Soon after becoming the first to be out with a portable desktop alternative featuring the Intel Core i7 processor, SmoothCreations dished out another of its kind, this time a portable workstation named Bulldozer. The company is looking to target two classes of consumers with this product: gamers, and graphics professionals, who will take advantage of its hardware for high-definition gaming or CAM/CAE/CAD, medical imaging, forensics, government or military use. The applications are broad thanks to the hardware, which just might come at the expense of a little portability.

The Bulldozer features a 17-inch screen with a native resolution of 1900x1200 pixels. Under its hood is a Core i7 (models 940 or 965 XE) or Xeon X5580 processor. Up to 16 GB of memory can be opted for, along with up to 1.5 TB of storage thanks to three SATA HDD bays. A Blu-Ray combo drive provides removable storage. Connectivity options include WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0. Graphics is care of NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 with 1 GB of memory. Depending on the application, 64-bit Windows XP, Windows Vista, or RedHat Linux could be opted for. Its pricing is not known.

Pioneer on Tuesday announced the release of its latest Blu-ray, DVD and CD writer, the BDR-2203. Using SATA interface, the BDR-2203 writes dual-layer Blu-Ray media at up to 8x speeds, equal to about 15 minutes of your time for writing a single-layer 25 GB Blu-Ray disc, or just about 30 minutes for completion of a dual-layer 50 GB disc. The burner also writes recordable DVDs at 16x, dual-layer DVDs at 8x, CD-R media at 32x, and CD rewritable discs at 24x. Along with the burner you'll receive CyberLink PowerDirector, PowerDVD, and Power2Go software products. The BDR-2203 should already be in stores, with a suggested retail price of $250.

NEC introduced two new lines of all-in-one desktop PCs: ValueStar N, and ValueStar W. The launches push the company's monolithic all-in-one design approach further, into the realm of luxury PCs. The ValueStar N comes in three bezel colours: black, white, and cherry red. The main unit packs the 21.5-inch full HD display, and all the hardware otherwise found in a mini-tower. Under the hood is an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 processor, 4 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT graphics, and 1 TB of storage.

There is also a 19-inch variant with a display resolution of 1440 x 900 px, and 500 GB storage. Both variants pack a DVD Super Multi drive. A media-center remote is bundled along with the keyboard and mouse. The ValueStar W on the other hand, packs beefier hardware with its Core 2 Quad Q8200 quad-core processor that is watercooled, 4 GB of memory, digital TV tuner, 1TB of storage, Blu-Ray drive and a 22" LCD. Better as it seems, ironically, this display features an underwhelming resolution of 1680 x 1050.

Buffalo's optical drive line-up has been updated to include a new model, the BRC-P258U2 external Blu-Ray drive. The drive measures 141 (W) x 23 (H) x 155 (D) mm and weights 370 grams, has a 4.5 MB buffer, a USB 2.0 interface, and can read Blu-Ray discs at 2x and write DVD-R/+R SL at 8x, DVD-R/+R DL, DVD-RW/+RW at 8x, CD-R at 16x and CD-RW at 10x.

According to its maker, the BRC-P258U2 should already be hitting stores in Japan with a price tag of about $218.

Pioneer Europe today unveiled its latest Blu-ray writer, the BDR-203BK, that's capable of writing at 8x speeds on Singe and Dual Layer BR-R discs. The BDR-203BK with black bezel will be available on an OEM basis from February 2009. It will cost around €250. Full specs follow below.

Panasonic, Philips and Sony are currently working with other Blu-ray Disc patent holders to establish a one-stop-shop license for Blu-ray Disc products. This license, which covers essential patents for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD, will be introduced in the middle of this year. The license program will be offered by a new independent licensing company that will be based in the United States with branch offices in Asia, Europe and Latin America. The CEO of the new license company will be Mr. Gerald Rosenthal, former head of IP at IBM and more recently CEO of Open Invention Network. "By establishing a new licensing entity that offers a single license for Blu-ray Disc products at attractive rates, I am confident that it will foster the growth of the Blu-ray Disc market and serve the interest of all companies participating in this market, be it as licensee or licensor." said Mr. Rosenthal.

MSI today unveiled the EX625 performance notebook. MSI EX625 features Cinema Pro Technology, which offers consumers the finest movie viewing experience. With a simple touch of the exclusive Cinema Pro button; you may immediately switch to Movie Mode. The quality on screen will be more detailed, the richness in sound and the subwoofer as well as Dolby sound will be activated, providing the finest sensory of the theaters. Furthermore, the embedded high performance subwoofer design can create shocking effects.

