize on public TV’s investment in programming and increase our capacity and library available for future, alternative distribution methods.”

According to Reuters, there are rumors flying around that the large mobile phone provider Sprint could be getting sold to British Telecom, and soon.

Despite still having the third largest cellular service in the US, Sprint continues to lose market share causing its stock prices to decline.

If Sprint was to get purchased by Birtish Telecom it would join T-Mobile and Verizon as American carriers that have significant foreign ownership. T-Mobile is an extension of Deutsche Telekom of Germany while Verizon is partly owned by Vodafone of the UK.

Source:
Electronista

Starz Media has announced that it will be expanding its online distribution by allowing Amazon's Unbox and Xbox Live to offer its movies and other digital content for sale.

Over 400 titles will be available through Unbox, said Starz, which includes Film Roman, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Manga Entertainment.

Some of the more popular titles to be available will be anime hits like "Ghost in the Shell", "Ninja Scroll" and "Blood: The Last Vampire" as well as horror classic "The Evil Dead" and "The Hills Have Eyes."

Over the past few months, Starz has signed a few large content deals to distribute via Azureus’ Vuze service, BitTorrent, Guba, IGN’s Direct2Drive, Netflix and Starz’s own Vongo.

“These deals represent our company’s commitment to expansion in the growing digital media world,” said Marc DeBevoise, Starz Media’s senior VP of business development and strategy.

Source:
VideoBusiness

After thoroughly embarrassing the RIAA watchdog Media Defender over the last week, the group calling itself MediaDefender-Defenders has struck again, this time leaking the full uncompiled source code to MD's anti-piracy toolset.

The software is used on behalf of the RIAA, as well as record labels to control the unauthorized distribution of copy written music, movies, games and programs.

“The [leak] is complete for their operations regarding Kazaa, bittorrent, gnutella etc. This system is … released for the public in order to identify the decoys [MediaDefender] set up,” states the leak’s accompanying info file.

16 different tools in MediaDefender's toolset are aimed to target the Bittorrent network, including software to create bogus media files. The leak also includes tools for the control of many of the large filesharing networks including Ares, DirectConnect, eDonkey2000, FastTrack/Kazaa, Gnutella, Kademlia, Overnet, Piolet, SoulSeek and WinMX.

Making matters worse for Media Defender, the info file also thanks an unidentified MediaDefender employee, implying that the source code was sent directly from an employee.

MD has been sending out cease-and-desist notices to various BitTorrent trackers since the original leak admitting that “despite security precautions by our client, a person or persons illegally accessed MediaDefender's email and other files,” and that the sites in question “immediately and permanently cease and desist from posting, distributing or otherwise making available MediaDefender's trade secrets and confidential information.”

Some trackers have cooperated, others publicly mocked the request.

After data figures showed that worldwide sales of the Nintendo Wii have overtaken the Xbox 360, Microsoft has decided to firmly set their sights on Europe.

Talking to an interviewer from Bloomberg, Microsoft's group product manager Aaron Greenberg said "The number one objective is to win on a global basis and that may mean winning some markets and losing others."

"Europe is our priority focus right now."

Last week however, Microsoft said it planned to not give up on the Japanese market by increasing the number of game titles available there. Even so, sales of the 360 have stalled since its introduction, lagging far behind the Wii and even the PS3.

"It's difficult to see Microsoft capturing a significant share'' in Japan, said Hiroshi Kamide, a Tokyo-based games analyst at KBC Securities Japan. "After two years on the market, Xbox's position in the country is such that it makes you wonder whether further efforts are even worth it."

To date, 446,201 Xbox 360s have been sold in Japan, accounting for a meager 8.7 percent of the new console market. On a per week basis, the 360 is regularly outsold by the PS3, the Wii and even the PS2.

Richie Reinhardt, better known as Richie Ramone the former drummer of the band "The Ramones" is suing Wal-Mart, Apple and Real Networks over what he claims is copyright infringement for six Ramones songs that are available for legal sale on the internet. Ramone is asking for almost $1 million USD in royalties on the songs.

According to the suit, Reinhardt says he is the sole creator of six songs that he did not agree to offer for sale over the internet and that the copyrights on his music were violated when they began being digitally offered.

“The plaintiff has never authorized the duplication, distribution, performance or other exploitation of the compositions in any non-physical digital format,” the suit alleges.

Reinhardt is also asking for an injunction on the following six songs, barring them from being sold on the internet; "Can't Say Something Nice," "Human Kind", "I Know Better Now", "I'm Not Jesus", "Smash You" and "Somebody Put Something in My Drink."

"Richie has never gotten the recognition creatively, and certainly economically, for being a mainstay for the Ramones during what was probably not their most visible period," said Jeff Sanders, Reinhardt's attorney.

