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Neil Young's entire music archive to be released on Blu-ray
Sun Microsystems's pledge to aid the widespread development of interactive content on Blu-ray wasn't the only thing going down today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco. Rather surprisingly, famed musician Neil Young announced plans to "release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs that can be updated over the internet." Reportedly, the first installment of Young's archive will cover 1963 to 1972 and will be released as a ten-disc set this fall on Reprise / Warner Bros. Records, and subsequent archives will be released chronologically and "include some previously unreleased songs, videos, handwritten manuscripts and other memorabilia." Stressing Blu-ray interactivity, it was also noted that fans could download more songs, photos and tour information via their internet-connected decks. Needless to say, we're pretty stoked about the whole ordeal, and can only hope that more artists follow suit in serving up their work via Blu-ray.[Thanks, JDS]
Sun Microsystems announces support for BDLive.com, aims to promote development of interactivity
Today at the JavaOne Conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems professed its love for BDLive.com and the availability of the BDLive.com developers disc. Put simply, Sun -- a proud member of the Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors -- has teamed up with Related Content Database Inc. in order to create said website and offer devs, BD content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers "advanced network services focused on improving the overall BD Live user experience." Essentially, the web portal weds Sun's network.com infrastructure and RCDb's recently announced BD Live Platform to "enable the quick creation of device-appropriate features that provide a user-friendly DVD-like experience." If you're eager to know more, click on past the break.
Robosapien RS Media making brief US retail appearance
Wowwee is a great innovator and all, but sometimes it doesn't play so nice, refusing to share all the wonderful toys in its robotic zoo with everyone in the world. Specifically, some of the company's hottest products -- like the RoboPanda and RoboBoa -- are doomed forever to a foreign-only release, leaving us gadget-happy Americans stuck with the Dragonflies and last-gen Robosapiens stacked up at the local Radio Shack. So you can see why even the US availability of limited quantities of Wowwee's latest and greatest robotic companion / killing machine is something to get a little excited about, with several dozen of the LCD-equipped, hacker-friendly units left over from the JavaOne Conference going for $329 each on a first-come-first-served basis. As of this posting only 44 RS Medias are still up for grabs, according to RoboCommunity (actually populated by humans, we suspect), and since these specific models come bundled with the Sun robot extension, sitting back and waiting for a possible stateside deployment might not be the best idea. [Via RoboCommunity]
