News written by James Delahunty (August, 2008)

Apple Inc. has set itself some high targets for the iPhone 3G model. After the model went on sale on July 11th, it quickly raked up 1 million sales. Analysts have made a wide variety of predictions about the potential success of the iPhone 3G model. The company intends to produce 40 million iPhone 3Gs in the next year, with analysts typically predicting about 11 million sales this year and 25 million next year.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has the most ambitious outlook for the iPhone 3G. Jaffray predicted that Apple will sell 13 million units this year and 45 million units next year. Of course,predictions could turn out to be way off the, but at least Apple's production plans seem optimistic.

Apple plans to manufacture between 40 million and 45 million iPhone 3G units in the 12 months through August 2009, according to a BusinessWeek source familiar with the plans. Apple boosted production plans due to stronger-than-anticipated initial sales for the phone. On launch day, the company had expected to produce 30 million units within 12 months.

Swedish BitTorrent tracker site, The Pirate Bay, is appealing against the decision of an Italian judge which ordered all ISPs in the country to block the popular website. The result of the block, which was praised by the FIMI group in the country, may not have been as intended however, as traffic to the site from Italy increased afterwards. Nevertheless, the administrators of The Pirate Bay feel the decision should be reversed.

The Pirate Bay's lawyers, Giovanni Battista Gallus and Francesco Micozzi, have filed an appeal, seeking to do just that. "The decree can be defined as 'original' or 'creative' at best," the layers said. The administrators of The Pirate Bay have been accused of making copyrighted material available for illegal downloading on the Internet.

"Even the judge who issued the decree states that no infringing material is hosted on The Pirate Bay, which provides just a tracker search engine," the lawyers told TorrentFreak. "The judge tries to 'create' a sort of contributory infringement accusation against The Pirate Bay," they stated. The judge found that the tracker and search were absolutely necessary for users to locate the illegal content on single computers, as well as saying the name "The Pirate Bay" itself signals intent to infringe copyright.

The transition from analog to all-digital broadcasts will be completed in the U.S. by February 2009, and most Western European countries will terminate analog TV broadcasts by 2012, will help to drive a predicted demand for digital television services. Other factors will also drive DTV's penetration in the U.S. and Western Europe, such as the growth of bundle offers of different services, a demand for better quality and more content.

According to a Datamonitor report, DTV is expected to grow by an average of 12% year-on-year. It predicts that the 158 million households using DTV services in Western Europe and the U.S. in 2007, will grow to 274 million digital TV households by 2012. For most national markers, the significant increases will start to show within 12 months of the DTV transition deadline in the country.

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) households in Europe and the US will increase from 26 million in 2007 to 55 million by 2012, according to the report. This will amount to an average annual growth of 16%. The report predicts a large migration away from free-to-air services as bundle packages and content are improved by more providers in the regions.

Verizon CTO Richard Lynch spoke about prioritizing Internet data packets at the Progress & Freedom Foundation's annual Aspen conference on tech policy. He was making his points public on behalf of the company following the FCC's recent order made to Comcast to turn over details on its "unreasonable network management practices" within 30 days.

Lynch said that Verizon's view is that network management is, and has always been, a requirement, even in the analog age. He explained that he believes time-sensitive packets should be prioritized over less-sensitive packets. For his example, he said VoIP data packets should be prioritized over P2P data packets.

Either way, he said that Verizon is always committed to delivering any data requested by customers. The question comes down to what packets would need to be delayed, but Lynch argues the 22ms delay would not be noticeable to most customers anyway. For Verizon, due to its fiber-to-the-home commitment, it doesn't suffer as much from congestion issues that badly affect other cable operators.

Lynch does not agree that all cable operators should have to guarantee delivering all packets without delay, and rejects the proposal that the companies should just keep investing money. He noted that Verizon invests $17 billion annually in its network infrastructure already, and aiming to develop a network that can deliver all data packets without delay at peak times is implausible considering traffic rises by 50% each year.