In finally bringing the iPhone to France, France Telecom announced today that it holds exclusive rights to distribute the phone in France.

CEO Didier Lombard did not reveal any pricing details but did say "the phone will not be subsidized by the operator and that French consumers will see iPhones before Christmas and as early as November."

The device is set for release in the UK on November 9th as well as in Germany in the same time frame. No word yet from Apple on when the iPhone will hit elsewhere in Europe/

Source:
MacNN

Electronics giants Sharp and Pioneer have announced that they will be forming capital and business ties with plans to develop an array of HD consumer electronics.

Pioneer will sell 30 million shares to Sharp, making it the top shareholder in the company with a 14 percent stake. Sharp in return will sell 10 million shares of its stock to Pioneer, about 1 percent.

“As you know, there is harsh global competition in the electronics business field,” said Mikio Katayama, Sharp president/COO, in remarks announcing the deal. “Technology has been developing significantly faster compared to the past. Regarding industry trends, it is not an exaggeration to say that we cannot predict one year ahead, or half a year, or even three months ahead. In this environment, if we tried to cover all the necessary technology by ourselves, it would take considerable amounts of time, human resources and expenses. This might cause us to miss big opportunities.

“So, in order to cover core technology and know-how that we do not have, we believe a strategic business alliance is needed,” he added.

The companies jointly said they will use the new joining as an opportunity to develop Blu-ray DVDs, as well as audio and car electronics and displays.

In yet another twist on the embarrassing MediaDefender email leak, the infamous torrent tracker ThePirateBay is now set to file charges against MediaDefender claiming personal attacks on the site by paid hackers and saboteurs.

According to TPB's official blog, the admins confide that we "now have proof [... that] the big record and movie labels are paying professional hackers, saboteurs and ddosers to destroy our trackers."

"While browsing through the email we identified the companies that are also active in Sweden and we have tonight reported these incidents to the police."? Brokep, one of the admins explained, "The charges are infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, hacking and spamming, all of these on a commercial level."

According to Slyck, the following companies are currently targeted by TPB's charges.
Twentieth Century Fox, Sweden AB, Emi Music Sweden AB, Universal Music Group Sweden AB, Universal Pictures Nordic AB, Paramount Home Entertainment (Sweden) AB, Atari Nordic AB , Activision Nordic Filial Till Activision (UK) Ltd, Ubisoft Sweden AB, Sony Bmg Music Entertainment (Sweden) AB and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic AB.

In an effort to crush 14 piracy release groups, 200 police officials took part in a huge raid on Thursday, one that spanned through Germany and France and saw the sweeping of over 50 homes and office buildings.

Release groups are the usual starting point for distribution of pirated games, movies and TV shows.

The GVU, Germany's organization that investigates intellectual property violations, said in a statement that the release groups had put at least 200 movies and 100 pieces of software into illegal networks and that many of the movies were not even released in Germany yet. English versions of the DVDs were taken and dubbed by the groups, said the statement.

The GVU also said during the raid 60 PCs, 2000 DVDs and CDs and servers as well as HDDs were confiscated.

"This proves once more the correctness of our strategy in concentrating on the tip of the illegal distribution pyramid," GVU chairman Christian Sommer said. "Today's raid will have a decisive impact on the release group scene, where pirated copies are first created."

Source:
HR

Earlier this week it was reported that NBC Universal would be launching a direct download service that would allow fans to download episodes of their TV shows for free.

Now, it seems ABC is hoping to steal some of NBC's thunder by making an announcement that they too will be offering their TV shows up for download free of charge. The shows will be offered on AOL Video and will be paid in full by embedded advertisements, just like NBC.

What makes ABC's new offering even more important is that with AOL Video, users have the option to watch streaming video or download the videos to watch at a later time, making themselves the first network to offer such options.

Some of the hit shows available on AOL Video will be "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" with more new shows coming soon. ABC said it hopes to have four episodes of any given show online at once with older episodes being removed after a set number of days or weeks.

Source:
Dailytech

Halo 3, the much anticipated next chapter in Bungie's best selling series has been leaked online, over a week before its official release date.

Uploaded a few days ago, the 6.14 GB ISO file has been making its way through P2P and torrents and downloads are in the thousands. The game of course will only play on modified Xbox 360 consoles.

Microsoft claims the game was being sold at High Street retailer Argos before the company corrected its mistake and took the game off shelves. But the damage had already been done.

Microsoft has told potential buyers of the game to avoid YouTube where the ending of the game has been readily available since the game was leaked.

Source:
GI.biz

The government of Thailand has said that their relationship with YouTube has taken another bad turn and that they will be going to court to have two videos blocked. The government feels the videos are a threat to national security.

