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Sony, Take A Page From Apple's Playbook
Penelope Patsuris, 11.17.03, 8:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - Sony's famed consumer electronics business is on the ropes.
A major overhaul of the unit was just unveiled, and it's been late to market with popular LCD televisions, having just announced a joint venture to produce them with Samsung. Its PlayStation 2 juggernaut is losing steam as both the console's price and its market share are falling. In September PS2's slice of the pie dropped to 50%, down 10% year over year, while Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Xbox saw its share grow to 26% from 20%. With the PlayStation at the center of Sony's (nyse: SNE - news - people ) home electronics strategy, it's a game the company can't afford to lose.
Music's Zero-Sum Merger
Sony's Future On A Chip
The Pride That Killed Sony
Sony Bows In The SEC's Direction
Tale Of The Tape
Godzilla Needs Batteries"The electronics division, which used to be a cash cow for Sony, is becoming its Achilles' heel," says Tokyo-based Standard and Poor's analyst John Yang.
The division may have its best shot at redemption by creating a content distribution business that boosts the consumer appeal of its hardware, much as Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) has buoyed its iPod MP3 player sales with its iTunes download service. ITunes has been a hit, and it only works with iPods--making the gadgets uniquely indispensable and ensuring them a longer product lifecycle and higher margins for a longer stretch.
The challenge for Sony and its peers is that even the newest technology is now quickly commoditized by low-cost Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers. Sony must find new ways to add proprietary value to its products that the other Asian manufacturers can't mimic, and content looks like a good way to do so.
"The value [in consumer electronics] is no longer in the hardware," says iSuppli consumer electronics analyst Jay Srivatsa. "It's in the content and services that a company offers. People spend time comparing wireless plans and cable and satellite TV offers, not the phones and TVs themselves."
Ford Cavallari, head of the media practice at the consumer research outfit Adventis, thinks that a compelling new online content service is critical to Sony's future success.
"There is a huge opportunity for a major consumer electronics player to gain a competitive advantage by creating a totally new experience with entertainment content, and then making the only hardware that it can run on," Cavallari says. Make those TVs and DVD players networked so consumers can move music and videos around their homes exactly the way they want to, and you'll have brand loyalty, he adds.
Unlike Apple, Sony has a giant media arm with a global presence in movies, music and television. "So why didn't [Sony] do iTunes?" Cavallari asks. Probably because Sony Music, like the rest of the industry, is scared of abandoning its traditional business model and worries about protecting its copyrights electronically. Sony couldn't be reached for comment.
"To flourish [Sony needs] to remove the burden of being owned by a [media] company that's holding it back," says Cavallari. He thinks Sony may have to spin off all its media assets to boost its electronics business. "Partnerships are a better model to create fusion between content and devices, and that's something that Sony will have to reckon with," he adds.
Sony did say in September that it will launch its own music-download service, now dubbed "Music Box," sometime next year. Like iTunes, it will be designed specifically to work with MP3 players from parent Sony, but such services offered by labels themselves have been flops. Sony's last download service, Pressplay, a joint venture with Vivendi Universal (nyse: V - news - people ), was bought for $40 million in May by Napster parent Roxio (nasdaq: ROXI - news - people ) and incorporated into its new legal service, which has a very different business model than Pressplay.
Sony's online film-rental project Movielink is a partnership with several major movie studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (nyse: MGM - news - people ), Viacom-owned (nyse: VIA.B - news - people ) Paramount Pictures, Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) Warner Brothers and Vivendi's Universal Pictures. The Movielink site isn't tied to any Sony hardware and--with a selection of about 500 movies, compared with the average Blockbuster (nyse: BBI - news - people ) store's many thousands--is unlikely to be a hit.
Without media divisions weighing them down, such manufacturers as Toshiba, Pioneer (nyse: PIO - news - people ) and Matsushita (nyse: MC - news - people ) will have far more freedom to negotiate media partnerships designed to create the kind of proprietary content that will help the parent company's hardware sales.
"Apple could do iTunes because it can view the media industry in an entrepreneurial way," says Cavallari. "That's the challenge for Sony--can they do it?" Sony will have to, because while it tries to figure this out, companies like Dell (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) and Gateway (nyse: GTW - news - people ) are moving into electronics.
U.S. CD sales turn up; new digital players key
Monday November 17, 1:46 pm ET
By Sue Zeidler
LOS ANGELES, Nov 16 (Reuters) - For the battered U.S. record industry, the holiday shopping season has already delivered a welcome gift.
After a bruising three-year slump, CD sales are showing signs of turning up, and analysts expect that another big stocking stuffer this year will be digital music players, driving traffic to a range of legal download services struggling to make a name in the burgeoning market.
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"The way people listen to music has changed. Kids are listening to music on devices and don't want to listen to whole albums," said Tom Edwards, analyst with NPD group. He predicts up to 2.5 million personal hard-drive recorders will be sold this holiday season, double the number sold last year.
Those players typically sell for $300 to $500, while players with the kind of flash memory used in cellphones and digital cameras sell for under $100.
Many of the newest devices are being co-marketed with legal online services like Apple Computer Inc's (Nasdaq:APPL - News) iTunes, RealNetworks Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:RNWK - News) Rhapsody and Roxio's (NasdaqNM:ROXI - News) Napster. The aim is to carve out a bigger audience in the same way that DVD players created their own boom in demand.
"There's been a massive push for content since DVD players took off. And with increased sales of portable music players, you're going to see more usage of legal online music sites," said Lisa Fasold, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association.
Analysts estimate consumers will spend over $1 billion on portable players this season, while fourth-quarter CD sales should top $3 billion. In fact, after gains in recent weeks, the quarter's CD sales look poised to top the 221 million units sold last year, said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for Billboard Magazine.
Experts say the recent rises in sales of CDs and player devices are both driven by some of the same factors. These include the rebound in the economy and more awareness by consumers of the legal risk in using renegade sites like Kazaa since the Recording Industry Association of America (News - Websites) began suing heavy users.
"If downloading catches on, it will save the record business. This is a crucial transition time," said Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff.
Forrester Research predicts the online music sector will account for $1.4 billion or 11 percent of the industry's saleswithin three years, and 33 percent by 2008.
"The upcoming holidays become very important in terms of making a broad swath of consumers aware of these online music services," said Mike McGuire, analyst with GartnerG2.
PLENTY OF BUZZ; WHERE'S THE MONEY?
The marketing heat surrounding the competing download services has heightened in recent weeks. Time magazine, for example, named Apple's iTumes Music Store as the "coolest invention" of the past year.
"The dirty little secret of all of this is there's no way to make money on these stores," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs told the magazine. For every 99-cent song iTunes sells, 65 cents goes to the record label, 25 cents pays operating costs and only about 10 cents is pocketed by Apple, Time said.
So what's in it for Apple? The site drives sales of the highly profitable iPods, Jobs said.
Portable players were introduced five years ago, enabling fans to download and transfer songs in the MP3 compression format from outlawed services like Napster.
The record industry sued the original MP3 player's maker, Diamond Multimedia, in a bid to stem the growing tide of file-sharing, but lost the case. More manufacturers jumped in the market with MP3 devices offering more storage.
While the record companies never entirely accepted these devices, several label-sanctioned online services are now compatible with many of the newest MP3 players that also allow the direct transfer of copyright-protected music files.
In addition to Apple's iPod, other popular players are made by Creative Labs, Panasonic, Samsung Corp (000830.K), Rio, Archos, iRiver and RCA.
Now maybe Ted will or will not happen but, IMHO, the fact that airlines with hardwired IFE are considering hauling portable units in addition speaks to the value proposition they see in these units and the potential savings harnessed by airlines who do not have these legacy seat-back units on their entire fleets. Perhaps Ted will be able to order it's future A320s without the 2 miles of extra wire and associated weight...or maybe they clearly see the advantage of having both types of units to further differentiate themselves...
Tenzing Delivering In-flight Internet to Airlines
By Mark Berniker
February 25, 2003
Tenzing Communications is partnering with Airbus and Rockwell Collins to launch a new high-speed radio service that will provide live Internet connections for airline passengers.
Tenzing's technology utilizes current antenna technology, and because it provides the ability to send and receive e-mail while in the air, it is a competitor to Connexion, Boeing's in-flight Internet offering. Tenzing says its service will cost much less than Connexion. Tenzing estimates it will charge passenger close to $10 per flight, Connexion says it expects to charge customers $25-$35 per flight. Tenzing says it will be able to offer access to corporate Virtual Private Networks and live Web browsing.
Tenzing said it has completed the first full-scale test of inflight Internet access with Airbus using the INMARSAT Swift 64 service over a standard high-gain L-band SATCOM antenna. The system brings together hardware and software from Tenzing, Airbus and Rockwell Collins.
Tenzing says more than 1,800 aircraft worldwide already have SATCOM antenna equipment on them, so there are no extra equipment costs for the airlines. The system combines the Airbus Inflight Information System (AFIS) works with Rockwell Collins high-speed data solution with Tenzing's passenger messaging service with the existing L-band SATCOM infrastructure.
Tenzing says in-flight Internet connectivity was able to transmit messages at 64 kbps using Rockwell Collins' SAT-906 SATCOM system and HST-900 high-speed data transceiver.
Cathay Pacific Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways are currently testing the technology. Airbus SAS and Cathay Pacific's Taikoo Aviation Technologies are investors in Tenzing. Rockwell Collins invested $10 million in Tenzing last year.
After September 11th, Tenzing backed away from its plans to offer inflight Internet service and had to go back to the block attempting to drump up financing. In a difficult environment, it closed a round in December 2002, and with this announcement will be rehiring workers and start marketing its in-flight Internet system.
Fun name Ted's tie to United may be invaluable for marketing
November 12, 2003
BY LEWIS LAZARE SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
Ted? Who is Ted? It's a question that's been asked a lot in Denver the last several weeks, as United Airlines and its ad agency of record, Fallon/Minneapolis, have carried out an exhaustive guerrilla teaser campaign to boost interest in the Feb 12 launch of -- and here's your answer folks -- a new low-fare airline called Ted.
Why Ted? Why not, say United executives. And hang in there, Denver. You're going to get to know Ted a whole lot better in the days and weeks ahead.
United executives say they wanted a name for their new airline that really is a name, for one thing. Ted not only is a real name. It's also a fun, personable sounding name, and more importantly, it's actually a part of Uni-ted, a neat touch that could prove invaluable in developing both Ted, the brand, and also in executing an effective and engaging ad campaign for an airline that wants to have a separate and distinct identity from its mainline sister, yet remain a very real part of United too. And make no mistake. Fallon executives say they are very exci-ted about the marketing possibilities inherent in the carrier's new name.
United worked with the New York office of branding agency Pentagram to develop the name Ted. In recent months Pentagram tossed around a number of other possibilities, such as Flyer, United Red and Rhapsody, a reference to "Rhapsody In Blue," that has been the carrier's theme song for some time. But they all sounded much too "me too," according to United executives.
But one day when Pentagram executives in New York were teleconferencing with their counterparts in the firm's London office, somebody just happened to mention the name Ted.
Suddenly everything clicked into place, said Stephanie Burnham, United's director of brands and product development. "It was almost a gift, and it was staring right at us all the time. We see Ted as a call to action, and a challenge to be different that harkens back to our roots."
Even so, internally, United executives already have acknowledged Ted is an unorthodox name for a carrier, and that does pose some risk. But they are counting on at least a couple of pluses to counteract the obvious risk: Namely the friendliness of the name and its uniqueness within an industry where generic is more the norm. Just think Song or Jet Blue.
Fallon was first presented with the name Ted on Sept. 30, and quickly set about developing the teaser campaign that Denver residents have been experiencing. All manner of Ted buttons and stickers have popped up on people, on newspapers and even on plastic wrapped cookies being passed out in the Mile High City. People have been walking around with signs saying "I'm not Ted," and billboards have carried messages such as "One Word. Ted".
A generous Ted even picked up the tab for some lucky diners at Denver restaurants. More guerrilla style marketing will go on over the next couple of months, as Ted representatives make visits to hospitals and participate in Thanksgiving dinners in Denver.
On Thursday, the most visible component of the teaser campaign to date will kick into gear via the launch of three 15-second television commercials from Fallon designed to make the people of Denver even more curious about Ted. One spot starts with just a speck on the screen that slowly moves forward to fill the screen with the name "Ted" as Wagner's dramatic "Ride of Valkyries" opera music plays on the soundtrack.
Another simple spot shows various names such as Hank, Mary and Horatio being crossed out one by one until the name Ted pops up on screen along with a Web site address, www.meetted.com. Yet a third spot shows theatrical spotlights scanning the screen to the sound of a drumroll until they finally all focus on and illuminate the word "Ted."
Next Tuesday, United executives plan to hold a press conference to officially announce Ted is United's new low-cost carrier. The next day Denver newspapers will carry a two-page display ads showing the new Ted aircraft livery and ad copy that tells readers United is finally putting a face to the name Ted. Like much ofthe print advertising yet to come, these Ted ads will be done up in blue and marigold, the carrier's official color scheme, which will be visible on the aircraft fuselage.
In all the advertising that follows next week's official unveiling of Ted, Fallon will try to convey to the public the personality the agency has created for the new low-cost carrier. A Web site will be an integral part of the marketing effort too, according to Jerry Dow, United's director of marketing communications. "We want it to be a robust site that people can go to for information, but that also conveys Ted's personality."
"Ted is a giver," said Fallon President Rob White. "We want people to be on a first-name basis with our airline, and we want our Ted to be well-rounded and very down to earth."
United wants Ted to be his own brand, but not a huge departure
Fun and low fares will be the two guiding forces behind the launch of United's new low-cost carrier on Feb. 12. Initially, the carrier will fly to just eight leisure destinations from Denver International Airport: Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Reno, Ft. Lauderdale and Ontario, Calif. But if customer response proves favorable in Denver, United brass already are considering quickly adding Ted routes into the Caribbean and Mexico, according to John Tague, United executive vice president/customer.
United executives are clear about one thing: They want Ted to be a distinct low-fare United brand, but not so different that frequent travelers on the main carrier feel a jarring jolt when they walk on to a Ted aircraft. In interviews with several United executives, they all talked about crafting the Ted brand in a way that appeals to the more relaxed leisure traveler mind-set, but still has the mainline carrier's mileage benefits and many of its most popular onboard amenities.
For one thing, Ted will have an especially large Economy Plus section of 66 seats (with a generous 35 or 36 pitch) out of a total of 156 seats on board each Airbus 320 Ted aircraft, about 18 more seats in all than are found on mainline United Airbuses, which have a 12-seat first-class cabin. Tague said the Economy Plus feature has proved popular with United business travelers, and Ted's core planning team, which also included Sean Donohue, United's vice president/low cost operation, felt it was crucial to make Economy Plus a feature of Ted as well.
