Panasonic on Thursday announced plans to debut its first Blu-ray Disc player, along with a matching receiver and speaker system for home theater enthusiasts. But moving to the high-definition format won't come cheap; Panasonic's DMP-BD10 player will cost $1,300 USD.

The Blu-ray player, SA-XR700 receiver and SB-TP1000 speaker package will reach retail outlets in September, Panasonic said. The delay will give time for Blu-ray to establish itself in the marketplace. Sony's new format is just starting to get out the door, with the first Blu-ray movies appearing on store shelves this week.

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Nokia abruptly called off its planned spinoff of its CDMA phone business with Japanese manufacturer Sanyo Thursday, while also announcing that it would all but exit from the CDMA market overall by April 2007. Market conditions and disagreements were cited as reasons for the sudden decision.

The two companies originally had announced plans to spin off their CDMA businesses into a single entity in February. However, apparent disagreements over the terms and conditions, as well as the platform's continuing struggles in the emerging markets sector, seems to have doomed the partnership.

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Toshiba on July 14 will launch in Japan the world's first HD DVD recorder, following the debut of its HD DVD player in March. The device, the RD-A1, will include one terabyte of hard disk space and can store up to 130 hours of high-definition programming.

But Toshiba's new recorder won't come cheap. Estimated pricing in Japan is 398,000 yen, or $3,470 USD. Still, the company hopes to sell 10,000 units by the end of 2006. Launch plans for the device in the United States and Europe has not yet been decided, Toshiba said.

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An IBM Blue Gene/L computer has achieved a new world record in computer performance. A system owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) recorded sustained performance of 207.3 teraflops, a record for floating-performance. Performance is much improved from last year, when the system was capable of less than 100 teraflops.

The application requiring such performance is called Qbox, which determines how atoms would react in a nuclear explosion. It is used to ensure that the country's nuclear weapons stockpile stays safe, secure, and reliable, the NNSA said. IBM added that Thursday's news was also a important advancement in the field of "predictive science," which uses supercomputers to predict complex future events.

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IBM released software Thursday that it says will help fight security breaches in both big and small businesses. The set of tools would help developers build security into their application using open standards, and are offered at no charge.

The tools are designed to prevent the cycle of security patches, which fix problems after attacks occur and the damage has already been done.

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A bill in the French legislature that could have possibly caused Apple to pull out of the country will be revised to include a loophole that would allow companies to sidestep a requirement making proprietary DRM essentially illegal, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

However, new deals would need to be negotiated with record labels and artists in order to qualify.

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TiVo on Wednesday released a new version of its TiVo Desktop application for Windows, which enables subscribers to transfer recorded television programs from the set-top box to their computers and portable devices.

The DVR maker also released a premium version of the software called TiVo Desktop Plus with support for transferring content to Apple's iPod, Sony's PSP, Treo and Nokia phones, along with other portable devices that support MPEG-4 or H.264 video. The Plus version is priced at $24.95 USD.

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Sun Microsystems on Wednesday released the second beta of Java 6, the company's next-generation development language targeted at so-called Web 2.0 programmers. Perhaps most enticing for those new to Java, the update adds a framework for supporting popular scripting languages such as PHP.

Java SE 6 -- previously known by the code-name "Mustang" -- also leverages JavaScript and includes a full "Web services client stack," along with support for recent Web services specifications like JAX-WS 2.0 and JAXB 2.0. In addition, the release will bring support for Windows Vista.

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Researchers at IBM and Georgia Tech said Tuesday that they had created the first silicon-based chip capable of operating at speeds of over 500 GHz. The processor beat the previous speed record by 125 gigahertz, and is some 125 times faster than today's fastest chips.

To accomplish this feat, the researchers froze the chip to near absolute zero -- minus 451 degrees Fahrenheit. IBM said that computer simulations seem to indicate that the silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology could eventually support near-terahertz operation, even at room temperature.

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Mobile interoperability group the Open Mobile Alliance said Tuesday that it had released version 1.0 of the OMA Push to Talk over Cellular standard. The approval of the standard comes one year after it was submitted to the group.

Since May of last year, the platform has been tested in six events sponsored by the OMA, and the most recent event tested some 11 different implementations. Overall, 22 companies have submitted push-to-talk implementations on the client side, and 8 on the server side over the past year.

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Microsoft's Security Response Center said in a blog posting on Wednesday that it was investigating reports of a second vulnerability affecting Excel, and had examined a PERL script that demonstrates the flaw. The company says the problem actually lies in hlink.dll, a Windows component.

The DLL handles operations involving hyperlinks and could affect other programs beyond Excel. However, Microsoft notes that a user would need to open a malicious file and manually click the link. "We have not found any way to attempt to exploit this vulnerability that involves simply opening a document: a user must locate a click a hyperlink in the document," said MSRC's Christopher Budd. He adds that it is early in Microsoft's investigation and "we have our teams working hard on it."

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The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to increase the amount that cell phone providers must pay into the Universal Service Fund (USF), while also requiring VoIP providers to contribute for the first time.

The increase in fees would likely mean higher monthly bills is in the cards for the millions of cellular and VOIP subscribers. Often when fees are increased, communications providers pass on the added costs to their customers.

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Responding to a report in Variety, Netflix late Tuesday acknowledged that it was exploring the idea of allowing users to download movies over the Internet, but said it had no firm plans. The explanation came in a regulatory filing intended to clarify remarks made on Friday.

At the Independent Film and Television Alliance production conference on Friday, Netflix vice president of original programming Eric Besner commented that the company was developing a set-top box that could be used for digital downloading. Netflix has long said movie downloads was part of its future plans.

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Microsoft and non-profit licensing organization Creative Commons said Wednesday that they had struck a deal to allow Office users to add the group's licensing to their documents. Although the two companies have worked together in the past, this latest agreement is the most significant project to date.

The first document to be licensed through the Office tool is a speech by Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, which will be made at the Creative Commons iSummit in Rio de Janiero, the two companies said.

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Struggling electronics maker Creative pressed on late Tuesday, introducing the Creative Zen V Plus, its latest music and video player. The device is small enough to fit in the coin pocket of a pair of jeans, and includes a 1.5-inch color OLED screen.

The Zen V Plus is also PlaysForSure compatible, meaning it supports subscription music services. The player also includes a line-in port for direct recording from audio devices and FM radio, and a voice recording feature.

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