A while back, we <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/shownews.cgi?269">reported</A> on the small island of Tuvalu in the South Pacific, which, as fate would have it, was assigned the international domain of ".tv." It didn't take long for a company called <A HREF="www.tv">dotTV</A> to make a deal with the Tuvalu government to administer and sell the ".tv" domains. Last week, dotTV announced that they have auctioned off three high-priced domain names&mdash;free.tv, china.tv, and net.tv&mdash;each selling for initial annual registration fees of $100,000.

It seems that <I>Star Wars</I> fans can never get enough. In March 1999, more than six million of them downloaded the QuickTime trailer for <A HREF="http://www.lucasfilm.com/">Lucasfilm</A>'s <I>Episode I: The Phantom Menace</I> in the first three weeks it was available. QuickTime is <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/">Apple Computer</A>'s streaming-media technology, and it has been selected to deliver behind-the-scenes views of <I>Episode II</I> as it develops on location in Australia.

According to research just released by <A HREF="http://www.strategyanalytics.com">Strategy Analytics</A>, manufacturers will increase worldwide shipments of set-top DVD players by 300% this year, while retail revenues across the three major regions (US, Europe, Japan) will rise by 220%, to $7 billion. SA says that this year's market is being driven by the launch of DVD-based games consoles, and that DVD recorders will fuel the momentum from 2001 on.

Build it and they will come&mdash;to take it apart. Modifying original equipment has long been one of the most popular activities among electronics hobbyists. Hard-disk video recorders from <A HREF="http://www.tivo.com/">TiVo</A> are the latest consumer-electronics products to go under the hacker's knife and emerge with upgraded capabilities.