Combing Color Film Print Technology with ocean wave patterns in design, the EX625 has been injected with a brand new texture to personal notebook computers. The most advanced ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 graphics card with GDDR3 512MB VRAM, for a more fluid, more detailed, more realistic 3D high-definition viewing experience. In the other hand, EX625 selects the brand new ECO Engine Technology, the outstanding and unique power saving function by MSI Notebook, as the power management function to extend the battery running time while performing different tasks.

Following the success of becoming the world's first sound cards to be equipped with the next generation DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby Digital Plus bitstream on the PC platform, the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 Series once again moves to the forefront as the world's first and only solution to offer Dolby TrueHD audio bitstream on the PC platform. A powerful combination comprising of C-Media's custom-made AV200 audio processor and ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre software player lets users be the first to enjoy Dolby TrueHD's lossless compression rate of 24bit/192KHz over to their AV receivers. This breakthrough in the emerging Blu-ray era was unprecedented before the release of the Xonar HDAV1.3.

Plextor, a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces new products as a part of its new 2008 lineup. Featured in the new offering are 6x Blu-Ray Combo drives, 22x Super Multi DVD±RW drives, and an 8x Slim External USB DVD±RW for PC and Mac.
"Plextor continues to strengthen its position in the optical storage market with the addition of these new drives to its already robust line of products," said Bob Gronski, vice president of sales and marketing for Plextor. "Now more than ever, people are going out less and taking advantage of home entertainment more, so it's a perfect time for us to introduce such an extensive line of products."

Alienware introduced its fleet of high-performance gaming PCs based on Intel's newest Core i7 processors. The range is branded as Area 51 X-58. Its range starts from US $1,349, with the base model using the Core i7 920 processor, which is configurable to Core i7 940 and the Core i7 965 Extreme Edition. Memory options go up to 12 GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, and base graphics card being the ATI Radeon HD 4870, configurable up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 SLI or Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX.

There are options for up to 2 TB of storage, or the option to pick performance over storage, with two WD VelociRaptor 300 GB drives in RAID 0. Parallel to this brand is Alienware's other brand, the ALX X-58. The ALX comes with the same base CPU and memory, but ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 or two GeForce 9800 GTX, 2 TB of storage, along with the option of a Blu-Ray burner. The ALX X-58 starts at $3,699. These systems come equipped with 700, 1000 or 1200W power supplies depending on the hardware opted for.

Sanyo Electric Co. said on Monday that it has created a new blue-violet semiconductor laser that might hold the key to the future of Blu-ray. According to the information given by the company, this laser can emit a beam of 450 milliwatts, which is about double the power of Sanyo's current highest-power laser for Blu-ray Disc systems. The higher power means it can write and read data on discs with up to four data layers and at speeds of up to 12X, Sanyo said. Each recording layer on a Blu-ray Disc can store 25GB of data, and the highest-capacity commercial discs currently have two recording layers. A four-layer disc would be able to hold 100GB of data, enough to store up to eight hours of 1080p video content. At 12x recording speed writing a four layer 100GB Blu-ray disc will take just around 10 minutes. That's the good part, unfortunately approving the 12x laser from the Blu-ray Disc Association and putting it into mass production can take two or even three years.

In yet another PR posted yesterday Sony debuted its third generation internal Blu-ray Disc (BD) writer for the computer aftermarket, which at about $400 achieves a new level of affordability for BD enthusiasts. The new BWU-300S model burns single and dual layer BD-R media at up to 8X speed, recording a full 25GB disc in about 15 minutes and a full 50GB disc in about 30 minutes. The 8X recording speed is achieved using 6X compatible BD-R media. The drive also records DVDs at up to 16X, CDs up to 48X, and supports DVD-RAM recording. The internal BWU-300S features a Serial ATA (SATA) interface and standard 5.25-inch form-factor for easy installation inside a desktop PC with Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems. It comes bundled with a "Men in Black" Blu-ray Disc from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Also included with the drive is CyberLink's software suite for capturing, authoring, editing, burning and viewing high-definition personal content. The BWU-300S drive will be available through select retailers, resellers and directly at Sony Style starting next month. Pre-orders are now being accepted by Sony on the website.

