Starbucks expanding into the high-end audio format world with CODE release

Things you probably didn’t know. (1) Starbucks has a record label called Starbucks Hear Music. (2) This label mainly exists so you can buy the middle-of-the-road background music that tootles away as you decide whether the extra 50p for a Large is worth it or not.

(3) Producer T-Bone Burnett has come up with a new “HD” audio format for Starbucks. (4) They have called it CODE. (5) CODE is too good for many normal CD players to handle, so the release will also come on a DVD. (6) Starbucks management is keen on a bit of Frank.

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(7) The first release in CODE format will be John Mellencamp album ‘Life, Death, Love and Freedom’. (8) CD and MP3…

LG staying with HD DVD to the VERY END – sticking with Blu-ray and HD DVD combo drives


LG has said it’s going to carry on making HD DVD players, using such words as “convenience” and “consumer” to justify its decision to stick with the recently deceased format.

If we were to be cynical about it, though – and there’s little we enjoy more! – we’d say that’s because poor LG has a factory full of the things somewhere in Korea it’s desperately trying to shift before they become worth bugger all.

But that’s not what LG said. It would…

Brits still like music CDs despite rise in Internet downloads

cd_rack.jpgWe’re still an nation who likes our CD collections, according to recent figures from the British Phonographic Industry.

Despite the rise in popularity of music downloading (both legal and not), nearly half of the people recently surveyed by PlusNet said that they thought it would be at least ten years until the CD becomes obsolete, with one n ten saying that the format would never die.

Warner dumps HD DVD and goes Blu-ray exclusive! Format war over? Blu-ray triumphant?

warner-bros-dumps-hd-dvd.jpgUh-oh. Set the internet to RED ALERT – the nasty HD DVD and Blu-ray war might just be about to end, thanks to Hollywood heavyweight Warner deciding to go Blu-ray exclusive in 2008.

In a press release over on its official portal, Warner Bros. has kicked all HD DVD owners to the kerb – and announced it’s going Blu-ray exclusive from May of 2008.

The world-ending press release starts like this: