UPDATED: BenQ to ship low cost Blu-Ray recorder to Europe

Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ has announced that it is to begin shipping its Blu-Ray blue laser DVD recorder to Europe for sale in August. The price has been announced at €799 (approximately ?533) including VAT although no official UK price has been confirmed. The launch puts the company ahead of the format's founders Sony and Philips who have yet to announce their own releases in Europe. ...more

Live Strong profiteers to return web domains

The Lance Armstrong Foundation has secured two rulings against cybersquatters who were selling Live Strong bracelets for a profit. CSA Marketing and Chris Angeles were ordered to transfer three domain names to the Foundation, which was set up by the record-breaking cyclist and cancer survivor to raise money for cancer awareness and research. It has sold more than 50 million of the yellow bracelets, but many more are thought to have been sold by people cashing in on their popularity. ...more

Wanadoo serves 1Mbps broadband for ?17.99 per month

Wanadoo has taken advantage of BT's new capacity-base charging structure to offer a 1Mbps broadband service for the very low price of ?17.99 per month. For that you get 2GB of downstream traffic per month, enough for between three and six hours of surfing per day, so long as you do not start downloading quantities of large files. ...more

Web logging made easy

Web logs, or blogs, may be the fastest growing area on the Web, but creating them can be a confusing and unintuitive process, particularly if you're not particularly au fait with Internet technology. Sparkpod is a new blogging tool that aims to make the process as simple as possible, and appears to succeed. Blogs are a kind of online diary or journal, a handy place to collect your musings and keep in touch with your friend and families. ...more

Creative adds a Sleek MP3 player to the Zen family

Creative has released a Sleek version of its Zen MP3 player. Headline features of the aluminium finished Zen Sleek include: 20GB storage (which equates to roughly 10,000 songs in WMA format), an FM tuner with 32 presets, a built in microphone with support for direct recording, and a newly designed LED backlit touchpad. The Zen Sleek is described by Creative as a 'compact, high-end player', with playtimes of up to 16 hours from the rechargeable battery. ...more