The color scheme on the outside of Ted aircraft will feature blue and marigold. The interiors of the planes will have a blue and gray color scheme. Onboard video and audio entertainment on Ted will be unique to the brand and might include options such as a video featuring local bands from destinations to which Ted flies. Donohue also said Ted is exploring making available handheld video equipment on which passengers could view premium entertainment offerings for an additional fee.(Ted is going to fly Airbus 320s which I am quite certain are already wired and plumbed for in-seat IFE and Airbus has recently cemented a relationship with Tenzing and Verizon to provide their email service. This service is an early counterpoint to Connexion by Boeing and is lower bandwidth..FYI) And in another move to differentiate the brand from other United offerings, there is already talk of establishing a Ted Carpet Club, a dedicated lounge for Ted flyers and a cousin to United's familiar Red Carpet Club.
Food will be available on board Ted for purchase, Tague said, and it will include branded products from the Denver area, as well as other markets in Ted's route structure, where feasible. Because pilots and flight attendants may work on both Ted and mainline United flights, they will wear the same basic uniform on both brands, Tague said, but different accessories will be added to the attire on Ted flights to give the crew a look and a personality unique to the new low-cost carrier.
Will Chicago get to know Ted anytime soon? Both Tague and Donohue were vague about if, or when, that might happen. But they indicated much about Ted's future will hinge on the initial passenger response in Denver. The likely scenario, Tague said, is that Ted would expand next into United's Dulles International Airport hub outside Washington, D.C., within six months after the Denver launch, and that Chicago could come some time after that. Ted destinations from Chicago would be Florida and the Caribbean and Mexican destinations.
Lewis Lazare
When fashion and technology mix
Sunday November 16, 2003
By Richard Ingham
IT’S getting hot in the nightclub, but Dina isn’t bothered. Her shape-memory blouse is responding right on cue: its sleeves automatically rise, turning her garment into a cool, short-sleeved number at a stroke.
Dina looks over enviously to her friend Valeria, who’s clearly having a great time.
Her Light Dress, whose heartbeat sensor is designed to signal her emotional state, is shining a brilliant blue as she chats to a handsome young man.
So, for Dina, it could be a sad night alone.
But all is not lost.
She suddenly feels a tickle from the phoneband on her arm: she clicks her fingers to make the connection, puts her fingertip into her ear to provide an earpiece – and she’s delighted to discover that it’s an old friend who’s just arrived in town.
This scenario does not belong in the distant future.
Indeed, the blouse and dress are already here, albeit as prototypes, and the “digital” phone, which sends small vibrations down one's arm and through one’s finger to provide the sound, is being developed right now by Japanese telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo.
They are simply the vanguard of a promised revolution where fashion and science meet, fusing into so-called intelligent clothing.
“In five years, functional clothing will be widespread. That’s my hope, anyway,” says Alexandra Fede, an Italian fabric scientist who is one of only two or three designers in this new field.
“Life has changed with the new millennium. To have fashionable clothes is not enough. We also need to have a garment that is active and provides other functions.”
A recent exhibition of intelligent clothing in Paris showed that these novel garments fall into roughly two categories.
The first are garments made of normal fabric that incorporate tiny electronics, such as computers, radios and phones, which are secreted in discreet parts of the clothing and connected by hidden cables.
One such item is a jogging outfit made by Infineon Technologies AG, based in Munich, Germany, which has an MP3 player in the sleeve, activated by voice command through a microphone imbedded in the collar.
Other firms are focusing on the sports and medical market, with sensors incorporated into garments that capture temperature, perspiration and heart rate to monitor athletic prowess, or the position of one’s spine while at work, something that is important for back sufferers.
Another Germany company, Merhav A.A.P. GmbH has invented a “portable airbag” for horse riders and motorcyclists, which inflates in 30 milliseconds to provide a cushion for the neck and the spine, the areas most at risk in a collision.
The second category – more ambitious and longer at getting to market – is the realm of “intelligent fabrics”: novel textiles that in themselves provide a function.
They include an ultra-thin jacket, called No-Violence, made out of the latest type of carbon fibres, that has been tested to withstand .45 bullets, and Absolute Zero, a jacket made from a light, insulating compound called Aerogel, which keeps the body warm in temperatures of up to -50°C.
