2006 in review, part 10

Second Life gets hacked, while Mozilla and Microsoft launch their latest browsers

30 December 2006 13:00 GMT / By Amber Maitland

In the home entertainment sector, Toshiba and Memory-Tech announced the development of what they believed could be a bridge technology to high-definition: a triple/layer disc capable of storing data to be played on both DVD players and HD DVD players.

Meanwhile, online, there was trouble in the world of Second Life, as the system was hacked, user data compromised, and users requested to change passwords and other details.

In the burgeoning online music download scene, eMusic had its official launch in the UK, after making it to the number two spot behind iTunes for legal music downloads in the US. Sony Ericsson decided to get in on the action, and unveiled its M-Buzz service for mobile users to download music and other media.

Legal video downloads continued to be big news, with Amazon.com launching Unbox, its video download service, mostly to a series of boos from critics.

In the world of gaming, Ubisoft announced details of Far Cry Vengeance, the latest in its Jack Carver saga, for the Nintendo Wii, while Sony revealed more specifications for its tiny GPS receiver for the PSP.

The browser war between Mozilla and Microsoft heated up, with the former releasing Firefox 2.0 to critical acclaim, and the later making Internet Explorer 7, its first update to its ubiquitous browser in five years, available for download.

And in random news, readers gobbled up a story about the USBCELL, which is a rechargeable standard-sized batter that charges through a USB plug concealed under its lid, shook their heads at McDonald's Japan distributing free MP3 players that contained a virus, and rejoiced at the news that Norwegian DVD Jon had broken Apple's DRM, FairPlay.