Voice-nav MP3 Players & HD-based Video

[emit]

e.Digital Odyssey 1000 Advertised with Hughes via SRSLabs on Microsoft Media Player -
http://www.srswowcast.com/about_us/WMPTechnology.Asp

Hughes / Tivo
http://www.hns.com/default.asp?CurrentPath=products/boxes/tivo/tivo.htm

HD recording -

emit...

[emit]

Looks As if VoiceTimes has been lumped into its Pervasive Computing/WebSphere catagory
Anybody find VT page ... was courious if the CDMA inplied Qualcom.... think
it Nokia that just joined.

funny n to our advantage how IBM Mobile VR app has only 50 active word capability
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/pervasive/products/voice/vv_mobile_device.shtml


VoiceTimes - a multi-industry effort led by IBM to ensure that voice solutions are
effectively embedded into wireless technologies
http://www-1.ibm.com/partnerworld/pwhome.nsf/weblook/ci_voice.html

when did wireless become involved,,, was standard/compatibility
still come wirels issues... rem, feds freeing 802. by 04 sure

emit...

[emit]

Pollis, Actel, Space-vested, ti,pp,eq... ic's

Lucent's 99 pick for puck - makes e..Digital prime
for innovations. LU/Verison wireless, hp wireless,
eclipse wireless... Civil IFE n consumer handheld
entertainment via 20centfox etc,..

Intel may have qued PVR, but sblu hurting. MS using Creative for M2go PVR, but sanyo, samsung n phillips others in for commetta type devices.

Is philips/sam/LU with VoiceTimes, we'v done DP for Sammy and they could be our other HP OEM.

Bet Atul knows

fulplay n Sonicblue going Down~ no Echo for them

The possibillities are incouraging - And IMO Analyst will
see it in the lil digger.

MS likes fonx... n pocket pc has 5-8
huge oems playing for m2go/cometta devices.
But Symbian OS carries most - of same/combined OEM's

Doesn't HP use ppc, our headset will be MOS3 probably and
ppc/symbian compatable imo.

WoW MSmedia ain't shabby - bet MP3.com scared to promo
O1K due to unavailibility... lol
DGN n Reorders coming /
Hope N koria cools it.

IMHO - Patience will bring F/H, INTEL, NASCAR, JC,
back - with higher prices back.

Speaking of M2go, Cometta, Echo / Boarders

Companies of the future
Using technology to get ahead in business
ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccwww/ww/rss/newsweek_kiosk.pdf

emit...

[emit]

Good for us overall -

InterVideo and DivXNetworks Expand Comprehensive Licensing Agreement To Target Global PC OEM Market


Partnership Will Enable Large OEMs to Bundle InterVideo Software Tools

Powered by DivX Technology

FREMONT, Calif., March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- DivXNetworks, Inc., the company that created the revolutionary patent-pending DivX(R) video compression technology, and InterVideo, a leading provider of DVD software, today announced an expansion of their existing licensing agreement to distribute DivX-powered InterVideo software products directly to hardware OEMs, including manufacturers of PCs, video cards, camcorders, disk drives and consumer electronics products.

Last year, InterVideo licensed the leading DivX video technology for use in its award-winning suite of retail video software products, including WinDVD, WinDVR, and WinProducer. The new agreement will enable major OEMs to bundle DivX-enabled InterVideo software directly with their hardware products. DivX video compression technology is a hugely popular video encoder / decoder that offers DVD-quality video at sizes 7-10 times smaller than MPEG-2 and ranks among the world's most popular video technologies, with over 75 million downloads and an average of over 2 million downloads per month.

InterVideo software is bundled by eight of the top ten PC makers in the world and over 150 other companies including Acer, Dell, Intel, Gateway, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, NEC, Toshiba and others. DivXNetworks and InterVideo will work together to market DivX-licensed software products to InterVideo's influential OEM customer base.

''The addition of DivX technology to our line of video software products creates an extremely compelling package for our worldwide network of OEM customers,'' said Steve Ro, founder and CEO of InterVideo. ''The significant international brand recognition of DivX video will help strengthen our value proposition to important global markets and will add cutting-edge value to our product line.''

''We look forward to expanding our existing relationship with InterVideo to cover the huge global PC OEM market where they have a strong foothold.'' said Jordan Greenhall, co-founder and CEO of DivXNetworks, Inc. (www.divxnetworks.com). ''By combining the user-friendly performance and versatility of InterVideo's software with the remarkable visual quality and compression of DivX video, we can offer significant value to OEMs who want to create a complete home theater experience for end users.''

WinDVD is the world's most popular DVD player with over 45 million units sold. WinDVD enables DVDs to be played on a computer with theater-like audio and video. It is available for purchase on InterVideo's web site at www.intervideo.com or through retail outlets such as CompUSA, Best Buy, Microcenter, Fry's Electronics and AAFES.

InterVideo joins a number of software companies who have licensed DivX video for commercial multimedia software applications. An estimated 10 million DivX Licensed software products are expected to ship worldwide in the next twelve months, enabling consumers to easily create and watch DivX content on their PCs.

About InterVideo, Inc.

InterVideo is a leading provider of DVD software. InterVideo has developed a technology platform from which it has created a broad suite of integrated multimedia software products that allow users to capture, edit, author, distribute, burn and play digital multimedia content on PCs and consumer electronics devices. The company is headquartered in Fremont, CA and with regional offices in Europe, Taiwan and Japan. For more information contact InterVideo at 510-651-0888 or visit the company's Web site at www.intervideo.com.

About DivXNetworks

DivXNetworks is a consumer-focused video technology company positioned at the center of multimedia convergence. The company's core offering is the DivX (TM) video codec, the world's most popular MPEG-4 compatible video compression technology with over 75 million users worldwide. Often called ''the MP3 of video,'' the patent-pending DivX video technology offers DVD-quality at 10 times greater compression than MPEG-2 files, enabling full length films to easily fit on a CD or be delivered over broadband connections. DivX video technology powers a range of applications that span the convergence value chain, from a secure IP-based video-on-demand solution to next-generation consumer electronics products and video software applications. DivXNetworks is headquartered in San Diego, California, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. For more information, visit http://www.divxnetworks.com .

SOURCE InterVideo

CO: InterVideo; DivXNetworks, Inc.

ST: California

SU: LIC

http://www.prnewswire.com

03/19/2003 10:00 EST

[emit]

Although this is initialy B2B I could see our expertise being used in the VR and/or wireless app - eventualy.

Verizon Plans 2.4-Mbits/s Wireless Rollout
Mark Hachman

Verizon Wireless confirmed plans to roll out a 2.4 Mbit/s wireless network in two markets in the third quarter, combining mobility with broadband speeds.
After testing its 1xEV-DO technology in Washington D.C. with Lucent Technologies and in San Diego with Nortel Networks, Verizon announced that it would roll the technology out to both markets in the third quarter.

Although the 1XEV-DO service competes with wired broadband solutions such as DSL and cable modems, a Verizon spokesman said the company would be marketing the new service through business-to-business channels, as a way for sales representatives and other business people to access the office network while on the road.

"I would say that to a degree, the service offers DSL-type speeds, but that for the most part DSL is a consumer-oriented product," a Verizon spokesman said.

While some consumers will walk into a store and purchase a Verizon AirCard--which uses a different data transmission standard, known as CDMA 1xRRT--the company generally markets its products to business customers, the spokesman said.

Pricing plans have not been set. The 1XEV-DO network will not only compete with the 3G services by other wireless carriers, but also consumer DSL and cable modem plans, the spokesman acknowledged.

If the rollouts are successful, the network will be expanded to other metropolitan areas, over time. "It's definitely something we're looking at," the spokesman said.

The 1XEV-DO network, which is based upon the CDMA2000 standard, was first implemented in South Korea earlier this year by KTF, a subsidiary of Korea Telecom and South Korea's second largest wireless network operator. Phones supporting the new standard are available in Korea, including the SCH-V300 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO phone from Korea's Samsung.

