The first reviews of Samsung and Toshiba's next-generation DVD players have been published by leading US financial magazines. And while opinions vary on the Blu-ray format adopted by Samsung, and the rival HD-DVD format pushed by Toshiba, columnists at BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune all agree that a dearth of content could hold back the take-off of either technology.

AOL will unveil a revamped video portal this week, the latest move by a major Internet company to strengthen its position in this very competitive market.

Just one day after the company passed the testing requirements for the playing of HD DVD discs, CyberLink announced today that PowerDVD has passed the testing requirements for the playing of BD-ROM and BD-R/RE discs.

Japanese hardware maker Plextor will release in the middle of September the PLEXERASER, a device that will help users and enterprises avoid leakage of sensitive data stored on CD/DVD media by destroying them in a few minutes.

A lawsuit by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic) against Taiwan's CMC Magnetics Corp. covers three patents related to recordable DVD technology, according to the court complaint.

Sony Media Software has announced the availability of Blu-print™ which it claims is a complete and cost-effective software solution for use in authoring DVD's in the new Blu-ray format.

LG Electronics, the one-time DVD peace-maker, has scuttled plans for a combination Blu-ray/HD-DVD player that was planned for launch this year.

Samsung have announced that it has developed the industry's highest density MultiMediaCard (MMC)-format flash-memory card, based on its most advanced multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory. It has also developed the highest performing MMC card, based on SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash, in rounding out its large portfolio of MMC memories.

Microsoft does not expect an immediate return on its outlay for its upcoming "Zune" media player, predicting a three- to five-year investment period for the new device.

Optodisc Technology and Prodisc Technology, both second-tier producers of optical discs, are facing financial pressures and are eagerly competing for orders of 8x DVD+R/-R discs by lowering OEM quotations from US$0.15 to US$0.12 per disc, according to industry sources.

European Commission competition officials are looking into the licensing strategies behind the two rival next-generation DVD formats.

Samsung said it will introduce a 4GB solid state drive which will act as a high speed NAND flash cache for machines running Microsoft Vista. The device is compatible with Windows Ready Boost which, Samsung said, is a feature of the OS that uses flash memory to improve the speed of systems.

Huang Jen-Hsun Huang has publicly backed Sony's Blu-ray technology and its use in the PS3. Then he would, given that NVIDIA are supplying graphics processors for Sony, having jumped from Microsoft's Xbox.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group have become the latest division of a major Hollywood studio to offer television shows, including the hit sitcom "Friends," for sale on Apple's iTunes Web site.

Roxio, part of Sonic Solutions, have announced the availability of Toast 7, which is the first software to offer Blu-ray Disc (BD) support for the Mac.

A wealthy american software developer is set to make a stand against the MPAA and it's controversial use of the legal sytem by going to court over it's claims that he downloaded a film from bittorrent.

Microsoft has confirmed it is developing a "Zune" portable music player which analysts believe will compete directly with Apple's iPod.

Moser Baer has announced the launch of HD DVD-R (high-density digital video recordable discs). The HD DVD-R has a capacity of 15 GB - more than three times the data storage capacity of a standard DVD.

Rumour has it that DVD cicerone Flash is going through a mid-life crisis and has branched out into the world of fashion. He has currently been spotted on dshirt.co.uk, working as a moderator for their newly thriving t-shirt design community. Fans of Flash, and we know there are many many of you out there, can only be impressed.

Nero has announced that the ShowTime application of its Nero 7 digital media software suite received Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) certification.