The almighty ruck between Blu-ray and HD-DVD could have found a bridge for the consumer.
The clever sticks at NEC have come up with a chip that will play both HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks.
A smart move for NEC, this could save the consumer having to make a choice between the two formats they have little or no knowledge of, but are being told that they simply must have.
The difference between the two standards is pretty considerable, not just in the capacity of the disks that Blu-ray has tried to make much of – as they saw it as a competitive advantage. One of the major differences is the interactivity, with Blu-ray going the route of Java, giving them both a considerable processing overhead in the machines that need to play it and huge flexibility in the depth of interactivity that can be achieved.
It’s not the first time that bringing together the two formats has been suggested. Over a year ago Samsung said that they’d produce a dual format player. Mysteriously they’ve dropped this idea, and gave a serious amount of umm-ing and ahh-ing when asked about it at IFA this year.
NEC is telling all those who will listen that the chips should be shipping from April 2007 onwards.
Although PDAs may be a dying breed, they clearly ain’t dead yet, with the lesser known Spanish electrics company releasing no less than two spanking new GPS-enabled PDAs. 
A SD/MMC card slot takes care of expansion options, with connectivity coming in the form of a MiniUSB socket , Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g (T620 only) 
Primed and ready for take off, O2’s own-brand Jet supersonic mobile boasts that it can deliver 67% more talk time than its nearest comparable rival. 
The phone’s business-like styling reflects its targeted demographic, with an austere black casing and ne’er a whiff of any fun stuff to be found – this grumpy old handset hasn’t even got a camera or an MP3 player. 
The O2 Jet will be ready for slipping into pin striped suit pockets from 19th October, with prices varying according to monthly tariffs. There will also be a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) version available for sixty quid. 
Currently sending our productivity levels downwards at a worrying rate is the hideously addictive Scrabble for the Palm OS by Handmark. 
The game offers four levels of automated computer opponent: Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, or Expert. 
Even in expert mode, the computer was able to come up with challenge-destroying words almost instantaneously, so the only thing slowing the game down was our own ineptitude. 
Dyson have this morning launched a new product, the Dyson Airblade, a replacement for tired old hand dryers. 
Just spotted on the 
Notably, it’s also got a colour screen, albeit a teensy weensy, itty-bitty one which has to be one of the smallest we’ve ever seen that’s capable of showing album artwork (but we like seeing album art, even when it’s this small!). 
The Walkman is billed as shipping with “noise cancelling technology,” courtesy of “high value EX headphones” with the player promising a healthy 50 Hours battery life backed up by a quick charge function. 
The buzz has been around for months and finally we get to hear the pricing. Retail pricing will be $249 and it will hit the shops in 14th November in the US. 
Along side this will be the Zune Pass subscription service, which for $14.99/month will give access to “millions of songs.” The downside on this one is that once you stop paying, your stop getting access to the music. 
There’s going to be a ton of accessories available at launch, which are listed at the bottom of the 
Good news for UK Tech firm Pace Micro as it receives confirmation from number one US cable company, Comcast to ship combined Set Top Box (STB) and PVR. 
Comcast is mighty, being the largest provider of cable services in the US, with 23.3 million cable customers, 10 million high-speed Internet customers and 1.6 million voice customers. Their business extends beyond simple cable TV provision, in their own words, they’re “focused on broadband cable, commerce, and content.” 
Currently blossoming on the Ugly Tree and ripe for plucking is the new i-mate JAQ PocketPC phone.
As far as we know, i-Mate haven’t officially split from HTC, but the company seems to be following O2’s policy of sourcing Windows smartphones from other manufacturers as well as HTC – a decision perhaps prompted by HTC recently releasing phones under their own name.
Quite a hefty beast at 122x71x22mm and weighing 160 grams, the i-Mate JAQ comes with a 2.8″ 320×240 pixels, 65k colour display, Bluetooth and InfraRed, but there’s no WiFi or 3G in sight, neither is there an onboard camera, which strikes us as a serious omission.
Barely half a year after the launch of the pocket-sized FinePix F30, Fujifilm has launched an upgraded version with the somewhat less memorable name of the FinePix F31fd. 
Fujifilm FinePix F31fd specs: