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You don't have to wait, go ahead and play.

There should be a +10 funny mod rating for comments like that! Anyway isn't "UK car industry" an oxomoron?

Still I find it kinda ironic considering the UK car show Top Gear is popular with the global pirates. Mind you back on topic I also thought it was very ironic to see this BBC article a few days ago (slashdot always current...) after also reading about those thieving muppets: Steve Bovis, Tim Croucher and Laurence Francis who stole a few bits for the lame: limbo of the lost.

Mind you they are now apparently denying it... yeah right. oh yeah "lame" wasn't a typo on game. Maybe they should be called Loders as in "free loaders" rather than coders which clearly they are not. Fortunately there is still real talent CURRENTLY in the UK.

Unless users actually want to utilize the full capabilities of USB 3.0, which would require proper cabling. Then it may affect a higher percentage when it comes time to blow up that bridge, but otherwise right now I think you're right.

Though I'm sure Denon will be the first to come out with a super USB 3.0 optical cable for the bargain price of $750 as an upgrade to their $500 Ethernet cable which seems to have an issue with clearly transmitting the frequencies that dogs hear.
So hopefully in a year or two Fido can enjoy every nuance of crashing cymbals in music and the always interesting noises that didn't get filtered out in the studio, even if I can't.

There will at least be the Aspire One that has a SSD. It looks very nice and at a good price, I'll probably buy one, just a shame it isn't available yet.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/acer_launches_one/

Is this what you mean?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/26/all_in_one_pc_cybernet/

..for the Register. The review is here.

From: - http://virtuallawatlse.blogspot.com/2007/03/davenport-lyons-pursues-500-file.html
and
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/28/uk_share_hunt/

The interesting bit is "In relation to your claim that your computer was hacked into, we regret that the security of your computer is not our concern. It is your responsibility to ensure that your computer is protected at all times."

WTF!! Does that mean if someone is stabbed on the street then it's the victims fault that (s)he wasn't wearing a stab-proof vest? Or do we sue car manufactorers for making cars that can go faster than the national speed limits (aiding and abeting a crime)? Or if someone steals your credit cards and uses them then it's your fault for not keeping them secure?!!??

Where do you draw the line?

Jaj

I doubt that at this point in time. This chip company specialises in low power chips for small devices, not desktop chips. Though introducing a super efficient desktop processor would be nice. We need to move away from x86 to a modern design, rather than one that has gradually been modified beyond all recognition and hacked to gain 32 bit then 64 bit compatibility, etc. As an Amiga/Mac user for most of my early life, I've always thought of x86 as an inferior and inefficient chip design. Apple has demonstrated twice now how well they can adapt their OS for any architecture. Would be nice if Microsoft took up the challenge..

One bright little commenter on El Reg suggested that another reason for Apple buying this company could be for a console release, as Apple recently acquired a patent which could be for console gaming.

The brilliance of up-marketing Boot Camp on OSX is that it helps people overcome their fear of losing Windows compatibility. The idea is to get people onto the Mac platform in a way that makes OSX the primary desktop while Windows becomes 'just another application'. I think that long term this is a great strategy for weening leery Windows users off that platform as it hides the MS branding behind the OSX branding.

I would agree that Apple was not a direct competitor to MS for many years. They were not trying to be. However, it cannot be denied that their markets are overlapping considerably today. Apple has made its' iLife products very attractive to young people who are more involved in the 'online social revolution'. MS is trying desperately to find a way to exploit the same market segment, but have so far had little luck.

The growth in Asia is similar. MS has historically looked the other way while Asia pirated their software. With the introduction of Vista MS has implemented several new initiatives aimed at getting the millions of Asian users that already have pirated copies of Windows XP to upgrade to a legal copy of Vista. The fact that these users are now paying for Windows (at a much reduced cost, btw) does not imply a larger install base.
I am not, however, implying that the growth will not increase substantially in Asia. It should be noted that much of that growth has been in the low-cost segments, where Linux products like the EeePC really shine. Will Asian consumers prefer cheaper Linux alternatives over more expensive Windows? I don't know, but if even a small percentage, say 5%, chose to do so in the next few years as the market grows it will be a success for Linux and a chink in MS' armor in the future.

With Apple pushing that much hardware the only plausible conclusion is that people are switching and where the US market goes, others' tend to follow.

