Check out Coolness Roundup on Sirius Stars 102 tonight at 12:30 Pacific, where Gizmodo's Charlie White, along with Stephen Schleicher of Sci Fi Tech present a heated discussion about HD DVD vs. Blu-ray, spouting statistics and opinions that might just sway you one way or the other.
The Gurus of Cool also lead you through another groundbreaking Rapid Fire Roundup of Cool Products they've seen during the week, sprinting through the top 10 best examples of coolness in the fastest three minutes on Sirius Satellite Radio.
If you're not a Sirius listener, catch the Coolness Roundup podcast here, or find out about the hottest and most up-to-date gadgetry on Coolness Roundup Daily.
Show Notes [Coolness Roundup]

Just when we thought Samsung was firmly in the Blu-ray camp, they come out with a version of their M55 laptop that supports HD DVD. The machine has a Core Duo T2500, 2GB of RAM, 120GB SATA disk, 17-inch 1920x1200 screen, and it's available for around $3200 if you speak Korean.
Is it a matter of time before Samsung releases a HD DVD standalone player? Or maybe it'll follow LG and release a dual player? – Jason Chen
After the Samsung M55 Blu-Ray, here's the M55 with an HD-DVD burner [Akihabara via Mobile Mag]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs
No, it's not surprising in the least that Ferrari has found yet another firm willing to cater to their every demand in order to form a distinct partnership, but regardless, the automotive firm is looking to sweep the rug out from under your current home entertainment setup with the F80. Teamed up with Meridian Audio, the same folks who channeled HD content from your iPod to your TV, Ferrari is delving into yet another consumer electronics realm by coordinating an oddly-shaped and still mysterious "home entertainment center." Aside from looking more like a semi-circle and less like an AV component, the device purportedly packs DAB / FM / AM tuning, a CD / DVD player (no word on HD DVD / Blu-ray just yet), and 80-watts of power dispersed through the two front-firing speakers and rear-mounted subwoofer. In typical Ferrari fashion, the unit should be available in a variety of colors, including white, yellow, silver, and red, and while we...

A palm-size camcorder, a slick smartphone, an HD DVD player for your Xbox 360 and more cool gear from the Gadget Lab.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
It's roamed relatively unscathed for a few months now, but it appears that BackupHDDVD -- the app that helps bypass the AACS copy protection on HD DVDs -- has been hit with its first major setback, drawing a DMCA takedown notice and vanishing from its perch at SourceForge as a result. Speaking to Wired blog 27B Stroke 6, SourceForge parent company VA Software's General Counsel Jay Seirmarco revealed that the AACS's complaint centered on copyrighted cryptographic keys allegedly contained within BackupHDDVD, which he says was verified to be true, giving SourceForge reason to remove the software. He added, however, that SourceForge would be willing to host a version of BackupHDDVD that did not contain the keys in question. This course of events will no doubt be familiar to anyone's who's followed the FairUse4WM saga, in which Microsoft issued a similar notice demanding that the software be taken down from its host site. Of course, BackupHDDVD isn'...

Filed under: HDTV, Storage
Contrary to reports this week that Toshiba had completed work on its 51GB, 7 hour HD DVD disc and submitted it for approval to the DVD Forum, Toshiba says the disc is still in the works, and that it hasn't made any official announcements since early January when it first revealed the disc. "We're puzzled ourself by where these reports came from," said Junko Furuta of Toshiba, who denied such developments. That's all we know for now, no word on when the disc will actually be completed, but according to the original announcement, Toshiba will be looking for approval of such a disc this year. 
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SourceForge complies with a DMCA notice to remove open-source software designed to help you rip HD DVDs. But was it really infringing copyright? In 27Bstroke6.

Filed under: HDTV, Storage
In a strange turn of events, Blu-ray discs are outselling HD DVDs, and now the HD DVD format has taken the lead in capacity -- who would've think it? Toshiba just announced that it has successfully created a triple-layer disc with 17GB per layer, which amounts to 51GB, a full GB more than those dual-layer Blu-ray discs can muster. We heard about the size gains at CES this year, but Toshiba is already in the process of submitting the new extension of the format to regulatory approval, however, the word on the street still amounts to a potential Q4 release, and it's still unclear at this time what kind of manufacturing costs or complications these new discs will incur. We'll say it again: the format war is far from over. 
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
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