The videos, a two part series, run a total of 17 minutes and accuse the former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda of "leading a government coup that occurred in September 2006, not the generals who claim to have headed it."

This is not the first the world has heard of such accusations, as supporters of Tinsulanonda's rivals have accused to former chief time and time again of the act.

The Thai government feels however that the videos are "confusing" to citizens and that it could cause "public unrest." The government is asking Thai ISPs to voluntarily block links to the videos while it seeks the ban in court.

YouTube declined comment so far on this latest situation.

Source:
BetaNews

Toshiba has offered the latest firmware upgrade for it second gen HD-XA2 and HD-A20 HD DVD players, an upgrade that enables 1080p24 output. However, initial results have been buggy.

The firmware, version 2.5, promises "several enhancements, including improved network connectivity for downloading web-enabled content on certain HD DVD discs and a fix for certain disc playback and HDMI/DVI related issues identified by Toshiba."

The output of RAW 1080p24 video over HDMI has been seen on several rival Blu-ray players but this marks the first time it is available on an HD DVD player.

According to HighdefDigest though, the fix for playback issues worked great while the 1080p24 output was buggy. An employee testing the firmware upgrade had this to say, "the setting also had a negative side effect of throwing audio sync off on most of the discs played. He goes on to say that the problem was so distracting that he found himself forced to return the player to 1080i output."

During his keynote speech today at the Tokyo Game Show, Sony president Kaz Hirai finally confirmed the upcoming DualShock 3 controllers with rumble feature.

The sixaxis controller will be available in Japan in November and then in the US and the UK in Spring 2008. No price has been set as of yet.

"We have not made any changes to its outward appearance and design, but it does have vibration," Hirai added.

Earlier in the day the controllers were seen in action at a demo of "Burnout Paradise" in which journalists were allowed to use the new controllers.

Hirai said there would be nine titles available at TGS that supported the new controller including the upcoming "Metal Gear Online." For months now Sony has downplayed the lack of the rumble but apparently recently "we have been able to overcome this difficulty," said Hirai.

There was also legal issues that were stopping the controller from being made. In 2002, Immersion sued both Sony and Microsoft for "patent infringement related to the inclusion of rumble features in their game controllers." Microsoft settled, but Sony decided to fight. In March 2007, Sony was ordered to pay out over 90 million USD to Immersion and the case was finally settled.

Making sure everyone knows that they are a staunch supporter of HD DVD, Micrsoft has announced that their HDi logo will appear on all Toshiba HD DVD players as well as one some HD DVD movies by Universal and Paramount.

The HDi logo is Microsoft "representing its version of the interactivity layer of the HD DVD format."

"Given some confusion over what qualifies as true interactivity," a Microsoft spokesperson stated today, "Microsoft wanted to officially logo the technology as a quality assurance."

A few examples of HDi are interactive content are in-movie menus, picture-in-picture commentary tracks, and Internet-driven Streaming updates. Microsoft hopes that by adding the label, it will make it easier for consumers to understand that the discs or players can support those interactive content. More importantly, Microsoft would like consumers to understand that Vista has built-in support for HDi.

At the Tokyo Game Show today, a mainly positive keynote by Sony was marred with the announcement that the innovative PlayStation Home would be pushed back from its release date in October until spring 2008.

Hirai apologized for the delay and added that the reason was the makers of Home needed more time to "further develop the user interface."

The delay does not come as a full shock however because recently a random anonymous report surfaced from a Home beta tester that revealed some key components were behind schedule.

PlayStation Home is thought to be Sony's answer to the very popular Microsoft Xbox Live service. PlayStation Home would add community features such as content sharing and game trophies to the already available PlayStation Network and PlayStation Stores.

Source:
Dailytech

Although still in its beta stages, Anywhere.fm is a new service that will allow iTunes users to upload their playlists directly to their Anywhere.fm account.

The new service could be ideal for music lovers who want to have a playlist uploaded and available anywhere they go as long they have a internet connection.

So far the uploading app only works on Windows and OS X with Linux users getting full support soon. The company also said that support for other media players, namely Winamp and Windows Media Player is currently in development. Also in development is support for music files other than MP3.

For the beta stages, upload is free to all users but Anywhere.fm hopes to introduce a paid service for users that upload large amounts of tracks. No cost was revealed for the time being.

Users testing the service did show concern over possible legal issues they or the service could face.

"Anywhere.FM serves as a digital locker service for users to upload their licensed music and listen to it anywhere," said Sachin Rekhi, Anywhere.fm co-founder. "Users are legally allowed to make personal backup copies of their songs for use with this service."

"Anywhere.FM enables sharing of music through Friend Radio in the form of non-interactive playback and complies with the rules under the statutory license for public performances," Rekhi said. "Anywhere.FM pays the associated royalties to SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC to legally operate these radio stations."

