A picture purporting to be concept art of Sony's next-generation console, the PlayStation 3, has been circulated on the Internet, showing a sleek silver console with a slot-loading DVD drive.

Memorex have announced what they call 'the Memorex True 8X' 8X8 Dual Format DVD recorder. '8X8' refers to the fact the drive burns at 8X to both DVD-R and DVD+R formats. The 'True 8x' refers to their claim that "existing competitor 8X DVD drives use a process commonly known as 'overburn' to stretch 4X technology and 4X media limits. This process pushes the power of the drive's laser to its limits through firmware modification, bypassing the specified tolerance levels of the hardware components to deliver 8X DVD recording."

Philips has launched the Nexperia PNX7200, a single-chip MPEG-2 codec for DVD recording applications. The Nexperia PNX7200 enables a low system-cost solution, reducing bill of material (BoM) costs by up to 30%, according to a press release from the company today.

Sony have said it is shipping blue laser-based optical storage drives and related products to equipment manufacturers and system integrators. The new Professional Disc for DATA products include media cartridges that store up to 23GB of data, Sony said.

We've hit our first milestone today with this, the publication of our 1000th news article. Thanks should go to all the many people who have sent in ideas, feedback and reviews that have helped us become one of the best resources on the net for DVD Recordable news, reviews and advice. A special mention to Flash too for his tireless dedication in writing reviews and answering queries sent to him by email. If you want to browse the complete list of articles why not click on the 'Sitemap' link on the left or use the 'Quick Search' feature.

Sony is planning to enable future versions of its PlayStation gaming console to recognise user gestures and even emotions, according to an executive. The PlayStation 3 may also incorporate a motion sensor and camera add-on known as EyeToy.

TDK have unveiled a new pupose built CD/DVD label printer following the success of their LPCW-50. The LPCW-100 is designed for ease of use, "design the layout of the disc using the computer software supplied, then just insert the disc into the printer and it will print onto the top surface of the disc using dry ink to prevent smudging. It has a high print resolution, which means that even small text is clear and easy to read."

Malaysia's brazen software pirates are hawking the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system years before it is supposed to be on sale.

The PK-AX300H, due out in late January 2004, from NEC is the latest DVD recorder that comes with a 300GB hard disk. It can record up to 423 hours of MPEG-2 video (1.2Mbps) on the disk.

Sony has dropped several features from its upcoming PSX, a product the company describes as one of its most important this year, because it has not been able to complete development in time for the year-end sales period.

Our resident DVD guru Flash has been busy preparing an article which outlines how to install a new DVD burner.

Researchers at Princeton University working with Hewlett-Packard have invented a new form of permanent computer memory that uses plastic, and may be much cheaper and faster than existing silicon circuits.

Jon Johansen is fighting back against those who say he has created a program for illegally copying music files. The Norwegian hacker famed for defeating Hollywood in a cyberpiracy trial has rejected allegations he had illegally unlocked a code that enables unauthorised copying of music files from the Internet.

Microsoft's Xbox has had its most successful week to date this year in Japan, capturing almost seven per cent market share following a price cut to the hardware and the launch of a Project Gotham Racing 2 bundle deal.

Samsung, a major home appliance maker, said yesterday that it has developed the world's largest thin-film-transistor liquid crystal display panel for high-definition TVs at 57 inches.

Sony have said it would start selling the "PSX" -- an all-in-one entertainment system that includes a hard disk drive (HDD) and DVD recorder plus a PlayStation 2 console -- on December 13 in Japan. The entertainment and electronics company will be getting the much-anticipated PSX on shop shelves before the end of the holiday shopping season. Sony had said it planned to have the PSX in stores before the year-end.

Icelandic game company CCP, which makes Eve Online, have shown a video intended to show how hackers trade online multiplaying credits, saying that his firm had tracked down a guy who made $60,000 (£35,000) by scams. That, they say, isn't necessarily a bad thing - we'll eventually see people that get paid to play, like actors, who will make the virtual world more believable and also make money.

UndercoverXP is a free software program which automatically scales your digital images so you can print CD covers (front and back), inlays, DVD boxes and PlayStation covers. All you have to do is drag and drop an image into the interface, click the type of cover you want and press Print.

Seems like it's time to start dropping some clear hints if you don't want to end up with a turkey this Christmas. An estimated 250 new games are expected to be released in this pivotal season for game companies.

An HD DVD format proposed by Toshiba and NEC as the next-generation DVD format was finally approved by the DVD Forum's steering committee during recent meetings in New York. The HD DVD format is a violet laser-based optical disk system with a capacity of 15-20 Gbyte per side using the same disk structure as current DVD disks.