2006 in review, part 12

Unusual news stories took over at the end of the year

31 December 2006 13:00 GMT / By Amber Maitland

The final part of our year in review contains the last, rather eclectic stories at the end of the year.

As we said in the last edition, Microsoft unveiled its Zune in the US, and it was revealed that, strangely, the player isn't yet compatible with Vista, although a firmware update should sort that before Vista's launch in January. Additionally, in an interesting turn of events for the music industry, Universal Music said it was getting a cut of every Zune sold.

Nikon snuck in one last DSLR before Christmas, showing off the D40, on sale for under £450, while Apple quietly upgraded the MacBook to Core 2 Duo.

Apple also faced a threat from the Macarena virus, which to many people proved that Macs could indeed be breached. Wikipedia, too, was attacked, as a hacker rigged an entry about the Blaster worm so that it linked to a site full of malware.

Samsung, meanwhile, figured out how to implant an optical joystick like a mouse on to a mobile phone, and thus claims to have ushered in a new era of navigating in a mobile phone's interface.

In the world of legal downloads, Xbox Live recently unveiled its video download service, which will offer some TV shows in high-definition, while Sony started selling PSP games through the PS3's downloading capabilities.

BitTorrent, the P2P file sharing site, legitimised itself further by signing content deals with Paramount and Fox to offer speedier downloads of legally-purchased music.

And finally, BT made its BT Vision, TV on demand service live, after spending the year signing content deals.