Finally giving evidence that P2P and piracy aren't as bad as the MPAA and other outlets would have you believe, according to the recent leaked internal Media Defender email, piracy is actually used by some record labels to increase profitability.

The email tells us that Interscope records, and most likely other record labels are using P2P to determine how well they can market a new single. The email shows a specific instance recently in which music from Nicole of the group "The Pussycat Dolls" was monitored via P2P to see whether it was profitable to release her next single.

"Nicole from pussy cat dolls has a single called “whatever u like”. It’s not selling well on itunes or playing that great on radio. A song called “Baby Love” just leaked (I don’t know how long ago). Interscope wants to know if Baby Love is picking up steam on p2p. They need to make a decision by early next week on whether they should switch to this song as the single. Please get me a score comparison on Monday for these two tracks. Also, please put beyonces, fergie, gwen, and nelly furtado singles as comparisons." read the email.

The IFPI has announced that they have shut down six local eDonkey servers in Germany after it got injunctions against the owner of the servers.

According to P2P Blog, the servers were known on the eDonkey network as "Donkey Server No. 1" through "Donkey Server No. 6". IFPI Germany has claimed the shut down of 16 servers so far this year and expects to get more injunctions in the upcoming months.

There seems to be a cloud of controversy surrounding the methods used by the IFPI in these cases though. The owner of the servers told the popular German IT site heise.de that when contacted by IFPI lawyers he immediately installed filters that would stop the trading of unauthorized songs and video but they still got injunctions against him even after he cooperated.

Source:
P2P Blog

According to figures collected by the NPD Group, the Xbox 360 saw a strong sales boost in August, most likely driven by the recent price drops on the console and upcoming hype for Halo 3.

For the month the 360 sold 276,000 units, a hefty jump from the 170,000 sold in July. The boost means the console outsold the PS2 and PSP for the month, the first time that has occurred in quite some time.

On August 8th, Microsoft cut the price across the board on their console and the strategy seems to be working. That, mixed with the hot selling new Madden title and the upcoming Halo 3 title could mean a couple more good upcoming months for Microsoft. The console sold almost double the amount that Sony did for the month with their PlayStation 3.

Source:
Dailytech

Apple and T-Mobile jointly said today that the phone carrier would finally be bringing the iPhone to Germany. The expected date is November 9th, the same day the iPhone hits the UK.

In Germany, T-mobile has 30.7 million customers making it by far the largest provider. It is also the only carrier to have EDGE data deployed across its entire network and the network will be essential to users of the iPhone.

The price will be 399 euros including VAT and will require a two-year contract with T-Mobile.

"I am proud that Apple and T-Mobile have become partners," T-Mobile International CEO Hamid Akhavan said in a statement. "The best mobile device currently on the market will soon be operating on the best network in the country."

There are no details available yet of the revenue sharing deal between the companies but Akhavan said all the details will be available by the release date.

Source:
BetaNews

MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said at a seminar on Tuesday that the group was "deepening their relationship" with telephone, cable and Internet companies, hoping that the ISPs will help them in their ongoing fight against piracy, "because we're all in this together."

"Their revenue bases depend on legitimate operations of their networks and more and more they're finding their networks crowded with infringed material, bandwidth space being crowded out," Glickman said, "many of them are actually getting into the content business directly or indirectly. This is not an us-versus-them issue."

When asked about the relationship between the MPAA and large ISPs, Glickman said there was "somewhat of an adversarial relationship" but that that was "changing."

The general counsel for NBC Universal, a member of the MPAA, suggested that "federal regulators should require ISPs to police their networks more proactively for pirated wares."

Glickman hopes to offer customers "hassle-free, reasonable, content-protected materials" but also admitted that the movie industry is not very flexible when it comes to manipulation of copyrighted works. "People just don't have the right to take (copyrighted works) at their pleasure," he added.

This morning AOL debuted a beta version of BlueString, a new service that would allow consumers to upload and share their digital media content for free.

The new service will give 5GB of online storage and the ability to "link directly to video clips and photos from third-party services without the need to upload or move them to BlueString," said AOL.

For consumers using the free version, the space should be enough for up to 10,000 photos and 1500 songs as well as 500 videos, of course dependant on size. The service will be replacing the now obsolete AOL Pictures.

"BlueString offers a simple, one-stop solution for personal media storage and management," executive vice president Kevin Conroy said. "For the first time, we're making it possible for people to access, combine and share all of their personal media from a single application for free."

The service is powered by Xdrive, the storage company AOL purchased in 2005. If free users need more space, a premium account is available at $99 USD per year, giving you an extra 50GB of space.