Verizon Wireless plans to sell a wide array of 1xEV-DO devices including PCMCIA cards, modem solutions for the office and a wide range of the latest mobile devices, the company said. Verizon will also offer 802.11b services later this year, providing connections between the Verizon Wireless wide area network and hundreds of 'hot spots' across the country.
`````````
"The consumer launch of the MXP 100, the first portable product to feature an interface based on our speech recognition engine, could create a new market and other opportunities for Lucent’s speech recognition technology," commented Monte Stimmel, licensing manager in the Technology Licensing Solutions group at Lucent. "Drawing on e.Digital’s expertise in low power, small footprint applications, we are able to support more than 100,000 words and names in their music player, plus flexibility for English words or sounds not in the dictionary. We expect this to be the first of many voice recognition applications for portable devices, and we are enthusiastic about the potential to work with e.Digital on additional product opportunities."
http://www.edig.com/news/releases/pr110501b.html

emit.

[rwrf]

Tin: Thanks.

[Tinroad]

Is it a phone? Is it an audio player? It's...
10:11 Monday 10th March 2003
John Lui, CNET Asia

BenQ's latest device is a mobile phone that doubles as a digital audio-video player, using Microsoft's Media2Go operating system

A Taiwanese electronics maker plans this year to begin selling a portable device that's half digital audio-video player and half mobile phone.

"Movie playback is one of our major targets with this device," said Rick Lei, general manager of sales at BenQ, which spun off from computer giant Acer a year ago to concentrate on high-tech consumer products.

The device will sport Microsoft's as-yet-unreleased Media2Go operating system. The OS is designed for multimedia on mobile devices, said Lei, and is a good fit for BenQ's upcoming product.

He added that the company's engineers in Taiwan are working with Microsoft to ensure that the device can play stored music, photos and movies, compressed in formats such as MPEG-4.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as Kazaa have been explosively popular in the past year, with millions of users downloading MP3 music, movies or TV shows into PCs. Each movie typically consumes around one gigabyte of hard drive space.

The as-yet-unnamed BenQ multimedia player/phone will sport a 10GB or 20GB hard disk of the 1.8-inch variety made by Toshiba or Hitachi -- the same type found in Apple Computer's iPod.

When launched in August or September, the device will cost $399 (about £250) for the 10GB version and $499 for the 20GB version.

Since BenQ spun off from Acer, it has had to compete with rivals such as Sony and Samsung, which like BenQ sell both IT and consumer products, with some of them blurring the line between the two worlds.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t287-s2131633,00.html

Meanwhile, hi-rez wireless video still seems a ways off...

Benq shows off digital hub
Thursday, 13 March 2003

You can't stream video over a Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless network, right? The technology's 11Mbps bandwidth isn't sufficient.

Wrong... At this year's CeBit computer show in Germany, Taiwanese technology giant Benq was doing just that: a prototype 'digital hub' that includes a TV tuner was beaming a TV signal to a notebook over an 802.11b wireless connection.

Picture quality is compromised — it's more like Mpeg-4 than DVD definition — and the distance has to be kept under five metres to keep the signal at the full 11Mbps, but it's still impressive.

The concept is very much experimental; Benq UK staff at CeBit had heard the digital hub talked about, but hadn't expected to see it at the show. "It will be at least three to six months before a finished product reaches the market," said Royce Lye, Benq UK marketing manager.

By that time, an new wireless LAN standard, 802.11g with a much higher bandwidth of 54Mbps — easily enough for high-quality video transmission — should have been ratified and the fast 802.11a standard (also offering 54Mbps) will be more widely available.

The hub is essentially a stripped-down version of the company's Joybook — a notebook-format 'media integration' device that looks like a run-of-the-mill laptop with a high-quality screen and a fancy trim, but which contains a suite of media integration software for audio and video creation and editing rather than office productivity tools.

The hub has no screen, keyboard, mouse or speakers, just a couple of ports, an aerial and a few LEDs. But it is likely to be the forerunner of a long line of products, emanating from Asian and Far Eastern countries, that seek to bring digital integration to the home, linking TV, audio, movie-making and web-based 'infotainment'.

"As a piece of hardware the hub is quite a dull product," said Lye, "but it's the potential for what it can integrate that's interesting."

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm?go=news.view&news=3150

[Tinroad]

Creative preps MS-based Nomad video player
By Tony Smith
Posted: 13/03/2003 at 13:12 GMT

When Apple failed to launch a video iPod earlier this year, as it had been rumoured to be planning, it disappointed many of its fans. And now it looks like Microsoft is going to get just such a device to market ahead of it.

The software giant today said it was partnerning with Creative Technology, developer of the Nomad range of MP3 players - and a company given a hefty kick up the pants by the launch of the iPod - to create a portable media playback device.

Creative will develop the device hardware, based on Microsoft 's Media2Go operating platform, developed by its embedded systems group, and built around Windows CE .NET. Media2Go was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, but Microsoft began shipping Intel Xscale-based reference hardware today. A built-in hard drive will hold music, video and photos, and presumably there'll be an integrated LCD panel.

The actual specifications of the device have yet to be revealed, but Creative said it would hold "more than 8,000 music files, 175 hours of digital quality video or up to 30,000 photographs". Media2Go uses compression to squeeze 40GB worth of data onto a 20GB hard drive.

Incidentally, we're not quite sure what "digital quality" means - it's a bit like saying something's as blue as a blue thing. We had assumed Creative meant something comparable to DVD playback, but a trip to the Microsoft Media2Go web site reveals the truth: 175 hours of VHS quality playback. Ho-hum.

"The players will provide continuous playback of video for up to six hours and continuous music playback for up to 12 hours," says Creative.

Samsung, ViewSonic, iRiver and Sanyo have already licensed the platform from Microsoft. Creative's product is due to ship "late 2003" - in time from Christmas, presumably. So Apple has a little while yet to get its vPod out of the lab.

In the meantime - and thanks to Reg readers for pointint out Archos' Jukebox Multimedia 20, a multimedia version of its old hard disk-based MP3 player. The 20's been around for a while, and is capable of DIVX and MPEG-4 video playback. The screen looks a mite small, mind, reminiscent of early 1980s' portable TVs. In its favour, as one reader writes, there's "no Microsoft DRM". ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/29741.html

[Tinroad]

Gil, as the article stated, 'NAND' is short for 'Not And'. Basically, it refers to a logic circuit that will only output a logical zero if all its inputs are logical ones. For NAND flash, the basic attributes are as follows... "NOR Flash is connected to a address / data bus direct like other memory devices as SRAM etc. NAND Flash uses a multiplexed I/O Interface with some additional control pins. NAND flash is a sequential access device appropriate for mass storage applications, while NOR flash is a random access device appropriate for code storage application.NOR Flash can be used for code storage and code execution. Code stored on NAND Flash can't be executed from there. It must be loaded into RAM memory and executed from there." (sorry you asked yet?) "NAND is typically faster than NOR for large writes. A typical NOR write is 10uS per word, which results in 1280uS per 512 bytes on a 32-bit bus. A typical NAND write is 50nS per byte + 10uS page seek + 200uS program which results in 236uS per 512 bytes on a 8 bit bus. As NAND Flash is cheaper than NOR Flash and has a very slim interface it was selected as the optimum solution for large nonvolatile storage applications such as solid state file storage, digital audio/voice recorder, digital still camera and portable applications requiring non-volatility."

The secure card is designed to support secure downloads, EDIG had some involvement with the association that developed the standards for this type of flash card ( http://www.edig.com/partners/associations.html )

As far as competition, I know of no EDIG involvement with PDAs, per se.

[Gilgamash]

Tinroad...

Here is an interesting new PDA from Toshiba...

First: For the techies, what is a NAND?...

Second: How would the "secure card" option affect the unit's ability to work as an MP3 downloading gizmo?...

Is this another "Competition"?...

Didn't Edig work with Toshiba?...

Regards...Gilgamash...


http://www.forbes.com/2003/03/13/cx_ah_0313tentech.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=

[gernb1]

MP3 Insider: It takes a village to beat the iPod
Sure, the iPod looks like a million bucks, but the hidden secret to
its success is its perfect integration with iTunes. Symbiotic
cooperation between hardware manufacturers and shareware
developers could help Windows MP3-device manufacturers
reach the same heights.
Read the column

eDigital Odyssey 1000
When it was first released, Apple's iPod was leaps and bounds
ahead of other hard drive-based MP3 players, but times have
changed. Although slightly bulkier, this portable jukebox from
eDigital has more cool features than the iPod and comes with a
better plan for dealing with battery fatigue. But is that enough for
you to make the switch?
Read the review  / Sign up for product alert March 12, 2003


Eliot Van Buskirk
Senior editor
CNET MP3 Insider
  I have had it with subpar MP3 player file-transfer software. After
almost four years of building MP3 players, most manufacturers
are still content to ship their hardware with software that gets in
your way and doesn't offer any extra functionality. Apple has been
the main exception; iPod's integration with iTunes is so tight that
you could bounce a quarter off of it. But I've been following a
couple of smaller companies that want to write software for your
Windows MP3 player that could put iTunes to shame. To find out
who they are and how they could change the hardware that you
already own--as well as the devices that you're considering
buying--check out this week's MP3 Insider column.
Also, don't pass up our review of eDigital's Odyssey 1000, to find
out whether it succeeds where others have failed: toppling the
iPod from its perch.
Eliot Van Buskirk
CNET MP3 Insider

[Tinroad]

OT: More competition in jukebox arena:
iRiver iHP-100 (w/FM tuner) and iHP-50 (w/o tuner). Both have USB 2.0 with optional Firewire, 1.8" 10 or 20 GB hard drive, WMA/MP3/AAC decoding, jog/joystick navigation, due in May. These may turn up as SBLU/Rio models in the U.S.

[Tinroad]

Vosonic portable A/V player design:
http://www.vosonic.co.uk/vmp3h.html

[emit]

Blutooth, not TWIRL or Multitasking

http://www.techtv.com/freshgear/products/story/0,23008,3420464,00.html

No MP3 either

emit...

[HotrodHans2]

By: D.inkie
10 Mar 2003, 02:52 AM EST Msg. 42243 of 42245

HDDs for Mobile Phones, Cars, and Everything Else
March 10, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Demand for hard disk drives (HDDs) for consumer electronics devices has been growing rapidly since 1999.




HDDs are now common in digital video recorders (DVRs) and other AV devices, and their use has also spread to car navigation systems and portable audio players (graph 1). And it is videogame consoles that are driving current growth in HDD demand (graph 2.)

Despite the fact that HDD development is expected to start hitting technical barriers some time around 2005, they are likely to continue to find more uses in consumer goods. It seems possible that in the near future HDDs will begin appearing even in mobile phones and PDA devices.

Technical Barriers Ahead

HDDs are cheap to make, typically costing only a few hundred yen per gigabyte of memory. That's about the same as for DVDs and CDs, and only one-third the cost of semiconductor memories. Furthermore, the volume of data a standard HDD disk, or platter, can hold -- its recording density -- is still being doubled every year. And as that recording density increases, unit cost per GB falls. Or else the same memory capacity can be packed into smaller platters.

However, using the current format for recording data on disks, it is thought a barrier will be reached around 2005 at 300GB per square inch. A different format, of storing data on the disk perpendicularly, is under development in the hope that a way around the problem can be found. However, this will require a completely different magnetic recording medium, and many technical hurdles will have to be overcome before mass production can commence.

Also, the current mainstream Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) recording head technology is also approaching the limits of its sensitivity, and it remains to be seen whether a smooth transition can be made to the Tunneling Magneto-Resistive (TMR) heads that are touted as the next generation of magnetic head technology.

So, 2005 is likely to be the year the barrier is reached, but looked at from a more optimistic viewpoint, present technology -- in terms of recording densities -- will continue to improve until then. That means that more and more consumer devices will be equipped with HDDs.

Game Consoles, DVRs and Car Navigation Systems Spur Demand

There are four sizes of HDD, namely 3.5-, 2.5-, 1.8- and 1-inch. The volume of data a single platter can hold is 80GB for a 3.5-inch disk, 40GB for a 2.5-inch disk, and 20GB for a 1.8-inch disk. 1-inch platters are currently capable of holding around 1GB, but 4GB versions are expected to start appearing this fall. For cost reasons, 3.5-inch HDDs will continue to be the standard as far as consumer electronics is concerned.

The reason why the market for HDD-equipped game consoles is growing so rapidly is Microsoft Corp's Xbox console. Around 7.5 million were shipped in 2002, and more than a million are being shipped per month at present. 3.5-inch HDD units have also been released as optional by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, for its PlayStation2 (PS2) machine, and Nintendo Co, Ltd, for its GameCube. Sales of these HDDs are likely to hit hundreds of thousands of units per year.

Sales of DVRs with built-in HDDs have also been growing very rapidly since 2002. Sales shipments for 2002 totaled around 2.2 million units, and are expected to surpass 5 million this year, according to industry sources. In particular, popular new DVRs, featuring both HDD and DVD capability, from firms like Toshiba Corp and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Ltd, are increasingly being recognized by consumers as replacements for conventional VTRs.

Car navigation systems with HDDs were also big sellers in 2002. The global market for car navigation systems is currently around 4 million units, but by 2006 is expected to grow to over 6 million. In 2002, only 300,000 of all the car navigation systems sold were equipped with HDDs, but that figure is predicted to shoot up to over a million this year. That's an amazing year-on-year growth rate of 300 percent.

HDDs in Portable Devices

In 2002, around 1 million portable audio players with HDDs were sold. From now on, these devices are likely to get much smaller. Most current players have 2.5- or 1.8-inch HDDs, but as surface recording density increases, the 1.8-inch type is expected to become the standard. Cost is a problem, but Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc (Hitachi GST) has now said it will follow Toshiba's lead and enter the market in April, so some cost-competition can be expected.

Hitachi GST is also marketing its Microdrive, a 1-inch HDD which is based on Compact Flash memory cards. However, it hasn't found many applications yet. The firm's newly established Emerging Markets Business Unit is looking for potential ways of using 1-inch drives in compact devices like audio players, digital video cameras and PDAs. At present, Hitachi GST has only found one customer, so demand doesn't seem high and it remains to be seen whether there is a viable market for 1-inch drives.

