• Iomega announces CD recording software
  Iomega announced it has entered into the CD recording software business. In introducing the new package called Iomega HotBurn, company officials said the software set a new standard for speed and simplicity...
• Taiwanese CD-R manufacturers want to move to China
  As Taiwan’s government is likely to lift many restrictions on investment in China soon, local CD-R disk manufacturers have become more active in planning their development projects, however CD-R disk production is not necessarily the business companies want to be in when entering the China market...
• Ahead will Add Full Integration of mp3PRO
  Ahead has upgraded iNero 5.5 with full support for mp3PRO. The mp3PRO digital audio codec has complete backward compatibility with MP3, and improves compression rates and overall audio quality with files that are half the size of the original MP3 data...
• China Launches Anti-Piracy Effort
  They really brought out the big guns for this one: Giant balloons reached toward the clouds. Hundreds of customs agents stood in rows, listening to marching music that included a chunk of "It's a Small World After All." FM 95.1 went live. And amid it all, outside the Ping Pong Pavilion of the Zhuhai Athletic Center stadium, 15 industrial-strength wood chippers all in a row did just what they were trotted out for Tuesday afternoon - made minced plastic out of 16 million counterfeit CDs, DVDs and CD-ROMS...

• 20x Write, 10x ReWrite & 40x Read (CAV) (12x DAE)
• IDE/Atapi Interface
• Software: Nero 5.5 & InCD
• SeamlessLink Bufferunderrun technology
• 2 Year Warranty! 

The drive will be available as of October 2001, no pricing is known yet.

• 12x Write, 8x ReWrite & 24x Read (CAV)
• USB 2.0 Interface (USB 1.1 Compatible)
• Software: Nero 5.5, Nero Mix/Toolkit & InCD
• 8 MB Data Buffer
• SafeBurn Bufferunderrun technology
• 220-240v AC Power Adapter
• Dimension: 136mm(W) x 29mm(H) x 184mm(D)
• Weight: 563 g 

Like the Freecom Beatman Mini CD/MP3 Player it uses 8cm (3") CD media which can contain over 3 hours of compressed digital audio in formats like MP3, UDF or AAC.

• 1x AA battery
• 100s Magic(tm) ESP (Electronic Skip Protection) technology
• Dynamic Bass Boost
• MP3 playback @ 32-320 Kbps including VBR
• 8cm CD compatibility (Audio CD, CD-R, CD-RW)
• Headphone and AC/DC adapter included. 

• SunnComm MediaCloQ version 2.0 is Ready for Market
  Today Phoenix-based SunnComm Inc. announced the completion of Version 2.0 of MediaCloQ designed to substantially reduce the illicit copying of music CDs...
• Major music companies are secretly selling encryption inscribed CDs
  Sonic Solutions and Philips announced at the IFC that Philips will bundle Sonic MyDVD with Philips' new DVDRW208 DVD+RW writer, giving PC users and video enthusiasts the power to convert their personal videos into DVD discs in a single step...
• Plextor Introduces Ultra Portable 8/8/24 CD-RW Drive With USB 2.0 Interface
  Plextor announced the immediate availability of the portable PlexWriter 8/8/24U CD-RW drive. The PlexWriter 8/8/24U is lightweight, compact and connects via USB...
• Move over USB: Here's FireWire
  Apple developed the standard in the mid-1990s as a simpler and faster way for Macs to connect to peripherals, but the company has been actively licensing the technology to other computer makers. Nearly all of the big-name manufacturers now have some models with the connection, which is also known as IEEE 1394...
• Ahead Announces DVD+RW &DVD-R/RW Support for Nero and New High Quality MPEG-2 Encoder
  Ahead Software AG is set to add full DVD+RW and DVD-R/RW support to Nero and InCD, while simultaneously making its own MPEG-2 plug-in available for purchase....
• Philips introduces the 9.4GB double-sided DVD+RW recording media
  Philips has announces double-sided DVD+RW discs, with a capacity of 9.4 GB, enabling recording times of up to 8 hours per disc, depending on the choice of the recording quality...
• Philips new DVD Recorder awarded "European Digital Video Recorder of the year 2001-2002"
  Philips introduces the new DVDR1000 DVD Recorder at the IFA 2001 Consumer Electronics show in Berlin. The DVDR1000 has been recognized for its performance and has been awarded ‘European Digital Video Recorder of the year 2001 - 2002’ by the EISA...
• DVD recorders create stir, but sales may be slow
  No product at Europe's top consumer electronics show has created such a stir as the digital versatile disc (DVD) recorder, but punters doubt they will sell by the truckload...
• DVD+RW Alliance Members Launch Rewritable DVD Products
  The Alliance made the announcement during an event at IFA 2001 where show attendees were allowed to test new DVD+RW products for the first time. During the event, the group also welcomed Dell, the world's number one computer systems company, as its newest member...
• Universal Music Group to Make Music Available On High-Quality Super Audio CD Format
  UMG announced it will make titles available on the high-quality Super Audio CD format which has been jointly developed by Philips and Sony...
• Philips and Kodak Team Up To Apply Picture CD Format in Consumer Electronics Products
  Philips will manufacture a number of consumer electronics devices to allow for playback of Eastman Kodak Company's innovative Kodak Picture CD, the two companies announced...
• Sonic Introduces MyDVD 3, First Real-time DVD Recording and Editing System
  Sonic introduced MyDVD(TM) Version 3, the first application to provide home users with a complete solution for recording, editing and sharing personal video content on DVD recordable and CD-R/RW media...
• Hitachi 16-Bit Microcontroller with 512Kb Flash ideal for Controlling CD/DVD Drives
  Hitachi introduced the H8/3069F MCU, a 25 megahertz (MHz), 16-bit device with a large 512-Kilobyte (KB) on-chip flash memory, 16-KB RAM and extensive peripheral functions. The MCU is ideal for controlling storage devices such as CD-R/RW & DVD-ROM/RAM drives...

