AfterTek

The time of the VHS is over and the time of the DVD is vastly becoming the norm for many people. Many Americans don’t even bother purchasing the VHS – no matter how cheap they may be – because they don’t own a VHS player. Yet even with the growing popularity and demand for DVD’s there is still competition out there in the form of digital downloads.

A number of consumers have discovered that they can watch their favorite movies through these digital downloads. Already this has become popular in the music world where all you have to do is pay 99 cents to download your favorite song from iTunes. Apple is taking their success one step further by creating a way for people to do the same with their favorite movies.

For five long years Apple has become a worldwide phenomenon among the digital music industry. They have sold 4 billion songs and have an account of 70% of the digital music that is sole worldwide. Yet, as digital music becomes more and more popular we wonder if there will come a time when more competition will break through and Apple will no longer dominate the digital music market.

For weeks consumers have been waiting patiently to hear what Microsoft would be doing with Windows XP. Would they be keeping or discarding it? The CEO for Microsoft - Steve Ballmer - has finally reached a decision this week.

While stopping far short of announcing a major rethink over the venerable old OS’ June 30th death warrant, he certainly appears to have his hand hovering over the lever in preparation for a bit of handbrake turn action. “XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one,” he told Reuters yesterday. “If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.”