The shape-memory blouse is made by Corpo Nove, of Florence, Italy.
Its fibres are nylon interspersed with an alloy called nitinol, about the thickness of a hair, which can be deformed and then returns to its original shape when heated to a certain temperature.
That means the blouse's sleeves can be programmed to shorten as soon as the room temperature becomes a few degrees hotter, said Stefano Carosio, an engineer with an Italian company, D'Apollonia, which scouted out Corpo Nove as a partner to commercialise the fruits of European Space Agency (ESA) research.
“It also means you can ‘iron' the shirt just with a hairdryer,” he said.
The cost, though: 2,500 euros.
However, the price will plummet if shape-memory plastics, still in the lab, will also work.
Fede says she has been overwhelmed with the interest in her JoyDress, a dress made out of hi-tech Lycra T400 fabric, manufactured by Du Pont de Nemours of the United States.
The dress has tiny vibrating pads, programmed by a computer the size of a packet of cigarettes, that give the wearer a gentle back massage.
The next thing will be a pair of Joy Trousers that can do the same for the legs “and, depending on the location of the vibrators, make a woman feel sexy,” she adds coyly.
“The biggest problem I have is not having ideas or in finding new prototype materials, it is to find a company that is willing to take the plunge and make the fabric and garments,” says Fede. – AFP
Well Cassie, you could be right about any bartering agreement and the necessity of having a footnote, but then again, many things are not broken out in these financial statements yet they nonetheless transpire.
You failed to address this post..
Posted by: gernb1
In reply to: None Date:11/14/2003 12:25:49 PM
Post #of 51476
How to explain this ahhhh "misunderstanding" shall we call it?
Posted by: Cassandra
In reply to: gernb1 who wrote msg# 43719
Date: 8/29/2003 1:27:41 PM
Post #
GMT Capital closed out their position on EDIG.
I just spoke to Mr. Geiger at (770) 989-8261. He said it was an older position that they no longer hold.
http://www.nubridges.com/investors.htm#GMT
And today we see...
E DIGITAL CORP OTCBB
Institutional Holdings Description / Hide Summary
Company Details
Total Shares Out Standing (millions): 155
Market Capitalization ($ millions): $82
Institutional Ownership: 0.1%
Price (as of 11/13/2003) 0.53
Ownership Analysis # Of Holders Shares
Total Shares Held: 6 137,200
New Positions: 1 100
Increased Positions: 2 1,600
Decreased Positions: 1 200
Holders With Activity: 3 1,800
Sold Out Positions: 1 200
Date Shares Held Change (Shares) % Change (Shares) Value ($1000)
GMT CAPITAL CORP 9/30/2003 109,600 1,500 1.39% $58
HARTLINE INVESTMENT ... 9/30/2003 19,000 0 0.00% $10
RBF LLC 9/30/2002 5,000 0 0.00% $3
BABSON DAVID L & CO ... 9/30/2003 3,500 0 0.00% $2
WELLS FARGO & CO/MN 9/30/2003 100 100 New $0
On it's face this would appear to be a bald-faced lie ...some need to be careful what they post methinks...
Wal-Mart to launch online music service
Posted 11/14/2003 7:09 PM
By Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK — Wal-Mart Stores is looking to its core customer base with its new online music service, offering a library of largely country music songs for less than the 99-cent per download industry standard.
The world's largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., sells 20% of the nation's recorded music, and plans to launch its own online music downloading service. The company already rents DVDs online, and analysts say offering music opens the market to a new demographic.
"It really represents the mass market stepping up to digital music services and saying, 'We're almost ready to adapt this on a big scale,'" said Jacob Kaldenbaugh, an analyst with Harvest Equity Research in San Francisco. "This is downloading music going mainstream."
Brisbane, Calif.-based Walmart.com's spokeswoman Cynthia Lin was traveling on Friday and not available for comment.
Wal-Mart's service may be online as soon as next week and carry about 200,000 titles — half the library of other downloading sites like Apple's iTunes.
"If you look at the headline numbers everybody else has close to 400,000," Kaldenbaugh said. "Right now the issue is, do you have the songs that your consumers want? The question is, are there enough country music consumers who feel comfortable using downloadable music?"
Kaldenbaugh says that Wal-Mart's customer base may be less opposed to paying for online music. That and targeting the country music market, could prove a boon for the store, said Marcus Thomas, a music management professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
"Wal-Mart stores in general are located in rural areas and the larger part of the music they sell thru their racks are country," Thomas said. "Very possibly, it could boost the sales by exposing the music to more people."
But other analysts say that Wal-Mart is eager to jump into an already-crowded online music market.
"There's really a land grab going on to get online with music stores," said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham and Company, Inc. in New York. "Everybody and everyone is trying to get into this business as quickly as they can."
Wolf said Wal-Mart may bring new downloaders to the Internet, but depending on what platform the company chooses, it could pull customers from other sites.
"Some people might download music who have never done it before," Wolf said. "The sites that are likely to lose are those who are compatible with the format Wal-Mart uses."
The other factor is how many people visit the site, Wolf said, noting that people know the Wal-Mart name.
"One of the determinates of success will be the traffic," he said. "And Wal-Mart obviously generates a lot of traffic into their stores."
E. Michael Harrington, a music business professor at Nashville's Belmont University, said that he thinks the company is making a mistake if it places too much emphasis on country songs.
"I would think they should expand it to more," Harrington said. "So many rock 'n' roll kids go to Wal-Mart anyway, why wouldn't they go to Walmart.com?"
During the summer, Wal-Mart completed a seven-month trial and began full-scale operations in its online DVD rental business, a challenge to market leader Netflix.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Virgin U.K. offers Apple iPod
Last modified: November 13, 2003, 10:55 AM PST
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Apple Computer said it has started selling its iPod digital music player at Virgin Megastores and Virgin Xpress stores in the United Kingdom. "We’re thrilled to be working with Virgin Retail to bring the iPod to even more customers," Apple UK sales director Mark Rogers said in a statement on the company's Web site.
The company said at last week's analyst meeting that it has significantly expanded the iPod's distribution for this holiday season as it expects a sequential jump in sales over last quarter's record sales of 336,000 iPods. Apple said it has 8,000 points of distribution for the iPod worldwide, twice as many as it had for last year's prime buying season.
Seems unlikely to me Digital 5 seems to have done the integration...
Zoran’s Vaddis Runs Orient Power’s New Wireless Home Network Enabled, On media DVD Player
Collaboration Delivers On media DVD Server Technology For Home Theater Connectivity to PCs
Santa Clara, Calif. - June 24, 2003 - Zoran Corporation (Nasdaq: ZRAN) and Orient Power Home Network Ltd announced that their technology collaboration with Digital 5 has enabled On media Oritron NPD3117, a new wireless DVD Home Network product.
Zoran's advanced Vaddis DVD multimedia processor IC powers the new On media Oritron NPD3117 networked DVD player. Digital 5's Netplay DVD client technology is the Vaddis-compatible software that allows consumers to stream digital pictures, music and video clips stored on a personal computer to be played on a television or home theater system for a superior viewing and listening experience.
"Zoran's Vaddis processor is an innovative and cost effective solution that runs with Digital 5's software to provide an affordable wireless networking system for our new DVD home network product," said John Rowe, director of new products, Orient Power Home Network Limited. "Our joint collaboration has produced an easy-to-use DVD product that consumers will enjoy using from the comfort of their living room. This is the first of many exciting new On media products that will come to market over the next year."