Freecom Beatman

The PX-ML3630 is 2 drives in 1, on the one hand it's a regular 12x write CD-ReWriter, on the other a 36x write ML drive.

A ML drive utilizes MultiLevel recordable CD media which can write to 3 separate levels. As this it done simultaneously at 12x speed this will result at a combined 36x writing speed and 2GB of total free space!

Calimetrics, the inventor of the ML technology, also proposes in their roadmaps the same ML technology for DVD±RW media with the release of a 25GB DVD±RW ML drive next year and a 250GB ML drive by 2006!

MultiLevel discs can be mastered and manufactured the same way as other optical discs. Manufacturers only need to make minor modifications of existing disc media formulations for writable discs and ROM manufacturing equipment to produce MultiLevel discs. The cost of adding the ML technology to the disc for the consumer electronics and computer markets is very low. Consumers will be able to realize a significant improvement in performance for a minor increase in cost.

ML Drive Specifications

• 8x-24x Write & 4x-12x ReWrite
• 2GB ML Capacity
• 4MB Memory Buffer
• IDE/Atapi & IEEE1394 FireWire Interface

It's expected that it will ship at end of October/early November. 

• CD-R/RW: 12x Write (CD-R), 10x ReWrite & 32x Read (DAE)
• DVD+RW: 2.5x Write & 8x Read
• JustLink Bufferunderun Technology
• Lossless Linking (DVD+RW)
• Compatible with CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD+RW

On the box is says that it supports CD-Text and Overburning. The drive also supports CD-R90 media!

The drive is currently available for DM 399,- 

• 24x Write, 10x ReWrite, 40x Read 
• 2 MB Memory Buffer
• E-IDE/ATAPI Interface
• Smart Burn Bufferunderun Technology
• Software: Nero Burning Rom 5.5

• HP unveils DVD+RW drive
  The DVD-writer dvd100i, which will cost $599 when it hits store shelves in September, will be the first commercially available drive based on the DVD+RW standard. With it, consumers will be able to record video onto a disc, play it on a typical home DVD player, and then erase and record again on the same disc. HP plans to incorporate the drives into its PCs later this year...
• Sony Unveils 24X CD-RW Drives With New Power-Burn Technology
  Sony introduced four ultra high-speed CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) drives with interfaces and software for PC and Mac system users. The new drives support 24X maximum write, and incorporate Sony's Power-Burn technology. Designed to prevent buffer under-run errors, Power-Burn ensures reliable and accurate digital recording...
• Elantec introduces 3 High Performance Read Channel ICs for DVD/CD Drives
  Elantec announced three new read channel pre-amplifiers for the emerging high growth DVD and DVD/CD Dual Writer optical drive market segments. Elantec has developed a read channel pre-amplifier to provide a system-level solution that works with the company's industry-standard write channel DVD/CD laser driver ICs...
• Creative's New CD-RW Solution Creates CDs in Under 5 Minutes
  Creative introduces its high performance drive solution, the CD-RW Blaster 161040, which ships this week at an estimated street price of US$129...
• Panasonic Announces Its First CD/MP3 Car Audio Player/Receiver
  Panasonic announces its first combination CD/MP3 player/receiver for cars. New model CQ-DP171U combines a high quality AM/FM receiver with a CD player that will accommodate both commercially produced CDs and home-recorded discs. It is scheduled to debut in September, with a suggested manufacturer's retail price* (MSRP) of $299.99...
• Music Sales Declined in First Half of 2001
  US music product shipments fell 4.4 percent to $5.9 billion in the first half of 2001, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said on Tuesday, despite the industry's success in stifling its nemesis Napster...