Is MS doing well? Sure. But is it climbing faster than their competitors? I think the numbers refute that claim. Given a decade or two we may see a market in which Apple commands as much as 30% and Linux may be approaching double-digits. With such adoption of competing platforms MS would be forced to put more effort into interoperability, open standards, and real innovation. I think we can agree that would be good for everyone.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/19/apple_us_retail_sales_feb/
http://www.internetretailer.com/internet/marketing-conference/30424-applecom-at-top-computer-hardware-sites-nielsen-netratings-reports.html

Meet the laptop of 1992: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/19/forgotten_tech_ibm_thinkpad/ 15 years on an we still use the same basic design. I doubt that another 7 years will drastically change what a laptop is. The reason laptops wont change much is a laptop is designed well for its intended purpose. That was as true 15 years ago as it is today. What other new devices might appear in the future is a different question all together. Laptops are now replacing desktops and PDA's and multimedia devices are replacing laptops. What new devices will emerge in the next decade is the interesting question.

The Register reviewed four 1Tb drives, including this one.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/26/review_four_terabyte_hard_drives/

Product

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000
Verdict

The Hitachi set a decent benchmark for performance as a standalone drive.
Rating

70%
Suggested Price

£159
Product

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ
Verdict

It's a straight fight between the Seagate and Samsung, and on balance we favour the Sammy despite its higher price.
Rating

85%
Suggested Price

£194
Product

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340NS
Verdict

The Seagate delivers sterling performance with the minimum of fuss, yet it is the cheapest of the drives on test.
Rating

80%
Suggested Price

£149
Product

Western Digital WD1000FYPS RE2-GP
Verdict

We're all in favour of reducing our dependence on electricity but the RE2-GP lagged behind in every one of our tests.
Rating

60%
Suggested Price

£159

... by The Register: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/26/review_four_terabyte_hard_drives/
Too bad they didn't include power and noise measurements for that Samsung drive :/

Microsoft also has a 16.4% failure rate of the 360's that's seriously eating into their possibility of profiting from it. I suppose they'll write the couple billion that they're in the hole on that endeavor off as a marketing expense...

A year ago both Nvidia and ATI/AMD both showed off their GPUs doing HAVOK acceleration equal or better than AGEIA. With ATI claiming to have a 7 month lead... Could this be a catchup move of patent grab by NVIDIA?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/06/06/ati_gpu_physics_pitch/

These people are just blind. Just blind. They are enlisting features that have been in phones for many years and nowdays virtually all smartphones from Nokia to Sony-Ericsson carry most of them. My god just look at N95, N82, 6500, N81, E51, E90, E61 and so on.. The market is full of smart phones with features that are just being dreamed to be included in gPhone, and this is just a list of one manufacturer, and a list that will in few weeks time be updated with new phone models again.

I just really can't see the point of this hype. There are only sketches on what should be coming, but no production ready system nor delivered devices. The worst part is that I really even can't see what's the advantage of gPhone? Major firms like Nokia and Sony-Ericsson won't be using them. Samsung just flip flops from system to system, and Motorolas whole future is in question. There isn't going to be huge uptake, and no, having small firms like HTC take it doesn't mean a scracth as their ability to compete with total costs are weak as they don't have the needed economies of scale that the likes of Nokia enjoy. I also don't see that they can leap with features as all the features they are planning to include in gPhone are already in S60, and as S60 is rapidly developing, now including QT in some time, I can't see that they could pull a head in software.

So.. sick and tired of hearing and reading hype about a system and devices that haven't been delived yet and in the end can end up just as vaporware. Why can't we go back in days when we reported about real things, not speculation and hype about something that is maybe going to one day come out and somehow revolutionize the world, but nobody really understand the reason why.

These people are just blind. Just blind. They are enlisting features that have been in phones for many years and nowdays virtually all smartphones from Nokia to Sony-Ericsson carry most of them. My god just look at N95, N82, 6500, N81, E51, E90, E61 and so on.. The market is full of smart phones with features that are just being dreamed to be included in gPhone, and this is just a list of one manufacturer, and a list that will in few weeks time be updated with new phone models again.

