Blu-ray disc sales hit new high
Sales of high-definition Blu-ray discs hit a new high in the run-up to Christmas despite the recession, the British Video Association said today. About 1.5m were sold in Britain during December, up almost 400% on the same period in 2007, taking the total for the year to 3.7m. But a leading industry analyst warned that the economic downturn, which has already seen the demise of distributors Entertainment UK (EUK) and Woolworths, and Zavvi going into administration, could mean the discs take longer to achieve mass market status. The Blu-ray system uses a more expensive laser technology and offers better sound and picture quality. Blu-ray players can also play DVDs, but ordinary DVD players will not play Blu-ray discs. The format won the high-definition video wars early in 2008 when Toshiba, the main manufacturer promoting the rival HD DVD, pulled out. Other companies followed suit. But while it has settled the battle for the next generation of video discs, Blu-ray's slice of the market is still small compared with that of DVDs. Sales of Mamma Mia! The Movie in the older DVD format have reached 5.1m in just five weeks. By contrast, the best-selling title on Blu-ray, the Batman movie Dark Knight, has so far sold only 281,000 copies. Lavinia Carey, director general of the video association, said: "The growth in disc sales throughout 2008 reveals that the home entertainment market is showing resilience in a difficult economic climate … We are not surprised that home entertainment is generally bearing up well: as people tighten their belts, many have rejected more extravagant outings in favour of a cosy evening at home with their favourite titles." The media analysis firm Screen Digest predicted Blu-ray disc sales would rise to 17m over the next year, while DVDs would remain popular, with more than 240m discs being sold, a slight drop on this year's near 253m. Helen Davis Jayalath, its head of video, said that "even when faced with major supply chain problems in December, consumers simply bought the titles they wanted elsewhere". She added: "Although the economic climate means that Blu-ray will now take longer to achieve mass market status, demand is building for the hi-def discs. "Meanwhile, the key challenges facing the industry in 2009 are managing the financial and inventory fallout from the loss of EUK at the same time as promoting video as an attractive and affordable entertainment option for cash-strapped consumers." Blu-ray Digital music and audio Gadgets guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Blu-ray disc sales hit new high
Tech Weekly podcast: preview of 2009
Our predictions for what will be big in technology in 2009.
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Tech Weekly podcast: preview of 2009
Last Christmas for VHS
We hear so much about formats dying off these days - after all, 2007 was the year we said bye bye to HD-DVD ; abandoned almost before it was born. Some formats have more legs, though. Take the venerable Video Home System, which is finally done with after 32 years and assaults from Betamax, Laserdiscs, DVD and DVR, according to the LA Times : After three decades of steady if unspectacular service, the spinning wheels of the home-entertainment stalwart are slowing to a halt at retail outlets. On a crisp Friday morning in October, the final truckload of VHS tapes rolled out of a Palm Harbor, Fla., warehouse run by Ryan J. Kugler, the last major supplier of the tapes. "It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt," said Kugler, 34, a Burbank businessman. "I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away." Kugler - who apparently specialises in "distressed inventory" - has decided it's all over. I do remember the days of watching films until the tape would degrade and fuzzy lines would start to invade the screen. But now? I've got some VHS tapes stuffed somewhere in a storage container in Sussex, but that's about it. I think screenwriter John August (credits include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie's Angels and some other films that don't have the word Charlie) captured it best when he said that, despite his obsession with movies: I have almost no nostalgia for the VHS format itself. With its springs and gears, each tape was built to fail. I can't think of another technology that seemed so inelegant even when it was new. Still have a pile of cassettes in your living room? Are you sorry to see VHS go? Digital video Gadgets guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Last Christmas for VHS
Sony subnotebook expected at CES (not a netbook)
Sony is rumoured to be launching a Vaio Pocket PC at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and there has been some support for this idea on the Sony Style website. The specification is for a system with a 1.33GHz Intel processor and an 8 inch screen running Windows Vista. If so, Gizmodo and other sites are probably wrong to call it a "netbook". It's more likely to be a subnotebook, and I expect it to appear at a subnotebook-type price of £/$999 or more. The 1.33GHz clock speed suggests an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, rather than the 1.6GHz Atom you'd expect in a netbook. Core 2 Duos with this rating have been available both in Low Voltage (L7200) and Ultra Low Voltage (U7700) versions, and neither is cheap compared to a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270. It's not so easy to explain the 1600 x 768 pixel screen, but Sony has produced letter-box subnotebooks before. The Sony Vaio PCG-C1 subnotebook aka PictureBook , which I reviewed in May 1999 , had a 1024 x 480 screen with almost the same aspect ratio. Kevin (Kilmo) Kang from Korea has the best set of pics of the new Sony P-series machines at CNet Asia . But it does seem strangely hard for many people to understand that a subnotebook PC is just a smaller version of a notebook PC, which was originally defined by the A4(ish) size of the Compaq LTE and IBM ThinkPad 700 PCs. Machines that are larger than notebook PCs (such as the MacBook Air, whatever the Wall Street Journal says) are not subnotebooks, though I guess you could call them supernotebooks if you really wanted. As a matter of fact, almost all netbooks are also subnotebooks, just as they are also laptops and they are also portable PCs. What mainly distinguishes netbooks from notebooks is that netbooks do not use full-spec processors etc. They are intended -- at least by implication -- for use with online applications, and not for more intensive tasks such as video and audio processing. Sony, of course, focuses on video and audio: that's where the Vaio name comes from. Large PC manufacturers often have several ranges of notebook PC to cover different markets, including: subnotebooks, value notebooks, ultraportables, " thin and light ," desktop replacements, entertainment and gaming notebooks. Value notebooks, such as Dell's Vostro range, start at similar prices to netbooks. Sony Computing guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Sony subnotebook expected at CES (not a netbook)