A numbers of complaints from Chinese users who claim they cannot download songs from iTunes for their iPods has prompted a rumor that China may have blocked iTunes or certain iTunes content due to pro-Tibet tracks being available for download. The Art of Peace Foundation's new album "Songs for Tibet," was recently released on the service, and many feel that when it comes to the Chinese government, this is likely not a coincidence.

"The possibility of a block is high, and I'd say it should be due to a content issue," said Liu Bin, associate director of the Beijing consulting firm BDA. Danny Levinson, CEO of a digital direct marketing company in Shanghai, said that the core URL seems to be stopped on the China side, but worked when accessed from abroad.

As we have previously reported, Japan's trade ministry issued a warning on Tuesday that three fires have been linked to overheating iPod Nano units from Apple Inc., possibly due to a battery defect. Apple has responded by promising to replace faulty over-heating batteries from first-gen iPod Nano models in Japan.

"We will replace batteries of the first-generation iPod nanos with new ones if customers find that the batteries overheat," the Apple Japan spokesman said. The offer is only for batteries that actually do overheat. "We are still investigating the cause of the glitch, but we've identified one particular supplier of the batteries," the spokesman said.

Apple is aware of 17 overheating cases in the country related to the iPod Nano. The company sold 1.81 million of the models between September 2005 and September 2006. Previously, Apple warned that most models of iPod can overheat if they are charged in certain protective cases. The line-up uses Lithium-Ion batteries, which are common in consumer electronics products, and have had to be recalled by many companies due to overheating issues.

Anticipating the release of Apple Inc.'s multimedia / touch-screen iPhone in the country, the largest mobile phone operator in Poland is paying dozens of actors to stand in queues in order to get consumers attention. "We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the country to drum up interest in the iPhone," a spokesman said.

The iPhone is set to make its debut in Poland in Friday, and Orange is the country's largest mobile phone operator. When launched in the United States, many customers lined up for extended periods of time to buy the expensive gadget first, but it must be a lot nicer to get paid to stand in line for one.

While around 1 million iPhones were sold over its weekend launch in the United States back in July, customers in Poland seem a lot less reluctant to buy into the high monthly charges that they will also get. T-Mobile is also set to launch the iPhone on Friday in the country, but has no queues outside its stores waiting for the phone.

Back in 2006, Dr. Marin Soljacic at the MIT Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics demonstrated the transmission of Electricity using using magnetic resonance. On Thursday, Intel was to demonstrate some progress in the wireless charging technology, which could be used to charge laptops, MP3 players and mobile phones without the need to connect any wires.

Intel was to demonstrate that it has cut the previous 50% loss in power to between 40% and 25% loss. However, Dr. Izahr Matzkevich, cofounder of wireless developer WildCharge, warned that the technology still has a long way to go before it becomes more efficient and more practical in use. Soljacic's original demonstrations could transmit electricity to portable devices up to 7 feet.

Present technology requires that wireless rechargers must be in contact with recharging bases or recharging mats. "Resonance technology like the MIT demonstration requires a heavy infrastructure -- right now, with coils of at least two feet -- to accomplish even a small distance," he said. "Add to that a 35 percent loss in power, this is not insignificant."

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G is being introduced to the emerging and rapidly growing Indian economy, with a very high price tag attached. Vodafone Essar will sell the 8GB model of the iPhone 3G in the country for as much as 31,000 rupees, about USD$708. The device will also be available from Vodafone Essar's largest rival in the Indian market, Bharti Airtel.

Both operators will make the phones available to consumers this Friday. Vodafone Essar will offer the 16GB version of the iPhone 3G for 36,100 rupees, about USD$824. In comparison, you can get an iPhone 3G in the United States for as little as $199 based on the circumstances.

Bharti Airtel will announce its price for the new iPhone model soon, according to a company spokesman. Apple just released a software update addressing problems with reception, dropped calls and other issues being reported from around the world.

Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 console has sold in out Japan. The console has performed terribly in the region compared to its competitors; the Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) and the Nintendo Wii. Due to the interest in the Tales of Vesperia game title, Microsoft had an impressive week in sales, moving 25,000 units.

"Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply," Microsoft Japan said in a statement. "This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales. We deeply apologize for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners."

While the Xbox 360 has already outperformed its predecessor in Japan, it is only recently that sales of the console have begun to pick up, due to a select of JRPG releases. The original Xbox didn't sell through its original shipment in Japan. Microsoft seems genuinely unprepared for the growth in sales, and can only promise to get a new shipment to the country next month.

Motorola Inc. unveiled two new low-end mobile phones on Wednesday, featuring music playing and web surfing features. The company has had a tough year, failing to find a viable follow-up for the Razr. It will unveil 50 new devices this year to fight back against increased competition from market leader Nokia and others. The first of the two new low-end phones features music playing abilities and a camera.

The W388 will sell for under $100. The second new device, the VE538, is a low-end third-generation (3G) mobile phone that will cost less than $250. The phone features one-click mobile social networking, photo uploading and blogging. The products will be shipped first to the Asia-Pacific region before being offered worldwide.

"People don't buy products any more, they buy what those products can create for them -- solutions, dreams, whatever they are looking for in life," said Ian Chapman-Banks, the General Manager for Motorola's Mobile Devices business in Asia.

At the video game convention currently being held in Leipzig, Germany, Sony has announced a new version of its PlayStation Portable handheld games console. The PlayStation Portable 3000 is set to go on sale in Europe and the United States in mid-October. The new PSP brings improved support for Skype, contains a microphone and new screen offering better, tweaked more for improved usage outdoors.

"We believe that this will establish the PSP as a viable communication device," said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, referring to the new microphone which will obviously help with Skype. The PSP 3000 will go on sale for €199, compared to the current slim model which sells for €169.

Apple Inc. has acknowledged that users are experiencing issues getting reception on their iPhone 3G handsets. It was revealed that the OS 2.0.2 software update was designed to fix problems with the iPhone 3G that have been reported from users around the world. A company representative confirmed to the Associated Press that the update "improved communication with 3G networks."

This broke the silence that Apple maintained about the reported problems, and confirmed the true intention of the OS 2.0.2 software update, which only had a description of "bug fixes", leading some to wonder what exactly the update changes. The results of the updates for users experiencing problems are mixed.

Some users report that the handset operates much better after applying the updates, while some still claim they have trouble finding a 3G network where there is apparently strong coverage. The put the problems to rest for good, Apple might have to wait on an update from Infineon, whose chip present in the iPhone 3G has been blamed in some cases for the problems.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) has announced a 160GB PlayStation 3 (PS3) model, which will launch in the PAL markets on 31st October for a RRP of €449. The console will be bundled with extra PlayStation Network content. The 160GB drive offers more than twice the capacity that current models are sold with.

For those looking to use a PS3 console as a home media center hub, extra storage capacity is important for large amounts of digital content. It allows for increased video, music, and photo storage as well as room to download even more games, game extras, playable demos, and trailers from PSN.

Lower prices and a better game line-up has helped to push the PlayStation 3 (PS3) further along in the console war between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. The three are looking to sell the most hardware units and take the biggest chunk out of the multi-billion games market.

Read: How to upgrade your PlayStation 3 Hard Drive

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) hailed the results of Operation Takedown on Monday. The effort against piracy over the summer brought in huge hauls of pirated materials and led to many arrests. In China, Malaysia, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan, 461 suspected pirates were arrested as part of the efforts. More than 7.5 million pirate CDs and DVDs were seized along with 1,000 burners.

The MPA conclusions show that 56 people were caught attempting to record movies in theaters, an activity known as camming or camcording, that is the main source of early pirate copies of movies. The MPA notes that "governments across the [Asia-Pacific] region began to tighten their laws on camcording," which involved public-outreach and award campaigns.

Police officers in plain clothes patrolled cinemas in Hong Kong, while staff used night vision goggles to monitor the crowds in theaters and look for recording equipment. Employees at movie theaters around the world are being trained to spot efforts at recording movies, and arrests carried out as a result have increased.

