Eight out of 10 movie cats prefer Blu-ray format

A survey being hawked round by the Blu-ray Disc Association claims that eight out of ten people polled would prefer the Blu-ray blue laser DVD format over the rival HD-DVD. One thousand two hundred people were offered a side-by-side comparison of the various qualities of the two formats including the degree of industry support, Hollywood studio support, gaming console support, disc capacity, potential movie title availability and anticipated launch dates. The result was that some 58 per cent of the 1,200 consumers surveyed preferred Blu-ray Disc, 26 per cent were undecided and only 16 per cent preferred HD-DVD. ...more

Online music stores go to court over royalty rumpus

A coalition of UK online music store operators and record labels have begun a legal challenge to licence fees charged by music publishers and composers for the right to use their compositions on the Internet and mobile devices. Seven store operators, AOL, Apple iTunes, MusicNet, Napster, RealNetworks, Sony Connect and Yahoo!, have joined forces with the BPI, which represents over 300 UK labels to ask the Copyright Tribunal to examine the tariffs set by the MCPS-PRS Alliance, a grouping of the two organisations that fix and collect royalties on behalf of music publishers and composers. The legal move follows the collapse talks lasting several years. ...more

Universal gets Zune pay-off

Microsoft will pay Universal Music a cut of proceeds from its forthcoming Zune portable media player, in a deal that will give Microsoft more freedom to allow music sharing between Zune users. Neither company would reveal the financial details of the agreement, which news agencies say will be formally announced later today. Chris Stephenson, general manager of global marketing for Microsoft Entertainment, told AP that the company is seeking similar deals with the other major record companies. ...more

Digicam becomes jewellery

Fujifilm has announced a digital version of its curvy Q1 camera for ?100 inc VAT. Fujifilm's Christmas gambit will be available from November and will produce images up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels in dimension. It uses a CMOS rather than the higher quality CCD sensor, but it's still a more than functional camera with Flash, red-eye reduction, 1. ...more

Microsoft bundles XP Tablet PC Edition 2005

MoreTablet PCs have yet to take off, but Microsoft has officially announced a new free upgrade: Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. This latest version of the Table platform adds more pen-and-ink support, such as real-time handwriting recognition, a redesigned input panel (an 'in-place TIP') to simplify entering text within applications, and improved integration with Microsoft Office applications. There's also a new SDK (version 1. ...more