Panasonic to ship Blu-ray drives next spring

Panasonic has announced that it will ship Blu-ray devices and media as early as Spring 2006. The subsidiary of Matasushita will introduce Blu-ray Disc (BD) drives for notebooks and desktops that will be able to write and read single- and dual-layer BDs as well as all types of recordable DVDs and CDs. The drives will be accompanied by the new non-cartridge BDs (bare disc) with storage capacities of 25 GB and 50 GB. ...more

NEC shows world's smallest mobile phone

One to make western gadget lovers turn green. NEC has unveiled its slim, card-shaped N900 phone (pictured, top). Promoted by the electronics giant as one of its flagship models, the card-shaped phone measures just 85mm (w) x 54mm (h) X 8. ...more

Stop monkeying about

When I was a young lad, there was nothing better than to spend a Sunday morning watching the Planet of the Apes TV series on our small black-and-white TV set. I didn't even realise that there were a multitude of films already in the can! Well, as is the way of Hollywood these days, the powers that be have decided to remake this classic based on the Monkey Planet by Pierre Boulle. Gone is Charlton Heston (though he does make a cameo appearance) and Roddy McDowell, who has retired to the big monkey puzzle tree in the sky, to be replaced by Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Helena Bonham Carter. ...more

Revamped Power Mac G4s support OS9

Amid all the excitement - if that's the right word - surrounding last week's unveiling of the new Power Mac G5, changes to the Power Mac G4 line-up have gone unnoticed. Apple has pared the range down from four to three machines and made all the machines capable of booting into both Mac OS 9 and X. It has also changed certain aspects of the spec, dropping both FireWire 800 and the SuperDrive options. ...more

Google and Skype shell out on community WiFi

You know your proposition is hot when you are attracting investment from the likes of Google and Skype. This seems to be the case for a new Internet access network called Fon, which works by users pooling available bandwidth, to enable free WiFi roaming. Only people who already have a local Internet connection are able to take advantage of others' sharing. ...more