Earlier in the week Sony announced that they’d be releasing two new Blu-ray megachangers, both of which will hold up to 400 discs.

The two new megachangers will come in the form of the $800 BDP-CX960, which will arrive sometime in the fall, and the BDP-CX7000ES, which will retail for $2,000 and arrive in August. Why the huge price difference? In short, the CX960 will only come equipped with standard Blu-ray player features, such as Profile 2.0 and onboard decoding for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. The CX7000ES will add 7.1 analog outputs, an RS-232 port, notably higher build quality, IR inputs and outputs, and supposedly higher quality video.

So, if you’re the kind of person that has a gigantic stack of movies that needs to be cleaned up, this just might be for you. But, with a price tag that’s $800 at the lowest, it’s a pretty tough sell.

According to a recent presentation by Harvard’s Jonathan Zittrain, the Internet’s delicate and vulnerable nature is held together by random acts of kindness.

As a key example, he cited when Pakistan’s government took YouTube offline in 2008. It wasn’t long before it was back, thanks to a largely unknown, unpaid and unauthorized team of volunteers. “It's like when the Bat signal goes up and Batman answers the call,” said Professor Zittrain.

The same social structure of those helping without any intention of compensation is clear on Wikipedia. “It's like dark matter in the universe. There's a lot of it, you don't see it but it has a huge impact on the physics of the place.”

Thanks to some cooperation between Amazon.com and the University of Michigan, books that were once rare and retailed for upwards of $1,000 will be reprinted.

Books such as Nightingale’s “Notes from Nursing: What it is and what it is not” are currently extremely rare, and difficult to get a hold of. “Notes from Nursing” was originally printed in 1860, but now will be readily available.

“The agreement enables us to increase access to public domain books and other publications that have been digitized,” said Paul Courant, the librarian at the University of Michigan.

The books will cost anywhere from $10 to $45, and will be available on demand.

Thanks to a recent posting on the Windows 7 Team Blog, we finally have a confirmation on a family pack, and plenty of detailed information on just how everyone will get their copy of the new OS.

Those of us that are run of the mill consumers will be able to get our hands on Windows 7 starting October 22nd, for both retail and pre-order. And, if you beta tested it, let it be known that you “will not automatically receive a free copy of Windows 7. Many beta testers are already subscribers to TechNet; those of you who fit that description will be able to download Windows 7 RTM shortly after RTM happens for free as part of your subscription.”

And, giving in to the swirling rumors, solid information on the family pack is finally available. “I’m happy to confirm that we will indeed be offering a family pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (in select markets) which will allow installation on up to 3 PCs,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc on the blog.

If you’re looking for any additional information, be sure to check it out here.

Thanks to the recent move to 34-nanometer manufacturing, Intel has been able to create a new series of SSDs, which will (eventually) sport higher capacities, and reduce costs. The new price for the 80GB X25-M drive is $225 (a 60 percent decrease from the $595 price tag a year ago). The 160GB version is down to $440, which is down from its introductory price of $945.

Though, we’ll have to wait a bit for higher capacities. According to Intel’s marketing manager for the NAND Products Group, Troy Winslow, “What we decided to do is split 34-nanometer into a two-step process.” The first step will be to cost-reduce existing 80GB and 160GB drives. “And what we'll do later--and it's not even going to be this year but first half of next year--we will introduce, also on 34 nanometer, a performance enhancement and a doubling of the capacity.”

So what does all this mean? Simply, we won’t see drives over 300GB until next year. Still though, the price cuts are very welcome.

For those of you that are looking to carry around every piece of information that you might ever need (and most of your family photos) around with you in your pocket, Kingston has got the thumb drive for you.

With the recent introduction of their 256GB thumb drive, you’ll be able to take a plethora of files around with you everywhere you go. The drive itself packs a transfer speed of up to 20MB/sec and a read speed of 10MB/sec. And, if you’re using Vista, it also supports Windows ReadyBoost.

Though, this beast is only available in Europe and the UK for a whopping £565.67 ($931.60) upon custom order.