The one product that could turn around the fortunes of mini-HDDs and make them very much in demand is the mobile phone, 400 million of which are sold every year. However, it is thought that drives will have to shrink to 0.8-inch or smaller before they can be incorporated into handsets. Several manufacturers are known to be working on developing such drives, but as yet none has announced any product launch date.

HDD Achilles Heel

There is already a data storage medium -- semiconductor memory for mobile phone applications. Memory Sticks and SD Cards are very small, thin and lightweight. And storage capacity is also increasing rapidly. Both Sony Corp (this spring) and Matsushita Electric (this fall) will be bringing out 1GB versions of their respective memory media. And memory capacity will likely go on doubling annually.

In contrast, 1-inch HDDs with 4GB capacity are to appear later this year, so even if a 0.8-inch disk could be made, it would probably hold around 2 or 3GB. And that will be only 2- or 3-times the memory capacity of this year's latest Memory Stick or SD Card. If, as expected in 2005, HDDs lose the advantage of their most powerful asset up to now -- their ever-improving recording densities -- and semiconductor memory devices do go on improving, then in 2006 or thereabouts the semiconductor memory media will overtake HDDs.

[ucansee]

The Internet as Jukebox, at a Price
By DAVID POGUE


Befuddlement (n.): 1. Confusion resulting from failure to understand. 2. Loss of sense of direction, position, or relationship with one's surroundings. 3. The state of the recording industry as it tries to sell music on the Internet.

THE only thing record companies know for sure is that they want to kill off the insanely popular Sons of Napster: free music-sharing services like KaZaA, Gnutella and Morpheus. After all, the millions who use these services are in effect stealing music, depriving the five major labels of perfectly good money. But watching the record companies as they try to find a formula for a successful paid alternative is like watching five people play blindman's bluff on stilts.

At least they're generally crashing in the right direction. This is a busy time for improvements in the music-downloading services: America Online unveiled its MusicNet service last week; Pressplay has launched version 2.5 of its software; Rhapsody has unveiled a 49-cents-per-song special; and a new service called MusicNow, which offers a fresh approach to finding music, will make its debut later this month. With each development, these companies (and another MusicNet affiliate, RealOne MusicPass) are gradually lowering prices, filling the holes in their catalogs and loosening the restrictions on what you can do with the music you've bought.

Unfortunately, one thing that has not changed is the complexity of their price plans, which make choosing a cellphone plan look like child's play. Each company offers several degrees of freedom for the music it sells, each priced differently.

The most basic freedom is listening to songs while your Windows PC is online. It's a lot like one of those free Internet radio stations, except that these "stations" are commercial-free and, in some cases, customizable.

The next level of freedom is the most bizarre. In some plans, you are allowed to download songs to your PC's hard drive for playback even when you're not online. (Companies call these temporary, conditional or tethered downloads.) But you're only renting these songs, not buying them. If your subscription to the music service expires, your music files expire too, turning into worthless kilobyte carcasses on your hard drive. It's like having a landlord blow up your apartment if you miss a month's rent.

Finally, for an extra fee, most services let you download selected songs - called portable or permanent downloads - directly onto a blank CD. At that point, you own them forever. You can mix and match songs from different bands, dictate the playback order or build your own versions of hit CD's, minus the annoying songs.

You still can't move these files to another computer or e-mail them. Nonetheless, this approach is the closest the music services have come to a compromise between what music fans want (flexibility to use what they have bought) and what the record companies want (preventing file swapping).

Yet the music services don't mind admitting that if you have the time and the right music utility program, you can "rip" the songs from the newly burned CD right back onto your hard drive. Presto: standard MP3 files that you can back up, share with others or copy to a portable music player.

Most of these services are essentially giant databases. You search for a song, peruse the search results, and click on a song title to hear or download it. Rhapsody, Pressplay and MusicNow spice up the service with articles and recommendations. Pressplay 2.5, in fact, includes audio versions of Billboard magazine best-seller charts going back 45 years - an intriguing way to study the development of popular music.

Most of these services offer pretty much the same 250,000 songs because they have all struck deals with the same major record companies. That's certainly enough music to cover, say, an aerobics workout, but it is by no means every pop song every written. You'll encounter big holes in the Billboard Top 100 list, for example.

Worse, some of the biggest performers, or their agents, refuse to play the online-music game. You won't find much of anything from Madonna, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam or the Beatles, for example. (Pressplay does list a rendition of the Beatles' "Yesterday" - played on panpipes. The Beatles' agent sure has a funny sense of licensing priorities.)

Even if you do find the song you're seeking, the little "CD-burnable" flame icon next to its name is missing on about half the songs in most services' catalogs. In other words, you can listen but you can't download it to own. Pressplay claims that "well over 90 percent" of its catalog is burnable, but even there, you can't buy anything from Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Aaliyah, Mos Def, and other current hit makers.

Most of the differentiation among the services, then, boils down to their software design and pricing. The RealOne plan, for example, comes with typical Real software: complex, cluttered and riddled with ads. It stocks only 100,000 songs-a fraction of its rivals' libraries. It is also the worst deal, charging you without selling you anything that you can keep. The company says that an overhaul is in the works.

AOL's new service, which like RealOne is a spinoff of the MusicNet library, is clean and extremely easy to use, and AOL customers can savor the simplicity of being billed for music on their AOL statements. But the software design is spartan to the extreme; you can browse music only by performer name, not by album or category. Worse, the $18-per-month plan buys you only 10 burnable songs each month; it will take you two months to accumulate enough songs for a single CD.

Clearly, most people would prefer an unlimited, à la carte system without hassles or limits. That's the beauty of the plans devised by Rhapsody and MusicNow: $1 each for as many songs as you care to download, on top of the monthly $5 or $10 fee.

MusicNow is designed more like a radio station than a spreadsheet. Instead of searching for a particular song, you begin by choosing from a list of 40 channels: Indie Rock, Electronica, and so on. (Older listeners may be gratified to discover categories like Film Scores, Show Tunes, and Holiday Music, all glaringly absent from rival services.) You can listen to these channels as you would the radio, or, if you prefer the database approach, search for and buy individual songs for $1 apiece. All of the action takes place within Windows Media Player 9, so you don't have to learn another proprietary piece of software.

MusicNow claims to be uninterested in the usual audience of young MP3-file collectors. Although its prerelease software is a bit slow and wobbly, it may become a welcome, more grown-up alternative to the database-like services.

Rhapsody offers a similarly friendly software design, which includes a feature that lets you build a radio station that plays only your favorite singers. Until March 31, CD-burnable songs on the $10-per-month plan cost only 49 cents each - a good argument for making this the first music service you try. Its one significant liability is that none of the songs in Sony Music's catalog are burnable.

Pressplay is similar, except that you have to buy your burnable songs in blocks of 5, 10, or 20. But in addition to well-built, speedy software, Pressplay offers a huge, exclusive perk: You can copy your purchased songs straight to a CD, Sony Minidisc or - and this is the big one - to many popular portable music players. (Alas, the best-selling Apple iPod is not among them; it doesn't recognize WMA files, those in Microsoft's copy-protected music-file format.) This direct-to-player feature is a big improvement over the burn-to-CD, copy-back-to-PC, transfer-to-player ritual required by the other services. (MusicNow says that a similar feature will transfer songs primarily to hard-drive-based players.)

No matter which service you try, you'll almost always pay more for an album's worth of music than you would by buying a CD in the store. Furthermore, none of these services exploit the virtues of the Web by including lyrics, tour dates and other news.

Nonetheless, these commercial music libraries would seem like amazing, groundbreaking inventions if only they didn't follow other, more amazing and groundbreaking inventions: KaZaA and its ilk, sites where every song is available, burnable and free. You never have to wade through the complexities of the prices and rights matrices. No wonder people have stayed away from the commercial libraries in droves.

If the tide is finally starting to turn, as the record companies fervently hope, two forces are at work. First, somebody is poisoning the well at the free swapping services, trying to waste music fans' time by uploading mislabeled, truncated and sonically garbled versions of the most popular songs. (The culprits aren't identifying themselves, but unhappy music fans think they have a pretty good idea who's at work here.)

The second force is the gradual refinement of the commercial music libraries. They're gradually filling in the musical holes, simplifying pricing and stumbling toward a business model that isn't quite as repellent to consumers. Almost everyone expects that they'll find that formula someday; it's all about defining the terms.



Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Tinroad]

Steve Ferguson at IPEC 2003 in London:
(Thanks to GoSilver for the lead)

DAY THREE - Wednesday 9 April 2003 09.40

Content: Will distributed mobile platforms challenge embedded IFE?

Airport wireless networks, portable hard-drives and laptops could extend the reach of IFE to the other side of the gate.
(Presented by) Steve Ferguson, VP sales and marketing, e.Digital Corporation, USA

http://www.ipec2003.com/program.pdf

[Tinroad]

from www.ihavetohave.it re MPIO HD100:

Administrator
Member # 1
posted 04 March, 2003 00:44

---------------------------------------------------------------

We expect the mpio HD100 to launch late March/early April. There are some manufacturer-side issues going on with a badge-engineered version of this product that's being grey imported by some retailers. The grey-imports don't have EU-spec tuners or power adaptors.

http://www.ihavetohave.it/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000008

hmmmm - wonder if this is the grey market version? http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shopping/pages/buyodyssey1000.html
"SOLD OUT IN UK AND USA"

[prehistory]

March 4, 2003
Dear Friend of e.Digital,

The new FL100 records directly from FM radio!

It works with PC or Mac, and it's also a digital voice recorder. Upload your personal art for display on the LCD screen.

The FL100 includes 256 MB of embedded solid-state Flash memory (enough to hold 4 hours of music), plus an expansion slot for your MMC or SD Card. Great features, great looks, and a very affordable price!

FL100

The new 256 MB Flash-based Digital Music Player, on sale now!

$199.99

Product Dimensions:
40mm x 79.54mm x 14.2mm
Weight: 41.5g (without battery)
This personal digital music player features:

256 MB Built-in flash
SD Card (MMC) expansion slot
FM Radio
FM Recorder
Digital Voice Recorder
MP3 & WMA file support
Sophisticated mirrored front
Customizable Power Equalizer
Start-up LCD screen uses your custom art!
3-Line LCD
Blue-green backlight
PC & Mac Compatible
Plug-ins for: iTunesTM3, Windows MediaTM Player, and RealOneTM player
Multi-language display
To order now, or to see more detailed features, go to: www.edigital-store.com/fl100.html. The FL100 is available exclusively through e.Digital's online store.

The FL100 Includes All These Standard Accessories:

Carrying case with belt clip
Stereo earphones
Mini-USB 1.1 cable
Wrist strap
Installation CD and user's guide
One AAA Alkaline battery

[Tinroad]

SRS WOW(TM) Technology Adds Audio Punch to New Portable Digital Audio Player From e.Digital

Tuesday March 4, 7:31 am ET

WOW Technology Rapidly Becoming Audio Standard for Digital Entertainment Products
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030304/latu038_1.html

SANTA ANA, Calif., March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SRS Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRSL - News), a leading provider of innovative audio, voice and ASIC technology solutions, today announced that its patented WOW audio technology has been selected by e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG - News) to deliver the ultimate audio experience for its premier digital audio player, the Odyssey(TM) 1000. WOW creates a natural and expansive audio experience with rich bass enhancement through Odyssey's included collapsible stereo headphones or when connected to the external speakers of a home stereo or multimedia PC system. The Odyssey 1000 is available exclusively through e.Digital at www.edigital-store.com/odyssey1000.html for $349.

According to InStat/MDR, worldwide portable digital music player unit shipments (including solid state and revolving media products) will grow from about 7.2 million in 2002 to almost 30 million in 2006. Based on e.Digital's MicroOS(TM) technology, the Odyssey 1000 plays both MP3 and Windows Media(TM) audio files and features an FM tuner and a digital voice recorder with built- in microphone.

Steve Ferguson, e.Digital's vice president of sales and marketing, said, "When designing our premier large-capacity player, the Odyssey 1000, we chose to incorporate SRS WOW audio technology because it delivers the most powerful audio experience possible in a portable entertainment product. Our customers demand the best and we are pleased to offer them the best design, the best features, and the best audio technology."

"e.Digital's new Odyssey 1000 is an example of the growing importance of delivering a high quality audio experience in portable entertainment products," said Ted Franceschi, executive vice president, marketing and sales for SRS Labs. "WOW is the ideal audio solution for this rapidly growing product segment and we are pleased to work with an innovative company such as e.Digital to deliver the ultimate in digital audio entertainment."

SRS WOW is an award-winning, patented, playback enhancement technology that improves audio dynamics and bass performance of any mono or stereo audio. It provides a stunning improvement when used with smaller speakers or headphones that are not capable of achieving a high fidelity experience, especially when the audio has been digitally compressed into formats such as MP3 and WMA. WOW is a compelling audio solution for manufacturers of mobile or portable devices, in addition to products in which speakers are located close together, such as televisions. Hardware and software products that feature WOW include mobile phones from Sharp, Microsoft's Windows® Media Player series software products, car CD receivers from Kenwood, as well as televisions from Sony and Sharp. To date, over 300 million hardware or software products have been shipped or downloaded that include the powerful WOW audio feature.

About e.Digital

e.Digital Corporation designs, licenses, brands, manufactures, and sells digital audio products and technologies. The company's trademarked digital audio players include the MXP® 100, Treo(TM) portable digital jukebox line, and Odyssey(TM) line of flash- and hard disk drive- based players. e.Digital launched WeDigMusic.com to complement its digital audio players by providing consumers with a one-stop-shop for streaming and downloading music from thousands of artists on the Web. For more information on the company, please visit www.edig.com . To shop in the e.Digital online store, please visit www.edigital-store.com .

About SRS Labs Inc.

Over the past decade, SRS Labs has become a recognized leader in the advancement of audio and voice technology. The company works with the world's top manufacturers to provide a richer entertainment experience through patented sound techniques. SRS technologies can be heard through products ranging from televisions, DVD players, and cell phones to car audio systems and computers. Through its SRSWOWcast subsidiary, the company offers hardware and software tools to professionals and consumers for the production of content featuring SRS technologies. SRS Labs' wholly owned subsidiary, ValenceTech, is located in Hong Kong and provides custom ASICs and standard ICs to top manufacturers worldwide. Based in Santa Ana, Calif., the company also has licensing representation in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe, and Korea. For more information about SRS Labs, Inc. or SRS technologies, please visit www.srslabs.com . The information on the above-referenced websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

For further information, please contact: Investors, Tami Yanito of SRS Labs, Inc., [phone], ext. 3093, [e-mail]

Source: SRS Labs, Inc.

[Tenderloin]

O-1000 review by CNET

http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-6342420-1304-20845399.html?tag=pdtl-list

[gernb1]

A Real Hollywood Horror Story

MARCH 10, 2003
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY


New technologies may do to movies what MP3 did to music
 

Picture a fellow named George sitting in his living room on Sunday evening. He's watching a digital playback of the latest episode of The West Wing. Zapping through commercials, he starts yawning and decides to finish watching it in bed. With a flick of his remote, he wirelessly dispatches the show to the bedroom TV. He also sends a copy via the Internet to his sister and asks her in an e-mail to make a DVD of the show to pass along to their mom.

Story Continues Below Ad


 

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This vision of the future is closer than you think. To date, Napster and its music-sharing offspring have reigned supreme as Hollywood's biggest headache. But four insurgent technologies that will make George's Sunday possible are fast picking up steam. Together, they promise to turn the gamut of copyrighted programming into convenient files that can be downloaded, stored, and shared almost as easily as e-mail. And this shift could happen quickly--within 18 months--because early forms of these technologies are here now.
The insurgency starts with compression, a new system to shrink digital files into smaller packages that are easier to send through networks. Step two is storage: Advances there put enough memory for shelves of movies into laptops or even handheld gizmos. The third technology is digital recording, such as the one used by TiVo Inc. (TIVO ), which is now being jammed into a host of devices and computers. And to link all of this programming, whether in a house or on campus, a new high-speed wireless system is emerging that can zap an episode of The Simpsons between laptops 50 times faster than most broadband connections. Add it all together, and Hollywood will be reaching for a bigger dose of aspirin.
The danger is evident. Unchecked, these advances spell the Napsterization of movies and the scorching of TV ad revenues. The threat already is pushing Tinseltown to raise two levels of defenses. The industry is hurrying to build safeguards into networks and computers to limit copying or transmission of copyrighted fare. And entertainment companies are pressing cases in court, suing companies, and pursuing individuals. "It's not just one fight," says Clay Shirky, a tech consultant and professor at New York University. "The entire [technology industry] is playing against music and movie companies."
It's easy to understand why. With a weak economy dragging down sales and earnings, tech companies are pulling out all stops to entice consumers to buy new products. And what's more alluring than entertainment? So it's little wonder that all four technologies--wireless networking, massive data storage, faster compression speeds, and powerful recording technologies--are showing up everywhere, from Toshiba home media centers and Apple Computer laptops to Samsung Group handhelds. "The next wave of the personal computer is the digital lifestyle," says Philip W. Schiller, Apple's (AAPL ) senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing.
It was a compression innovation called MP3 that opened the Internet to music-sharing in the late '90s. That technology transformed songs into files small enough to send over a dial-up connection. Now comes MPEG4. This compression standard shrinks audio and video by a factor of two to three, and it will be programmed into most computers, stereos, and DVD players by yearend. "It's the MP3 of video," says analyst Lou Latham of Gartner Inc.
Thanks to breakthroughs in high-density storage, there will be loads of room to warehouse those videos. When Napster surfaced in 1999, a gigabyte of storage--enough to hold around 250 MP3 songs--cost $12.27 wholesale. Now, it's down to $1.15, according to IDC. With storage this cheap, it's easy for RCA to stuff 20 gigabytes into its $400 handheld personal video recorder, which can handle 80 hours of video.
Such recording machines are at the heart of Hollywood's vulnerability. Pioneered by startups TiVo and ReplayTV Inc. (SBLU ), PVRs make it a snap to digitally record any TV show--and it's just as easy to skip through commercials. Now, PVR technology is starting to pop up in Toshiba laptops, Panasonic's $1,000 DVD machines, and Hewlett-Packard's $1,600 entertainment PCs. These devices all connect to networks, and they can make movie-length copies on DVDs. This makes it ever easier for viewers to own, and to share, nearly everything they see.
In time, most entertainment systems will sport their own PVRs, with gobs of storage and connections to the Net. At January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic, Royal Philips Electronics, and Sony (SNE ) unveiled their new media centers. These machines, costing from $1,000 to $2,000, offer next-generation remote controls and servers that link virtually every home-entertainment device in the house. Meantime, RCA, Samsung, and others are rolling out mobile video players to let consumers take all this content on the road. "The threat that the mobile MP3 players was for music, this is for movies," says Tim Bajarin, president of consulting firm Creative Strategies. "It's video on the go."
The final piece of the puzzle is wireless. In the past year, networking in homes, campuses, and cafes using low-cost Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, has taken off. This summer, a high-speed cousin, compatible with the previous version, is coming out. Known as 802.11g, it's five times faster than its predecessor.
The implications are huge. One example: Even as universities battle piracy by monitoring mega data transfers on their networks, students will soon be able to set up their own high-speed networks in dorms or labs and trade files willy-nilly. That will be easier with the new standard, whose 150-foot range is about twice the length of old Wi-Fi.
These advances are setting the stage for a new round of conflict among tech companies, consumers, and Hollywood. The technology industry is working with music and movie studios to create new services, digital locks, and filters that can balance consumer rights and copyrights. But they'd better hurry. Once consumers get their hands on the power these new technologies deliver, Hollywood will have a tough time getting it back.

By Heather Green in New York

[prehistory]

http://www.xilinx.com/esp/technologies/cpld/pda/prc.htm


CoolRunner Reference Designs

Listed below are the latest Xilinx CPLD design examples and evaluation boards:

Avnet Evaluation Kit (CoolRunner XPLA3)
Avnet Evaluation Kit (CoolRunner-II)
[E.Digital]
Insight Electronics-CPLD
Insight Electronics-Springboard
Insight Electronics-CPLD (CoolRunner-II)
Intel® StrongARM Processor
Quarndon Development Board



Hardware Development

To find the latest information regarding PDA hardware kits and development boards, see the links below:

CompactFlash Development Tools
Compaq Pocket Computing
Handspring Development Kit
Hewlett-Packard Development Corner
Sony Handheld Developer
Springboard Development Guide

Manufactures

Available are various links to companies that are the well-known makers of handheld devices:

Casio
Compaq
HandEra
Handspring
Hewlett-Packard
Palm
Sony

Newsgroups

Provided are PDA related newsgroups that encourages participation by giving you the ability to add your own comments to messages already posted:

alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot
comp.sys.handhelds
comp.sys.palmtops
comp.sys.palmtops.pilot
comp.sys.pen


Organization and Standards

Listed are sites that promote the interface between plug-in modules and the PDA:

CompactFlash Association
Handhelds.org
Memory Stick
MultiMediaCard Association
SD Card Association
Springboard Module Development



Publications

Offering you the latest news and information on handheld equipment. Many feature discussion forums, editorials and product reviews:

Brighthand
MagPortal
Mobile Computing Online
Mobile Insights
PalmAgora (French)
PalmPower
Palm Tipsheet
Palmtop PRO (German)
Palm User (UK)
PMN (UK)
Pocket PC Magazine
Portable Design
TidBITS for the Palm Pilot
Tucows
VisorCentral
Wireless Developer Network

Software Development

These software developer sites offer various methods to write and test software for PDA applications:

GNU Software
Handspring Development Kit
Linux
Metrowerks Development Tools
Microsoft PocketPC
OrbWorks Concentrated Software
Palm Development Tools
PersonalJava™ Application Environment
Symbian Developer Network

User Groups

User groups are a great way to swap stories, ask questions, give advice or just have fun with other users of handheld equipment:

Club Pocket PC
InterPUG

[prehistory]

OT: Web's Most Popular Music Destination While On The Go

America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, and AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) announced today the launch of the AOL(R) Music Mobile Club on AT&T Wireless mMode(sm) service. The AOL Music Mobile Club extends the top features of AOL's music offerings to mMode subscribers and allows them to access news and information on popular and new artists, as well as buy related downloadable ring tones from their wireless phone.

"We're excited to extend our relationship with AT&T Wireless to bring the AOL Music Mobile Club to mMode subscribers and forge new avenues for consumers to discover, experience and purchase music-related products," said Dan Servos, Vice President of Premium Mobile Services for America Online. "Just as AOL led the way in building AOL Music into the number one music destination online, we're excited to be at the forefront of the burgeoning mobile entertainment market with a wide-range of wireless applications. We look forward to expanding the AOL Music Mobile Club with even more great features such as richer-sounding ring tones, streaming music and music video clips."

"AOL Music Mobile Club enriches our comprehensive music portfolio by combining major music companies in one place on the wireless phone," said John Bunyan, Senior Vice President of AT&T Wireless Mobile Multimedia Services. "The addition of the AOL Music Mobile Club speaks to the increasing popularity of mobile music services, as more artists are looking to extend their reach beyond conventional means, and as phones with richer audio and imaging capabilities penetrate the marketplace."

"More and more music fans are going online to enjoy premiere, on-demand access to their favorite music and the biggest music debuts from today's most popular artists, and we are thrilled to be able to now extend the AOL Music experience beyond the PC to wireless phones," said Bill Wilson, Vice President and General Manager of AOL Music. "We've already had a tremendous response to ring tones from artists like TLC. The launch of the AOL Music Mobile Club makes it easy for music fans to find great mobile-ready content and enjoy our popular music features all in one place -- on the Web or on their phone."

Each week, the AOL Music Mobile Club spotlights the latest chart-topping performers from pop, rock, hip-hop and more. Other features of the AOL Music Mobile Club on mMode include:

-- Three complimentary ring tone or phone graphic downloads a

month, plus the ability to buy additional downloads from AOL's

catalog;

-- The ability to listen to music samples;

-- Alerts notifying members of new featured artists and new AOL

Music Mobile Club offerings;

-- Quiz-A-Go-Go, which tests club members' knowledge of different

artists;

-- The Artist Discovery Network, which allows members to learn

about new, up-and-coming bands; and much more.

Pricing and Availability

The AOL Music Mobile Club is available now for AT&T Wireless customers with mMode service for an additional $3.49 per month. AT&T Wireless customers can register for the AOL Music Mobile Club from their wireless phone by accessing mMode, going to the "Entertainment Channel," navigating to the "Music" menu, selecting "AOL Music Mobile Club," then following the prompts.

For more information visit AOL Keyword: Mobile Music, or go to www.aol.com/anywhere or www.attws.com.

In addition to the AOL Music Mobile Club, AT&T Wireless and America Online also offer a wide-range of wireless services including the AOL(R) Instant Messenger(TM) (AIM(R)) service for wireless phones; access to AOL Mail and other AOL content including the latest news, financial information, driving directions, and local event and entertainment information; and mobile downloadable content, including a library of ring tones and graphics.

About AT&T Wireless

AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) is the second-largest wireless carrier, based on revenues, in the United States. With 20.859 million subscribers, and full-year 2002 revenues exceeding $15.6 billion. AT&T Wireless will continue delivering advanced high-quality mobile wireless communications services, voice or data, to businesses and consumers, in the U.S. and internationally. For more information, please visit us at www.attwireless.com.

About AOL Music

AOL Music, a division of America Online, Inc., reaches the largest audience of online music fans in the world through a rich array of programming, products and services that make it easy to discover, experience, listen to and buy music online. AOL Music's offerings are available at the number one Internet music destination, the AOL Music Channel, and throughout the AOL service, AOL Broadband Services and AOL's family of Web brands including Netscape, CompuServe, AIM, ICQ, Spinner, Winamp and SHOUTcast.

About America Online

America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Time Warner (NYSE:AOL). Based in Dulles, Virginia, America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.

CONTACT:

America Online, Inc.

Jaymelina Esmele, 703/265-1746

[e-mail]

or

Ann Burkart, 703/265-1746

[e-mail]

or

AT&T Wireless

Danielle Perry, 201/576-7707

[Sentinel]

Monday, March 3rd...They give it an "8". eom

[berge]

not a bad devicee, for viewing static picture. Will tell you what I think of it when I get back from PMA

[emit]

By: mcdojr
01 Mar 2003, 06:13 PM EST Msg. 1112992 of 1113002

Press the SRS button on any Windows Media Player and you get this http://www.srswowcast.com/about_us/WMPTechnology.Asp

[But Anyway]

SmartDisk Introduces FlashTrax™-- The Portable, Palm-sized Digital Multimedia Device

Ft. Myers, FL, February 28, 2003 - SmartDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SMDK), today introduced its new FlashTrax handheld portable device for offloading and storing digital images and music. FlashTrax is being showcased in Booth H164 at PMA International, The Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2-5, 2003.

FlashTrax can safely store high-resolution images transferred from any flash memory card onto the built-in 30GB USB2.0 hard drive and displays them on a 3.5" LCD that outperforms tiny on-camera screens. By using the sleek control pad, the user can change the image, zoom in, zoom out and scroll, or choose a slide show function - all without the need of a PC. The LCD folds to ensure that both the screen and control buttons remain protected while in field use. Images may be viewed on the LCD screen or on any TV using the included remote control. To facilitate portability, FlashTrax also includes a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery.

