She's a box-office smash with a 3-D concert flick, but tongue-waggers have been wondering why tween thing Hannah Montana is presenting at, like, the Oscars. But we say she's no weirder than having, say, Jessica Alba, Seth Rogen or The Rock—presenters, all.

7. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences offers something else for the kids, a YouTube channel. Best clip is, easily, Jack Black and Will Ferrell's "Get Off the Stage" song.

The hottest holiday gadgets

For those too reserved to kick out the jams, digital cameras continue to top electronics gift lists. Chris Odle teaches digital camera classes at Jack's Camera Shop.

"The classes fill up and we're offering more all the time," Odle said. "I think interest is heightened. Older adults, especially, feel pressure from kids and grandkids to share pictures online. But they're apprehensive to begin the search. Once I get a camera in their hands, they see how easy it is to successfully capture their vision."

Has Odle seen a particularly hot camera this year?

"Panasonic cameras," he said. "I can't keep them in stock. We have the mainstays like Canon and Nikon, but right now Panasonic is a great brand."

The demand for consumer electronics is increasing and is only likely to grow, Dubravac said.

GDC to become invitation only for press in '09

It can be hard if you're a writer who isn't with one of the larger sites like IGN or one of the more popular blogs like Joystiq: E3's going invitation-only last year meant many gaming writers were scrambling for their golden ticket, and the show had a much different feel from previous E3s Ars has attended. Last year the Game Developers Conference picked up the slack in many ways, but with so many stories coming out of the GDC, and so many press members there, were the actual developers able to do their job without being harassed by the press? During our interview with GDC Executive Director Jamil Moledina, we asked this questions, among others.

Moledina agreed that the press presence at GDC had been growing. "At GDC '07, there were around 1,000 press passes handed out, which for a 16,000-person show is quite a lot," he told Ars.

Amy Winehouse in clear...

The 24-year-old Back To Black singer seemed in hot water herself after being dramatically arrested last month and having her DNA and fingerprints taken.

She was quizzed over a suspected plot to bribe barman James King, allegedly beaten up by Fielder-Civil in an east London pub in June 2006. Cops held Amy on suspicion of offering 200,000 to King to drop his statement against Blake, 25, who has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

But DNA tests have FAILED to provide any conclusive evidence to link her to the plot.

Cops have probed computer software in Amy's flat to see if she was involved in trying to set up a place in Spain for King to lie low until the case collapsed.

They have looked closely at where money allegedly offered to King came from but even if they source it back to Amy's bank account it is believed this will not be enough to charge her.

Brooks resigns as COO from Broadstripe

Bill Shreffler was named president and chief executive of Broadstripe in September 2006 and replaced Westbrook, who was named chairman and chief strategic officer of the company. Westbrook resigned from that position in October 2007.

Senate approves tax breaks

John Unger, D-Berkeley, led the chamber into freezing existing property tax rates for anyone over 65 with an annual income of $25,000 or less.Anyone buying certain appliances that cost $2,500 or less could skip the sales tax in the first week of each September in a bill Gov. Joe Manchin offered a few weeks ago. Under a Senate amendment, the tax holiday would end in 2010.Manchin reversed his philosophy a bit, refusing in his first year of office to support the sales tax holiday in back-to-school purchases inaugurated by former Gov. Bob Wise.Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer, debated Economic Development Chairman Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, at length over the Republican-led bid to apply the brakes this year to the business franchise tax.All the two agreed on was that the tax is West Virginia's "most onerous" on the business community.But McCabe alluded to a bundle of tax reforms, among them the inventory tax and corporate net income, along with another one-penny drop in the tax on groceries.All told, the tax reductions will rob the state's coffers of between $138 million and $140 million, he said.While things look rosy this year with a whopping surplus, both McCabe and Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, raised the specter of a downtown in the economy — even a recession — and if that occurs, the $70 million loss the Caruth amendment costs would look massive."What if we have a 10 percent reduction in the price of coal?" he asked."That's another $30 million out of the general revenue fund."Suppose, he asked, if lotteries flourish in surrounding states? That could translate into another $50 million setback.But Sen.

A blog about technology from BBC News

Sony is cutting its sales goal for PS3 to 9.5 million units for the year from 11 million.

Few observers believe that HD-DVD will ever be anything more than the second placed finisher in a two horse race.