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1,000 jobs at risk
Lexmark, the printer maker, is ending production of inkjet cartridges in Rosyth, Scotland and is transferring manufacture to a cheaper, unnamed country. Up to 1,000 jobs could be affected.…
Set-top maker buy puts Morotola in frame for full IPTV
Motorola came out of the IPTV closet this week, spending an unspecified amount of cash to buy IPTV specialist set-top maker, Kreatel of Sweden.…
Can't compete in the digital era
Konica-Minolta today revealed it is to quit photography business after more than 103 years - with the loss of 3,700 jobs worldwide.…
They're free round the corner at the Apple shop
Posh London department store Selfridges is to begin charging punters £65 for a 40-minute one-on-one iPod tutorial later this month - almost as much as it costs to buy the cheapest iPod.…
Accessory heaven
Another day, another iPod accessory from Griffin Technology. Today's is the iClear a transparent polycarbonate shell developed to keep your iPod Nano safe from scratches.…
Digital SLRs are the place to be, apparently
35mm film has come to the end of the roll, Nikon has said. The camera maker this week revealed it is focusing its efforts solely on digital photography products.…
Turns portable player into home media centre
Griffin Technology will soon ship a dock that converts any compatible iPod into a home media centre system.…
The hottest Vegas showstoppers since Liberace
So the delegates have gone home, the halls are emptying and, yes, Gates (and Elvis) have left the building. The gadget fest that was the Consumer Electronics Show 2006 is now history. Yet before we bury it for good, here's our list of the ten best gadgets to emerge at the show (in no particular order)...…
Open-source systems pitched at geeks
Neuros is to update its MPEG-4 Video Recorder with a new industrial design and an integrated hard-disk drive. It is also preparing to revive its Digital Audio Computer (DAC) line of MP3 players, basing both systems on both a common hardware platform and open-source firmware.…
'There are simply too many notes, Herr Mozart'
A University of Leicester psychologist has concluded that modern listeners don't value music as much as their 19th-century counterparts did - and he blames the iPod and music downloading.…
Is that an iPod in your pocket or... oh, forget it
Jeans-maker Levi Strauss has designed a pair of denim trousers with an integrated iPod remote control. The jeans also provide an iPod dock and retractable earphones.…
Steve Iacocca goes car podding
Macworld A week after Microsoft and MTV pitched the Urge.com rival to iTunes, Apple Computer upped the ante in online entertainment and services.…
Record-breaking record sales...
Christmas 2005 saw a new record set for downloaded music - with the last week of the year seeing more than 20m music tracks downloaded and paid for by US customers - three-times higher than the 2004 figure.…
Click-tastic
Yet another surge in demand for digital cameras helped boost sales at Jessops, the high street photographic retailer revealed today.…
Now you see it...
It’s been difficult to predict how Apple will continue to develop the video iPod, given that it had such a poor start in signing up so little content for the device.…
Reg hack escapes stoning undaunted
CES Without question, the highlight of this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show) for us was watching the Black Crowes play at an AMD-sponsored event. Not to gloat, but we managed to make our way backstage after the concert and meet the band. At least we think it was the band. The thick smoke – yes, that kind – made it tough to see.…
It's got a tiny OLED screen too
CES South Korea's Cowon this week demo'd at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas what it claims is the world's first micro media player based on a 0.85in hard disk drive.…
Tech ready for licensing as backers unveil players
CES The Blu-ray Disc specification has been completed, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) announced last night, just three days after dotting the i's and crossing the t's on the format.…
At twice the price of an HD DVD rig, though...
CES Samsung today pledged to ship a Blu-ray Disc (BD) player ahead of rival manufacturers, getting its BD-P1000 machine to consumers in the "April timeframe", according to Jim Sandowski, head of Samsung USA's digital product marketing.…
OK, digital binoculars will do
CES Our first Consumer Electronics Show (CES) wrap covers a little bit of everything - from a new twist on binoculars to a pen-sized scanner. If gadgets are your thing, please proceed with pace.…
4x version to follow, apparently
CES JVC today announced the world's first single-sided, dual-layer DVD-RW media will ship in Q2 - more than a year after the company unveiled the technology.…
An eVU that you can't buy
CES Maybe the tiny video iPod screen doesn’t quite do it for you. Or, perhaps, you’re tired of lugging around a pretty clunky portable device just to watch DVDs. If so, you might want to check out the eVU device from e.Digital.…
Let our powers combine
CES XM Satellite has claimed a pair of firsts over rival Sirius Radio with the release of two new devices that can tune in satellite radio and play MP3s and the announcement that it has topped six-million subscribers.…
Philips to ship H2, too
CES Sony will ship Blu-ray Disc players to the US retail market in "early summer", the consumer electronics giant said yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas.…
Record 5.1-channel soundtracks up to 30m away
CES Sony will next month ship a cute Bluetooth microphone accessory for members of its DVD camcorder line-up. The ECM-HW1 is designed as a pick-up for audio that the camcorder's main mic can't always catch, particularly since it can be located up to 30m from the recording device.…
Studio Canal spills beans
CES HD DVD will come to Europe in 2006, it has emerged. France's Studio Canal, part of the Canal Plus media combine, this week said it will ship 30 titles on the next-generation optical disc format this year.…
Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy for real?