Source:
BetaNews

Nintendo, in an effort to curb rampant piracy in South Korea of its DS handheld games, has asked South Korean prosecutors to investigate into domestic web sites that they claim have illegally been uploading copies of the games.

Nintendo's Korean unit filed a complaint with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, in which it charges that web operators are freely allowing the illegal uploading of pirated copies of DS games.

“Nintendo will take further measures if copyright violations continue,” the company said.

In the eight months the DS Lite has been available in South Korea, it has reached sales of over 500,000 according to Nintendo.

This event also marks the first time Nintendo has asked prosecutors in Asia for assistance in fighting piracy. It has been actively fighting in Europe and the US.

Source:
GI.biz

Although it was confirmed that O2 has won exclusive rights in the UK for the iPhone, the details of the deal were never divulged, until yesterday.

According to The Guardian, Apple is set to take up to 40 percent of all revenue generated by O2 customers using the iPhone.

"I can't imagine any of the operators agreeing to terms like that," said one UK telecom official. "It is an extraordinary number."

Recent stats have come to light that state that in the US, Apple receives anywhere from $3 to $11 USD per month from AT&T for each iPhone customer.

To make matters worse, iPhone unlocking software is now readily available, making exclusivity packages obsolete in most cases.

Heres hoping O2 makes any money off this recent pact with Apple when the iPhone begins selling the UK soon.

Source:
Dailytech

Although Sony spokespeople are denying the claims, Asian press sources are reporting that the electronics giant has decided to sell its Kyushu Semiconductor facility, the facility that produces the Cell BE CPU for the PlayStation 3, to Toshiba for almost 100 billion yen, the equivalent of $860 million USD.

The deal, if true, would help in Sony's on going plan to scale down its investment in semiconductor technology while at the same time keeping the powerful Cell chip within its group of partners. Since its inception, Sony, Toshiba and IBM have been in charge of its development.

Sony should keep all intellectual property rights for the Cell chip and will just be selling the facility it is made in. Sony doesn't necessarily need the money, but it would help reduce Sony's capital expenditures for the upkeep of the facility. BusinessWeek reported those figures are nearing $2 billion USD.

More updates as they become available.

Source:
BetaNews

The Turkish government has recently banned The Pirate Bay, making the infamous torrent tracker inaccessible to any internet user in the country.

This is not the first time Turkey has banned sites though. YouTube was banned in March for hosting videos that insulted the founder of modern Turkey. Two days later when the videos were removed, the ban was lifted however. Just last month, the site wordpress.com was blocked because some users were charged with defamation of a famous Turkish author.

According to TF, when asked for comment, the admins of TPB said the site had been blocked “for over a year” but they’re “not sure if it’s the whole country or just the major ISPs.” They also said “there was some court ruling over it.”

The court ruling however, is somewhat of a mystery. The judge in that case ruled that Türk Telekom, Turkey’s largest ISP, had to block The Pirate Bay, but at this time it is unknown as to why.

Source:
TorrentFreak

Target, the US' second largest retail chain has quietly decided to double its shelf space for Blu-ray disc movies while declining to add space for rival HD DVD titles.

According to Video Business, the change began several weeks ago. The HD DVD sections have remained the same while Blu-ray areas have doubled in size.

Although Target has not chosen a side in the HD format war, it signed an agreement in July with Sony to have its Blu-ray standalone, the BDP-S300, in prominent aisle space for the holiday season.

Blu-ray Disc Association chairman Andy Parsons had this to say although Target had no comment. "You’re going to get a clear message when you see more Blu-ray than HD DVD, and you’re going to think something is up," said Parsons. "The message to the consumer is that one of these [formats] is dominating. You’ll go with the masses and pick titles from the one that is likely to win."

HD DVD supporter Paramount however, played down the whole situation, attributing it to Blu-ray's current lead in sales.

"For a retailer to make a decision on shelving, it’s a very flexible decision," said Alan Bell, CTO at Paramount Pictures. "Retail might be shifting inventory around, but at some point, there could be diminishing returns."

A Toshiba spokesperson has said that final approval has not been given to the 51 GB HD DVD format but only that a preliminary version of the three-layer disc has been approved by the DVD Forum.

"We understand that the preliminary version (1.9) of the physical specifications for the triple-layer 51 GB HD DVD-ROM disc has been approved," said Toshiba's spokesperson today.

The spokesperson went on to say that it was not sure whether current hardware would be able to use the upcoming format which has been given the name "Trip-Layer".

"Toshiba will study the performance of current HD DVD player/recorders with the disc after the standard receives final approval by the DVD Forum" added the spokesperson.

That quote makes it pretty clear that final approval is still not granted which is contrary to past reports.