I just really can't see the point of this hype. There are only sketches on what should be coming, but no production ready system nor delivered devices. The worst part is that I really even can't see what's the advantage of gPhone? Major firms like Nokia and Sony-Ericsson won't be using them. Samsung just flip flops from system to system, and Motorolas whole future is in question. There isn't going to be huge uptake, and no, having small firms like HTC take it doesn't mean a scracth as their ability to compete with total costs are weak as they don't have the needed economies of scale that the likes of Nokia enjoy. I also don't see that they can leap with features as all the features they are planning to include in gPhone are already in S60, and as S60 is rapidly developing, now including QT in some time, I can't see that they could pull a head in software.

So.. sick and tired of hearing and reading hype about a system and devices that haven't been delived yet and in the end can end up just as vaporware. Why can't we go back in days when we reported about real things, not speculation and hype about something that is maybe going to one day come out and somehow revolutionize the world, but nobody really understand the reason why.

These people are just blind. Just blind. They are enlisting features that have been in phones for many years and nowdays virtually all smartphones from Nokia to Sony-Ericsson carry most of them. My god just look at N95, N82, 6500, N81, E51, E90, E61 and so on.. The market is full of smart phones with features that are just being dreamed to be included in gPhone, and this is just a list of one manufacturer, and a list that will in few weeks time be updated with new phone models again.

I just really can't see the point of this hype. There are only sketches on what should be coming, but no production ready system nor delivered devices. The worst part is that I really even can't see what's the advantage of gPhone? Major firms like Nokia and Sony-Ericsson won't be using them. Samsung just flip flops from system to system, and Motorolas whole future is in question. There isn't going to be huge uptake, and no, having small firms like HTC take it doesn't mean a scracth as their ability to compete with total costs are weak as they don't have the needed economies of scale that the likes of Nokia enjoy. I also don't see that they can leap with features as all the features they are planning to include in gPhone are already in S60, and as S60 is rapidly developing, now including QT in some time, I can't see that they could pull a head in software.

So.. sick and tired of hearing and reading hype about a system and devices that haven't been delived yet and in the end can end up just as vaporware. Why can't we go back in days when we reported about real things, not speculation and hype about something that is maybe going to one day come out and somehow revolutionize the world, but nobody really understand the reason why.

These people are just blind. Just blind. They are enlisting features that have been in phones for many years and nowdays virtually all smartphones from Nokia to Sony-Ericsson carry most of them. My god just look at N95, N82, 6500, N81, E51, E90, E61 and so on.. The market is full of smart phones with features that are just being dreamed to be included in gPhone, and this is just a list of one manufacturer, and a list that will in few weeks time be updated with new phone models again.

I just really can't see the point of this hype. There are only sketches on what should be coming, but no production ready system nor delivered devices. The worst part is that I really even can't see what's the advantage of gPhone? Major firms like Nokia and Sony-Ericsson won't be using them. Samsung just flip flops from system to system, and Motorolas whole future is in question. There isn't going to be huge uptake, and no, having small firms like HTC take it doesn't mean a scracth as their ability to compete with total costs are weak as they don't have the needed economies of scale that the likes of Nokia enjoy. I also don't see that they can leap with features as all the features they are planning to include in gPhone are already in S60, and as S60 is rapidly developing, now including QT in some time, I can't see that they could pull a head in software.

So.. sick and tired of hearing and reading hype about a system and devices that haven't been delived yet and in the end can end up just as vaporware. Why can't we go back in days when we reported about real things, not speculation and hype about something that is maybe going to one day come out and somehow revolutionize the world, but nobody really understand the reason why.

These people are just blind. Just blind. They are enlisting features that have been in phones for many years and nowdays virtually all smartphones from Nokia to Sony-Ericsson carry most of them. My god just look at N95, N82, 6500, N81, E51, E90, E61 and so on.. The market is full of smart phones with features that are just being dreamed to be included in gPhone, and this is just a list of one manufacturer, and a list that will in few weeks time be updated with new phone models again.

I just really can't see the point of this hype. There are only sketches on what should be coming, but no production ready system nor delivered devices. The worst part is that I really even can't see what's the advantage of gPhone? Major firms like Nokia and Sony-Ericsson won't be using them. Samsung just flip flops from system to system, and Motorolas whole future is in question. There isn't going to be huge uptake, and no, having small firms like HTC take it doesn't mean a scracth as their ability to compete with total costs are weak as they don't have the needed economies of scale that the likes of Nokia enjoy. I also don't see that they can leap with features as all the features they are planning to include in gPhone are already in S60, and as S60 is rapidly developing, now including QT in some time, I can't see that they could pull a head in software.

So.. sick and tired of hearing and reading hype about a system and devices that haven't been delived yet and in the end can end up just as vaporware. Why can't we go back in days when we reported about real things, not speculation and hype about something that is maybe going to one day come out and somehow revolutionize the world, but nobody really understand the reason why.

Maybe Cramer was right. AMD was planning to build a fab in New York with heavy state subsidies. It looks like AMD can no longer afford to build that fab because they are getting owned in the marketplace. Could this deal have anything to do with the investigation? Probably.

I don't know if Intel engaged in anti-competitive behavior. I do know that the reason for AMD's troubles is at least 90% their own fault. I don't think Intel caused Phenom to be repeatedly delayed, nor did Intel cause the TLB bug in the first run of Phenom chips. Intel didn't use mind control rays on AMD CEO Hector Ruiz causing him to lie to the press at every given opportunity either.

Try Google!

But I'll give you the first one free

Oh wait.. Yeah, it does exist! It's right on The Register.

(Belkin 5ghz wireless HDMI transmitter at CES)

The triple layer HD-DVD did have a couple of extra gig on dual layer BD. However there are quad layer BD discs in the pipeline (have been demo'd, not production yet) that will have FAR more capacity.

And this:

Note that I have not actually seen a Blu-Ray disc play,

Followed by this:

any Blu-Ray player other than the PS3 is slow as hell with simple menu animations. By "slow as hell", I mean you will actually see it redrawing each frame in blocks, for a tiny menu taking up maybe an eighth of the screen.

Just desroys your credibility, sorry.

Java runs quite happily on a cheap mobile phone these days, I don't think for a second that anything that can decrypt HD video on the fly isn't going to ave the power to run a little java on the side. So when you say:

"The menus aren't really going to be much more than standard DVD menus."

You're talking out of your arse. And as for region coding, whilst the early versions of the standard don't support it, it was certainly being worked on.

You can also put BluRay on DVD using the AVCREC format, much like the HD-REC format for HD-DVD.

HD-DVD has been moving on to things like "Managed Copy", which is designed to allow (for example) legally ripping a movie to your iPod

That's part of AACS but was not included in the first version due to Toshiba (yes, the HD-DVD backer, Toshiba) requesting an interim standard because the main one was taking so long. So it looks like older HD-DVD discs and players likely didn't support that either, and going forward BluRay probably will.

Now, I'm not saying BluRay was the vastly superior format, but I am saying that HD-DVD was not all you've said here, and BluRay does have some advantages in capacity and throughput.

Last I saw The Register was running an article that said Nintendo had already pulled the ads.
The Register Article

I wonder where the submitter heard about this? Oh yeah: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/05/dell_world_of_warcraft_notebook/

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/29/westminster_satlav_texting_service/

Again, just a loose location is enough....

"....Spend-a-penny SMS service starts flowing

By James Sherwood [More by this author]
29th November 2007 14:50 GMT
If you're caught short in central London tonight then just text Westminster Council (WC), because it has launched a loo-locating texting service.

Mobile-enabled geeks out on the pi** now need only text the word 'toilet' to 80097 and the service will text you back the street name of your closest water closet. The service is called Sat Lav and was designed by student Gail Knight.

A spokesperson for WC told Register Hardware that its service communicates with nearby mobile phone masts to triangulate your location. Sat Lav includes the details of 40 toilets and covers 8.5 square miles of Westminster.

We couldn't resist a try and so sent a text to Sat Lav. It's a good job we weren't bursting, because the reply took 7-10 minutes to arrive. And when it did come through, the exact location of the toilets were so vague that it would have taken us ages to find them. We'd have burst by then...

It's not so much that Ken Livingstone has suddenly become an avid texter, but more because WC claims that 45,460 litres of urine is at risk from ending up on the city's streets, thanks to those not willing - or unable - to wait.

The service is available now at 25p per text, a little more than spending a penny. Let's hope the money goes to building more outhouses......"

Why exactly should "we" hope that these are not mainstream?

Just so long as Sony don't make 'em.

Ha,ha - CAPTCHA is "recall"! You couldn't make it up! http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/17/sony_japan_recalls_90k_vaio_batteries/

"Because the customers are not the same, and their companies are marketing their family-friendly image as much as anything else (moreso Nintendo than Sorny).