Technology Guardian 2008 quiz
Have you been paying attention to the big stories in technology this year? Test yourself with our festive quiz
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Technology Guardian 2008 quiz
Link Log: The top 10 most-read Technology Guardian stories this year
From Yahoo and Microsoft to Android and those unreliable undersea internet cables, we know the biggest stories of the year in tech world. But it doesn't follow that those were the highest trafficked stories on our site, so we present the 10 most popular stories on guardian.co.uk/technolog y this year. 1 With friends like these... Tom Hodgkinson rails against the popularity of Facebook , probing the backgrounds of the firm and backers including PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel . 2 The world's 50 most powerful blogs The Observer profiles the best of the blogosphere, from Icanhascheezburger and Gaping Void up to Drudge and The F Word . 3 Wikipedia defies 180,000 demands to remove images of the prophet In one of a series of Wikipedia scandals this year, Caroline Davies reports on the online encyclopedia's reaction to mass protests at the use of artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammed on the site. 4 The 50 greatest arts videos on YouTube You've got to love a list. This Observer story from August picked out a 1961 performance of jazz legend John Coltrane performing My Favourite Things, Dolly Parton singing Dumb Blonde in 1967 and Vladimir Nabakov discussing Lolita in a fifties interview with a Canadian broadcaster. 5 Intelligent computers put to the test David Smith looks at the evolution of artificial intelligence. 6 Cloud computing is a trap, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman It's the big prediction for 2009, but is cloud computing just another way for powerful tech firms to pry our personal data out of our control? 7 Read me first - taking your laptop to the US? Be sure to hide all your data first Bruce Schneier explains the implications after a US court ruled that border agents can search laptops when you enter the country. 8 How one clumsy ship cut off the internet for 75 million people One ship + bad weather = technology nightmare for millions. However digital we think we are, our connectivity is only as good as the thumping great cables running across the world's seabeds - as illustrated here . 9 100 top sites for the year ahead Another killer list - this time your guide to the essential websites for 2009 from blogging and browsers to collaboration and consumer fightback. 10 Google pipped: Apple the new king of Silicon Valley as market values overtakes hi-tech rival Off the back of iPhone success, and benefiting from a fall in online ad revenues, Apple claims the crown of the tech world as its market value overtakes the Google goliath. Stats by HBX The Guardian Digital media Wikipedia Yahoo Facebook Microsoft Google Computing Internet Apple guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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Link Log: The top 10 most-read Technology Guardian stories this year
In praise of … the mouse
Editorial: The mouse helped make computers accessible to ordinary people but on its 40th birthday many believe the future will see it superceded by new interfaces
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In praise of ... the mouse
Less killing, more kissing: new breed of computer games bring people together
A new generation of designers and developers is putting the social element back into video games, using online networks such as Facebook as platforms to turn people from across the world into poker aces, boffins and the proud and sometimes obsessive owners of virtual pets. These new games give people the ability to play with their friends rather than strangers, which has sent usage through the roof. Facebook is already seeing over 2bn minutes of game play a month, and the longer people stay online the more chance the game's developer and the network itself have to make money out of them, most obviously through advertising. Investors have spotted the opportunity of social gaming and even as the economic climate turns chilly they have been putting funds into these businesses. Though most social networks have their roots, or at least owners, on the west coast of the US, one of the most successful social gaming companies is based in Britain. Using bright colours, animated characters and addictive quizzes, Playfish has already attracted 25 million registered users in its one year of existence. It is responsible for four of the top 10 games played by Facebook users worldwide, including Who Has the Biggest Brain
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Less killing, more kissing: new breed of computer games bring people together
Video: Behind-the-scenes at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
The Guardian goes backstage at this year's Christmas Lectures and speaks to the director, the prop-maker and a talking penguin
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Video: Behind-the-scenes at the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Psion threatens netbook sites over trademarks
Psion has sent "cease and desist" letters to some netbook-oriented web sites ordering them to stop using the term "netbook". jkOnTheRun says : "The letters claim that the term netbook is trademarked by the firm that produced the Psion netBook in the early 2000's." jkOnTheRun has reproduced a letter from an intellectual property law firm which says Psion has trademarks on the term in the US, EU and other places. It's certainly true that Psion produced a pioneering product, the Psion NetBook , almost a decade ago. However, it wasn't a netbook in today's terms: it was really a Psion Series 7 organiser, a scaled-up Series 5, running EPOC not a scaled down notebook PC. (The later NetBook Pro -- launched in 2003 -- ran Microsoft Windows CE , Psion having failed to keep up with the times.) But Psion abandoned its NetBook line long before Asus came out with the Eee PC, aka RM MiniBook, and was rapidly followed by Acer, MSI and several other manufacturers. It wasn't clear at the time whether we'd go with minibook, netbook, or subnotebook, but clearly it was the market that decided, rather than a particular company.
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Psion threatens netbook sites over trademarks