1yr head-start for Microsoft’s XBox360? Not enough according to industry analyst

Industry analysts have been crunching the numbers and making their predictions, and despite Microsoft’s 1 year headstart on Sony and getting their next-gen console to market first, this will still not be enough to be able to hold back the rapidly approaching jaugernaught that is the PS3, now confirmed to be arriving this November.

The jewel in Sony’s crown is the inclusion of the next-gen DVD player, the BluRay drive – this will be Sony’s trojan horse, pushing into many more households for that reason alone.

Matisse GroupLayout LayoutManager to be added to Java Mustang

News on the JavaLobby site reports that the GroupLayout LayoutManager which is behind the simple drag and drop UI design tool Matisse in Netbeans 5.0 has been adopted and integrated into Java Mustang, which will be released as Java SE 6.0.

This is awesome news – the simplicity of UI development in NetBeans 5.0’s Matisse GUI builder will now be part of the Java SE core APIs – this goes a long way to improving Java Swing GUI development.

Sony annouce BluRay drive products

Sony have annouced 3 BluRay products coming later this year (in addition to the PS3 which will ship in November). The products include a standalone BluRay DVD player, a Vaio PC desktop with a rewritable BluRay drive, and an addon internal BluRay drive for PCs.

It’s incredible to think how far the data media industry has progressed, for example from 360k 5.25″ floppy disks (and lower capacities before that) and now to an optical media that can hold 25GB – that’s pretty amazing…