"FlashTrax brings new freedom to photographers," says Charles Klinker, Director-Marketing for SmartDisk. "The ability to offload images from flash memory cards to the built-in hard drive represents a lower cost alternative to purchasing multiple, expensive flash memory cards."

A built-in MP3 player makes this device even more attractive - more than 7,000 compressed audio files can be stored and played back through the built-in speaker, headphones or external speakers. Various play modes are easily controlled from the user-friendly screen display and control pad, making music selection quick and easy.

With transfer speeds of up to 480MBps, FlashTrax can also serve as an external hard drive to transfer, store and access data or act as a simple backup device.

Pricing and Availability
Suggested retail price for FlashTrax is $499.99, with availability in April through retailers and distributors, as well as through the company's Web site at http://www.smartdisk.com.

About SmartDisk Corporation
SmartDisk is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of a range of imaginative consumer electronic products and exciting software solutions that are enabling the digital age and simplifying the digital lifestyle. The Company's innovative products help users transfer, store, manage and share digital music, video, pictures and data. Headquartered in the U.S., with operations in Europe and Asia, SmartDisk sells and supports its products worldwide. For more information, go to http://www.smartdisk.com.

All trade names referenced are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

For further information contact:
SmartDisk Corporation, Naples, Florida
Crystal Revak, 239/425-4072
[e-mail]

[CDR]

austonia you have technical expertise . So sending your findings to eDigital should prove to be rewarding for you .

[Sentinel]

austonia....Compile all your comments and send them to the company. That would be the best bet to help the most people who may have concerns like you do. Can't hurt.

[austonia]

"Other perks: The Odyssey features a "Back" button (the operation of which is more intuitive than turning the iPod's menu wheel counterclockwise)"

Yeah... if only it worked properly. The back but ONLY works when you are navigating through directories. It DOES NOT work after you have selected a song. You have to use the Menu Button to exit all the way to the main menu. Then you have to manually navigate all the way back to whatever directory you were in before selecting another song. I have seen several people comment about this. In my opinion it is THE MOST annoying bug in the firmware. I'm not holding my breathe for a new firmware but damn this thing needs it. Other problems : occasional stability issues (lock ups;reboot cycles), occasional delays between songs (up to 10 seconds), long initial boot up 13 seconds, no backlight in the Radio screen, Radio can only be adjusted in .2 increments, in the Radio mode the volume can only be adjusted in 3 level increments, & VBR files make the track time jump around like crazy. And of course it could *really* use ID3 tag support, a sleep mode, longer "power-off" selection (10 minutes idle is the most you can choose before it powers off), and more track details while its playing (total track time, bit rate, etc.), onboard file management, onboard playlists, etc... the stuff that the competition allready has.

[gernb1]

OT Hope they are as witty in our IFE demos...Safety Info Demo


Totally off the record... I was flying to San Francisco this weekend, and the stewardess reading the flight safety information had the whole plane looking at each other like "what the heck?".

So once we got airborne, I took out my laptop and typed up what she said so I wouldn't forget. I've left out a few parts I'm sure, but this is most of it.

Before Takeoff....

Hello and welcome to Alaska flight 438 to San Francisco. If you're going to San Fransisco, you're in the right place. If you're not going to San Francisco, you're about to have a really long evening.

We'd like to tell you now about some important safety features of this aircraft. The most important safety feature we have aboard this plane is... The Flight Attendants. Please look at one now.

There are 5 exits aboard this plane, 2 at the front, 2 over the wings, and one out the plane's rear end. If you're seated in one of the exit rows, please do not store your bags by your feet. That would be a really bad idea.

Please take a moment and look around and find the nearest exit. Count the rows of seats between you and the exit. In the event that the need arises to find one, trust me, you'll be glad you did. We have pretty blinking lights on the floor that will blink in the direction of the exits. White ones along the normal rows, and pretty red ones at the exit rows.

In the event of a loss of cabin pressure these baggy things will drop down over your head. You stick it over your nose and mouth like the flight attendant is doing now. The bag won't inflate, but there's oxygen there, I promise.

If you are sitting next to a small child, or someone who is acting like a small child, please do us all a favor and put on your mask first. If you are travelling with two or more children, please take a moment now to decide which one is your favorite. Help that one first, and then work your way down.

In the seat pocket in front of you is a pamphlet about the safety features of this plane. I usually use it as a fan when I'm having my own personal summer. It makes a very good fan. It also has pretty pictures. Please take it out and play with it now.

Please take a moment now to make sure your seat belts are fastened low and tight about your waist. To fasten the belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle. To release, it's a pully thing - not a pushy thing like you're car cuz you're in an airplane, hello!

There is no smoking in the cabin on this flight. There is also no smoking in the lavatories. If we see smoke coming from the lavatories, we will assume you are on fire and put you out. This is a free service we provide.

There are two smoking sections on this flight, one outside each wing exit. We do have a movie in the smoking sections tonight, hold on, let me check what it is.......... Oh here it is, the movie tonight is 'Gone with the Wind'.

In a moment we will be turning off the cabin lights, and it's going to get really dark, really fast. If you're afraid of the dark, now would be a good time to reach up and press the yellow button. The yellow button turns on your reading light. Please don't press the orange button unless you absolutely have to. The orange button is your seat ejection button.

We're glad to have you with us on board this flight. Thank you for choosing Alaska Air, and giving us your business and your money. If there's anything we can do to make you more comfortable, please don't hesitate to ask.

If you all weren't strapped down you would have given me a standing ovation wouldn't you?

After landing...

Welcome to the San Francisco International Airport. Sorry about the bumpy landing. It's not the captian's fault. It's not the co-pilot's fault. It's the Assphault.

Please remain seated until the plane is parked at the gate. At no time in history has a passenger beaten a plane to the gate. So please don't even try. Please be careful opening the overhead bins because shift happens.

[Sentinel]

There are NO user comments. It is simply a reprint of the EDIG PR from back in July 2002. Don't you read these pages before you post them?

[Gilgamash]

User comments about 0-1000...C-NET...

http://www.designinteract.com/news/10874.html

Regards...Gilgamash...

[Sentinel]

It's not a "good write up". It is simply a report from back in July 2002, when EDIG unveiled the player, of what the player would incorporate. As we know, they did not include Mac compatibility at this time. There are no actual product reviews on that site, and the latest entry is July 27th 2002

[Gilgamash]

Sorry...

Here is the site that goes with Post # 250, about a good write up on 0-1000 on designinteract.com...

Regrads...Gilgamash...

http://www.designinteract.com/news/10874.html

[Gilgamash]

2/28/2003...another good write up on 0-1000...

http://news.hwupgrade.it/6882.html

Regards...Gilgamash...

[Gilgamash]

gernb1...

Here is an Italian site, (I think it is Italian?), that gives reviews of 0-1000...

Read items 3 an 4 under features, which is in English. It says the unit is Mac. and i-tunes compatible...

This alone, should make headway among i-pod affecionados. Don't you think?...


http://news.hwupgrade.it/6882.html


Regards...Gilgamash...

P.S. Can any one translate?

[Sentinel]

OT: Breaking News: French Surrender!

France Surrenders to Texas High School
By David Burge
CNSNews.com
February 28, 2003

Paris (CNSNews.com) - What began as a six-day chaperoned music tour by a group of suburban Texan teenagers ended in an epic conquest in the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning as French military and government officials offered their unconditional surrender to students of the Aldine, Texas Eisenhower High School Music Department.

Accepting the surrender, Eisenhower High School Band and Choral Director Gary Baumer praised the French for avoiding further bloodshed and vowed an immediate postwar rebuilding effort. "We hope to achieve national recovery by prom," said Baumer. "The seniors have voted for the theme "Springtime in Paris."

In a goodwill gesture, Baumer said the victorious students would soon begin releasing most of the 400,000 French prisoners of war they had captured during the brutal three-day campaign.

"We want the prisoners reunited with their families," said Justin Gonzales, a junior tenor in the Eisenhower Glee Chorus. "Besides, you can't even begin to imagine the smell."

Baumer also granted former government officials and their families safe passage out of the country. Former President Jacques Chirac was last seen boarding his private Airbus jet at Orly Airport, as the Eisenhower Jazz Ensemble taunted him with an off-key rendition of "Na Na Na Na (Hey Hey) Goodbye."

Chirac's plane was reportedly intercepted and escorted away by Royal Air Force fighter jets as it attempted to enter British air space. According to sources familiar with Britain's MI2 intelligence service, Chirac has accepted exile in Iraq.

Details of the Franco-American conflict were still emerging Friday morning, but British and American intelligence sources indicated the confrontation was prompted by the dismissive sneers of French onlookers as the Eisenhower
Lady Madrigals performed 'The Greatest Love of All' at a Paris park.

"It may not sound like much, but after three days of smelly French cigarettes and being called 'cowboys' and 'arrogant' and 'stupid' and stuff, it finally gets to you," said Megan Prosser, a sophomore alto who led the initial charge. "Basically, we just snapped."

Those who have seen the videotapes of the Wednesday charge described it as "disturbing." "It is said the French oppose war because they know first hand its horror," said Edward Krohn, a visiting Professor from the Naval War College. "When I see hundreds of grown French men being beaten senseless by Texas schoolgirls, I completely see their point."

By the time the Eisenhower Boys Barbershop Chorale learned of the melee, the Lady Madrigals had already captured Paris' Second, Third and Fifth Arrondisements.

"It became sort of like a game," explained senior baritone Kevin Wilkes. "Like Ghost Recon , except the other guy just wets himself and runs away. We just wanted to win more ground than the girls and I guess it got out of hand."

When dawn broke Friday, the students had swept north to Calais, blocking the English Channel from would-be French escapees.

Plagued by massive desertions and too-firm brie rations, the French army and Legion Etranger were ready to collapse by Thursday morning, but held out another 12 hours after receiving reinforcements from a group of 15 volunteer human shields from the United States.

Led by filmmaker Michael Moore, the group vowed to "use our own bodies to block American high school imperialism and colonialism," and asked the French to "show us your solidarity with pastry, and some good butter."

Moore was later taken into custody after an Eisenhower PsyOps agent mesmerized him with a box of the band's fundraising chocolate bars.

Amid panic and widespread wine shortages, President Chirac called Washington Thursday evening to request emergency U.S. military support for the crumbling nation.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush vowed to "immediately send Secretary of State Powell to the United Nations to request the scheduling of a vote for the formulation of a committee to create an investigative team, at the earliest possible convenience."

The assault continued into the night Thursday as various forces of the school's performing arts department formed sweeping attack columns: Glee Club to the Pyrennes, Swing Band and Wind Ensemble to the Mediterranean, Symphonic Band to the Rhein. By early Friday morning, the fighting had
largely ended.

"We kept hearing about some French resistance," said Baumer. "Apparently that was a myth."

Despite the furious action, casualties were low with no reported deaths. Some two million French remain hospitalized with minor injuries sustained while bowing, scraping, pleading and running away. Six of the 135
Eisenhower students were treated for injuries related to foot blisters and excessive kissing.

The swift rout of Europe's second largest military force caught many in the international diplomatic community by surprise.

United Nations Secretary General Koffi Annan convened an emergency meeting of the General Assembly late Thursday to consider whether teen-occupied France would retain its seat on the UN Security Council.

A member of the Dutch delegation, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the country had sufficient votes to retain council membership because "international stability is paramount when considering American teenagers with nuclear weapons."

By mid-morning Friday, more than 40 countries had contacted Baumer to offer congratulations and request formal diplomatic ties, but as many as 100 world leaders expressed concern over prank phone calls from students. Particularly
hard-hit was President Uthai Partasuk Jaat of Thailand, whose name vaguely resembles a popular character in Star Wars episode IV.

While normalization continues, there remains widespread confusion of the crisis and its effect on volatile world hotspots such as Iraq, Iran, Israel and North Korea.

On Friday, it remained unclear what the name of the new country would be. Baumer said the victorious band and choir members were evenly split between 'France Junior' and 'Cowboy Corral'.

Raucous celebrations followed news of the French surrender, as dozens of Eisenhower students tossed rolls of toilet paper at the barren elms along the Champs Elysses and staged drag races through the Arc de Triomphe, mooning the populace through the windows of commandeered Citroens. Others unfurled a huge banner from the Eiffel Tower declaring "EHS Rulez, EU Droolz".

The revelry led Baumer to issue a stern reprimand to the students, warning of consequences including "UN sanctions, or even worse, ... possibly a note home to your parents."

In Aldine, disciplinary notes seemed unlikely to dampen the enthusiasm of parents and families of the triumphant Eisenhower music students. Hundreds of local residents followed the action on television, and the conquest of
the Gallic land mass has become a point of civic pride.

"Beating France is the biggest win for Eisenhower since we beat Conroe Judson in the '88 Super-sectionals," says longtime resident Wayne McDaniel, president of the Eisenhower Eagle Booster Club. "We're planning a big
wing-ding when they get back."

Activities planned for the commemoration include a parade, as well as what McDaniel called "a very big plaque," at the Aldine Kiwanis hall.

"Although, we might have to wait on that for a while," added McDaniel. We're having a bake sale and car wash to send the football team to Germany."

[Sentinel]

Robert Corbett (HP) quote:

"As the migration continues, there will be more questions about what a POS system is," says Robert Corbett, another HP executive. "We can't say that the traditional fixed POS system will be everyone's idea of a way to check customers out. In the wireless era, we might see a plethora of hand-held devices become the new model for the POS."

http://www.risnews.com/ris_red_nov/red_nov02_point_of_service.htm


From the EDIG PR:

"This partnership is an example of HP's strategy of working with innovative partners," said Robert Corbett, director for Retail Industry Solutions at HP. "HP believes that doing so will result in the development of exciting new products that provide consumers with simple and rewarding experiences by making technologies work better together. It will also allow retailers to provide a more satisfying environment for their customers, and facilitate better customer service."

