LG Electronics says it plans to sell a DVD player that will play both warring high-definition DVD formats. The first dual-format high-definition player will play discs in the HD DVD format, which is backed by a consortium headed by Toshiba, as well as the rival Blu-ray format, backed by a group led by Sony.
A last-gasp effort by German goalkeeper Yvonne Frank robbed South Africa of what would have been a well-deserved victory over the third-ranked team in the world in the Spar Hockey Festival at the University of Stellenbosch’s Astro Turf on Wednesday. The teams drew 2-2.
Frank Lampard has insisted Chelsea are still in the hunt for a third straight English Premier League title despite a disappointing sequence of results over the Christmas and New Year period that has left the Blues six points behind leaders Manchester United.
Nikolay Davydenko of the Russian Federation defeated Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday, leading the top six seeds into the quarterfinals of the -million Qatar Open. Second-seeded Ivan Ljubicic, number three Marco Baghdatis and number four Andy Murray also advanced with straight-set victories.
Manchester United might travel to South Africa again before the start of the 2007/08 English Premiership season, said Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund on Wednesday after returning from a visit to a number of leading English clubs during the Premier Soccer League’s mid-season holiday break.
United States and Singapore air-force planes were on Thursday set to join a massive air, land and sea search for a missing Indonesian passenger jet with 102 people on board. The Adam Air Boeing 737-400, with 96 passengers and six crew, vanished from radar screens on Monday.
Australia’s south-west was bracing on Thursday for a destructive weather front that could link with remnants of a tropical cyclone to create a ”perfect storm”. Military and emergency teams on standby in Western Australia state expected a deep low-pressure system to cross the coast mid-afternoon, bringing 120kph winds and heavy rain.
Welkom police divers will resume searching on Thursday for a man who is believed to have drowned when a boat capsized on the Vaal Dam early on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the body of a 35-year-old man was recovered from the Nigel Dam on the East Rand on Wednesday, and a man was found dead in a swimming pool in Johannesburg.
The problem with hard-to-use software, says consultant David Platt, lies not with the user but with the programmers, who just don’t think like the people who use their products. Platt is the author of a new book called Why Software Sucks … and What You Can Do about It.
Long-suffering Zimbabweans face bleak prospects in 2007 as a spate of price increases and industrial action by medical personnel appear set to reinforce a seven-year-old economic crisis. Just a few days into the new year, prices of most goods and services have gone up in sympathy with last week’s increase in the cost of fuel.