A Toshiba official statement adds the following: "We welcome the DVD Forum Steering Committee's decision to approve the preliminary version (Version 1.9) of the physical specifications for the triple-layer 51 GB HD DVD-ROM disc. This decision reinforces the fact that HD DVD is capable of offering a range of capacities due to the flexible nature of the format and provides studios with even greater options for creating high definition content. With extended capacities, studios can meet their future needs for releases that may require more storage."

After last month's almost record sales, it seems Japanese console sales have taken a nosedive and are now only selling about half the amount of units as compared to four weeks ago.

The figures, according to Media Create, say that last week's sales were the lowest in months, with the Nintendo DS failing to shift 80,000 units for the week. For the comparable week last month, the DS moved 153,000 units to lead all consoles.

All other hardware sales fell at the same rate with the Wii, PlayStation 3 and PSP all falling over 40 percent.

It is also interesting to note that there have been better selling games this month as compared to last month and so the figures are even more surprising.

Also of note is the fact that despite Microsoft's plans to increase marketing in Japan the Xbox 360 sold a measly 1,286 units for the week.

Source:
GI.biz

The famous pop star Prince said today that he is planning on suing the infamous public torrent tracker The Pirate Bay as well as YouTube and eBay in an attempt to stop the rampant piracy of his work over the internet.

According to a statement on his personal site, Prince says that while YouTube already filters pornography it does not do the same for music and film content.

Prince is using the British company Web Sheriff to help him remove the pirated materials and so far they have successfully removed over 2000 unauthorized videos but that it is a lost cause as new videos appear daily.

"Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art," the statement read.

Source:
BetaNews

After a year of speculation, New Line Cinemas has finally announced that it will be releasing its movies in HD, starting with "Hairspray" on Blu-ray in November. The studio also said the movie will be released on HD DVD in early 2008 but did not specify a date.

New Line decided to go the path of its parent company Warner by staying format neutral, making them the only two studios to support both formats.

"Clearly, there isn't a format winner at this point, so we’re going to adopt the strategy from Warner, our sister company, and mirror what they are doing," said Matt Lasorsa of New Line "And by supporting both formats, we are giving consumers the ultimate choice."

Although most insiders believed New Line would become dual-format supporters, the release of the HD DVD a few months after the Blu-ray version is surprising. Lasorsa said the delay is attributed to a lack of region coding in current HD DVDs.

"Since we sell to independent international distributors, we have to be more sensitive to their release dates than a major studio," Lasorsa added. "But for second-party acquisitions to which we don't have international rights, we will be day-and-date on all three formats."

Sony is preparing to release four new Blu-ray recorders in Japan starting in November, including the first with the ability to record to dual-layer Blu-ray writable discs.

The recorders will not be cheap however. The lowest priced model will cost 140,000 yen ($1,227 USD) and the highest priced model will cost 200,000 yen ($1,752 USD). Sony says it plans to produce about 40,000 units per month after it goes on sale.

Although there are currently recorders on the market, and at cheaper prices, the new models are unique in that they can use all 50GB of a Blu-ray disc unlike current models which can write only to a single layer.

Sony said they would judge the market before making plans for US or European releases.

Source:
BetaNews

Gene Munster of analyst firm Piper Jaffray, is widely considered to be the definitive source for iPhone sales and according to Munster, since the price cut of the phone, sales have tripled and that almost 27000 were being sold per day.

His estimate comes from surveying of all Apple stores selling the phone.

On September 5th, Apple decided to drop the price of the 8GB model to $399 USD and to discontinue the 4GB model. After the drop, many early adopters were upset at the huge price drop but Steve Jobs swiftly offered everyone a $100 USD credit at the Apple store and offered to fully refund the price difference if you had purchased the phone within the last two weeks.

Although obviously not reported on by Apple, the new availability of free iPhone unlocking software is probably helping to attract many new buyers, those with service other than AT&T.

Source:
Dailytech

After a week of rumors that it would follow suit with NBC Universal's decision to pull TV programming from iTunes, News Corp president Peter Cherin confided the company has no plans to pull any programming.

Cherin did however agree with some of NBC's argument and feels that the networks should have more control over how much is charged for their programming.

"Right now, we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple," Cherin added.

The quote and NBC's decision cannot possibly be good news for Apple, but only time will tell where the programmer discontent will lead to.

Source:
BetaNews

SanDisk unveiled its latest player, the Sansa View which it claims will be the cheapest video-enabled media player using flash memory.

At launch, two models will be available, an 8GB unit and a 16GB unit, for $149 and $199 USD respectively. There will be a microSD card slot which can add up to 8GB of extra memory to the device. When the units hit retail shelves in October they will be the cheapest flash based video players on the market.

SanDisk also says the devices will support PlaysForSure and Rhapsody to Go and both will be included.

