Microsoft has confirmed it is developing a "Zune" portable music player which analysts believe will compete directly with Apple's iPod.

Moser Baer has announced the launch of HD DVD-R (high-density digital video recordable discs). The HD DVD-R has a capacity of 15 GB - more than three times the data storage capacity of a standard DVD.

Rumour has it that DVD cicerone Flash is going through a mid-life crisis and has branched out into the world of fashion. He has currently been spotted on dshirt.co.uk, working as a moderator for their newly thriving t-shirt design community. Fans of Flash, and we know there are many many of you out there, can only be impressed.

Nero has announced that the ShowTime application of its Nero 7 digital media software suite received Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) certification.

Yahoo! Music has started to unofficially offer an MP3 version of the new Jessica Simpson song "A Public Affair" without DRM constrains, for $1.99 (£1.08).

ComicBase, the leading comic book collection management software, is the first commercial PC product available in the new Blu-ray format.

SanDisk has introduced the Extreme IV CompactFlash digital film card for professional photographers. The company claims it is the highest performance card in the world, with 40 MB per second minimum read and write speeds (266X).

Health officials in sunny Queensland are prosecuting the Sensual Pleasures adult shop for selling a substance said to enhance sexual climax under the rather unraunchy label of DVD cleaner.

Fed up with continued piracy of DVDs and software, a Chinese city is offering retailers the chance to swap fake discs for real ones.

Sky is the latest company to get on the convergence wagon by offering broadband internet access alongside other comms services.

Sony has released its BWU-100A Blu-ray disc burner, a multi-format disc drive that supports recording to Blu-ray, DVD-R, DVD+R and CD-R/RW discs.

With the retail big boys clearing out their inventory, prices for 16x DVD burners have recently dropped 7-10%, and they are now little more expensive than DVD-ROMs.

Late last month, San Diego-based DFC Intelligence raised more than a few eyebrows when it said that Sony could very well end up last in the next-gen gaming race, behind competitors Microsoft and Nintendo. Today, the research firm released an industry briefing, and its song remains largely the same.

Datawrite are sponsoring a competition to design a t-shirt and claim up to £15,000 worth of prize money. To have a look at some of the designs submitted so far have a look here.

If you fancy your chances as an artist and want to have a crack at the £15,000 prize money check out dshirt.co.uk.

They are also offering everyone the chance to get one of the winning design t-shirts free of charge. To be eligible to claim you’re free t-shirt you need to display a banner on your website - check out this page for full details of how to claim you’re t-shirt, or dshirt as Datawrite call it.

Lite-On IT, given the fact that several global leading brands will follow Japan-based Plextor and unveil 18x DVD burner models this quarter or early next quarter, is preparing to offer 20x DVD burners in the fourth quarter to enhance its competitiveness, according to industry sources.

A purportedly leaked Intel memo explains why Intel has decided to lend its weight to the HD-DVD standard.

Ritek has begun OEM production of LabelFlash CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs for Fujifilm, with an initial small shipment volume of several million discs a month, according to industry sources. LabelFlash technology allows users to directly burn a label onto an optical disc.

Movielink LLC has licensed technology that allows the online movie service's customers to transfer downloaded films to DVDs for playback on standard DVD players.

Korean firm LG will release its first 18x DVD burner - named GSA-H22N - in Europe later this month.

Retail prices for 16x DVD Dual burners manufactured in Taiwan are expected to be slashed from NT$1,299 (£22) to less than NT$1,000 (£17) before the end of the third quarter.