[gernb1]

Odyssey is no iPod, but its cheaper

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/02/28/bus2.ptech.odyssey/index.html

By Shoshana Berger
Business 2.0
Friday, February 28, 2003 Posted: 3:25 PM EST (2025 GMT)


The Odyssey is covered in smudge-loving chrome and has a manual scroll wheel.



(Business 2.0) -- I have iPod envy. But every time I feel the pang and revisit the Apple (AAPL) Web site, I'm hit with the same sticker shock. Though iPod prices are finally starting to tumble, it's still hard -- even for a card-carrying early adopter -- to rationalize paying so much for an MP3 player. Sure, an iPod could store every version of every song the Rolling Stones ever recorded (the 20-gigabyte model holds as many as 4,000 tracks), and yes, the device has that satisfying, new-bar-of-soap look, but is it really worth $500?

That question takes on renewed urgency with each additional iPod clone that hits the market. Toshiba brought out its Mobilephile late last year, and two weeks ago, e.Digital released its 20GB Odyssey 1000. Like the Mobilephile, the Odyssey has an ersatz iPod form factor. But instead of the chrome back, milky front, and touch-sensitive menu wheel, the Odyssey is covered in smudge-loving chrome and has a manual scroll wheel. The two higher-end iPod models (10GB and 20GB) can talk to either PC or Mac through a FireWire adapter, while the Odyssey is a Windows-only player and transfers MP3s via a USB 2.0 connector (boasting download speeds of up to 8 megabits per second -- a rate that nearly matches that of the iPod's FireWire). I'm not on the USB 2.0 bus yet, but even without it, the transfer rate is plenty fast.

Once I've downloaded the e.Digital software and uploaded a bunch of MP3s to the player, I try it out with the bundled collapsible headphones and my own higher-end pair. The sound on both is extraordinarily rich and distortion-free (the experience is as good as or better than listening to a CD through headphones on my computer), and the volume reaches eardrum-popping levels (I fear for our children). The literature says the player has "SRS Labs' WOW audio enhancement technology for a 3-D listening experience and rich bass." Whatever that means, it's working.

Other perks: The Odyssey features a "Back" button (the operation of which is more intuitive than turning the iPod's menu wheel counterclockwise), voice memo recording, and a voice navigation technology that recognizes the spoken name of an artist or track. (I didn't find this feature to be very useful, however -- or accurate: I ask it for Rafael Toral, it gives me John Fahey.) Though it lacks the iPod's calendar and contact list functions, the Odyssey does have an FM radio.

How charmingly retro!

e.Digital Odyssey 1000 personal digital jukebox: $349; available at www.edig.com.

[emit]

Moving Towards Ultra-Wideband (one chip at a time)
By Michael Singer

Royal Philips Electronics (Quote, Company Info) and General Atomics (GA) Monday said they will work together to jointly develop Ultra-Wideband (UWB) (define) wireless communication chipsets and support the standardization process.

UWB, a high-speed, short-range wireless technology - nearly 10 times faster than 802.11b (define) - is used for transferring digital content between devices in different entertainment and computing clusters in the home, such as digital video recorders, set-top boxes, televisions and PCs. The companies say the goal is to offer better performance and cost-effective UWB solutions for consumer and computing applications.

The Memorandum of Understanding allows the two companies to develop wireless communication chipsets for very high bit rate networks, up to 480 Megabits per second (Mbps). San Diego-based GA said the collaboration will benefit them in the form of tapping into Philips' Radio Frequency (RF) and its QUBiC semiconductor process technology. Philips will license GA's wireless communication technology, including its Spectral Keying, an advanced multi-band UWB technology.

"Combined with GA's UWB technology and Philips' RF leadership and heritage as a consumer company, we intend to develop robust semiconductor solutions targeting this emerging short range wireless technology space," said GA director Dr. Michael D. Perry.

Initial chipsets are expected to be available in conjunction with emerging standards such as IEEE 802.15.3a - Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs). Currently, the IEEE (define) is working with the government on UWB standards.

"The relationship with GA reinforces Philips' commitment to offer consumers cost-effective wireless connectivity solutions of the future," said Philips Semiconductors senior vice president of Emerging Businesses Unit Phil Pollok.

The standard has had a rocky road in North America. In February 2002, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved amendments to its Part 15 rules to permit UWB devices to operate on an unlicensed basis under limited conditions. However, certain legislative hurdles will not be addressed until congress reconvenes this month.

Meantime, wireless and networking companies have been chomping at the bit to use UWB in their products. A recently released report by Allied Business Intelligence suggests UWB plays directly into the growing demand for wireless multimedia centers in the home, which are looking to transfer data at 40 Mbps or better for things like streaming video adequately or transferring data from camcorders or televisions wirelessly. According to the industry analyst firm, UWB electronics and chips could reach 45.1 million units by 2007, with revenue of $1.39 billion.

[D.inkie]

Question and Answer Session

Q: Why did you run out of Odyssey 1000 so fast, and when will you be able to fill orders again?

A: (RF) We have limited capitol with which to build up large inventories of consumer products for sale under our own brand. Our first order of Odyssey 1000 sold through completely in about 2 weeks. We are working with Digital Way to expedite our next shipment of Odyssey 1000’s and we expect to take delivery of additional units in the next few weeks.

Q: What marketing plans does the company have for the Odyssey 1000 beyond the etail sales through online stores?

A: (FF) We will continue to sell our branded consumer products through our online store where we can achieve maximum margins. We also intend to offer the Odyssey 1000 through our other etail partners as long as it makes financial sense and the demand for the product remains strong. In addition “we”, both Digital Way and Edigital are negotiating with other OEM’s on licensing and branding the Odyssey 1000.
We are working to take advantage of their larger distribution channels and bigger marketing budget to grow revenues from this product. We believe the best way we can achieve significant unit sales of the Odyssey 1000 is through our licensing and customization program with OEM customers.
On a related note we have limited our media review program during the rollout of the Odyssey 1000. As more units become available and OEM’s bring product to market, we will increase our public relation activities, as that is when published reviews will provide the most benefit.
Also, through our board of directors and other contacts we have opportunities (when the time is right) to get print ads and other types of media, and advertising in a very very cost effective way.

Q: What type of company is APS

A: (RP) APS is our OEM customer for the IFE project. They are a small privately held company. They are a certified airlines products and service provider, and they have been contracted by a major airline to provide the airline with this IFE system that we have spoken about today and previously. They also opened up contacts with the motion picture industry and the music industry and these are the individuals and entities who are planning to provide content for the IFE system.
With APS, we are negotiating with content providers and other airlines to expand the reach of this system.

Q: I was excited to read about Edigital’s partnership with Soft Tech and Hewlett Packard. Please let us know whether Hewlett Packard is committing any funds to the project

A: (FF) Absolutely! Per my presentation this partnership with Soft Tech, as well as the connection with HP and with the ultimate OEM customer provide a significant revenue source for us. HP commissioned the first product and is funding it. Edigital is a subcontractor and is paid through Soft Tech.

Q: Will comp USA or other large retailers carry Edigital branded products in the future?

A: (RF) We will continue selling our branded products through our online store and selected small etailers and retailers, we believe the greatest unit volume of product sales containing Edigital technology will be through our OEM’s. We have already begun to see returns with the strategy with licensees such as Musical electronics and Bang & Olufsen and we aim to increase our reach with each new project and each new product.

Q: What is the current status with Edigital’s relationship with Digital Way?

A: (FF) I think we addressed this in the presentation but I’m happy to summarize our partnership with Digital Way again.
Digital Way is our manufacturing partner for the Odyssey 1000 design and they have licensed the design from Edigital for their HD-100 model. Digital Way will also market the design and our technology to OEM’s around the world.
Edigital resells certain Digital Way designed flash based digital audio players through our online store and through our etail and retail partners to fill out our available price points and generate additional revenue for the company.

Q: How does the Odyssey 1000 compete with other 20 Giga byte music players?

A: (FF) Well one of the main competitive advantages is the inclusion of USB 2.0 which is backward compatible with USB 1.1 and provides an extremely fast transfer rate of up to 8 Mega bytes per second. We believe that the Odyssey 1000’s incorporation of SRS labs WOW audio enhancement technology gives us a clear advantage in sound quality, and our “Voice Nav” technology is only available from Edigital allowing users to “Just Say It To Play It”. This is a real time saver when you have thousands of tracks loaded on the player. Also the retail price of $349.00 is competitive with the comparable players on the market.
Customers often comment positively on the large size and bright backlight of the Odyssey 1000 display screen and our technical support team receive positive comments from users on a daily basis.
This is something that we are proud of and we believe it contributes to our competitive advantage when users can call and actually speak to someone who works here at Edigital when they need information, guidance, or advice after the sale.
Keeping the service in house also keeps us close to our customers, which benefits them and benefits us as a company.

Q: Since the business model is now focused on etail and OEM sales, what is being done to take full advantage of the WeDigMusic site?

A: (FF) In addition to keeping our corporate website and online web store up to date, we are working with our board of directors specifically to plan enhancements to the WeDigMusic.com. We will provide details as plans solidify. In the meantime we hope you enjoy browsing for new music including tracks by the weekly featured artist and enjoy listening to the WeDig radio stations available at the site.

Q: As you think about Edigital’s focus and vision for 2003 and beyond, what areas make the company most excited?

A: (RP) I think we’re very excited about all the projects that we’re working on as we have talked about today. One of the main things that has happened to Edigital over the past 2 or 3 months is we are able now to now pick and choose the best projects that are coming to us.
Some of our competitors have gone by the way and some of our other work has come to the fore where we are getting more and more recognition from OEM’s who are desirous of our engineering services, desiring of having our MicroOs incorporated into their design, and also recognize our integration capabilities with their technology.
I think one of the main things that Fred also addressed in his remarks is focusing on the areas where we can continue to turn revenue streams into of revenue for the company by focusing on expanding and expanding on NRE’s, and royalties, and licensing., branded product sales as well as OEM product sales and then looking for opportunities beyond, as we talked about with IFE where we can become part of the infra structure. Where we have opportunities to be in the very beginning of these technologies as they come to market and to become a part of their growth curve. We have at this point with the wireless capability that we have talked about through infrared. Fred also alluded to us working on other wireless enhancements beyond infrared that are very exciting to us. I think that many of us who are looking out to the future today see that wireless is the next “big thing” for portable devices as well as for networking and we’re working in those areas and expect to have more news on that very shortly.
(FF) I would also like to add that with regard to the IFE project, certainly there is going to be a lot of money, we expect there is a lot of money to be made just selling the units to our customer but beyond that these products are going to have to be refurbished. There are a number of other revenue opportunities for us that we will be involved in and in some cases the revenue, or at least the profit margins on these additional revenue streams can be larger than just on the initial product sales.
(RP) And especially with what we talked about on the Soft Tech relationship, we are very excited about that. It opened some major doors for us not only with Hewlett Packard but with other companies also. And then we are very excited about the reception of the Odyssey 1000. Notwithstanding our limited financial ability at this point, we’re getting more people excited about that and we think that we will be able to have an ongoing revenue stream just from the Odyssey 1000, both Edigital branded and then keeping ahead of the curve as far as adding new enhancements through firm ware and upgrades as well as through OEM expected OEM branding of these devices, that we expect that we will come close if not cover our burn rate here within the next 2 or 3 months. So that’s very exciting. You add to that each of these projects that we addressed today that in the beginning are worth around a million or over a million dollars each to us and we’re really starting to gain some traction out there as a company and as a business.



(FF)
Ladies and gentlemen, in closing today’s web cast I want to point out that your company is gaining traction through existing OEM customer products reaching the market and being sold.
We continue working with the latest technologies and can provide attractive features and designs for our OEM customers and licensees.
Just as our current designs incorporate our patented MicroOs, our portable design experience, and our technologies, our future design’s will build on our current research and development.
We are working with additional technology partners such as Equator Technologies and Portal Player. Expanding the reference design and technologies in our arsenal.
We are expanding our manufacturing partnerships to take advantage of specialized experience in manufacturing for certain markets, mainly automotive, set top’s, or handheld form factors.
We continue to cultivate OEM relationships in the areas where we’ve been successful.
Our strategy is to leverage the designs and technologies we have already developed, and are currently developing to open further doors of opportunity.
As an example, based on our video work on the IFE project, we anticipate signing at least one new customer who is interested in a customized audio/video player for their own market. We see the same happening in other areas including car audio and portable audio players. We are closely working with an OEM on a major opportunity incorporating a new product and expect to release more information this spring.
The company’s focus is on increasing and expanding each of our revenue sources. NRE’s, royalties, licensing, product sales, and OEM product sales.
We expect in the coming weeks to release more information about these developments and the other projects we are working on.

Thank you so much for your continued support.

(WR) This concludes Edigital Corporations quarterly Web Cast.

[emit]

Wireless Multimedia Almost Ready for Prime-Time
By Ed Sutherland