Yesterday Sony took the wraps off the world's lightest computer with Blu-ray Disc technology - the VAIO TT Series notebook. Available in two models VAIO TT160 and VAIO TT198, both laptops come housed in a lightweight carbon-fiber chassis, weight just 2.87 pounds and are less than 1-inch thin, but have different hardware installed. The TT160 series comes with a 1.2GHz U9200 Intel Centrino 2 processor (3MB L2 cache), 3GB PC3-6400 memory and 160GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive, while the TT198 features a 1.4GHz U9300 CPU (3MB L2 cache), 4GB PC3-6400 memory and 2x128GB SATA solid state drives in RAID. Sony offers both models with a 11.1-inch XBRITE-DuraView widescreen LCD that also has LED backlight. This screen boasts 16:9 HD 1366x768 wide resolution. Future owners who want to pay a premium price can also purchase a Blu-Ray writer drive. The TT models start at $2,000. The BD version will go for about $2,700, while the SSD model (128GB) for around $2,750. Available colors include premium carbon black, silk black, champagne gold and crimson red. Retailers will start selling the TT series starting this fall. Click here for any additional information.

Sony released two models of the Vaio laptop, the Vaio CS and Vaio NS. Both these models come with Blu-ray drives, with the option of having them without the drives as well. The Vaio NS comes with a 15.4" display and is powered by a 2.00 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 processor. It comes with 3 GB of DDR2 memory and a 250 GB hard drive. Additionally, the Sony Vaio NS has an integrated A/V mode, featuring a dedicated menu for quicker access to nine user-selected programs. With the Blu-ray drive installed, the product range starts at US $1000. Without it, the range starts at $650.

The Vaio CS features a smaller 14.1" screen with the same optional Blu-ray drive feature. It comes with the much more powerful Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor at 2.26 GHz, 4 GB of memory, and a 320 GB hard drive. It also offers a uniquely configured keyboard, designed with spacing between the keys, for a more comfortable typing experience. The notebook has a 12-tone music analyzer that translates your music into a colorful LED light show. Prices start at $970 without the Blu-ray drive, and $1070 with it.

After having won the battle for supremacy over HD DVD, Blu-ray is on its way to become the standard consumer video format. It is not just a format, it's an industry in itself which begins from HD content creation production houses to recording companies to the consumers who again, invest in necessary equipment such as high-definition displays, Blu-ray disc players, etc. An important name in this industry, Samsung, which makes high definition televisions and players has noted that the format has five years left to remain a premium content format.

In an interview to Pocket-lint, the director of consumer electronics at Samsung UK, Andy Griffins said "I think it [Blu-ray] has 5 years left, I certainly wouldn't give it 10". Griffins believes that 2008 is the year of the Blu-ray, where consumers embrace the format by purchasing necessary appliances. He added that Samsung is heavily back-ordered in regard to appliances at the moment.

It's been a few weeks since Intel launched its latest chipset with integrated graphics, the Intel G45. Among other things, Intel claimed this chipset accelerated HD video formats such as Blu-ray, where the integrated graphics logic is supposed to off-load the CPU of processing the video. Such as it is, Intel's integrated graphics processors (IGP) have been hugely reliant on the CPU for its functions.

Aaron Brezenski, a product engineer for Intel at its Chandler, Arizona US facility. In his recent blog entry (read here), he writes about the G45 not exactly achieving what it set out for, in other words, it was "still imperfect". He mentions about AMD hosting a demo booth where it was publicly demonstrated that a G45 based notebook made by HP failed to accelerate Blu-ray playback, the processor tipped 100% load throughout the playback which isn't what G45 is intended to bring about.

The Entertainment Merchants' Association (EMA) in its recent Annual Report for 2007, concluded that in the year 2007, Hi-Definition video sales amounted to a mere 1.6 per cent of all video sales.

It is still estimated that high-definition has a long way to go before it could replace DVD as a standard movie format. The EMA said that sales of Blu-ray discs are expected to surpass those of standard DVDs by 2012 and could generate sales of $9.5 billion. By that time, total home video spending will be up to $25.6 billion, believes EMA.

Since Blu-ray is a lone wolf in the high-definition arena, it's time to see some reports that will tell us how well is the format selling. According to data compiled by the Redhill Group for Home Media Magazine, over 11 million Blu-ray discs have been sold since the format launched before two years. Sales have increased fourfold since this time last year, and early sales data for May suggests that more titles have been sold in the first five months of this year than all of last year combined. Current bestselling Blu-ray titles include: "I Am Legend", "3:10 To Yuma", and "No Country for Old Men". Analysts also believe that these numbers will continue to grow in the second half of the year, when blockbuster films like Paramount's "Transformers", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Tinker Bell" hit the market.

