TDK have demonstrated the first printable versions of Blu-ray discs at the NAB tradeshow. Two different versions were shown - Rimage showed a thermal printable BD-R, while Primera had an inkjet printable at its booth.

Microsoft has been quietly piloting its Software Genuine Advantage programme in Norway and in Sweden since November. This week, the scheme has been be extended to the United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Several second-tier makers of pre-recorded discs in Taiwan, under competitive pressure from China, Russia and even South Korea, have approached leading makers in Taiwan with proposals to merger in order to remain in business.

Apple has announced that iTunes users will have to put up with advertising on its free content.

If you believe the RIAA, Gertrude Walton has been apparently down loading more than 700 songs off peer-to-peer networks and deserves to have the book thrown at her.

With Japan-based TDK and Panasonic recently announcing their production plans for Blu-ray Disc (BD) discs, Taiwan-based CMC Magnetics and Ritek indicated that they are currently sampling next-generation BD discs with customers, with mass productions for both companies slated for the third quarter of 2006.

Panasonic have announced that it will provide a wide variety of support for broadcast coverage, with its newest high-definition (HD) broadcasting products, for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

Nero have announced the retail release of Nero PhotoShow Deluxe 4, a new edition of its photo solution software.

Microsoft have detailed innovations coming in Windows Vista that the company believes makes the operating system superior in the delivery of multimedia. This would include several enhancements to Windows Media itself as well as expanded functionality within Windows Media Center, now standard in Vista.

Negotiations between Apple and the four major music labels; Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music and Universal have apparently reached breaking point, with record executives expressing their inability to convince Steve Jobs to allow variable pricing.

A Chinese company has unveiled an inexpensive Linux-based computer as a way to close the "digital divide." YellowSheepRiver's $150 (£84) "Municator" appears to be available now, with a three-month leadtime, suggesting it could reach market well ahead of MIT's $100 "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC) device.

Samsung Electronics has released its first 2GB MultiMediaCard that combines four 4Gb Nand Flash devices.

Movie studio Warner has decided that the only way to kill off DVD pirates is to undercut them. Warner Home Video has begun trial sales in China of a movie DVD priced at US $1.50. This is the same price as a pirate copy, but it is legal.

Early looks at Toshiba's first to market next-gen DVD player have criticised the lengthy 1 minute plus boot time that is caused by the DRM technologies used.

Nvidia have confirmed they will begin shipping their 1Gb Quadro FX 5500. The card is based on the G71 chip and sports 1GB of GDDR 3 memory with a 256-bit memory bus.

Panasonic have said it will ship an internal Blu-ray Disc writer in June, but like the similarly spec'd models announced by IO Data, the LF-MB121JD isn't going to going to come cheap.

Adult entertainment giant Vivid Entertainment Group said on Wednesday it will start next month selling downloadable movies that viewers can burn to DVD and watch on their TVs.

Hitachi Maxell have developed an ultrathin DVD with a thickness of just 92 micrometers, or roughly 1/13th the thickness of of conventional DVD disc, which can be stacked 100 discs high in a cartridge format.

Microsoft has confirmed that it will be announcing more details of a HD-DVD drive for the Xbox360 at this years E3 expo in Los Angeles.

THE MV960, flagship model in Canon's new range of DV camcorders, is a true widescreen camera. Its CCD has a widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio, allowing it to record in widescreen, without having to chop off parts of the picture, or resort to other trickery to get a widescreen image.