Crave

(Credit: John Falcone/CNET)

Recently, Warner announced its new DVD-on-demand program. Dubbed "Warner Archive," it's a Web site that allows the company to market more obscure titles from its back catalog. Consumers choose the specific titles they want, and Warner manufactures them as needed and mails them directly to the consumer in under a week.

At least two of the debut movies caught my eye, so I decided to give it a try. My test movies were "Countdown" and "The D.I." The former is a 1968 movie with James Caan as an astronaut scrambling to beat a Soviet space mission to the moon. In addition to a pre-"Godfather" pairing of Caan and costar Robert Duvall, it's of interest to me as an early Robert Altman film (years before his better known 70s hits "M.A.S.H." and "Nashville"). "The D.I.," meanwhile, is a 1957 flick directed by and starring Jack Webb as a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor. This one is a gift for my father, who's been searching for this old favorite for years.

Both movies arrived in a padded envelope less then a week after my order. They're packaged in standard DVD keepcases, and I appreciated the lack of cellophane and other redundant packing materials. The front and back covers are obviously based on a template, but they are customized with photos, blurbs, cast lists--it certainly has a budget feel, but it's a step-up from some of the truly no-frills custom DVDs I've ordered in the past.

Warner Archive

The disc itself also has a professional looking label. According to The Digital Bits, "the discs will be burned rather than pressed which raises obvious concerns over longevity, although a proprietary burn technology is being used that Warners feels is much more reliable than what one can do at home on one's own computer." Indeed, the case includes the warning "This disc is expected to play back in DVD video 'play only' devices, and may not play back in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives." That said, we had no trouble playing it in several Blu-ray players, Windows PC DVD drives, or Xbox 360s. Only some PS3 models balked: the original 60GB PlayStation 3 didn't recognize the disc, but newer 40GB and 80GB models did.

A new tool from PhotoShelter lets you import images from a Flickr account to your PhotoShelter Personal Archive.

(Credit: PhotoShelter)

Barely a week goes by when I don't see a story about someone's photo being stolen from Flickr. I guess I'm not the only one, because PhotoShelter today announced that they've added a tool to their customers' Personal Archive accounts that lets them import images from, or export images to, a Flickr Pro-level account. Ultimately, it's a pretty slick way for the company to capitalize on the fact that PhotoShelter's Personal Archive provides a more secure environment for photographers, since it doesn't allow unauthorized viewing or downloads, though photographers can set selected galleries as public if they want to allow non-password-protected viewing. Plus, PhotoShelter's system includes an e-commerce engine, so you can set prices and sell your images.

The new tool also preserves any keywords or descriptions previously added in Flickr, and since PhotoShelter's system automatically recognizes EXIF data, you shouldn't lose anything in the transfer, except the possibility of your image becoming the unwitting star of an international ad campaign without proper compensation. The tool also lets you transfer images from a Personal Archive account to a Flickr account in case you want to take advantage of that service's photo sharing capabilities. If you use both services, this new tool gives you a nifty way to add watermarks to your Flickr photos, since PhotoShelter's system has a tool to do just that. Isn't it great when two photo sharing services find a way to play nicely together?

In 1953, Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy. Fourteen years later, Jann Wenner published the first issue of Rolling Stone. Today, both magazines have published hundreds of issues and made an undeniable mark on American culture.

Now, instead of spending months and thousands of dollars on eBay, you can read those iconographic issues on your computer. The Bondi Digital Publishing Cover to Cover series collects back issues on DVD, which can be searched and read with the company's proprietary software. The first two "Cover to Cover" collections are Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years and Playboy Cover to Cover: The '50s. Every Rolling Stone magazine published since 1967 and every Playboy issue published in the '50s can now be read on your computer.

The magazines are reproduced from scans from the original issues. They aren't simply scanned PDFs, though; the text in every issue is stored and cataloged, so you can search the entire Rolling Stone archives or every 1950s Playboy issue for author, subject, band, Playmate, or other criteria. If you want to read all of Hunter S. Thompson's stories from Rolling Stone, you can just type in his name instead of poring over the hundreds of issues.

Besides the digital back issues, each collection comes with its own tangible bonuses. Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years comes with a two-year subscription to Rolling Stone and a book of highlights and history in the magazine. The book isn't just some liner notes--it's a bulky, 200+ page tome of musical and cultural history. Playboy Cover to Cover: The '50s doesn't come with a subscription to the magazine, but it does come with its own book, plus a paper reproduction of the very first issue of Playboy featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Both Cover to Cover collections will be available in November, but you can pre-order them from either magazine's Web site or from Bondi's web site on September 15. Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First 40 Years will retail for $125, and Playboy Cover to Cover: The '50s will retail for $100.

Click on the above photo to view a slide show of the Stanton T.90 turntable.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze / CNET Networks)

The Stanton T.90, price $400. Being able to add my beloved Star Trek read-along record into iTunes, priceless. Full-screen cover-flow view still makes me drool.

My review of the Stanton T.90 USB turntable has officially posted on CNET.com, and unfortunately it's time to send the T.90 back. I'll be sad to see it go, but honestly, I'm happy to have some desk space again. It's a very fun turntable, and it surpassed my expectations (though I still want a Numark TTX). When all is said and done, the best thing I gained from this review was the opportunity to archive some of my vinyl collection. I even went the extra step and added album cover art into iTunes.

The T.90 is still a bit too rich for my blood at around $400, but it should make some DJs pretty happy. The biggest surprise I found was that the USB audio interface built into the turntable worked in both directions simultaneously--allowing you to play analog records into your computer and computer audio out through the turntable at the same time. It's a useless feature for most of us, but the DJs it's intended for should have loads of fun combining the two audio sources in one device.

December 1953 Marilyn Monroe issue

(Credit: Playboy)

Now all those people claiming to read Playboy for the articles will have easy access to finding them.

Playboy Enterprises and Bondi Digital Publishing are releasing the entire catalogue of Playboy magazines on six DVDs. Each $100 box set will consist of one DVD including a decade of Playboy magazines and a 200-page companion book of images and highlights.

As with the digital archive Bondi did for The New Yorker magazine, the searchable archive will include articles, fiction, cartoons, photos and covers.

The Playboy digital archive will feature 636 issues and more than 93,000 photos, starting with the famous December 1953 issue with Marilyn Monroe on the cover, which currently sells for $6,550 at magazine specialty stores. That famous issue was written mostly by Hugh Hefner himself, but it also contained a Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, according to Playboy's Web site.