New HD-DVD to Blu-ray ‘upgrade’ scheme not as generous as it appears

Warner Bros is offering HD-DVD buyers the chance to replace their movies with Blu-ray copies for $4.95. But the deal is plagued by restrictions which will likely mean it does little more than irritate buyers who backed the wrong horse. The basics of the deal sound fine: you simply mail in the cover art from […]

Speed the key to next-gen Bluetooth

The next version of Bluetooth technology should mean lower power consumption, higher transfer speeds and wireless syncing of music and video libraries between computers and portable devices. The changes are part of Bluetooth 3.0, which effectively became official today when the industry’s Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) agreed to adopt the standard. It’s the last […]


Feature: Wait, did you say “Flamethrower”? – The Robogames Combat Robots

Combat robots aren’t exactly new – the first season of the Comedy Central show “Battlebots” aired in 2000 and the games had been going strong since 1997. What’s interesting, however, is how 11 years of robot evolution have affected the sport. Back in 2002, the spinners ruled the day. But today’s robots are meaner than […]