Manbang: North Koreans Get Own Take On VOD & Streaming TV

North Korea’s government appears to have launched an internet Video on Demand service. It’s got limited content and an unfortunate name for English speakers. It seems the service was intended to have a name conveying that the content is available in “every direction” or “everywhere” but the Korean word for that meaning is pronounced “Manbang.” […]



Epic Middle Earth Blu-ray Set Has Epic Price

The Tolkien movies seem to lend themselves to collector editions, but the latest version goes to a whole new level – with a jaw-dropping price. Released under the title “Middle Earth”, the standard Theatrical Versions Collection is simple enough: the three Hobbit and three Lord of the Rings movies on Blu-ray with no extras, with […]

US To Give Up Final Say On Domain Name System

The US government will give up control of the internet’s domain name system on October 1. It’s a largely symbolic move at this point though has provoked some political criticism. Since 1988, DNS – translating web addresses to IP addresses – has been overseen by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. That’s a department of the […]



New Harry Potter E-Books Compile Pottermore Stories

Three new Harry Potter books are on the way. They’ll be collections of short pieces from the Pottermore website and sold as low-priced e-books. The Pottermore Presents series will combine archive material from the site along with new writing from JK Rowling: Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide is a collection of pieces about the school […]

New Program Tackles USB-C Power Fails

Avoiding USB chargers that might fry your motherboard could be easier with a new certification program. There’ll be a special logo to show chargers meet the required specifications. It affects Type-C connectors, introduced in 2014 with the killer feature of being symmetrical and ending the dreaded under-the-table plug flipping (along with the gag about USB’s […]

Overwatch Drops Sudden Death, Expands Rankings

Overwatch is getting a revamp of its competitive online mode. There’ll be no more sudden death and the rankings system is being tweaked to be more informative about a player’s level. The changes will take effect in the second “season” of competitive play. One big difference is to the scoring for rankings. For season one, […]

Court Ruling May Limit Broadband Competition

Federal Communications Commission plans to boost competition for broadband services have taken a knock. An appeals court says the commission can’t override state laws that block cities from building their own networks. 19 states have some form of law that stop such building, in most cases with the logic that local government building and potentially […]