DVD write performance limit fast approaching warns DVD Alliance

DVD-burners will max out this year, according to the DVD Alliance. With 12-speed write products already announced and 16x drives 'just around the corner', this year will see DVD burning reach its maximum speed, creating a need for the even higher performance and capacity blue-laser products in the years to follow. 16x DVD burning blasts the data onto the disc at more than 20MB/sec. ...more

PDAs cling on in the USA - Gartner

Oh, our American cousins and their quaint ways. According to research group Gartner, our friends in the mobile-device backwater that is the US still use PDAs and are only just catching on to the idea of the smartphone. North America remains the only place in the world where PDAs still outsell smartphones, and Gartner expects the device category to continue to edge along the brink of extinction, with a lack of consumer demand shown in there being no new models from Palm this year. ...more

Web sites of the week [21/06/2002]

Here are a few more diverting Web sites to help browse your way towards the weekend. Looney Tunes Check out the newly launched www.looneytunes. ...more

Universal begins DRM-free downloads trial

Universal has begun testing the viability of DRM-free downloads, albeit in a very limited release of an album by French singer-songwriter Emilie Simon. The Live ? l'Olympia recording is available in unrestricted MP3 and WMA formats through her own website for €9.99, as well as on commercial services such as iTunes with DRM at the same price. ...more

Do a degree and get a PDA for free

Students today, eh? Now they have their own Palm handhelds given to them when they start college. At least they will do at the University of South Dakota.. ...more