According to a leaked report, Yamaha will soon unveil its first Blu-ray player after staying out of the previous format war completely. The leak indicates that Yamaha's first step into the Blu-ray market will be its BD-S2900 player. The player is expected to be released at the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) trade show at the beginning of September.

Unconfirmed specifications that leaked for the player indicate that it will support Profile 1.1 titles, allowing users to watch "BonusView" features without having to insert the disc into a PC BD-ROM drive. The players supports output of 24fps (or "True Cinema") video at 1080p via HDMI and is also capable of upscaling standard-definition DVDs to HD.

Sony has confirmed that there will not be a price cut for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console at the games fair in Leipzig, Germany, next week. "It's not going to happen. If you're coming for that you'll be disappointed," Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Nick Caplin said. Past price cuts for the PS3 have brought relief to Sony after a very shaky and poor start for the powerful console.

Sony had sold 9.24 million units of the PS3 in the 12 months ending March 31st, below the company's 11 million target but is currently on track for the current year's target of 10 million sales. After a decade of domination in the game console market with the previous two generations of PlayStation hardware, the PS1 and PS2, Sony is now locked in a battle with Microsoft and Nintendo to retain its title.

Japan's trade ministry has issued a warning on Tuesday that three fires have been linked to overheating iPod Nano units from Apple Inc., possibly due to a battery defect. Thankfully, nobody was injured in the three fires. In addition, Apple itself is also aware of two other cases where users of iPod Nano models had suffered minor burns, and confirmed that the likely explanation is a defect in the battery cells.

iPod Nano's known to have overheating issues were sold in Japan between September 2005 and September 2006. Apple will now co-operate with a semi-governmental body that specializes in product safety to determine the cause of the incidents, according to a trade ministry official.

"We are not in the position to speculate on the outcome of the investigation. But after several incidents like these, it would be appropriate for Apple to take some measures to raise the public's awareness," the official stated.

Pioneer's PDP-LX6090 KURO plasma flat screen TV has been awarded the prestigious "European Plasma-TV 2008-2009" award from the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA). The company made the announcement on Monday. EISA is the largest editorial multimedia organization in Europe, with a membership of 49 audio, mobile electronics, video and photo magazines drawn from 19 European countries.

Every year a panel of judges comprising the editors-in-chief from all EISA member magazines selects outstanding products and technologies across a wide range of audiovisual product categories. "The Pioneer PDP-LX6090 is a superb plasma TV whose advanced functions bring out the very best results from Blu-ray, DVD and standard TV signals. Thanks to an amazingly low black level – Pioneer calls it KURO – this set’s contrast ratio is sky-high. The result is an impression of immense depth and crisp detailing, to a level and quality not seen before on a plasma TV," the EISA jury commented.

Responding to a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Swedish government for assistance in stopping recordings of the ongoing Beijing Olympics being shared, The Pirate Bay temporarily changed its name to The Beijing Bay and sported a new logo. The IOC had asked the Swedish government for direct intervention aimed at the notorious public BitTorrent tracker.

The Committee claims that over 1 million downloads containing footage from the Beijing Olympics resulted from them being tracked by the Pirate Bay. Most of the video downloads were of the long and controversial opening ceremony to the games. A logo showing a pirate ship attacking the IOC logo with canons appeared on the popular BitTorrent tracker temporarily.

The Swedish government has charged the operators of The Pirate Bay with copyright infringement offenses, but no date has been set for a trial to begin yet.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it plans to boost the awareness of the digital switch-over across the United States, scheduled to occur on February 17th, 2009, not so far away anymore. Members of the FCC will travel to 80 cities across the country, attending meetings and public events. Some "soft tests" may be carried out in some areas to test whether consumers are ready for the switch.

"We intend to take whatever actions are necessary to try to continue to minimize the burden that's going to be placed on average consumers around the country," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said at a briefing. The switch to digital television signals frees up the public airwaves for other uses, such as by emergency services.

