Toshiba has announced launch dates and prices for the first stand-alone HD DVD players to reach Europe — the HD-E1 and HD-XE1. This follows the US launch of the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 players back in April. Speaking at a well-attended press conference at IFA 2006 in Berlin, Olivier Van Wynendaele, Toshiba Europe’s deputy general manager for HD DVD products, described the …

Can you imagine a television that makes LCD and plasma sets look as fat and ugly as their CRT predecessors do now? Well, hopefully soon you won’t have to — Sony is demonstrating prototypes of new ‘OLED televisions’ at CES, which do just that. Crave is, of course, bitterly disappointed that we won’t be getting our hands on a fancy …

The Gates soft-shoe shuffle at CES kicks off the gadget show each year with the same forlorn regularity as a Windows blue screen of death. It’s comforting to watch Bill climb up to the stage, but prepare yourselves, people: this can’t go on for ever. Gates began his remarks by saying that next year’s keynote may well be his last. …