The convergence of wireless networking and multimedia in the home seems a natural. As products employing 802.11 technologies to move music and video get ready to ship, we ask the musical question: Is Wi-Fi ready?

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Wi-Fi enabled devices for music or video were everywhere. Intel, Motorola, HP, and others have joined the chorus of voices supporting wireless fidelity for linking cable television, DVD players and other entertainment gadgets proliferating in homes and offices.

The Linksys Wireless Digital Media Adapter, scheduled to ship the second quarter of 2003, is an Access Point made more presentable for the living room. Rather than an Ethernet connection, the adapter connects to audio and visual equipment, allowing MP3s stored on your PC to be heard through home speakers or JPG pictures or Windows Media File format video to be viewed on your television. The adapter uses Intel's Xscale chips.

Along the same line is HP's Digital Media Receiver using Wi-Fi to bring music and pictures stored on a network PC to your television or stereo. With your home network and the $299 device, you can listen to Windows Media music files, along with viewing and printing pictures.

The Software Connection
Powering many of the consumer gadgets is software from SimpleDevices, a San Mateo, CA-based company with high hopes for Wi-Fi and home entertainment. Investors in the developer include Rockford Fosgate, which has Omnifi - a device allowing you to use Wi-Fi to store tunes on your car's stereo - and Motorola (Quote, Company Info), which plans to offer its Simplefi device for linking the PC with your home stereo.

"Wi-Fi is critical to the adoption of connected devices in the home," says Hanford Choy, Vice President of Engineering at SimpleDevices.

As more people begin adopting Wi-Fi, Choy says, wireless multimedia moves within reach of the average consumer.

"Prior to the mass adoption of Wi-Fi, users could easily spend $500 to $1000 equipping several PCs for wireless access in the home."

Home Networks' Achilles Heel
Despite an expected 160 percent growth of Wi-Fi in the home during 2002, In-Stat/MDR analyst Gemma Paulo says the "Achilles heel of the home market remained multimedia support."

"Wi-Fi is not suited for multimedia," says Paulo. Paulo points to a low level of quality of service, a need for standards and high prices as factors hindering the introduction of Wi-Fi multimedia support in the home.

Although Magis Networks, backed by entertainment heavyweight AOL Time Warner (Quote, Company Info) along with manufacturers Motorola, Hitachi, Sanyo and Panasonic, says its Air5 chipset can deliver high-quality wireless video, Paulo says the company is using its own version of high-speed 802.11a technology.

"There needs to be a standard, not proprietary method of transmission," she says.

Considering the Cost
While few Wi-Fi enabled multimedia products announced have included prices, "for the home market, one of the first considerations is cost," says Paulo.

Jupiter Research analyst Joe Laszlo says home multimedia networks could breathe more life into 802.11a, the high-speed (54Mbps) wireless standard many view as being eclipsed by the introduction of products based on 802.11g.

"The potential for interference with microwaves, cordless phones, and other Wi-Fi networks may make consumer electronics makers hesitate to use 2.4Ghz gear," says Laszlo. "I can imagine 802.11a carving out a long-term niche for itself for media networking."

One example is Sony's 802.11a-based RoomLink home network, says the analyst. The small mirror-finished box attaches to your home stereo system but can stream content like photos, video and music, pulling that content from PCs on the wireless network.

[HotrodHans2]

two for one.....


( BW)(FL-SMARTDISK)(SMDK) SmartDisk Introduces FlashTrax -- The Portable, Palm-Sized Digital Multimedia Device


Asset Caption: SmartDisk FlashTrax is a handheld, portable multimedia device for offloading and storing digital images and music. FlashTrax can safely store high-resolution images transferred from any flash memory card onto the built-in 30GB USB2.0 hard drive and displays them on a 3.5" LCD. A built-in MP3 player can store and play back more than 7,000 compressed audio files. FlashTrax is available in April 2003 through retailers and distributors as well as through SmartDisk at www.smartdisk.com.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Business & Photo Editors/High-Tech Writers
PMA 2003
Booth H164
NOTE TO MEDIA: Multimedia assets available
A photo is available at URL:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.022803/bb4



FORT MYERS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2003--SmartDisk Corporation (Nasdaq:SMDK), today introduced its new FlashTrax(TM) handheld portable device for offloading and storing digital images and music. FlashTrax is being showcased in Booth H164 at PMA International, The Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 2-5, 2003.
FlashTrax can safely store high-resolution images transferred from any flash memory card onto the built-in 30GB USB2.0 hard drive and displays them on a 3.5" LCD that outperforms tiny on-camera screens. By using the sleek control pad, the user can change the image, zoom in, zoom out and scroll, or choose a slide show function -- all without the need of a PC. The LCD folds to ensure that both the screen and control buttons remain protected while in field use. Images may be viewed on the LCD screen or on any TV using the included remote control. To facilitate portability, FlashTrax also includes a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery.
"FlashTrax brings new freedom to photographers," says Charles Klinker, Director-Marketing for SmartDisk. "The ability to offload images from flash memory cards to the built-in hard drive represents a lower cost alternative to purchasing multiple, expensive flash memory cards."
A built-in MP3 player makes this device even more attractive - more than 7,000 compressed audio files can be stored and played back through the built-in speaker, headphones or external speakers. Various play modes are easily controlled from the user-friendly screen display and control pad, making music selection quick and easy.
With transfer speeds of up to 480MBps, FlashTrax can also serve as an external hard drive to transfer, store and access data or act as a simple backup device.

Pricing and Availability

Suggested retail price for FlashTrax is $499.99, with availability in April through retailers and distributors, as well as through the company's Web site at http://www.smartdisk.com.

About SmartDisk Corporation

SmartDisk is a developer, manufacturer and marketer of a range of imaginative consumer electronic products and exciting software solutions that are enabling the digital age and simplifying the digital lifestyle. The Company's innovative products help users transfer, store, manage and share digital music, video, pictures and data. Headquartered in the U.S., with operations in Europe and Asia, SmartDisk sells and supports its products worldwide. For more information, go to http://www.smartdisk.com.

All trade names referenced are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Note: A photo is available at URL: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.022803/bb4


--30--PP/mi*

CONTACT: SmartDisk Corporation, Fort Myers
Crystal Revak, 239/425-4072
[e-mail]

KEYWORD: NEVADA FLORIDA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: SOFTWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS MUSIC PHOTO
PHOTOWIRE PRODUCT TRADESHOW
SOURCE: SmartDisk Corporation
PHOTO: bb4

[gernb1]

Can AOL, Napster Make Music Downloads Legit?
Mark Glaser
posted: 2003-02-27
Pay services high on promises

A Napster revival with a paid service? AOL pushing legitimate music downloads? What do these two widely reported stories have in common (other than their lack of hard news)? It must be the week when the music-stealing public finally has its chance for redemption.

After what feels like a million years (probably only six) of downloading copyrighted music through services such as the old Napster and its evil spawn of peer-to-peer networks, digital music aficionados now have many pay services at their disposal, with the attendant promises that the artist will be paid. You've got MusicNet, a service from RealNetworks, BMG, and Warner Music now being pushed by AOL. Then there's PressPlay, from Sony and Universal. And don't forget Listen.com's Rhapsody. All of which have deals with the major labels and indies for a wider selection of music.

Now up steps Napster, revived from the dead by Roxio, which gobbled up its assets -- without the liability aftertaste. The "news" is that Roxio will re-launch Napster by the end of the year as a similar pay service to the above, with founder/icon Shawn Fanning as consultant. Yippidy-do-dah. InternetNews.com's Ryan Naraine does the best job summing up the mega-hurdles for the reborn Napster: "Listen.com's Rhapsody, MusicNet, Pressplay have all gotten a head start in the race to hawk digital music files online and, even those companies have found it tough to sign up enough subscribers to justify the set-up costs."

One of the steepest setup costs is the licensing fees from the major labels, who demand 50 cents on the dollar download. "When overheads and bandwidth costs are calculated," Naraine writes, "the music services end up making next to nothing." Oh joy. The music industry still doesn't get it.

 

AOL to the rescue?

Maybe America Online, the service America loves to hate, can make some hay with this whole pay-music scheme. For a mere $8.95 per month, you'll be able to listen to 250,000 songs via MusicNet. The catch? If you want to burn 10 songs onto a CD, it will cost $17.95. Sound like a familiar number? Yup, it's close to the sky-high retail price of CD albums these days.

The New York Times' Saul Hansell looks oh-so-deeply into AOL's big announcement, does a great job of explaining how the pay services have struggled, and finally hits on just how AOL will be the white knight for the music biz: AOL's version of MusicNet "would be far more popular because it would be integrated into the AOL service," says one exec. One analyst tries to work up excitement: "This is close to what people will find palatable." Oops, one caveat: The limitations are still significant, he admits.

So we've got a me-too service from AOL that will really break through because it's on AOL, and it's close to palatable!

Better that the music industry execs avoid the latest media column from Michael Wolff in New York magazine, in which he warns that all the screaming and bulging veins in their necks isn't going to stop the dropping value of content. He says the Internet is partly to blame for undermining content value, along with music licensed everywhere, and freebie magazine subscriptions. The fact that music, "on a unit basis, has continued to go up instead of down is, in fact, an odd and exceptional business model -- which a prudent person should have logically assumed would never last," he writes.

As entertainment becomes closer and closer to free, will the music companies finally wise up and lower the cost of digital downloads to something actually palatable for consumers? Let's hope they find the "tipping point" that will bring consumers back from their pirating ways. That's going to mean less money for the label chiefs, the promo folks, the production types, and yes, even the artists. But much, much more for the public.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Glaser currently writes technology features for TechWeb, occasional features for The New York Times' Circuits section, marketing material for Comcast Online, and a bi-weekly e-mail newsletter for the Online Publishers Association, whose membership includes most major media companies online. That won't stop him from taking cheap potshots at these outlets, when necessary. You can contact him with any juicy tidbits about online journalism at [e-mail].

[gernb1]

Telematics spec delivered amidst growing doubts

By Charles J. Murray

EE Times
February 27, 2003 (2:21 p.m. EST)


PARK RIDGE, Ill. — Capping an intense four-year effort, the Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration (AMI-C) introduced a hefty new multimedia standard Wednesday (Feb. 26) to a global auto industry that has begun to question the value of telematics.
Release 2 of the automotive interface specification, which is more than 2,000 pages long, describes common interfaces for the addition of hands-free cell phones, navigation systems, CD players, DVD systems, video screens, digital radios and a host of other electronic products.

"This gives a common baseline for everyone to design their products to," said Pom Malhotra, program manager for AMI-C. "Up to now, there hasn't been a common standard for automakers that wanted to introduce Bluetooth or gateway technologies into a vehicle."




Automakers and first-tier electronics suppliers have long believed the presence of such a standard would be a huge benefit to them. Up until recently, car manufacturers typically had to reengineer vendor products, which were not built to any specific standard. In the process, they lost valuable time and fell behind the electronic industry's rate of innovation. As a result, many automotive components still are several years behind their desktop counterparts in terms of electronic performance capabilities.

Automakers wanted the multimedia standard in preparation for the emergence of telematics, which is defined as the linking of data communications and computers. They formed AMI-C four years ago as part of an effort to standardize the technology for what they assumed would be a multi-billion-dollar-a-year market. Eight automakers — Fiat, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Honda, Nissan, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault and Toyota — are currently members.

However, many analysts have backed off earlier forecasts of a booming telematics business. The auto industry, which seemingly could not create a standard fast enough, is now putting many of its telematics projects on hold.

"Companies aren't pressing terribly hard for this [standard] anymore," said Paul Hansen, publisher of The Hansen Report on Automotive Electronics. "Investment in telematics has cooled."

Building on the specs


Still, electronics vendors are hoping interest in telematics will increase if the economy picks up, and they say they'll need the standard when that happens.

The AMI-C Release 2 specifications differ from the initial version in that they provide a validated standard spec product developers can use, while Release 1 was considered a conceptual vision statement. "It's not just a set of requirements," Malhotra said. "It's a set of specifications you can build to."

The new release defines a common architecture and standardized interfaces, making it possible for all vehicle manufacturers to take advantage of emerging multimedia products. The specifications include an architectural overview, system requirements, vehicle interface requirements and AMI-C use cases. Those documents can be downloaded from AMI-C's web site. Additional documents, including specifications for application interfaces, will be published over the next few months as legal and technical reviews are completed.

AMI-C representatives said the standards group is moving to a third phase in which it will focus on "sponsored projects." That means automakers will use the revised specs to build devices for production, or they will add to the existing spec and take it in different direction. Much of that work will be proprietary to each automaker, Malhotra said.

"In the next phase, a lot of the work will be specific to each company's applications," Malhotra said. "If those applications are tied to an automaker's particular platform or vehicle, then AMI-C doesn't need to get involved."

The organization said it wants to lower membership fees will serve as an enticement to bring back three key automakers, DaimlerChrysler, BMW and Volkswagen, that left two years ago because they felt the organization was moving too slowly toward standardization. "If you're DaimlerChrysler, BMW or Volkswagen, you now have the opportunity to join AMI-C at bargain basement prices," said Scott McCormick, assistant vice president of AMI-C.

AMI-C repesentatives also said economic slump has not changed the urgent need for telematics standards. "The sense of urgency is still there," said Malhotra. "The members feel that they need the standards in order to accelerate the pace of telematics."

Analysts, however, said telematics is less of a priority for most automakers. Earlier estimates had telematics growth soaring by now, ultimately reaching revenues of $40 billion per year by 2010. Most analysts are cutting that estimate by more than half. "The growth of telematics is inevitable," said Hansen. "But there's not a lot of money available right now for risky investments. Until that changes, we're not going to see many major telematics projects."

