Roku has announced three new set-top boxes this week, each of which are cheaper, smaller and perform better than their predecessors.

The new Roku HD will sell for $60, the Roku XD will sell for $80 and the Roku XDS will sell for $100.

On the lower end, the HD offers 720p streaming, with wired and wireless connectivity. The device is very similar to 2009's Roku HD box, but in a smaller 1" x 5" case. The HD has composite and HDMI outputs.

The mid-level XD has 1080p streaming, with wired and wireless connectivity, including support for 802.11n. Like the HD, the XD has composite and HDMI outputs.

On the high-end, the XDS has 1080p HD streaming, support for dual-band 802.11n, composite and HDMI outputs, optical video output, and a USB port that allows for playback of a number of video files off connected devices, a first for any Roku device.

Finally, each device will have 50 public channels such as Netflix, Amazon on Demand, Vimeo, MLB, UFC, Revision3 and MediaFly.

Permalink | Comments

---

A federal court in Spain has dismissed all charges against YouTube today, ruling the popular video sharing site cannot be held liable for copyright infringement.

YouTube had been sued by Spanish TV broadcaster Gestevision Telecinco after hours of their content was found available for free on the site.

Google posted the results of the ruling on its European Public Policy Blog.

Telecinco was hoping to have YouTube held liable when users upload copyright-infringing material.

Says Google: "This win confirms what we have always said: 'YouTube operates within the law.'"

"The court recognized that YouTube is merely a content hosting platform and should not be made to pre-screen videos before they are uploaded," the search giant concluded.

Permalink | Comments

---

According to Bobby Burleson, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, Intel is sharply cutting prices on their Atom and Core processors, due to unexpectedly low sales in Europe and China.

The analyst says the slow sales were thanks to unexpected overall economic weakness in Asia and Europe.

Within his client note, Burleson says Intel has slashed prices on their Atom and Core i3, i5 and i7 processors by up to 50 percent, while also reducing the price of a few chipsets by 15 percent.

The move is to stimulate demand and clear out excess inventory, adds the note.

Says Burleson (via Xbit): "While notebook demand is likely to uptick near term following these cuts. It will be in large part the result of channel fill by Intel's OEM customers, especially in China. [...]What is of particular concern is the risk of inventory overshoot as the PC supply chain focuses on China in an aggressive effort to offset weakness in the US and stagnation in Europe."

Permalink | Comments

---

Last week we announced that Good Old Games, the European gaming company that gives gamers the chance to download old PC games that are very hard to find legally or have been abandoned, had shut down just two years after going live.

This afternoon, the site has re-opened, with a full refresh.

At the same time, the site's owners apologized for closing the service down so abruptly and without warning.

Says the site's blog:

"We know our little game with closing down the site made some of you angry. Once again we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving you access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts, it was done with the best of intentions and hopefully we can make it up to you!"

Finally moving out of beta, the company says the "new sleek new design makes it even easier to browse through the huge catalog, share one's passion for classic games via popular social media, get to know more about the classic games available and recommend favorite titles to other gamers."

Furthermore, the site has introduced GOGmixes, user-created lists of games based on certain themes.

Permalink | Comments

---