Video

The rumors were true, almost to the letter. Sony Europe has confirmed the existence of a new entry-level PlayStation 3. Scheduled to hit stores on the Continent on October 10, the new PS3 has been stripped down to hit a lower price point: it's got a smaller 40GB hard drive, no built-in flash media reader, and two (rather than four) USB ports. But the biggest change appears to be the loss of backward compatibility with PS2 games. Sony's release specifies that "[t]he new model is no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 titles, reflecting both the … Read more

RoboForm is a popular browsing companion that saves time and finger flexing by filling your passwords and data into online forms and log-ins. Your personal data is securely stored, of course.

Watch RoboForm in action in the First Look video below. The RoboForm trial lets you use the full-featured version of the software, with a limit of ten passwords, two identities, and one profile. If you want unlimited data storage, you'll need to purchase the full version for $29.95.

If you've ever searched for video on the Internet, you know that the results can be a mixed bag. To enhance its search, Veoh Networks, which bills itself as the leader in Internet television, is partnering with video search provider Pixsy. Pixsy will power the video and image search on Veoh.com and VeohTV. Pixsy scours syndication feeds (in the Really Simple Syndication format) for up-to-date images and makes them searchable. Veoh is backed by Time Warner and former Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner.

When I covered the Grand Finals of the 2004 World Cyber Games, I had no idea what to expect.

But I recall that it was tons of fun: gamers from all over the world, all happy to be part of this international event and representing their countries as they went up against the best of the best in their particular game.

My favorite memory was watching a match of Electronic Arts' FIFA Soccer, which was being broadcast on a huge screen on the wall. Meanwhile, two announcers were doing play-by-play, and if you hadn't known it was a video … Read more

WASHINGTON--The controversial U.S. law that generally bars people from tampering with copy-protection features drew accolades on Wednesday from the video game industry's chief executive.

Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, applauded the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act as "vitally important" for video game and console makers seeking to stomp out unauthorized copies of their wares.

Thanks to digital-rights management mechanisms, Gallagher claimed unauthorized copies of popular video games like Halo 3 that users download from file-sharing networks won't play on XBox 360, ensuring "the full value of the product is received throughout … Read more

YouTube is now an important teaching tool at UC Berkeley.

The school announced on Wednesday that it has begun posting entire course lectures on the Web's No.1 video-sharing site.

Berkeley officials claimed in a statement that the university is the first to make full course lectures available on YouTube. The school said that over 300 hours of videotaped courses will be available at youtube.com/ucberkeley.

Berkeley said it will continue to expand the offering. The topics of study found on YouTube included chemistry, physics, biology and even a lecture on search-engine technology given in 2005 by Google cofounder Sergey Brin. … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--A group of about 50 companies is trying to put hard drives in your pocket.

The IVDR Consortium is developing technologies and prototypes that effectively allow hard drives to act as a portable storage device. (IVDR stands for "information versatile disk for removable usage.") Stick a 2.5-inch drive in a stylish case into a kiosk and download a movie. If you plop one into a video camera, you can record footage, and then you can stick it into a computer or video-editing machine.

Some IVDR products are already out. Some consortium members--there are about 50 including … Read more

The online video sector appears stumped by the question of how to advertise to viewers without alienating them. Some say ads that run prior to the start of a video are the answer. Others, such as YouTube, are experimenting with ads that briefly appear at the bottom of a video while it plays.

Unilever, the maker of Axe men's personal-care products, isn't waiting around for popular video sites to figure it out. They are taking to the Web with attempts at cutting-edge humor and storytelling to create spots that are entertaining enough to attract their own viewers. The … Read more

DVD-recorders with hard drives may be old technology, but they're commanding astronomical prices on the free market these days. Case in point: We reviewed the Panasonic DMR-EH75V about a year and half ago when it had a list price of $500. If you search for the DMR-EH75H on Amazon, you'll see three resellers (all with reputable ratings) selling them for insane prices:

New DMR-EH75V: $1,895 New DMR-EH75V: $1,899 Used DMR-EH75V: $1,498

Is it just a glitch with Amazon? You might think so, but that's pretty clearly not the case. Jumping over to eBay, we found some recent auctions for the same product.

New Panasonic DMR-EH75V: $750 Refurbished DMR-EH75V: $675 Used DMR-EH75V: $760

Sure, that's less than half of the Amazon prices, but they're still very high. How often does the price of electronics increase after being used for a few years? What's going on here?

The answer is pretty simple--if you know the gritty details of consumer electronics and a little economics.… Read more