Daily News Brief: Blu-ray Blazes On

HBO Backs Blu-ray

HBO confirmed they have sided exclusively with Blu-ray, adding yet another nail to what could ultimately be HD-DVD's coffin. HBO is a close partner of Warner Home Video, who also recently announced exclusive Blu-ray support, so the move doesn't come as a complete shock. The sixth season of Sopranos is the only major HBO title currently released in high definition, which is available in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray format.

Dedicated Pr0n Set-Top Box

While the government is busy giving away coupons for digital converters, the porn industry has a set-top box of their own. Entrepreneur Estefano Isaias used the Adult Entertainment Expo to unveil his Fyre set-top box. Fyre promises to deliver 20,000 DVD-quality 'movies' on demand to anyone with a broadband connection, with subscriptions ranging from $10 to $100 a month. The service will officially debut in April.

Matsushita Becomes Panasonic

Matsushita Electric makes Panasonic electronics, and today they announced they're changing their name to Panasonic to help identify with well known products abroad. This will be their only name change since 1918, when the company was founded. Other popular Japanese electronic companies that have changed to catchier names include Toshiba, Sony, and Omron.

Trent Reznor Discusses Online Sales

Following Radiohead's foray into online music distribution, Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor said he was "disheartened" by the results. Out of the 154,449 people that had downloaded NiggyTardust, only 28,322 paid the $5 asking price. You can read the full interview with Trent here.

New York Investigating Intel

New York State today launched an antitrust probe into Intel to find out if Intel violated state and U.S. antitrust laws. Specifically, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he issued a wide-ranging subpoena after a preliminary probe raised questions about whether Intel allegedly coerced customers to exclude AMD.

Microsoft Nixes Dual-Boot Rumors

Reports flooded the online community that the OLPC XO laptops would soon feature dual-booting OSes with Linux and Windows. Just one day after reports hit the web, Microsoft publicly denied the rumors, saying "Microsoft is not developing dual-boot Windows XP support for One Laptop Per Child's XO laptop." Bummer.