Mark Fleischmann

Price: $500 At A Glance: Cabinet geometry allows front or upward firing • 2.5-inch woofer and 0.5-inch tweeter in plastic enclosure • Sub has 8-inch down-firing woofer and 100 watts

Shape’s Mightier Than Size

Gaze back into the mists of time, and you’ll find that the earliest loudspeakers were boxes with nothing but right angles. This shape lends itself to efficient manufacturing techniques and is still used for most speakers. However, speaker designers have rebelled against the box for some time. Now that they have injection-molded plastic at their disposal, they can make speakers in just about any shape. Of course, plastic speaker enclosures also lend themselves to efficient manufacturing techniques, so some of the most interestingly shaped speakers are also among the most affordable.

Comcast has introduced a streaming service called Fancast Xfinity TV. It will feature shows previously unavailable online.

After a slow start, sales of Blu-ray players have passed a couple of significant milestones. They're selling better than DVD players and VCRs did at equivalent moments in their histories.

Remember Warner's DVD2Blu program, which lets DVD owners trade in their old standard-def discs for brand-new high-def Blu-ray discs? Disney is going one better by offering factory-fresh BDs to DVD owners while allowing them to keep their old discs.