Plextor, a leading supplier of optical and storage devices, announced today a new 4x Blu-ray DVD-RW drive using the SATA interface - the PX-B910SA. Building on the success of PX-B920SA, the PX-B910SA drops the support for HD-DVD presented in the above mentioned model and becomes a Blu-ray drive only. Other than that, read/write specs for other media formats remain the same (listed below). The drive is expected to retail in Japan for about JY45,000 ($430).

LaCie announced today that is has doubled Blu-ray burn speeds to 4x and has updated the aluminum alloy case and software suite for its external d2 Blu-ray drive. Coming with a shape designed by Neil Poulton, the drive records, rewrites and reads 25GB or 50GB BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable), as well as DVD±RW DL and CD±RW media. The 4x Blu-ray burner ships with a full-featured Roxio software package and dual FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connection options. The drive also boasts 8MB of buffer memory. "In early 2007, LaCie was the first vendor to ship worldwide an external solution for professional Hi-Def video recording for both Mac and Windows. Since that time, Blu-ray technology has proven to be the dominant source for video recording and playback," said Patrick Salin, LaCie Business Development Manager. LaCie d2 Blu-ray drives are available now via LaCie's specialized dealer network with a suggested retail price of $649.99 and 2 year warranty. For more product information, visit this page.

Lite-On announces today that it will launch a new 4X Blu-ray Disc Writer in Europe. The DH-4B1S is the successor of the widely appreciated LH-2B1S, one of the first Blu-ray drives on the market. The DH-4B1S can write BD-R media at 4X, a 50% speed increase and time saving compared to its predecessor.

One more Xbox 360 Blu-Ray rumour goes down. Last week DigiTimes reported that Pegatron Technology has secured an order from Microsoft to manufacture Xbox 360 consoles with Blu-ray support for release this fall. Microsoft today officially denied the report.

As we have stated, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-ray drive for Xbox 360,

said a Microsoft official in an email to GamePro.

Games are what drive consumers to purchase game consoles, and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster games available.

End of statement.

Although Microsoft smashed all recent rumours that a Blu-Ray drive for Xbox 360 was in production, today DigiTimes issued a new statement claiming that a company under the name of Pegatron Technology is now going to be the OEM producer of feature Blu-Ray Xbox 360 consoles. Unfortunately, it's unclear to me whether the original submitter meant that the Blu-Ray support will be added as an add-on device, or there'll be a whole new version of the 360 console with internal Blu-Ray drive.

Pegatron Technology, an OEM subsidiary of Asustek Computer, has secured orders from Microsoft to assemble Xbox 360 consoles equipped with a Blu-ray Disc (BD)-ROM drive, with shipments to begin in the third quarter of 2008, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) newspaper.

, the site claims. We should see if that's true in a short time. Usually Microsoft issues a statement in two or three days after the publication to decline the rumours.

Following the format's victory over HD DVD earlier this year, Blu-ray disks have seen their sales soar to 351% of those during the same period last year. When combined with standard DVD sales, the first quarter of this year offered the first year-on-year sales increase since DVD sales peaked three years ago. Steek Beeks, President of Lionsgate, said:

Blu-ray had its second-best week ever in the seven days ending March 23, and we anticipate Blu-ray sales of $800 million to $1billion-plus for all of 2008, up dramatically from approximately $300 million last year.

It was yesterday when I first saw the report from DigiTimes, and I decided to wait on purpose before posting it here. First it was the 1st of April, second it sounded too good to be true: "Lite-On IT is developing built-in Blu-ray Disc-(BD) ROM drives for the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console" that will start shipping in the second half of 2008. Well I was right, the unspecified DigiTimes sources have misled a lot of hardware news sites. Microsoft responded today to the rumour with the following statement: "No. Lite-On is not manufacturing Blu-ray drives for Xbox 360. As we have stated, games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest library of blockbuster game available ... For our customers who want a premium movie experience we offer the largest library of on-demand HD content available and the ability to play back DVDs in high definition." This is the second time when a rumour is spreading around the web that Xbox 360 will get Blu-Ray support, but unfortunately that's also the second time when Microsoft crushes all hopes with a single sentence.