The economy as a whole may not be ready to turn the corner just yet, but new data from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) will have proponents and manufacturers of Blu-ray devices dancing a jig. According to the group, Blu-ray disc sales are up a whopping 91 percent compared to the first half of 2008. Total for the year is said to be around $407 million; a figure the DEG reckons helped cushion the bottom line against an overall downward trend in consumer spending. This type of growth rate could be a sign

Intel has announced the completion of its bid to buy Wind River Systems just five weeks after making the deal public. Wind River is known for its embedded software products, and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CPU manufacturer. When it announced the deal back in early June, Intel emphasized that the deal would “become part of Intel’s strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices.”At a price

Small chunks of change can add up to a lot. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile know just how true this is. Recently, the carriers banned together and agreed to raise a monthly fee that’s tacked on to your monthly wireless bill. This higher fee is suppose to help carriers recoup business costs and will add up to millions of dollars. Since the beginning of this year, the four leading wireless carriers have quietly raised a monthly fee that each carrier charges in order to help recoup some of their business

Back in May, Intel partnered with TSMC and Samsung to announce their intention of developing and deploying 450mm wafer starts by 2012. The shift from 300mm (12″ diameter wafers) to 450mm was touted as necessary for all the usual reasons—think cheaper, faster chips—and we’ve not heard much in the way of pushback until now. At the Semicon West conference this week, a number of companies voiced their belief that a shift to 450mm wafers was premature, unproven, and would impose a tremendous financial burden.There

If you’re a PC maker, and you’re not making any all-in-one PCs, you’re clearly behind the times. Here lately, we’ve seen one after the other roll out from the likes of Dell, Asus and eMachines, and so it makes total sense to see yet another enter the ring courtesy of Averatec.The company’s latest machine, which goes by D1005, is a 22″ AIO computer designed by business or home users and college-bound students “who need a PC with full functionality while enjoying the benefits of a space-saving design.” Unlike

We’ve added several new accessories to the Samsung Jack SGH-i637 Accessories Center.  The following pages have been updated:

• Samsung Jack Cases & Skins
• Samsung Jack Car Accessories
• Samsung Jack USB Cables
• Samsung Jack Batteries
• Samsung Jack Screen Protectors

Large wireless carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless often lock in exclusive deals with phone manufacturers so that they are the only carrier who offers a phone for a predefined amount of time, such as six months or a year. In AT&T’s case, the exclusivity deal with Apple regarding the iPhone has lasted for multiple years. Now, Verizon Wireless is giving some of the small carriers a chance to compete when they might not otherwise be able to do so. While Verizon Wireless still plans to lock up new

Another day, another PR mess for Amazon.com.  Just as they seem to have settled the row over cracked Kindles (although the lawsuit continues!), users awoke Friday morning to find e-books remotely deleted from their Kindles, and the PR storm started up all over again.The Big Brother-ishness of the deletions was only heightened by the fact that the books in question were by George Orwell: “Animal Farm” and yes, “1984.” Amazon.com did refund people’s money, but it brought the wrath of not just end users, but

These days, it’s tough to think of a storage company that has yet to dabble in the multimedia HDD space. LaCie has done it (a few times over), Seagate has done it, and now LG has done it. But we have to say, LG’s probably looks better than all the rest. The new XF1 is a 500GB drive that functions as a media portal, boasting a USB interface as well as an HDMI output to direct material straight to your HDTV. It can understand AVI, Xvid, DAT, MPEG, VOB, MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC, LPCM, JPEG, BMP and a slew of subtitle

Hold up, MSI! Another week like this, and surely you’ll be flat out of new releases for the next year or so! Continuing the company’s torrent of new wares, MSI has today introduced two more models in its refreshed ‘Classic’ series, which comes just days after it announced the CX600 and CR600.The 17″ CX700 and CR700 look an awful lot like the aforesaid pair, though you’ll obviously find a bit more screen real estate here. These two boast the outfit’s latest generation Color Film Print Technology, which protects