[D.inkie]

Ran Furman Financial presentation

During the quarter ending Dec 31, 2002 we significantly improved the companies financial flexibility by converting all the 2.05 million of secured and unsecured notes into series D non-redeemable convertible preferred stock and by pushing out the maturity date of the 750 K unsecured note to May 31, 2005.
As a result of these transactions, our only debt is the 750 K unsecured note, which required interest only payments due Dec 31, 2003.
While we still have a negative working capitol, our working capitol improved from approximately a negative 4 million in Sept 30, 2002, to approximately 1.9 million at Dec 31, 2002.
Total revenues for the 3 months ending Dec, 31, 2002 were approximately 643 k, an 8.7 percent increase from the 592 K in revenues of the three months ending Dec, 31, 2001, and a 104% increase over total revenues of 290 k for the quarter ending September 30, 2002.
For the 3 months ending Dec 31, 2002, product revenue of 550 K consisted almost entirely of sales of our branded products through our Internet store and through smaller domestic and international retailers.
As we have previously mentioned we have eliminated most of our sales through the larger US retailers as the payment terms and conditions were unprofitable and required a tremendous amount of working capitol. We have however had a successful relationship with DBL to provide products to Buy.com and other Etailers and we are recognizing revenues from DBL as well as the other retailers based on sell through.
We began shipping the Odyssey 1000 during this quarter on our site and through select smaller domestic and international retailers.
As many of you know we have sold out our initial order of Odyssey 1000’s and anticipate receiving another shipment before the end of the quarter.
Services revenues were approximately 84 K in 2002, compared to approximately 137 k in 2001.
At December 31 2002 we had approximately 277 k in preferred revenue from NRE contracts, as compared to 130 K at March 31, 2002. This amount will be recognized as revenues in the future based on the terms and conditions of each agreement.
We had a gross loss of approximately 106 K for the three months ended Dec 31, 2002 compared to a gross loss of 305 K for the three months ended Dec 31, 2001.
We continue to experience gross losses but as we began to ship the Odyssey 1000 during the current quarter and have already written down our legacy inventory products by over 600 K during the 9 months ended Dec 31, 2002, we anticipate that gross margins will improve during this quarter and beyond.
If we are able to ship to customers additional Odyssey 1000’s during this quarter we believe that we will have positive gross margins during this quarter.
We are continuing our cost containment measures to reduce our monthly fixed cost and cash burn rate. Our monthly fixed cost has decreased from approximately 500 K at March 31 2002 to approximately 275 K currently.

As a result of some of these measures our total operating expenses decreased by over 315 K from Q3 2002, to Q3 2003.
For the three months ended Dec 31, 2002 we reported an operating loss of 1.25 million compared to an operating loss of 1.76 million in 2001.
The improvement in operating loss is due to an increased revenue base, a smaller gross loss, and lower operating expenses.
Interest expense was approximately 290 K for the three months ended Dec 31, 2002, compared to approximately 111 K for the three months ended Dec 31, 2001 through primarily an increase in average debt balance outstanding during Q 3 2002.
The net loss attributable to common stock holders was a penny in both 2002 and 2001.
In order to meet the expected future demand for the Odyssey 1000, we are in discussions with several financing sources about obtaining purchase order and receivable financing.
Going forward our focus will be on Odyssey 1000, OEM opportunities, cost reductions, as well as selling the balance of our legacy product line.
Based on revenues recognized so far this quarter and in anticipation of receipt of additional Odyssey 1000’s this quarter, we believe that this quarters revenues will exceed last quarters revenues of 643 K.


Fred Falk

Four key EDIG Primary Projects
Conference Call
Feb 26, 2003

Car stereo with Eclipse by Fijutsu 10, which is hard drive, based MP3 and WMA music player designed to interface with their current and future car stereo systems. We have recently signed a manufacturing agreement with a new Asia based OEM to do the manufacturing of the product which will be totally funded by Eclipse by Fijutsu 10. Meaning that Edigital will not have to front the cost to manufacture the initial 4000 units that they've ordered. The units are expected to ship to eclipse this spring and will provide Edigital with revenues of around 1 million dollars. Eclipse is also paying us non-reoccurring engineering fees for the development work.
Based on their successful showing at CES they are also looking beyond the after market to factory-installed applications at a more rapid pace than previously scheduled.


Another exciting project that we’re working on is the portable in-flight entertainment system. Or as its known in the industry, IFE, that we’re developing for a major US airline through OEM customer APS Inc. This portable device incorporates both movies and music and is being designed to support DiVix formatted motion pictures, and MP-3 formatted music files. There are also plans to incorporate audio books and video games into this system.
This IFE system is being developed in partnership with our Odyssey 1000 partner Digital way.
Digital way is providing the industrial and mechanical design as they did with our odyssey 1000, and will also provide manufacturing services for the IFE system. Edigital is providing all of the hardware and software engineering.
As with the eclipse project, we do not have to front the manufacturing costs.
The initial order is valued at close to 1 million dollars and that number is expected to quickly increase after the IFE system is launched and put into service
We are in negotiations with additional airlines and other travel industry companies and we are pursuing those opportunities with APS to expand our reach into this field.
This product incorporates the best of what we've been working on for 3 1/2 years combining audio and video, multiple Codec’s, and friendly functionality in one compact portable device.

Our Odyssey 1000 personal digital jukebox product has been very well received by consumers and our initial inventory completely sold out through our online store in just two weeks.
We continue taking orders for the Odyssey 1000 and we are working with Digital Way to expedite the next shipment. Our goal is to sell Edigital branded premium Odyssey 1000 units mainly through etail channels. Based on increasing modest monthly sales of our branded Odyssey 1000 and expected OEM branding, and sales of the Odyssey 1000 over the next 2 to 3 months, we expect this product to begin to cover most of our operating expenses and significantly improve our operating margins.
We are working to provide further enhancements to the Odyssey 1000, some of which were suggested by our customers and reviewers.
Already in development is onboard ID3 tag support, multiple language support on the LCD, and other enhanced features.
Continued improvement will maximize the life cycle of the
Odyssey 1000 and differentiate our branded Odyssey 1000 from other models on the market.


Our latest OEM news is an agreement we announced last week with SoftTech Development Corporation to develop a wireless digital audio design for Hewlet Packard.
The current focus of our partnership is developing a custom
MP-3 player headset incorporating our patented MicroOs 3.0, and a unique wireless infrared interface.
Ultimately another major OEM will be the end customer of this particular product.
Shipments are expected in to begin in early summer and the initial shipments are worth over one million dollars to Edigital.
We look forward to releasing further details as permitted by HP and the other major OEM involved in the project.



EDIG FAQ Updated....


Q: When will you hold the next webcast?

A: Our next regularly scheduled financial webcast will be held in July, although we plan on holding an Interim Webcast after our fiscal year ends March 31. Webcast access is provided through our Events page and the audio replay is typically available for 30 days after the event.


Q: Where will the Odyssey 1000 be sold?

A: In the U.S., we will sell the Odyssey 1000 through our online store (www.edigital-store.com). Additionally, we are negotiating with OEMs who are interested in branding the product for the U.S. retail market. Digitalway is marketing their version of our Odyssey 1000 worldwide to OEMs and plans to sell it under their MPIO brand name in Asia.

Licensing of the Odyssey 1000 to OEMs and/or private labelers will be done by e.Digital, and will generate licensing and royalties for us. We also expect to have our tagline (Powered by e.Digital TechnologyTM) or e.Digital logo on the product and/or in the marketing materials on variations of the Odyssey 1000 expected to be licensed and branded by OEMs.


Q: Will the Odyssey 1000 have Mac support?

A: We expect to introduce Mac compatibility later this year as a firmware upgrade.


Q: What is the status of the Silhouette product? Has the battery issue been resolved?

A: We are still working with the provider of the Silhouette to resolve their battery issue.


Q: When will the Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten product go on sale?

A: The timing of retail availability will be announced by Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten.


Q: Can you give me an update on our relationship with DivX and product availability?

A: We continue working with DivXNetworks and expect our in-flight entertainment (IFE) system to be the first of our video products to use the DivX video decoder format.


Q: Are there plans for our music site moving forward?

A: We are working with our Board of Directors to further enhance and grow our Broadband Entertainment site (www.WeDigMusic.com). We will provide details as plans solidify. In the meantime we hope you enjoy browsing for new music, including tracks by the weekly Featured Artists, and enjoy listening to the WeDigRadio stations available at the site.


Q: Are there any plans to penetrate the growing home entertainment market?

A: Yes. Utilizing the Equator chipset we are developing and marketing home entertainment platforms. We are in discussions with a number of Asian OEMs that are interested in customizing our platforms for their products.


Q: What is the status of MicroOSTM 3.0?

A: The wireless platform product we are currently developing for an OEM customer will utilize our new MicroOS 3.0.


Q: Please discuss your development plans as they relate to wireless technology.

A: We are incorporating wireless communication modules into our reference designs and expect to see products combining e.Digital technology with wireless features reach the market during 2003. As part of a project announced February 19, 2003, we are working with Softeq Development Corporation to develop and deliver a headset product incorporating a unique infrared interface for OEM customer Hewlett-Packard. In another development, we are working closely with a new OEM to incorporate wireless connectivity (not infrared) for other products and we expect to release more details this spring.


Q: Will the next series of players designed by e.Digital have both audio and video capabilities, or will they continue to be separate devices?

A: Our IFE system combines both motion picture and music content into one device. With APS we are currently working with motion picture studios and music providers to provide content for the IFE system. This is a closed system that protects their content and provides new revenue potential as well as a new channel to reach larger audiences.


Q: When will the IFE device be ready for the consumer market?

A: In the beginning, it will not be offered directly to consumers; it will be sold to the airline and travel industry. The first airline customer is contracted with APS, our marketing partner in this business relationship. The entire travel industry is being targeted for this system: cruise ships, car rental agencies, and hotels could all benefit from versions of our IFE system.

We view this as one of the major developments for e.Digital for this year and in years to come. Becoming part of the infrastructure that supports our IFE systems may generate multiple revenue streams for us.

Longer-term, we expect devices derived from our IFE system to be offered to the general consumer market.


Q: With regard to IFE, how many airlines is e.Digital currently working with?

A: Our relationship is with APS, who is our customer. They are working directly with airlines, and there is a contract in place with one major airline. However, we have been contacted by other airlines and travel-industry customers interested in our IFE system and we are pursuing these new opportunities with APS.


Q: How does the relationship with Digitalway work?

A: We work with Digitalway to develop and market consumer electronics products that contain e.Digital’s platform technologies and reference designs. The two companies work together developing new state-of-the-art products that are jointly marketed to consumers and OEMs. The relationship generates revenues for e.Digital when OEMs or private-labelers take our jointly-developed products to market and when we brand and sell our own products.

Digitalway provides excellent design services and has tremendous experience working for and with OEMs to develop new products for markets around the world. Digitalway has one third of the market share of all the MP3 players sold in the United States and Asia, and their strength as a major manufacturer not only minimizes costs but also affords us access to large OEM customers interested in the newest products.


Q: What is happening with bundling?

A: We are negotiating with PC manufacturers and other hardware providers. If we can negotiate payment terms that are acceptable to them and to us, we expect to have our products bundled with their products. It is also possible that one or more of our OEM customers may bundle our products.


Q: Please discuss our PortalPlayer relationship.

A: PortalPlayer is bringing to us qualified customers who are interested in having products developed utilizing the PortalPlayer chipset and e.Digital’s proprietary and patented technologies. As a charter member of the PortalPlayer Design Partners program, e.Digital will perform development services and engineering services for our shared customers. e.Digital expects to derive NRE fees, licensing and royalty fees, and participate in revenue-sharing.


Q: How were e.Digital’s sales last quarter?

A: Total revenues for the 3 months ended December 31, 2002, were approximately $643,000, an 8.7% increase over the same quarter the previous year, and a 104% increase over the September 2002 quarter.


Q: What is e.Digital’s business outlook for the next 6 months?

A: Our business is improving and we are expanding each of our revenue sources: NREs, royalties, licensing, product sales, and OEM product sales. Our focus in 2003 is on increasing our branded sales of the Odyssey 1000 and licensing the Odyssey 1000 platform--including our MicroOS and VoiceNav® technologies--and derivatives thereof, video products and applications for both home and portable use, automotive audio and telematics applications, and incorporating wireless protocols into our designs for OEM customers.

We continue to cut costs. Since June 2002 we have reduced our monthly overhead by over 40%. Based on revenues recognized so far this quarter we expect revenues for our fiscal Q4 will exceed the Q3 revenues of $643,000. Based on expected increasing Odyssey 1000 sales as well as revenue derived from the Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten automotive stereo project, IFE systems, and other OEM projects and products, we expect revenues to significantly increase in the following quarter (fiscal Q1 2004).

http://www.edig.com/investors/FAQ.html

[Gilgamash]

austonia...

You say, "Not everyone is so happy about thier[sic] 0-1000".

I Don't mean to be facious; but, not everyone would be satisfied with being in Heaven either...

You are satisfied, I am satidfied, about 997 others who gobbled up the unit are satisfied. So, what is your point?...

Regards...Gilgamash...

[Cassandra]

That's starting to sound like some of the problems e.Digital had with the early Treo 10 units.