Daily Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Toshiba has decided to withdraw from the high-definition disc market, effectively ending a format war the company had been waging against rival Sony’s Blu-ray technology. “This was a very difficult decision to make … but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence,” Toshiba Chief Executive Officer Atsutoshi Nishida said. (Yahoo!/Reuters 2/19, Forbes 2/19)

Sony, Sharp and Panasonic are among the consumer-electronics manufacturers trying to bridge the Internet-TV gap by developing next-generation gadgets that allow consumers to hook up their TVs to the Web, this article says. Randy Waynick, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Electronics, said: “An Internet connection gives consumers the opportunity to define the experience they want on their TVs. This is TV at your schedule.” (Los Angeles Times 2/18)