Publicizing the transition effectively is vital as millions of Americans own, and watch programming on analog TV sets, which won't be useful in the territory after February 17th without a converter box. The federal government is providing a $40 discount voucher for purchases of converter boxes as part of a $1.5 billion program.

Kifah Maswadi of Oakland, Florida was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay US$415,900 in restitution for selling pirate video games. Maswadi reportedly sold game console systems with as many as 75 preloaded games, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He received his sentence on Friday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

He was indicted on January 24th, and then pleaded guilty to copyright infringement offenses on June 3rd, according to the DoJ. The "Power Player" handheld consoles he sold contained games mostly from Nintendo and its licensees. He sold the consoles during 2006 and 2007, allegedly earning $390,000 in profits.

In addition to his 15 month prison term, the Judge also ordered Maswadi to serve three years of supervised release and inform the public of the perils of criminal copyright infringement as part of 50 hours of community service.

U2 front man Bono recently was unaware that he was indirectly assisting in the leak of several tracks from U2's upcoming album, No Line On The Horizon. At his Villa in South France, Bono played the new tracks loud enough for a passerby to recognize the singer's voice and begin recording it. After recording the songs, the individual supposedly uploaded them to YouTube.

It seems that the upload didn't stay on the site for very long, and the tracks were probably removed once YouTube had been alerted to their presence. In total, there were four tracks, "No Line On The Horizon," "Sexy Boots," "Moment Of Surrender," and "For Your Love."

U2's manager Paul McGuiness is well known for his anti-piracy comments. He believes that Internet piracy can be fought by forcing Internet service providers to disconnect users caught sharing music, and more controversially that Apple Inc. and other digital music player manufacturers are wrongly profiting from their "burglary kits." He also criticizes the record labels for lack of foresight and planning, which he says led to, "a range of industries to arise that let people steal music."

In the most problematic territory for Microsoft's Xbox 360, the console briefly outsold the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console from Sony in weekly sales figures. Ever since the Xbox 360 launched in Japan, it has been largely ignored by consumers, who then preferred the Nintendo Wii and PS3 after their releases. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the temporary success doesn't guarantee any long term boost in sales there either.

Microsoft sold 28,116 units of the Xbox 360 in the week ended August 10, compared with 10,705 units of the PS3. The Wii was far ahead of both with 41,044 units. The reason for the Xbox 360 beating the PS3 console briefly in system sales is a game title: Namco Bandai's "Tales of Vesperia".

The reason these statistics are being reported by gaming sites is to emphasize how Microsoft's experiences of good performance in Japan have been few and far between. In North America the PlayStation 3 (PS3) has definitely found its punch too, and is closing the gap on the Microsoft system at the moment.

Tim Bucher, a former engineering executive at Apple, now employed by Dell, is spearheading a project at Dell that could mean trouble for his former employer. In November 2004, Bucher had a tense conversation with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in which Jobs remarked that people thought Bucher was sometimes manic depressive, and that he may be asked to leave Apple after being promoted only a number of months before the incident.

Bucher left Apple and soon after filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination, denying the charges of mental illness. The case was settled in 2005 and Apple never commented publicly on it. Bucher is now spearheading a project at Dell that, at least on the surface, seems to be motivated by revenge. Bucher denies seeking revenge, and claims the project is strictly business and that he still has admiration for the Apple CEO.

Nevertheless, what Dell is currently doing (led by Bucher) is an attempt to rally together an alliance packed full of Apple's rivals. The project has a team of over 120, and will involve everything from mobile phone manufacturers to record companies. The goal is to create a broad standard to provide consumers with a bigger choice of where and how to buy and use digital content than currently offered by Apple.

The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) today released to its members the physical layer (PHY) portion for its third generation storage interface, which will be defined in the upcoming SATA Revision 3.0 specification. The new specification for the popular Serial ATA storage interface will double the maximum transfer speed from three to six gigabits per second (Gbps).

