National has wasted no time on a plan its says will reform criminal court procedure and beef up the efficiency of the justice system.

Some lawyers have questioned why the government was in a rush to make more changes when other efficiency measures had already been made.

Justice Minister Simon Power introduced the Courts (Remote Participation) Bill to make greater use of video links in criminal proceedings.

In a statement, Mr Power said new law would allow defendants, witnesses, lawyers and even judges and juries to appear in court by video link.

Telecom’s endorsement of Hybrid Television Services’ TiVo media devices will further encourage other such players into the New Zealand market, SKY Television CEO John Fellet said today.

TiVo will go up against SKY’s MySky media boxes when it is launched in New Zealand in November. But Mr Fellet said the New Zealand market was big enough to accommodate both competitors.

Facebook is today launching a “Live Stream Box” that will allow you to offer your own live video and chat section.

The social networking site first tested the feature for the 2009 US Presidential inauguration, which let people share over a million Facebook status updates and comments side by side with real-time streaming video on CNN's website during the 2 hour event.

iPhone is getting its third major software makeover in June. Today Apple previewed iPhone OS 3.0, to frenzied anticipation. Would photo messaging, video capture, Bluetooth tethering and other conspicuously absent features be added in the upgrade?

Peer-to-peer networking
After all the talk of requested-features, Apple began its preview, at its Cupertino headquarters, with something not on anybody’s list: peer-to-peer networking.