iPod loader services step into the ripping gap

The fact that it can take over 100 hours to rip enough CDs to fill an iPod has created a new industry in the US; the iPod loader. For around $1 per CD, someone will collect your iPod and CDs, and return a few days later having filled your player with music. iPod loaders vary from one man sat in front of a computer every night ripping CD after CD to outfits with $1,000 CD changers that hold up to 100 discs. ...more

Hollywood accelerating towards Blu-ray

After a slow start, Hollywood has begun accelerating the release of movie titles in the new high-definition formats, with Blu-ray the significant beneficiary. More than a dozen studios announced in Tokyo yesterday that 75 films would be added to the Blu-ray roster, including The Da Vinci Code and Chicken Little, although only two of these, Warner and Paramount, also plan releases for HD DVD, alongside Universal which has until now eschewed Blu-ray. As a result, some 80 per cent of high-definition titles will be Blu-ray, despite HD DVD having narrowly beaten it to be the first to have a player on shop shelves. ...more

Apple legal team swats video showing pre-release Leopard

Apple has asked a website to remove a link to a YouTube video displaying how Expos? works in the pre-release version of OS X 10.5. In an email to the crunchgear. ...more

Microsoft Produces PowerPoint 2003 add-on

Just in time for the launch of Office System - with its six editions, eleven applications and four servers - comes the final release of another Office add-on, Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2003. This is a free add-on for adding audio and video to PowerPoint presentations that can be viewed over the Web via a browser. Although there is integration with Windows Media 9 Series technologies, Microsoft claims there is cross-platform support for Mac and Netscape users. ...more

The British Library builds an everyday email archive

The The British Library has asked the UK public to forward it their emails, to help create what the library claims will be the world's first municipal email archive. British Library Curator of Socio-linguistics and Education Jonnie Robinson said that the prevalence of email as a form of correspondence led the library to decide it should capture a wide-ranging sample of this 21st century phenomenon. 'It's a fantastic way to preserve British culture,' Robinson told Reuters. ...more