Over this past weekend it would appear that the folks at YouTube have begun the initial stages of testing for their 20% Project, which aims to bring 3D to YouTube videos.

According to a Google employee posting on the YouTube forums who has only been identified as “YouTube Pete,” “I'm the developer working on the stereoscopic player as a 20% project. It's currently very early, hence the silly bugs like swapping the eyes for the anaglyph modes. A fix for this is in the works.” He also revealed some code, which would allow you to change the aspect of the video, among other things. You can see it all here.

It has been made clear though, that this is a side project for Google. With that in mind, there’s no official word as to when this mighty finally get official.

This week Google implemented a Labs program for their popular calendar web app, hoping to make it more useful to more people.

“When you sign in to Calendar, you'll see a new page in Settings called Labs where, just like in Gmail, we'll list new highly experimental features for you to try,” writes David Marmaros, a Software Engineer for Google on their official blog. “Today there are six new Labs features in the list and more on the way. Try out Next Meeting, which shows you how much time you have to procrastinate. Free or Busy allows you to see which of your friends or coworkers are currently in meetings. And World Clock lets you keep track of different timezones when you schedule meetings. And as with Gmail Labs, there's a feedback link for you to discuss these features and to suggest new ones.”

They’ve also released an experimental API, in the interest of letting users create their own features.

Earlier this year Acer had announced that they’d release an Android powered phone before 2010. And, thanks to a recent statement, it would appear that we’re getting closer and closer to that day.

Acer allegedly plans to release the phone in September of this year, and the phone will be called the A1 (not to be confused with the steak sauce). No word on what exactly the phone will have under the hood, or what service providers it’ll be for, but there’s little doubt that we’ll find out in the coming months.

With revenues from music sales declining, many record labels have directed their attention to commercial US radio stations, who pay songwriters, not performers or record labels, for the songs that keep them moving.

And, it would appear, that these labels have Pandora Radio on their side. Pandora’s web model causes them to pay more for their music, which founder Tim Westergren sees as “fundamentally unfair both to Internet radio services like Pandora, which pay higher royalties than other forms of radio, and to musical artists, who receive no compensation at all when their music is played on AM/FM radio.”

Radio stations feel that they’re instead promoters of music, and their goal is to drive interest in artists. In turn, this will lead to more album and ticket sales, as well as more publicity opportunities. Though, one would have to wonder, how does this effect not apply to Pandora, and other forms of Internet radio?

Let us know what you think after the break.

According to a screenshot taken by an IE6 user who was watching some videos on YouTube, it would appear that support for the browser will be phased out very soon.

The screenshot suggests that an upgrade to a “more modern” browser, including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5.  And, they’re not alone – apparently Digg is looking to cut their support for IE6 as well.

There’s been no official word yet from YouTube, so this information is only as good as its sources (truthfully, folks on Twitter). But, it doesn’t seem illogical, so if it turns out to be true, there’ll be little surprise.

Filed under the “just because” file, some gents with the iSoft team have successfully installed Windows 95 onto an iPhone.

Their hack works by running a basic Windows 95 image and the Bochs emulator. However, there are some very noticeable performance issues in the use of the OS. Still though, what matters is that they got it running!

Now they’re working on Windows XP. But, until then you can see the Windows 95 powered iPhone in action here.

Along with the latest build of Windows 7 (build 7600), it would appear that the Technical Preview of Office 2010 has made its way to the public realm of the Internet as well.

Office 2010 is reported to come in 32 and 64-bit flavors (possibly with both on one DVD). Both of these can be found online, so you can snag the version that best suits your needs. The leaked version of Office 2010 comes with Access 2010, Excel 2010, InfoPath 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Project 2010, Publisher 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint Workspace 2010, Visio 2010, and Word 2010.

Admittedly, the version of Office 2010 is a leak, so you’ll have to find a download all on your own. After all, we can’t in all good consciousness condone such activity.

According to a recent article by Network World, hackers have figured out a new technique to log your keys that involves either cheap lasers or power outlets.

The power outlet method works by keylogging the electrical impulses created with each keystroke, allowing would-be hackers to see everything you type, simply because you’ve decided to juice up your machine. However, you’re safe should you be running on battery power – and this is where the lasers come in.

