15th February 2008 Archive

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Euro Blu-ray movie sales reach 2.37m discs

Not good news for the HD DVD camp

Blu-ray Disc pre-recorded media sales have sailed past the two-and-a-quarter million mark in Europe, the format's promotional body said this week. And, according to market watcher GfK, 79 per cent of hi-def discs bought by European consumers thus far this year have been BDs. The remaining 21 per cent were HD DVDs. The Blu-ray …

HD 15 Feb 01:02
Mole claims Toshiba to terminate HD DVD

Demise could be 'a matter of weeks' away

Is Toshiba about to fall on its sword and announce the demise of HD DVD? That's certainly what one report citing an unnamed mole within the HD DVD camp is claiming, even though Toshiba itself is having none of it. The source mentioned by US Home Media Magazine claims that Toshiba could declare HD DVD dead in "a matter of weeks …

HD 15 Feb 10:55
Buffalo launches 'most capacious' pocket hard drive

Is that a terrabyte in your pocket? No, it's half!

If you sometimes tell ladies that you’ve got the world’s biggest one in your trousers, you’ll now be able to say it without lying. Storage manufacturer Buffalo has launched a 500GB pocket hard drive, which it claims is the world’s most capacious unit of its kind. Buffalo's 2.5in drive has a 500GB capacity The 5400rpm …

Storage 15 Feb 11:04
Nokia 7900 Prism

Review Style over substance

Big brother to the Prism 7500, the somewhat sinister and Darth Vader-esque Prism 7900 is the next step in Nokia's campaign to convince us that visual style should be the primary driving force when it comes to buying a mobile phone. But baroque and cyberpunk looks aside, it's the sparkling and still not-yet-commonplace OLED …

Phones 15 Feb 12:02
PS3 won't beat Wii until 2011, forecasts analyst

Xbox to peak the year before

This year will see another gruelling sales showdown between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as they battle it for hardcore gamers' cash. However, the PS3 is eventually expected to become the dominant console. Market watcher iSuppli this week predicted that the PS3 will sell 10m units globally during 2008, helping to put it far …

Consoles 15 Feb 12:09
Man takes old iPhone box, builds film camera

Boxing clever

Most iPhone owners probably just chucked the handset's box in the bin seconds after leaving the shop. Not designer Scot Hampton - instead, he turned Apple's packaging into a film camera. Scot Hampton's iHole camera Hampton’s dubbed his design the iHole and describes it as “a revolutionary analogue photographic device …

Cameras 15 Feb 13:15
Sumvision shinks the iPod Touch... sort of

Ice, ice, baby...

Portable Media Player (PMP) manufacturer Sumvision has designed an iPod Touch-type player that likewise provides a host of multimedia features, but in a smaller shell and for a more pocketable price. Sumvision's Ice 1000 (left) is almost identical to the Touch, except smaller The Ice 1000, which measures 90 x 55 x 12mm, has …

Media players 15 Feb 16:22
Unlocking the iPhone for pleasure and profit... revisited

ZiPhone makes process painless

After months with my unlocked iPhone still running firmware 1.0.2, the arrival of Zibri's ZiPhone tool persuaded me to try an upgrade. I'm glad I did - I now have an unlocked 1.1.3 iPhone. Why didn't I do so before? Cowardice, really. Having read how tricky upgrading became with subsequent firmware releases, I was worried …

Phones 15 Feb 16:29
Wal-Mart blogger claims retailer will ditch HD DVD

Toshiba increasingly isolated

Wal-Mart has apparently decided to follow Best Buy and Netflix and only offer its customers Blu-ray Disc products in future. From June, the retail giant will no longer offer HD DVD players. The news comes from the company's Check Out blog, penned by staffers. One of them, Susan Chronister, today wrote: "OK, so are you ready …

HD 15 Feb 17:00
UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban

Halifax leaves Blizzard out in the cold

Frequent use of stolen credit cards to pay for World of Warcraft subscription has prompted UK bank Halifax to block payments to the game's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment. In a statement, the bank said its decision to block payments was not a reflection of the integrity of Blizzard or its billing systems. "We have seen a …

Consoles 15 Feb 23:53