The View "sports a 2.4-inch Widescreen display, support for H.264, WMV, and MPEG4 video, and the ability to transcode DivX files for viewing on the device through included Media Converter Software. Other features include an FM radio with 20 presets and a voice recorder."

Those features exceed that of the newly redesigned iPod Nano which lacks voice recording, FM radio, and is more expensive. Read more...

As reported earlier, the impending death of the 60GB Sony PlayStation 3 has led to intense rumors as to what Sony will do when the 80GB model is the only unit left.

According to Arstechnica however, consumers will be getting what they have been waiting for for months. The price of the 80GB model will drop to $499 while Sony will introduce a new "base" model, a 40GB offering for $399, just $50 USD more than the rival Core Xbox 360.

The sources involved believe Sony will also bundle the upcoming Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie which is expected to be one of the biggest sellers for Blu-ray when it hits shelves in late October. Also expected is a price drop on the PS2 to $99 USD. That being said, dont expect to hear any official news from Sony on the new offering until at least October although we will be waiting and will report any updates.

Source:
Dailytech

Apple has announced that it has sold 1 million iPhones, an astounding number for a phone which made its debut 74 days ago.

The record numbers makes it the best selling phone debut ever and it ranks highly on the list of all electronic device debuts. Using another hit Apple product as a comparison, the iPod took almost two years to hit 1 million sold.

"We can't wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season," CEO Steve Jobs said. The numbers should get even higher with the recent price drop of the 8GB model from $599 to $399.

Not everyone agrees with Mr. Job's sales numbers however. At the end of July, iSuppli estimated that just over 500,000 units had been sold, meaning that Apple sold 500,000 in the last 6 weeks, a hefty number by any stretch of the imagination.

More updates if they are necessary.

Source:
BetaNews

After success in Canada, Italy, Japan and even somewhat in the US, the MPAA is continuing its world tour and moving on to the UK where it will try to convince legislators to criminalize the camming of movies while they are in theaters.

The main aim of the tour is to make camming a more serious offense than it currently is (misdemeanor/civil offense) and pave the way for stronger punishments that will keep the offender in jail for years instead of days or months.

MPAA head Dan Glickman is in the UK talking to UK film minister Margaret Hodge and representatives from the UK Film Council in which he hopes to persuade them to make the laws more severe.

Although, most regulars of Afterdawn know that the MPAA time after time makes up figures, and has even compared pirates to terrorists, their tour has been successful so far, with legislations going through around the world making cammers into criminals.

Source:
TF

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has publically apologized to all early adopters of the iPhone and offered a $100 Apple credit to all customers who purchased the phone before the price was dropped $200 yesterday for both models of the phone.

There was outrage after the announcement of the price drop was made, and Jobs acknowledged that he and the company had received hundreds to thousands of complaints via e-mail.

Jobs also added that "the technology road is bumpy," and that those that pay top dollar to be early adopters will always be angry when the price drops later. "This is life in the technology lane," Jobs said.

The CEO seems to have had a change of heart since yesterday when he told an interviewer for USA Today that "iPhone owners who bought their device that morning should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that's what happens in technology."

In the latest open letter his sentiments have changed however, saying that although they lowered the price the company still needs to "do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers."

"(W)e need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price," he said. "Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these."

The HD DVD camp is putting on a smile at the current CEDIA and is more than happy to point out all the advantages that they hope will help them win the next-gen format war.

According to the HD DVD Promotional Group, despite lagging in disc sales and overall players (PlayStation 3 included), four of the top five PC notebook manufacturers are in support of HD DVD. Additionally, the group believes third generation players coming soon from Toshiba will give the format "undeniable momentum" going into the holiday season.

And they do have a point. The new high-end HD-A35, which will be released at $499 USD, will be as expensive as the lowest priced Blu-ray standalone player, the low-end Sony BDP-S300. There has even been reports that a Canadian manufacturer will begin selling $199 USD low-end HD DVD players before the holidays.

To help gain added momentum, HD DVD has recently signed a marketing agreement with NBC Universal which will place 30 second ads promoting the format on air during the very popular "Sunday Night Football" broadcasts.

The group also said 125 new titles were planned for the fourth quarter of 2007 and that it would be offering a firmware update to all second-generation player owners that would give them 1080/24p capabilities.

Yesterday, during a presentation at CEDIA,Sony inadvertantly let it slip that Blu-ray disc sales were slipping and that in April HD DVD sales were actually tied with Blu-ray sales.

The chart at right, presented by Sony, was aimed to show Blu-ray's superiority but instead showed a more interesting trend, the fact that both formats have had declining sales since December. Blu-ray however, is dropping more sharply.

What does these facts mean in the long run? Hard to tell now, but it does seem that more and more consumers are waiting until prices drop or there is one clear cut format winner. We will see how new players and wider selection of HD movies will play into the stats but for the time being, both formats are losing.

