New and Noteworthy: In Sony's Stumble, the Ghost of Betamax; If Microsoft designed the iPod's packaging

In Sony's Stumble, the Ghost of Betamax The New York Times has an interesting article on the seemingly fading support for Blu-Ray and it implications for Sony. Note that Apple, alongside Sony, has chosen to support Blu-Ray instead of Toshiba's competing HD-DVD format which is backed by Microsoft and others. "Intel joined Microsoft in backing HD-DVD. Hewlett-Packard withdrew its exclusive support of Blu-ray. This month, another member of the Blu-ray camp, LG Electronics, hedged its bets, too, signing a deal to license Toshiba's technology. And earlier this month, one of the main reasons underpinning Microsoft's move to shuck its neutrality - the complexity of producing Blu-ray technology - led to Sony's acknowledgment that it might delay this spring's scheduled release of its PlayStation 3 game console partly because the needed technology was still being worked out." More.

If Microsoft designed the iPod's packaging A video posted to YouTube takes humorous look at the results of a Microsoft design approach for the iPod's packaging. More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• iTunes 6.0.3 (#6): More Party Shuffle problems -- full-screen not persistent
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#10): More on Epson printer problems; Processor performance setting missing; more
• MacBook Pro (#8): iSight not functioning properly; Screen artifacts; Sound quality/speaker issues; more
• Adobe Distiller slow-downs apparently caused by Sophos AntiVirus

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