Don’t get any ideas Mr.Darling!

It’s been tried before. But many so Japanese firms objected that the plan fell by the wayside. This time it may be a different story. It looks likely that the Japanese government will bring in a tax on all portable digital music players and PVRs - ‘iPod tax’!

The new law is due to come into force before August, coinciding with the start of the Beijing Olympics. Analysts are expecting a huge spike in the sales of hardware and home TV recording…sounds more like a tax for the sake of tax rather than protection for the industry - I could be wrong. The taxes raised are expected to bring in about £5 million per year. The cash will be spread given to TV companies, musicians and other media creators.

To be fair, £5 million isn’t a huge amount when you consider the annual turnover of the large companies. On the street, Bob Average won’t be too bothered either - it adds up to a pennis on the price. So why the big deal? Piracy, in a word. The law would appear to be stating that you are guilty of piracy unless this tax is paid. What about the consumer who uses a device only for content that is free?

Changes the picture a little, doen’t it? Don’t expect the electronics industry to go down without a fight.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Throw away your Sky subscription!

Only kidding. Well, I’ll let you make your mind up. A joint venture between ITV and the Beeb will provide viewers with subscription free HD digital TV. Yes - I did say “free”. The service will cover about 98% of UK homes and launches with an initial package of 80 channels. So far, so good (unless you’re one of the unlucky 2%).

Major sporting events such as the Olympics, Euro 2008 (any reason why you’d want to watch that now we’re out?) and Wimbledon will be shown in HD.

The service is planned to have about 200 channels in place by the end of the year.

Ok, it’s not totally free. There is a one-off payment to buy the box or Freesat capable HDTV: £49 for the box, £120 for the HD box plus installation which adds about £80 on top (this covers dish installation).

Popularity: 69% [?]

But still eating Apples dust.

It looks like Microsoft is trying to catch with Apple. The Redmond based company has announced that is sell TV shows that can be viewed on the Zune. Downloadable media has been available since last October but the content was limited to music videos. The new offerings, which became available yesterday, will include hits from the NBC channel including Battlestar Galactica and South Park. The downloads will cost $1.99 (double it and £5 for the UK!!!).

Coming up the inside track.

Microsoft is working hard to catch up with Apple. Since 2006 the Zune has sold just over 2 million units. That’s not bad. But are they gaining ground on Apple? No, not really. 10.6 million iPods were sold in the first three months of 2007. Does that tell you something? One point to note is the release of the Zune Pass subcription service. For $14.99 per month you can access every single song in the catalogue. Not a bad idea, eh Apple?

An update made available on Monday also allows you to synchronise your Zune wirelessly with other Zunes and PCs (sound like an alien mating ritual!).

Microsoft have a long way to go to catchy up with Apple but the features being added into the Zune may just swing some buyers in their direction.

Popularity: 73% [?]

Sky’s the limit.

Do you want to watch movies on the move? In that case, you’ll be pleased to hear that Sony’s PSP now lets you do exactly that. Go!View, a joint venture with Sky, turns you PSP into a mobile TV - I wonder how long it will take for the TVLA to catch on?.

The service provides users with an on-demand TV service allowing to tailor you viewing to your needs. Two payment methods will be available: pay-per-view and subscription although pricing information has not been released. Simply registered with the the website and you’re ready to go.

Look out for the official launch sometime in the summer.

Click here to go to the home page.

Popularity: 45% [?]

But can it stand up to the ‘hammer test’?

Menu: Take one 500 Gb Hitachi TravelStar 2.5″ disk. Add a dash of shock proof aluminium and some dubious looking orange rubber. Splash in a USB connection (and some firewire if you have spare cash). Mix vigorously. Bake at 200C for about ten minutes. Voila. LaCies latest offering in the ruggedised hard drive range. The USB only variant will set you back about £189. Add another £40 for the firewire version. This hard wearing piece of kit will be ideal for use up a mountain because I certainly wouldn’t take it to the office!

Click here to go to the home page.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Muscling in on the big screen.

Is it me or does every service provider and his dog want you to buy something from them? Every year sees a proliferation of new products. BT is now jumping on the bandwagon with a service called PictureBox. For £5 per month you will be able to watch up to 28 films supplied by Universal. Although BT currently offers VoD the partnership is designed to enhance existing services offering films that have not, as yet, been shown on good old analog TV.