Developers can now begin designing products based on SATA 6Gbps technology as work continues on the SATA Revision 3.0 specification, which is expected to be completed in the second half of 2008. Various SATA-IO work groups are engaged in the process of readying new features for incorporation in the final version of the SATA Revision 3.0 specification. These features will include advances for data streaming and better power management.

The new specification will maintain the low cost and low power for which the popular storage interface is acclaimed. In addition, backward compatibility with earlier SATA implementations will be maintained by keeping the existing SATA connector configuration, preserving its inherent cost-conscious design while minimizing changes to existing implementations and infrastructures. The same cables and connectors used for current SATA implementations can be used to connect SATA 6Gbps devices, although SATA-IO recommends utilizing quality components to ensure data integrity and robust operation at the fast 6Gbps transfer rate.

BusinessWeek is reporting that Apple will fix problems being reported with the iPhone 3G handset with a software update, rather than a more expensive approach such as a recall. Floods of complaints about problems using 3G networks, dropped calls and other issues spread across the Internet, cuing the blogosphere to debate and speculate on what might be causing the problems.

According to the BusinessWeek report, which cites two "reliable sources", the root of the problem is a communications chip made by Munich-based Infineon Technologies (IFX), already predicted in an analysis by Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities. The software on the chip apparently leads to problems when the iPhone needs to switch from high-speed networks to lower speed networks.

While there has been considerable Internet buzz around the problem, the sources say that only 2% to 3% of iPhone traffic is being affected. "This is a problem, but it's not a catastrophe," one of the sources said. Infineon spokesman Guenther Gaugler did not comment on the chip's performance in the iPhone but pointed out that comparable problems have not arisen because of the chips presence in other phones made for manufacturers such as Samsung.

Online DVD Rental service Netflix resumed normal shipping activities on Friday following a three-day disruption. Netflix has been in operation for over a decade, and this has been the worst incident it has run into so far, and only second overall after experiencing delivery problems in March earlier this year. The company's earnings are not expected to take too much of a hit from the incident, but some analysts warned that problems such as this always impact a company's reputation.

New users who were on a two-week trial when the problems occurred will have their trail extended by a week, while customers who have been affected by delays will receive a 15% credit to their next billing statement. "We don't have in our terms of agreement that if you miss a day you get a credit," said Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey. "We just do that voluntarily because it's the right thing to do."

Backlogged shipments were expected to get moving on Friday, with the possibility of rare exceptions. The outage hit about one-third of the company's 8.4 million customers, but Netflix will not provide any specific details on what actuall caused it, nor the total expected cost of the refunds and trial extensions.

BennyBaby, an amateur producer of videos he provides for viewing on Google Inc.'s video sharing giant YouTube, has filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for the traffic, and revenue, his videos have provided for the service. BennyBaby, real name Benjamin Ligeri, has produced videos which he claims have generated over 4 million views, with his most successful video clocking up over 400,000 views.

Ligeri tried to join YouTube's Partner Program but was denied. The partner program exists for video providers that generate a heavy amount of traffic generally, for which they receive a cut of revenue. Ligeri has sued YouTube, Google and others related, seeking $1 million in damages. "The main reason that serious content providers or Laborers, such as Plaintiff, provide content to YouTube.com at all," Ligeri alleges in the suit, "is to make a profit off of their creative work."

BennyBaby makes some big claims regarding the affect his videos have on the service. He estimates his videos generate about 11,200 views per day, and that would entitle him, apparently, to an unquestionable 1/9000th of the overall revenue. The lawsuit goes on to round this percentage down to 1/500th due to spam and porn videos it claims are flooded onto he service.

PC manufacturers including Acer, Dell and Hewlett-Packard are shopping around for better deals on Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo and BD-ROM drives. The leading ODM/OEM makers are defiant however, claiming that they are unable to keep component costs down, and so are refusing to lower the quotes for the PC vendors. Among the BD drive manufacturers are Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), Toshiba-Samsung Storage Technology (TSST) and Pioneer.