Face it: The average American consumer is a frothy-mouthed puritan."
Except that Manhunt2 is baned in the UK... And not just rated AO. Also in the US the games ratings don't carry the force of law like they do in the UK.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/19/manhunt_2_banned/

It boasts a five-megapixel camera with a xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, and sports a 2.4in display that rotates from portrait to landscape view at the flick of a wrist, thanks to a built in accelerometer. The device includes Assisted GPS technology ... and compensates for weak satellite signals by sending data about your current location over your carrier's network ... several TomTom-esque maps come preinstalled and Nokia's thrown in a trial of its voice-guided navigation utility... it's also a quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge device and can make HSDPA 3G connections for data and video calls. There's 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connectivity on-board, and downloaded content can be stored on the bundled 2GB Micro SD card. Additional connectivity options include USB 2.0 and Bluetooth, with A2DP for streaming audio to wireless headphone...

how could anyone possibly look at that phone and think it's even remotely inspired by the iPhone/iPod?!

Agreed, Nokia's phones are usually based on the Nokia "look" more than anything else. But there is a whole new wave of big-screen phones emerging based on trends coming out of Korea. The first one of these was a few mutant Samsungs, which begat the LG Prada, which Apple then lifted for its own phone design. Compare and contrast.

Um, Nintendo has won several awards for their Wii marketing.

Um, no. They went down for a while, along with other consoles. They are now picking up again. This is normal just before the holiday season. And remember, Wii hadn't had any recent killer games until SMG was released the other day.

The "gimmick" is selling far better than other consoles. If you have to comfort yourself with the fact that Wii doesn't outsell the others by that much, then that speaks volumes about the "gimmick" you are being so hateful about.

I think you're referring to the Motofone F3. And it uses a small e-ink display, not OLED.

But aren't MS supposed to be re-working Vista to run on the Asus Eee PC which has similar (or even identical) specs to the classmate?

>I betting on atleast one CPU line after the Core 2 Quads to support the LGA 775

Sorry, the Intel chips due out in Q4 2008 use a different socket to support the on-chip memory controller.
See http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/02/intel_bloomfield_to_debut_lga1366/

Did anybody keep in mind that Toshiba is one of the backers of the CELL Processor? They just renewed and extended their Joint-Venture with Sony. They also developed a "reduced" CELL Processor called SpursEngine.

They should be working on a PS3 version, not a XBOX360 Version...

Did anybody keep in mind that Toshiba is one of the backers of the CELL Processor? They just renewed and extended their Joint-Venture with Sony. They also developed a "reduced" CELL Processor called SpursEngine.

They should be working on a PS3 version, not a XBOX360 Version...

With regard to your comment on the speed of SSD, they seem to be on a par with an average 3.5" hard drive now for read speed, at least according to this The Register article about Samsung's 64GB offering.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/01/ms_ships_65nm_xbox/

They've been selling red ring free consoles for a fair while now. I'd imagine that the announcement of putting aside $1 billion to solve the warranty issue was around the time they were sure the issue was resolved and that that was the maximum they'd need to pay out should all existing consoles fail under the new 3 year warranty.

There's certainly far less red ring reports nowadays so it would seem their fix has been fairly successful thus far unless it's due to some other reason, i.e. people just not bothering to bitch about it anymore!

The Montevina platform will have 45nm chips:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/11/intel_centrino_roadmap/

Well they had the WebNWalk offering open for a while when this launched.. http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/09/t-mobile_hsdpa_datacard/

I've had WebnWalk with Tmoble since ~ June 2006 - "unlimited" net on your phone. Limit is about 1 gig a month. More than enough for most i would suggest!

The battery life on my HSDPA Samsung Z560 is pretty bad (made worse by the inaccurate battery meter). Not an issue for me, because I can charge it every night. But as a concession, it comes with two batteries in the box.

Of course, swappable batteries is an innovation lost on Apple's iPod designers.

That way they don't have the chicken/egg problem of how to download and burn the installation disc.

HP is very GNU/Linux savvy. They have a Linux landing page. They certify six different distributions. Their Insight Diagnostics are actually a custom Linux distro for performing system diagnostics and repair on their systems. HP supports open source software, and has for a long time. They support organizations such as the Free Software Foundation, Open Source Software Institute, and the Linux Foundation. The home of the Linux kernel, kernel.org runs on donated HP servers.