The second method works by pointing a cheap laser, one that’s slightly better than a laser pointer, at a shiny part of a laptop. A receiver is then aligned to capture the reflected light beam, and record the vibrations that are caused by striking each key. The vibrations are then fed into a sound card, where “the vibration patterns received by the device clearly show the separate keystrokes.”

While I’m a bit skeptical of the second method (with all the different variations in keyboards, builds, sizes, and shapes of laptops, it’s got to be difficult to hammer out a foolproof system), they’re both something to look out for. In order to cover your back, it’s suggested that you “make sure there is no line of sight to the laptop, move position frequently while typing and pollute the signal by striking random keys and later deleting them with the backspace key.”

 

Microsoft’s adverts have been getting stranger and stranger, and their offering for Office 2010 is no different.

The advert comes packaged as a trailer for the action flick, “Office 2010: The Movie.” The basis for the film is simple, there’s a rogue font on the loose that causes anyone reading it to fall into a state of hypnosis and believe everything that they read. It’s then up to a mentally scarred agent to save everyone, despite the recent loss of his partner (Clippy). The trailer is filled with enough special effects to be a Michael Bay movie, and comes with nerd humor all along the way. So, if you’re interested in checking it out, you can do so here.

As for actual information about Office 2010, Microsoft will be offering a technical preview later in the month. If you’re interested, you can find additional information on their site.

In the interest of bolstering their line of portable hard drives, Samsung recently announced their newest 1.8-inch drive, which supports capacities up to 250GB.

The new drive, known as the Spinpoint N3U, will come with a native USB controller instead of a PATA controller, allowing it to work without any data conversion. This also provides fewer potential points of failure. The drive will use up to 40 percent less power than a drive of similar capacity, and can withstand a free fall drop of up to 50 centimeters.

Shipments are slated to begin in mid-July, and the drive is expected to cost $199.

Thanks to some careless online retailers, potential price leaks on Windows 7’s Family Pack and Upgrade packages have been uncovered.

Product listings over at Expercom have listed “WINDOWS 7 FAMILY PACK/ HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE (GFC-00236)” with a price of $136.95, but since this story first aired out, the page has since been taken down. Another online reseller, University IT Computer Sales, had the same product for $144.95.

Still, we must bear in mind that until the fat lady (read: Microsoft) sings, none of this can be heralded as true. So, before you start setting your pennies aside, remember that it’s best to wait and see.

Sure, we may not have the technology to create our own legitimate Jurassic Park (yet!), but that doesn’t mean we can’t try. And thanks to the minds over at Canon, we’re one step closer to being toe to toe with our prehistoric friends.

In an exhibit over in Chiba, Japan there will be 260 different dinosaurs to check out by means of a virtual reality viewer. A look through the viewer will put the dino about 5 meters away from you.

The exhibit will be on display from July 18th to August 1st, so if you’re hoping to make it over to Japan for a look, you best book soon.

Mozilla just launched a new project, named Electrolysis, which is meant to bring multiprocess browsing to Firefox. And, according to Mozilla, this project has allowed them to improve Firefox’s performance, security and stability. Developers of the project have already put together a prototype that’s able to render a page in a separate process from the interface shell that it’s displayed in.

Apparently the idea of implementing multiprocessing into the browser didn’t gain much traction until its use by Google and Microsoft in Chrome and IE8. Chrome’s multiprocess architecture allows it to fill in security holes, and it prevents page specific glitches from crashing the entire browser – something that Mozilla hopes to do as well.

There’s no word yet if the multiprocess browsing will be ready in time for the next release of Firefox, but the work will be done separately so as not to impede the current stages of development.

Some recent reports have suggested that Nvidia is planning to launch their new 40nm GeForce GT 220 and GeForce G210 GPUs at the end of September.

Until now, Nvidia has had to delay the launch of their 40nm GPUs due to low yield rates from TSMC. But, recently the rate has improved a great deal, allowing Nvidia to schedule a launch before the end of the year and most importantly – in time for the holidays!