CES Sony is to bring its Librié e-1000 electronic book to the US in March, the company annnounced at CES today.…
Cool VoIP and PSP apps and gadgets galore
CES Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies…
Tackles 'remote power' problem, still needs a socket
Just a day after announcing that Ethernet power would drive all its wireless access points in future, Linksys unveiled a wireless webcam - which needs wires.…
Route cause analysis
TomTom - the satellite navigation service - is offering its punters free traffic updates after its service was interrupted last month. The service interruption, which TomTom blames on problems with its ISP, follows similar problems in September, originally blamed on a server migration falling behind schedule. Both glitches affected TomTom's website and its TomTom Plus traffic update service.…
Fad gadgets
VoIP giant Skype has announced a number of partnerships with telephony gadget manufacturers in a bid to reach a wider market with its internet telephony service.…
Weird shades from Moto, high def cams and more
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies.…
Mac-based GPS software developer beats the retreat
Route-planning software and GPS navigation hardware developer TomTom has successfully forced a small Mac software developer to stop offering code that allows users to maintain TomTom's Go device from a Macintosh.…
More compatible with the binaural world
Having seemingly failed to persuade the digital music world to upgrade to MP3 Pro, the format's founder, Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, is trying again, this time with MP3 Surround, a multi-channel implementation of the hugely popular music codec.…
Where do you not want to go today?
Nissan and Microsoft have partnered to show that they can deliver as much impotent grandeur as any other auto/software maker duo.…
and other high-tech shaggy dog stories
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries…
Monster
Sony will show off a monster 82in LCD TV in January - ten months after Samsung demo'd just such a beast of its own.…
R580 to debut on 24 January?
ATI will announce - but not necessarily ship - its 90nm R580 graphics chip next month as the Radeon X1900.…
Electronic times
Belgian daily De Tijd is to be distributed electronically in what is claimed to be the first complete solution for portable electronic reading and writing.…
Shuffle sweet spot
Apple is wondering whether to offer a 1GB iPod Nano early next year, even as it prepares a redesigned iPod Shuffle with the same song-storage capacity.…
I heard that. Pardon.
Music lovers are being warned that the popular 'earbud' headphones worn by users of iPods and MP3 players could lead to hearing loss.…
Download tracks direct to the device
MusicGremlin's upcoming digital music player will support direct-to-device song downloads, the company said today as it begins to pitch technology licences to device manufacturers.…
Gadgets and eBay goodies from the Shiny crew
Certified gadget obsessives Tech Digest and Shiny Shiny scour Gizmoville for the oddest digital goodies, TV Scoop features all that’s cool in British telly and Propellerhead answers your PC queries.…
Recordable and rewriteable
TDK has begun sampling recordable and rewriteable Blu-ray Discs that don't need to be kept in cartridges, the company said today.…
Intel-based iBooks to be USB 2.0 only, website claims
Is Apple about to drop FireWire - the connectivity standard it created and for so long fostered - from the Mac line-up?…
Wearing out the rewind button
SonyBMG’s efforts to regain some credibility with PC users came unstuck again after it admitted that a patch for flawed content protection software included with some its CDs actually creates more problems for users.…
Rattling sabre to speed negotiations
Creative has once again touted its ownership of a key digital music player user-interface patent, though the comapny's CEO, Sim Wong Hoo, didn't go as far as to threaten any rival companies - guess who - specifically.…
Blu-ray vs HD DVD = PS3 vs Xbox 360
The battle between the next-generation games consoles will determine the winner of the fight between the next-generation optical disc formats.…
Panasonic plasma panel patent clash claim
Samsung has accused Matsushita's Panasonic subsidiary of violating nine plasma display panel patents it holds, and today filed lawsuits with the US District Court in Los Angeles and Pennsylvania, South Korean news sources report.…