They often sponsor community events like the Linux Kernel Developer Summit, the Debian Conference, the International Free Software Forum, GNOME User and Developer European Conference, the Desktop Linux Summit, the Libre Graphics Meeting, and LinuxWorld. HP has not only supported Open Source projects, they have over 100 of their own. They have over 1,000 open source printer drivers. It's nice knowing you can plug in the HP printer and it will just go. Once upon a time printer drivers in Linux were a severe pain point.

So if you're considering buying a PC with Linux on it, apparently you could do worse than go with the HP one. (Full disclosure - I don't work for HP and I don't sell their stuff, but I do work in the business so of course I deal with their stuff somewhat. My opinions are my own, YMMV, yadda yadda.)

Now that Microsoft has decided to sell PCs it's natural for other PC sellers to consider their options. Every Windows + Office sale is a profit center Microsoft can use to subsidize their attack on the PC market much like they're funding their attack on the game console market. If you're a company that is already in the business of selling PCs, subsidizing your competitor is a very bad idea -- especially if the competitor can offer themselves considerable discounts on software.

The 8GB iPhone costs 220 to make. This is a gross estimate, but it was the second result in Google and I can't be arsed to look any further. It's a good baseline, if anything.

So each phone is $600. Toss in 'activation' which is usually somewhere around $35, insurance which is about $5 each month, and then the plan itself which will run you $100 a month recurring for the next 24 months...

600 + 35 + (5 * 24) + (100 * 24) = $3155

lets assume that you don't use up all your minutes, you don't send thousands of text messages a month, and you aren't getting a new iPhone because you keep dropping it in the toilet (who takes the phone into the bathroom?) and so on and so on.

AT&T is making money hand-over-fist with all the iPhone sales. They could sell the phone for $50 and STILL make money on it. Hell, I would consider switching at that point--and I... Hate... AT&T. I'd buy the phone at $50 and then cancel my contract and pay the $300 bucks. Unlock it, and sell it for the 40k that one kid did. It's still worth it to buy it, don't get a contract, and then sell it on eBay.

Though it hasn't been implemented yet, this was already planned in the UK with TomTom and Vodafone teaming up. The Register has the article: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/27/tomtom_cel lular_traffic_tech/

It means the 39x39x39 version but was written by someone partially illiterate. See http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/08/24/sony_sugar _battery/ for a picture and the dimensions specified correctly.

Reportedly, HD-DVD requires relatively minor upgrading of existing DVD production plants. BR requires a complete re-tooling, thus increasing the cost and effort. Consumers won't care much, this is more studios/production houses, but in theory would allow for more plants producing them, so the time loss you mentioned could be spread out (perhaps better to have 10 plants taking a few extra seconds than just 2 plants that are backed up with production orders even though they're faster?)

Primarily, though, HD DVD's lack of region coding is enough for me to support them over BR, potential technical superiority or not. Well, at least until they implement it anyway. (Note that it was reported as just a motion; I can't find anything newer than 2006)

I'm glad someone's making a revitalizing effort on the part of HD-DVD, even if it means handing out buckets of cash. My biggest reason for supporting HDDVD over BluRay (other than a long-time dislike for Sony) is that HDDVD does not have any form of region coding, while BluRay does. I haven't seen that point raised here on Slashdot before, so I'm at the point of wondering if A) it's even correct, and B) if I'm really the only one who cares.

Everything seems to point to HDDVD region codes:

• 2006 reghardware article
• 2006 Dvd-recordable article
• Actual product at Amazon (see editorial review)

If anything, you should support BD over HDDVD simply because it's better technology (higher capacity storage), and if you want to go down the "corporate evil" route, Microsoft is far more evil than Sony, so BD wins by default.

So far as I know, with HD-DVD I don't have to worry about it. But Sony, showing their true stripes once again, embraced it with BluRay.

First off, BD is not a "Sony" format, anymore than Cell is a "Sony processor"; they're just part of the committees. One of many. Secondly, if anything, the lack of region codes on PS3 and PSP games should point in the opposite direction. The inclusion of region coding is like the inclusion of DRM---it's a feature that studios will want before they support the format, regardless of how ineffective or stupid it is.

Recently, defective tires manufactured in China killed two motorists.

The seafood imported from China -- and tainted with deadly chemicals -- has not yet killed any American. However, long-term consumption of the contaminated seafood will eventually cause agonizing health problems.

AT&T should immediately identify the country where its batteries were manufactured. Chances are good that a Chinese factory is the culprit.