Source:
Dailytech

Sony announced today that the much awaited slimmer and lighter PSP-2000 model would be available for sale in North America.

However, Sony did say that only one of the three new PSP bundles would be available, the limited-edition Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack with a $199.99 USD pricetag.

Included in the package are the new "ice silver" colored Slim PSP, the game "Daxter", "Family Guy – The Freakin' Sweet Collection" on UMD and a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo.

"PSP sales have soared since we introduced the $169.99 price point in April, and that momentum will only continue with the launch of the newly designed PSP, which has generated strong interest among consumers since we announced it at E3," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. "With our growing software library, which includes more than 140 new releases in the pipeline this fiscal year, the PSP platform is poised for significant growth. The Daxter Entertainment Pack offers a great opportunity for consumers to jump in to PlayStation Portable experience with content that demonstrates the multi-functionality of the system, all for a great value."

Alongside the launch are a few accessories for the new, updated design, most notably component or composite video out cables to output video from the PSP to any TV.

With the introduction of its new iPod Touch that has wireless capabilities, Apple also announced today that it would be starting an iTunes WiFi Music Store which would allow users to purchase and download songs directly to the Touch.

Apple also said the service will soon be available for the iPhone which also received a $200 USD price cut. Apple did not say exactly when the iPhone update was coming but did say that it would be provided later this month.

The large coffee chain Starbucks could prove to be a godsend for those with the Touch or iPhone as the users will be able to see the songs that are playing in the stores and download them using a special Starbucks section that will appear. There is also an option to see the last 10 tracks played in case you missed a title.

Source:
BetaNews

After becoming infamous for piracy busts in Malaysia and elsewhere around Asia, the DVD sniffing dogs Lucky and Flo have finally hit the United States, home of the MPAA.

Credited with the bust of three operations in Queens, New York, Lucky and Flo helped with the seizure of thousands of pirated DVDs and the arrest of the operators of the retail outlets.

District Attorney Brown said, "For the first time in the United States, specially trained DVD sniffing dogs have actively participated in a criminal investigation aimed at combating DVD piracy. The dogs passed with flying colors by successfully ferreting out hidden contraband at a number of locations. Man's best friend has become a DVD counterfeiter's worst nightmare as we now welcome this latest weapon into our law enforcement anti-piracy arsenal."

"The MPAA has a multi-pronged approach to fighting piracy, including public outreach and enforcement. And since last year we've added two more very talented crime fighters to our arsenal, Lucky and Flo, the world's first DVD-sniffing canines," said John Malcolm, Executive VP and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA.

Confirmed at the IFA, but not officially by Microsoft, the HD DVD camp has selected the Xbox 360 add-on as one of a group of HD DVD players or drives that will see a small price drop in Europe.

The price drop on the drive will be 20 Euros, for a new price of EUR 179.

The announcement, although official, does not include a statement from Microsoft which should make one in the coming days. Many expect a price drop in the UK when Microsoft does make their announcement.

Update when Microsoft confirms.

Source:
GI.biz

At the IFA show in berlin, Toshiba unveiled its latest external HD DVD writer and Super-Multi drives for the PC. As of now, the drives are lacking of interesting names and are known only as HD DVD-Writer and HD DVD Super-Multi.

With the exception of the names, the drives are actually pretty impressive. They are very slim, 128 by 126 by just 13mm, and the "HD DVD-Writer supports CD, DVD+/-RW, HD DVD-ROM, and single and double-layer HD DVD-R formats. The HD DVD Super-Multi supports all of the above except HD DVD-R."

Each of the drives can easily connect to your PC or laptop and can upscale standard definition DVDs. They are currently available in the UK for £200.

Source:
CNet

Creating a device that should rival the Apple TV, DivX and D-Link have signed an agreement that will bring the first DivX Connected device to consumers.

In all reality, the new player is almost identical to the Apple TV in its ability to stream music, movies and other content from a PC to the TV. The one significant difference is that the new player will allow for HD-quality content to be streamed while the Apple TV does not.

The system, the DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player is expected to be released in countries around Europe in the upcoming months.

"The device allows users to directly control their media via a remote control and deliver high-definition videos, photos, music and Internet services directly to the TV" says Dailytech.

DivX recently had beta testing on its GejBox media device, and the box featured "HDMI, S-video, composite, SCART, optical and coxial digital audio outputs with Ethernet and wireless connectivity." The new device is the next evolvement of the GejBox.

"The availability of low cost wireless networks for the home combined with the proliferation of digital devices has made the digital home a reality for many families. The DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player will make it easy for everyone to share their digital content via their home's most established entertainment centre - the television," said Andrew Mulholland, D-Link Marketing Manager.