For those who don’t know, I’ll start this tale by briefly recounting the origins of Napster. It started ten years ago as a brilliant, but illegal, introduction to downloading music on the Internet. It was really only surpassed by AudioGalaxy in its ingenuity, but the record industry got scared and had it shut down. Of …

We don’t need to tell you that Terminator Salvation didn’t exactly get glowing reviews when it hit cinemas. It was a film very much beset with problems both during production — Christian Bale’s now infamous rant being the obvious example — and since, with the whole franchise locked up in a massive legal dispute. By far the biggest disappointment though, …

We’ve been dying to know what broadcast format the BBC is planning to use for its HD broadcasts, which start in December. We know the service will be broadcast in MPEG-4 using a DVB-T2 transmission system, but until now, the Big British Castle hasn’t been talking about the video size — would we be getting 1080i or 720p? The first …

At its IFA 2008 press conference in Berlin, Sony announced that in addition to bleeding James Bond dry, it has three new landmark Bravia TV products available. The first, the ZX1, features a new LED backlight system that makes it just 9mm thick. The second is the Z4500, a 200Hz TV designed to reduce motion artefacts, and the last was …

Projectors are often the very best way to watch a movie. You get a honking great image, with the potential to see a film how it was made to be seen. What puts many people off is the reliance on very expensive bulbs. These never last very long, and when you come to replace one, cost the Earth. Now Runco …

At its annual European press launch in Amsterdam, Panasonic yesterday announced that it would launch a series of new Blu-ray players, including a portable machine, the DMP-B15, and a freesat-recording model, the DMR-BS850. There were also jokes about windmills. To our surprise, the company has decided that in the middle of a recession, what people really need is the ability …

Today, the BBC has announced a full timetable for its BBC HD channel becoming available on the new Freeview HD service. London and Manchester will be the first places getting access to the HD service, which we expected. We also knew Freeview HD would use the more efficient DVB-T2 system the BBC has played a huge part in developing over …

Boxee‘s media centre application can be run on a Mac, Linux or Windows system, but while those are good if you’re happy to run a computer in your lounge, it’s not ideal for most people, who want a small and crucially quiet box. We’ve seen it make Apple TV much more useful before now, but happily, Boxee has announced it …

The iPhone is the most popular and well-specified smart phone in the world. Like it or not, Apple knows how to make a product that’s simple to use and well-loved by consumers. And where Apple goes, everyone else will soon follow — as soon as the iPhone gained traction, Google announced its Android platform and Palm started work on the …

The BBC recently reduced the bit rate of BBC HD, leading to outraged complaints about the picture quality. The BBC has admitted that it has reduced the bit rate, but it also claims that its new, more efficient encoders make up the difference with increased efficiency. But in an interview with Points of View, Danielle Nagler, the head of BBC …