Technology

While high-definition DVD titles trickle into stores, the arrival of the first titles in the rival Blu-ray Disc format has been pushed back by a month until June 20.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feingold said his studio's first batch of Blu-ray releases will be ready May 23, as planned.

"But the majority of our retail base and hardware partners have requested that we reconsider this date to better coincide with the first commercially available Blu-ray-compatible hardware," Feingold said.

How do you prevent RFID-tagged contents in your shopping bag from being spied on? That’s the question more consumers will likely be asking as RFID tagging become more pervasive.

It is not hard to imagine that you could be tracked through RFID tags that are embedded in the pair of jeans that you’ve just bought. Spychips.com recently reported that US apparel maker Levi Strauss has been trialing RFID tagging with its jeans at an unnamed retail outlet in US, albeit in the form of “hang tags” that can be clipped off by the jeans owners.

The California Public Utilities Commission this week gave a boost to the idea of delivering broadband access over power lines by passing rules allowing trials to take place across the state. Though broadband over power lines (BPL) is a wonderful idea in theory, in practice it has been difficult to implement well. Has its time finally come?

A Saudi-German plan to launch a dedicated Arabic language search engine for the Web could revolutionize the moribund Arabic Internet market, a senior official in the project said.

"Sawafi", planned for the last quarter of 2006, could also set a tough challenge for international search giants such as Google, MSN and Yahoo, which offer a basic Arabic search facility at present.

WITH high-definition televisions flying off the shelves and more networks broadcasting in high definition, one might assume that high-definition DVD's would be a sure-fire hit. Alas, Toshiba, with its HD-DVD format, and Sony, Panasonic and the others that developed the Blu-ray standard, will release rival players and discs that are expected to confuse consumers and infuriate retailers and could stunt the growth of what promises to be a multibillion-dollar market.

Desktop management service provider Everdream on Tuesday announced a service that makes it possible to encrypt or delete data even after a laptop has gone missing.

The new Everdream "Theft Recovery Managed Service" allows organizations to retain control over lost or stolen PCs and laptops, the Fremont, Calif., company said in a statement. The service also can assist law enforcement with the tracking, locating and recovery of computers, the company said.

SINCE IT has been proven possible to boot Windows XP onto the Holy MacInteltosh, there have been rumours circulating among the Apple religious community that such an unholy act will cause the computing icon to catch fire.

According to the rumour, the presence of Microsoft software on board an Apple machine will cause the beautiful machines to consume itself in righteous anger and go incandescent.

California prison officials have begun using Global Positioning System anklets to track known gang members.

The gritty suburb of San Bernardino, about 60 miles (96 km) east of Los Angeles, this week became the first California city to use the GPS satellite navigation system to track gang members when the devices were strapped onto three parolees, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jeanne Woodford said.

BMW intends to start serial production of a hydrogen-burning 7-Series executive car within two years, the world's largest premium automaker said Tuesday.

"We will present such a vehicle to the public in less than two years," a spokesman said, confirming media reports. BMW had said last year its hydrogen-fueled cars, which emit only water vapor, would make their debut in 2010.

Over the last decade, the growth of satellite service, the rise of digital cable, and the birth of HDTV have all left their mark on the television landscape. Now, a new delivery method threatens to shake things up even more powerfully. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has arrived, and backed by the deep pockets of the telecommunications industry, it's poised to offer more interactivity and bring a hefty dose of competition to the business of selling TV.