Lite-On IT, given the fact that several global leading brands will follow Japan-based Plextor and unveil 18x DVD burner models this quarter or early next quarter, is preparing to offer 20x DVD burners in the fourth quarter to enhance its competitiveness, according to industry sources.

A purportedly leaked Intel memo explains why Intel has decided to lend its weight to the HD-DVD standard.

Ritek has begun OEM production of LabelFlash CD-R and DVD+R/-R discs for Fujifilm, with an initial small shipment volume of several million discs a month, according to industry sources. LabelFlash technology allows users to directly burn a label onto an optical disc.

Movielink LLC has licensed technology that allows the online movie service's customers to transfer downloaded films to DVDs for playback on standard DVD players.

Korean firm LG will release its first 18x DVD burner - named GSA-H22N - in Europe later this month.

Retail prices for 16x DVD Dual burners manufactured in Taiwan are expected to be slashed from NT$1,299 (£22) to less than NT$1,000 (£17) before the end of the third quarter.

A UK law banning gadgets that let Mp3 player users listen to their music over FM radio is to be overturned, it has been revealed.

A Los Angeles video news service is suing YouTube for allowing its users to upload copyrighted video footage onto the popular Web site.

In December 2004, Datawrite launched a competition to help young British art students get their 'foot in the door' of the art world and gain unprecedented exposure for their creative talents. They were asked to produce funky, original designs to be printed onto premium quality blank media and sold throughout the UK and Europe. The response was phenomenal! Datawrite received thousands of entries of the highest calibre. Ten winning designs were chosen and are set to take the optical media world by storm!! This resulted in the award winning Scribbles range of products.

www.discs.co.uk.

Datawrite have decided to run a similar competition for 2006 only this time the designs are to be published on t-shirts’. They are offering a total of £15000 in prize money. All you have to do is publish a design which is suitable for publishing on a t shirt.

For more information visit: www.dshirt.co.uk.

Japanese firm Hitachi has combined NAND flash and DRAM memory to produce a fast replacement for optomechanical hard drives.

Sales of DVD titles and players were stable during the first half of 2006 as the maturing DVD industry struggled to regain some of the explosive growth it enjoyed for so many years.

Prices of 16x DVD burners have fallen 5-10% during the second quarter of 2006 amid competition from makers such as Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) and NEC, according to Taiwan-based optical disc makers.

Imation have announced the availability of its Blu-ray media at its "Blue Technology" conference.

Toshiba is delaying the launch of its first HD DVD recorder by about two weeks, according to the company.

Measured in terms of players, game consoles, PC drives, and related media, the blue laser disc market is expected to exceed US$28 (£15) billion in sales in 2010, according to research firm Santa Clara Consulting Group (SCCG).

Tiscali has hit back at British recording industry allegations that it allowed customers to illegally file-share music, and has refused to hand over customer details.

Resident DVD maven Flash has branched out a bit and has been looking at, ermmm, Flash memory - in particular the new range of products from the very popular and highly rated blank disc maker Datawrite. He seems impressed when he concludes "DataWrite has always represented value for money and the introduction of Flash media to their vast collection of quality goods is indeed another prime example of this." Read the review here.

Chip firm Freescale reckons it's in a position to start selling magnetic memories any day now. MRAM - magnetoresistive random access memory - holds the promise of fast access times and the ability to store data without needing juice almost indefinitely.

A picture is circulating various gadget websites that it is claimed is Microsoft's own-brand iPod clone. It's said to be codenamed 'Argo' and to have the go-to-market name 'Zune', but there's little else that can said about it.

DVD technology is by no means new, but that doesn’t mean that we know everything about the way that these devices store our movies and data. New research conducted by scientists at North Carolina State University has provided new insight into how this mature technology works. Their findings may lead to advances in data storage as well as within the computer industry as a whole.