We have heard rumours from several trade insiders that RiDisc are launching a new range of DVD and CD products next month. The new line up has been referred to by our insiders as the RiDisc eXtreme Range. As of yet, we have had no official confirmation as to the dye formulation or the price bracket. However I am due to meet their Sales and Marketing Manager for a "pie and a pint" next week so no doubt he will be shedding some light on the rumours.

Whilst waiting for supplies of 16X media our DVD expert Flash has been trying out his two new 16X SPEED Drives, the Pioneer DVR-109 and the NEC ND-3520. His first choice being the Datawrite Transprint Hub Printable 8x speed DVD-R
See how they all perform together in his review

Analyst firm Gartner said that shipments of PCs worldwide are expected to be 199 million this year. Media Center PCs, however, aren't likely to make a big difference to sales, because of several problems with them, Gartner warned. It suggests that the PC industry hasn't done enough to make them easy enough to use.

Software giant Microsoft has said it is recalling power cords on 14.1 million Xbox consoles worldwide. The firm said it was doing so out of concern for consumer safety, and the replacement cords are designed to protect consumers and consoles from electrical component failures.

Movies launched on the PlayStation Portable's UMD format in the USA will retail for between $20 and $30 (£10 - £15), in line with local DVD pricing, while Chinese movie House of Flying Daggers has now been added to the line-up.

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) have announced the world's first dual layer DVD-R disc made to DL standards to be launched this spring.

Philips is planning to market early next year anti-pirate software it has developed for identifying film files illegally on the internet, according to Ronald Maandonks of Philips Research.

The Linspire operating system, due out this quarter, will ship with a number of additions you might expect from a version of Linux aimed at average consumers. Things such as improved music, photo and DVD applications, better Wi-Fi support and a fancy instant messaging product are there. What you might not expect - the weird part of the equation - is a new package called MP3beamer that turns any Linspire PC into a music hub for the home.

CMC Magnetics recently again raised the average OEM quotation for its CD-R blank discs to US$0.145 (7.7p), the second hike this year, and has gained handsomely from pre-selling DVD discs pre-recorded with Kung Fu, a Chinese-language movie produced in Hong Kong, in the China market, the company indicated.

A bug has been discovered in Windows XP's Service Pack 2 that reduce the write speed of many dual-layer DVD drives.

DVD wizard Flash has been excercised by some DVD+R sample media he recieved that had the mid code RITEKR04. He had been assured that this was 16x media, but on checking it with DVDInfoPro (using a Pioneer DVR-109 & NEC DVD_RW ND-3520A - both the latest 16x speed drives) he was very angry to find that both these drives would only support a maximum of 4x burning to this media.

Several second-tier manufacturers of blank optical discs and many small makers of the product in Taiwan are trying to shift their production to pre-recorded optical discs, according to local market experts. The attempted move is motivated by profitless or even money-losing production as a result of competitive price-cutting.

A silicon valley software outfit has invented a new technology that it claims blocks 97 per cent of DVD copying software. Macrovision says its RipGuard system does not interfere with the DVD’s playback or picture quality.

CyberLink have announced that their PowerDVD 6 suite of DVD burning programs has passed the "Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition" testing conducted by Microsoft.

It's been known in industry circles for months, but the news is now finally starting to leak. You'll be able to buy the next generation Xbox in both America and Europe in 2005, say experts.

Sony Ericsson will unveil a mobile phone that doubles as a digital music player early next month, company President Miles Flint has announced.The phone will carry a name which has already appeared on some 350 million music players over the last 25 years, he said: the Walkman brand of Sony Ericsson's parent company, Sony.

Users have found a way to skirt copy protection on Napsters portable music subscription service just days after its high-profile launch, potentially letting them make CDs with hundreds of thousands of songs for free.

The PSP's worldwide launch in Japan last year met with great enthusiasm. The device sold over 200,000 units on the first day. Of course, the PSP has significant ground to make up to unseat market leader Nintendo, which currently has between 90 and 95 percent of the handheld gaming market.

Disc Makers has announced its newest line of Reflex duplicators, the ReflexMax1, ReflexMax4, ReflexMax7, and ReflexUltra.

Sony will unveil its PlayStation 3 console before the start of the E3 games show, company spokespeople revealed this week. E3 opens its doors in Los Angeles on 17 May. The implication of the Sony staffers' comments, made to US news site GameSpot, is that PS3's outing will come much sooner.