June 29 - 4:15pm EDT   The US Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by film studios and television networks of a New York court ruling that would allow a new type of digital video recorder service from Cablevision. A report says the justices refused to review a ruling made by a US Court of Appeals in New York that said Cablevision's proposed service would not directly infringe the copyrights of the media companies that produce the recorded movie and TV programs. No reason for the rejection was given. [full story]

June 26 - 12:40pm EDT   Canadian rent-by-mail DVD service Zip.ca said today that it's in talks with Sonic Solutions, the owner of the Roxio CinemaNow movie download service, to bring the first large-scale movie download service in Canada. The partnership will allow PC and portable multimedia device users to download TV shows and movies, making it somewhat akin to the streaming feature Netflix offers its US customers; it's not clear if Zip would shadow this format. [full story]

June 26 - 9:30am EDT   When it ships later this year, the Zune HD could cost as much or more than the iPod touch by the time both updates are released this year, an additional leak said Thursday. An interview with a previous source on Neowin cautions that prices aren't "set in stone" but has the base 16GB model costing between $249 and $279, or at least as much as the Zune 120 does today. A current 16GB clickpad Zune costs $179. [full story]

June 25 - 10:55am EDT   Sonic Solutions, the company behind Roxio, on Thursday announced its streaming movie service CinemaNow will be made available for the Nintendo Wii. Sonic will partner with Fujisoft to bring the former's content to the game console via the latter's video-on-demand Everyone's Theater Wii service. While the announcement only covers Japan, its successful integration potentially leads to the service arriving in other countries as well. CinemaNow offers more than 1,500 streaming movies, short films, and concerts to buy or rent. [full story]

June 18 - 3:20pm EDT   Microsoft quickly ended speculation today by confirming that it's shipping Xbox 360 Arcade units with 512MB of storage. The company tells Eurogamer that the extra capacity is there to "enjoy more experiences" on Xbox Live that include both essential saved game space as well as downloadable content and smaller Xbox Live Arcade games. It's not known if the 512MB version will be standard worldwide or only show in specific areas. [full story]

June 17 - 5:05pm EDT   Photos of a new Jasper mainboard for the Xbox Arcade gaming console equipped with a 4-gigabit Samsung NAND flash memory module have been leaked on an enthusiast forum recently. The model in question seems to have been manufactured in Japan on April 9th, and uses the same Jasper platform debuted last year, albeit with twice as much onboard storage. The original Xbox Arcade Jasper mainboard used a 2-gigabit NAND flash module that gave users about 213MB of usable internal memory, with 16MB dedicated to kernel, keyvault, Dash and other operating-system related data. [full story]

June 12 - 11:05pm EDT   Microsoft's Project Natal could not just be an add-on for the Xbox 360 but the foundation of a new Xbox altogether, according to fresh rumors. Those at 1UP hear that the full body motion controller will be the "cornerstone" of a new console and come with it. Details of the new Xbox itself aren't clear, but it's believed the machine could be an evolution of the Xbox 360 that has extra performance but which could still run legacy games. It would ship in fall 2010 and could be announced as early as the Game Developers Conference in March of that year. [full story]

June 8 - 11:05am EDT   Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount today launched an invitation beta for Epix, a hybrid cable and online movie streaming service meant to supplement rather than replace regular pay-per-view TV. Anyone with a cable package that includes the channel will get access to the studios' movies weeks ahead of their regular DVD releases for "free" but will simultaneously have access to streaming, 720p versions of those same movies for their computers. The approach is ad-free, even online, and automatically scales the bitrate up or down (to as low as 500Kbps) depending on the quality of the connection. [full story]

June 5 - 9:50am EDT   Microsoft VP John Schappert today said that the company's frequently delayed Xbox Live Anywhere service still exists but is rolling out much more gradually than was originally planned. Shown as early as 2006, the means of directly checking and messaging Xbox Live friends is still alive but is being treated as an evolution "unrolled piece by piece" over time. The Games for Windows initiative, which gives users an app that shows both Xbox 360 and Windows players, is considered part of that effort. Only the mobile client is missing, Schappert tells Gizmodo. [full story]

June 1 - 1:40pm EDT   The Zune HD portable audio player, recently unveiled late last week, is unofficially expected to be released on September 5th, according to a recent report by long-time observer Paul Thurrott. The device had already been rumored for fall but would now launch relatively early in the year, roughly in time with Apple's yearly iPod updates. [full story]

May 26 - 8:40pm EDT   Microsoft tonight confirmed the existence of the Zune HD, its first-ever touchscreen media player. The company readily acknowledges that the player is meant to compete against the iPod touch and will have a 3.3-inch, 480x272 OLED screen with a multi-touch interface. It earns its name through the first inclusion of a portable HD Radio tuner for digital broadcasts as well as HD video playback through a special dock. For the first time on a Zune, the HD will also use its Wi-Fi to browse the web and should come with a special version of Internet Explorer designed for touch. [full story]

April 30 - 3:35pm EDT   Apple today landed another key employee with word that Microsoft's senior Xbox strategy director Richard Teversham has left his company to join the Mac creator. Although Microsoft itself will only confirm that Teversham has left for a "new opportunity" beyond the company, MCV understands that he has quit his employer of 15 years to take up an education-related position at a European Apple office. Why he has made the switch or his specific role at Apple haven't been made public. [full story]

March 23 - 9:35am EDT   ARM today said it should be the first to have truly console-like graphics on smartphone-grade devices. Detailing its plans to PC World ahead of this week's Game Developers' Conference, the company said its upcoming Mali-200 and Mali-400 chips will both have improved pure performance but will also support OpenGL ES 2.0. The mobile video standard is based on programmable shaders (effects instructions) that allow complex visuals like water ripples without overly complex code paths. [full story]

March 18 - 6:50pm EDT   Sony will reportedly begin shipping a new PlayStation 3 bundle to Target stores starting on March 29th, set to include an 80GB console along with what are now Greatest Hits; the original MotorStorm racing game and Resistance: Fall of Man shoot 'em up. MotorStorm dates back to March of 2007 and was bundled on its own with a PS3, while Resistance is even older, having launched in November of 2006. The bundle is perceived to be a weak attempt to make the system more appealing by adding value to it, as Sony still refuses to discount, despite current economic conditions and lower-priced Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii rivals. [full story]

December 19 - 12:25pm EST   Microsoft is actively pursuing its hinted plans to directly integrate its Zune players with its Xbox systems, a recently unearthed job post for a User Experience Designer shows. A recruit hired for the position would be tasked with conceptualizing and developing the interface for not only the Zune players and PC client but also "Zune Xbox," alluding to a likely playback and possible music purchasing system for the Xbox 360 or later. [full story]