The PictureBox facility is already available via Tiscali and Top Up TV and is proving very popular. I’d say that’s why BT have joined the game.

You can get the service through BT Vision from 5th May onwards, all for just an extra £5 per month. Pretty good value, don’t you think?

Click here to go to the home page.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Going at it, belt-fed.

Blu-ray has only recently been annointed the king of DVD formats but that isn’t stopping Pioneer. They have just announced the release of the BDP-LX71. The player is due to arrive in Europe this summer. Pioneer has done some tinkering under the bonnet. Expect to see HDMI 12-Bit Deep Colour and 1080p HD digital film direct / 24 frames per second video output. Huge leaps in the optical field alone. The BDP-LX71 also includes PureCinema Deinterlacer: you can enjoy your DVD collection scaled up to a 1080p resolution. Now that is seriously impressive. Hey, can you see that needle?

The audio specifications are equally impressive:

• Dolby TrueHD
• Dolby Digital Plus
• DTS HD* and
• DTS HD Master* high resolution audio formats.

And to top it off the player utilises Wolfson DACs.

I want one for Christmas. Come to think of it, this’ll be old hat by then.

Full details here.

Click here to go to the home page.

Popularity: 70% [?]

MobiBLU on the rampage.

Need a gym partner? Or maybe you’re just looking for a compact MP3 player. If so, then mobiBLU may just be the answer to your micro-prayers. At under an inch cubed and weighing just an ounce this has to be one of the smallest players in the game. And, to top it off, the device contains a fully featured display.

What’s the appeal?

Does you current MP3 player have more than one cable? How many? One USB connection, a headphone jack and perhaps a power socket? The mobiBLU has one. Did I hear an audible gasp from the audience? Yes, I did say one socket (ok, enough pantomime games, let’s get back on track!). This little bundle of audio joy has a single connector that allows you to:

• connect USB2.

• plug in a set of headphones.

• charge the battery.

• connect an external output cable i.e. speakers.

I’m starting to drool, tell me more.

The mobiBLU is PC and Mac compatible (it also worked with my Linux laptop out of the box but I can’t find any official acknowledgement on this point). The player supports MP3, WMA and DRM formats. In addition, there are 5 preset EQ modes: Classic, Jazz, Normal, Pop and Rock. Hmm, I wonder what the ‘The Final Countdown’ sounds like in Jazz mode? Going on a long run? Think you might get bored listening to the 2 Gb of tracks? Not a problem. Just switch over to the FM receiver and you can chuckle away at the comedy talents of Sandy Toksvig, etc, etc, etc…The built-in microphone allows you to record comments on the go i.e ‘This hill is huge’, ‘I’m knackered’ or even ‘I’m going to use some lame excuse for giving up running after this monster session’!

Let’s get physical.

The mobiBLU is available in red, silver, black, blue, orange and pink with a bright and easy to read OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode). A ‘nice’ additional touch are the necklace headphones, apparently. Plug them in, then dangle £70s worth of MP3 player around your neck! Yeah, right. Why not just say “Please mug me.” instead?

Popularity: 70% [?]

Here an AMP, there an amp…

It would appear that every man and his dog is moving into the online video space. Adobe have debuted a new movie player, AMP (not to be confused with Yahoos ‘amp’). The new software will rival both Microsofts Windows Media Player and Apples Quicktime whilst also providing streaming media (videos and featured programming).

Users will be able to sift through content and create scheduled reminders based on subscriptions to their favourite shows. In addition, the content will be available for download.

Yummy, what flavours do you have?

The initial offering will be available to Windows and Mac users. Hopefully, Adobe will release a version that runs on Linux at some point in the future.

Free? Surely not?

We like free products, don’t we? Yes, the media player is free but the media will be a paid service. Further revenue streams will be taken from advertisements based on the content of the media i.e. promoting a car shown in a film.

The seven headed beast that is ‘DRM’!

Adode have indicated that DRM may be included in the content but this is at the discretion of the media distributor.

A path well worn?

Ok, so now we have yet another way of delivering media to the masses. Do we need it? Yes and no. Yes, competition promotes innovation and helps to advance technology. No, because I don’t which way to turn: ‘Use me’, ‘No, use me’ etc etc. Get my point? Anyhow, it’s free to download so it’s worth having a look yourself - here’s the link.

Popularity: 24% [?]