Pioneer focuses mostly on BD Combo drives while another manufacturer, Lite-ON IT, focuses on BD-ROM drives, while HLDS and TSST produce both. As it stands, ODM/OEM quotes for Combo drives lingers around $120 to $130 and the PC vendors seek a cut of $20 to $30. BD-ROM drives have ODM/OEM quotes around $95 to $100, and the PC vendors want a $5 - $10 decrease.

Warner Bros. is celebrating the company's 85th anniversary by offering 85 movie titles (including many classics) to the HD VOD line-ups of cable and satellite providers in the U.S. and Canada. Among the 85 titles are popular titles such as Full Metal Jacket, Casablanca, Million Dollar Baby, Risky Business, Training Day and Unforgiven.

Here is a list of the full 85 titles...

• Absolute Power
  
• All the President's Men
  
• An American in Paris
  
• Analyze This
  
• Any Given Sunday
  
• Arthur
  
• Beetlejuice
  
• Ben Hur
  
• Blade Runner
  
• Blazing Saddles
  
• Blood Work
  
• Bonnie and Clyde
  
• Casablanca
  
• Chariots of Fire
  
• A Clockwork Orange
  
• Collateral Damage
  
• Constantine
  
• Cool Hand Luke
  
• Deliverance
  
• Devil's Advocate
  
• Dial M for Murder
  
• Dirty Harry
  
• Doctor Zhivago
  
• Dog Day Afternoon
  
• Enter the Dragon
  
• Eraser
  
• The Exorcist
  
• Fear dot com
  
• The Fugitive
  
• Full Metal Jacket
  
• Goodfellas
  
• Green Mile
  
• Grumpy Old Men
  
• Horror of Dracula
  
• I Confess
  
• Interview with the Vampire
  
• The Killing Fields
  
• Last Samurai
  
• Lethal Weapon
  
• Lethal Weapon 2
  
• Lethal Weapon 3
  
• Lethal Weapon 4
  
• Little Shop of Horrors
  
• Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
  
• Maltese Falcon
  
• Mars Attacks!
  
• Matrix Reloaded
  
• Matrix Revisited
  
• Matrix Revolutions
  
• Million Dollar Baby
  
• Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
  
• Natural Born Killers
  
• Ocean's Eleven (1960)
  
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
  
• Ocean's Twelve
  
• Once Upon a Time in America
  
• Pale Rider
  
• Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
  
• The Philadelphia Story
  
• Presumed Innocent
  
• The Road Warrior
  
• Rebel without a Cause
  
• The Right Stuff
  
• Risky Business
  
• The Shawshank Redemption
  
• The Shining
  
• Singin' in the Rain
  
• Space Jam
  
• Spies Like Us
  
• Stage Fright
  
• Strangers on a Train
  
• Streetcar Named Desire
  
• Superman II
  
• Superman III
  
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
  
• Superman: The Movie
  
• Suspicion
  
• Three Kings
  
• Training Day
  
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
  
• Troy
  
• Twilight Zone: The Movie
  
• Under Siege
  
• Unforgiven
  
• The Wrong Man

Paramount Home Entertainment has announced that it will offer a rebate to consumers to replace some of their DVD titles with Blu-ray versions of the same movie. The rebate value is $10, and will be offered for select Paramount and DreamWorks titles. Certificates will be placed in the packaging of the Blu-ray products, which must be filled out and mailed in along with the proof-of-purchase tabs from both the DVD and Blu-ray versions. The receipt for the new Blu-ray title is also required.

The rebate applies to purchases of the chosen titles before December 31st, 2009, and all rebate claims must be postmarked by Jan. 31st, 2010. The rebate will be offered first for Transformers, due out on September 2nd, followed by The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration on September 23rd, and then Sweeny Todd on October 26th. Other titles already announced are Stardust, Old School and Zodiac, which are not yet dated.

Owners of Blu-ray equipment are arguably more likely to buy new Blu-ray releases and than old catalog titles they already own on DVD. The Paramount rebate offer might provide enough incentive for viewers to upgrade their favorite DVDs to HD on Blu-ray. More offers such as this should, and most likely will be made by other studios over the next few years to push out more Blu-ray titles.