Malaysian authorities have crippled two DVD and video CD (VCD) piracy rings in Malaysia, arresting 30 people and seizing nine duplicating machines worth 36m ringgit (£5.4m), a local newspaper reported today.

Memorex is shipping 24-karat gold CDs and DVDs. The benefit, of course, is that gold breaks down far more slowly than other media from exposure to dust, dirt, and chemicals.

A faulty TV digital box sparked a rescue mission from RAF Kinloss by sending out a signal identical to those transmitted by vessels in distress.

The latest version of Apple's popular iTunes software scans a computer's digital music collection and recommends new songs to buy — a feature blasted by privacy advocates as electronic snooping.

Microsoft will not release any update for the Media Player version for Macs.

A 9-year-old boy in California who suffered from uncontrollable head jerking movements after long hours of video game playing stopped the twitching after his doctor banned him from playing his Playstation.

Jeans giant Levi's is hoping to woo fashionistas and music aficionados alike with its new iPod-compatible RedWire DLX jeans, due out this autumn.

A workington man was ordered to repay over £59,000 after he was found guilty of faking CDs and DVDs.

Following the release of the BDR-101A writer, the second Blu-Ray DVD burner from the Japanese company will support recording of BD-R/RE, DVD recordable/rewritable and also "legacy" CD-Rs. The drive will retail later this year.

Neuros is to update its MPEG-4 Video Recorder with a new industrial design and an integrated hard-disk drive. It is also preparing to revive its Digital Audio Computer (DAC) line of MP3 players, basing both systems on both a common hardware platform and open-source firmware.

Steven Spielberg's Munich has effectively been knocked out of the running for next month's Bafta awards after a batch of DVDs sent to voters eligible to judge the UK award were coded incorrectly for European viewing. Copies of the film were earlier held up for a month in UK Customs.

UK Satellite broadcaster BSkyB yesterday announced a series of technological innovations designed to neuter the threat of its pay-TV rivals, including allowing subscribers to legally download blockbuster films to watch on a computer, and news bulletins for iPods.

Apple's new patch fixes five flaws that allow attackers to run malicious code on Mac OS X or Windows systems running the QuickTime media player.

Microsoft has cited components shortages and a lack of capacity as the cause of shortages of Xbox 360 consoles in the shops, the Financial Times reported today.

Judging by the offerings made at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, people looking to invest in the next generation of optical media gadgetry are likely to have a back-to-the-future style experience. Many of the boxes on show look very much like 1980's VCRs. And we have the pictures to prove it.

Another set of goodies unveiled at this year's CES were some notebooks from Toshiba and HP, set to be released later this year, that both supported HD-DVD or BluRay in some fashion.

HP has ended its two-year policy of distributing Apple Computer's iTunes software with its new PCs and is switching to RealNetworks' Rhapsody music service.

The EU plans to impose a 14 per cent import duty on imports of larger LCD screens, leading pundits to forecast a huge hike in sticker prices.

The battle over the next generation of DVD formats has got well and truly under way with the announcement from Toshiba that the company will be launching HD-DVD players as early as March this year.

You all know that real consumer tech comes from porn, and this year was no exception. What would the hottest gadget this non-denominational winter and year end celebration, the iPod video, be without porn?