BlindRead/BlindWrite Updates:

• Only some small "fixups" and a trial period extension to 15-10-2001.

• AOpen CRW1632 IDE CDR-W
• CD-ROM Roundup
• LiteOn LTR-24102B vs PlexWriter PX-W2410A Head to Head
• Mitsumi CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W
• Pioneer DVR-A03 DVD-R/CD-RW

• Old code defeats new CD anti-ripping technologies
  Macrovision's SafeAudio and Midbar's Cactus - both new technologies designed to prevent CDs from being copied successfully - may have been defeated by software released over two years ago. CloneCD, from German developer Elaborate Bytes, was written to duplicate discs bit by bit. The code requires a CD-R or CD-RW drive that supports RAW mode, which, according to EB, almost all currently available models do...
• TTR Technologies Reports Second Quarter 2001 Developments
  Marc Tokayer, chairman and chief executive officer, commented, "TTR and our strategic alliance partner, Macrovision Corporation , made significant progress towards our goal of commercializing the SAFEAUDIO® copy protection system for audio CDs...
• 1 million copy-protected CDs released
  Israeli security company Midbar said Wednesday that it released one million copy-protected CDs in the European market and plans are in discussion for entry in the U.S. market...
• Is copy protection dead on arrival?
  For several weeks, news that record companies have quietly been selling copy-protected compact discs in stores has been filtering around the Net. Although nobody has yet produced a verified copy of a CD loaded with this technology, developed by copy-protection giant Macrovision, it has produced a wave of "sightings" that have swept even to places as prominent as Amazon.com's consumer reviews...
• CDs A-Go-Go
  Blaupunkt has brought out an in-dash CD player that can handle both types of CDs. It's called the San Jose MP41 and, while it will play typical audio CDs as usual, it will also work with digital music files burned onto a CD in both MP3 and Microsoft 's Windows Media format...
• Record labels plan copy-proof CDs in post-Napster age
  The music industry is escalating its crusade against Napster-style music swapping with a plan to place stringent controls on compact discs - including, perhaps, the one you bought last week...
• Macrovision Licenses Over 200 DVD Manufacturers Worldwide
  Macrovision announced that its DVD copy protection technology has now been licensed to over 200 manufacturers of DVD-Video and PC DVD-ROM devices...
• Memorex Announces 2nd Generation DVD Recording Media Product Line Up
  Memorex announced its second generation of DVD Recordable media will be available in August...
• Out-of-state resident can be sued in DVD case - DeCSS is Back...
  An out-of-state resident who allegedly posted computer code that circumvents DVD encryption measures can be sued under California law, a California appeals court ruled Tuesday...
• New Recording Format To Challenge Music CDs
  Blaming the familiar compact disc format for many of the music industry's piracy headaches, a partnership has formed to replace the ubiquitous CD with recorded media the size of a U.S. 25-cent piece...
• US Moves on Ukraine Trade Benefits Over CD Piracy
  The US said it will suspend Ukraine's duty-free access to the U.S. market and begin steps to impose sanctions on potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of Ukrainian goods because of rampant piracy of music compact discs and similar products...
• Malaysia cracks down on CD piracy
  The Malaysian government's anti-piracy unit has approved an immediate ban on sales of video CDs in open places to fight against the proliferation of illegal software and pornography...
• Hollywood Entertainment Announces DVD Revenue Sharing Agreement
  Hollywood Entertainment Corporation, owner of the Hollywood Video chain of over 1800 video superstores, today announced that it has entered into a new VHS and DVD revenue sharing agreement with MGM Home Entertainment...

Burn to the Brim v2.0 Updates:

• Drag and drop found selections from the results window directly to your burn program, so usually no more need for moving folders, just BTTB and burn!
• Group items based on filename matching and/or MP3 tag Genre, as well as by hand. Now you can keep artist files together, as well as multi-part files!
• Enter as many custom disk sizes as you wish, and let BTTB autodetect the space available on any CD. No more safe-guessing, really burn until the outer edge!
• Ability to select items you immediately would like to burn
• Ability to remove items from the BTTB list in memory which you don't want to include
• Ability to delete found selections after you have burned them

• Anti-piracy system could damage loudspeakers
  CD pirates beware - the music industry has a new weapon up its sleeve. It is called the Cactus Data Shield, and it is designed to add noisy garbage to all copied CDs. The trouble is, it could also damage the hi-fi and loudspeakers of people who play pirated CDs...
• Life after Napster: Act II for digital music
  Everyone these days seems to be trying to figure out how to turn digital music into a profitable business. At center stage are two companies, backed by major labels, that are preparing to launch their own for-pay digital music services on the Web before the end of the summer...