"Our strategic collaboration with Digital 5 has enabled us to play an important role in helping Orient Power produce their On media DVD product that we expect will be popular with consumers," said Dr. Jinxiang (Gene Liu), vice president and general manager Digital Entertainment business unit at Zoran Corporation.
The Vaddis enables Dolby Digital and DTS outputs for high-quality surround sound applications and provides 10-bit video digital to analog conversion plus advanced digital filtering for the best quality video output.
Digital 5's Netplay technology for DVD players is an "end to end" solution that combines DVD client software with a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) powered PC server application for organizing and streaming digital audio, picture, and video content.
About Orient Power Home Network Ltd.
Orient Power Home Network Ltd, based in Hong Kong, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Orient Power Group, a premier supplier of consumer electronics entertainment hardware products worldwide. The Home Network division represents Orient Power's commitment to this new space between the converging computer and home entertainment markets. It will leverage the group's China manufacturing and USA distribution facilities. Orient Power is a premier supplier of DVD players to OEM and retail channels worldwide, following the group's successful 1999 launch of the Oritron DVD200, which became the first China manufactured DVD player to hit the USA market. With headquarters in Hong Kong and operations in China and the USA, Orient Power can be contacted on the World Wide Web at www.orientpower.com, www.onmediadvd.com; www.oritronusa.com, or by email to homenetwork@oritron.com.hk.
About Zoran Corporation
Zoran Corporation, based in Santa Clara, California, is a leading provider of digital solutions-on-a-chip for applications in the growing consumer electronics markets. With two decades of expertise developing and delivering digital signal processing technologies, Zoran has pioneered high-performance digital audio, video, and imaging applications. Zoran's proficiency in integration delivers major benefits for OEM customers, including greater capabilities within each product generation, reduced system costs, and shorter time to market. Zoran-based DVD products and digital cameras have received recognition for excellence and are now in millions of homes worldwide. With headquarters in the U.S. and operations in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, Zoran may be contacted on the World Wide Web at www.zoran.com or at 408-919-4111.
Zoran and Vaddis are trademarks of Zoran Corporation.
On media DVD and Oritron are trademarks of the Orient Power Group.
Digital 5 and Netplay are trademarks of Digital 5, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Sony leads eBook venture
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
November 14, 2003 (11:28 a.m. ET)
TOKYO — Sony Corp. and 14 major publishing, printing and newspaper companies are planning a new eBook business that will focus on rental service based on OpenMG, Sony's digital rights management technology.
The partners established an eBook distribution company for Japan called Publishing link, Ltd. here on Nov. 4 to begin an eBook rental business next spring. Initially, Sony will own a 41-percent stake in the company, while Kodansha and Shinchosha, both major publishers in Japan, each hold 15.38 percent. Dai Nippon Printing and Toppan Printing are the third largest shareholders, owning 10.25 percent each. The remaining nine founders share the rest.
A prototype eBook reader to be used by the partners will employ E Ink's electronic paper display measuring approximately 6 inches diagonally. "The electronic paper display has a big contrast ratio, which is close to paper and easy to read," said a Sony spokesman.
Toppan Printing has been E Ink's major strategic partner since May 2001, and has invested $30 million on the joint venture with the Massachusetts company. Last year, E Ink, Toppan and Philips said they have succeeded in developing electronic paper that can display moving images in color. Toppan is now preparing volume production of monochrome electronic paper.
The new Sony-led company will provide contents, which users can download to PCs. For security reasons, the reader does not have telecommunication capabilities. With USB or Memory Stick, users can "check out" materials from their PC to the reader based on the OpenMG scheme, which is already used to manage music files on PCs without allowing duplication without permission. The reader program allows users to read downloaded materials in a certain period of time.
This service will use Sony's proprietary BBeB format as its data format. Sony developed the format for electronic publishing using XML as the intermediate language.
Sony declined to disclose details about the reader, saying only that it would make the reader available before the services begins next spring.
The Electronic Book Business Consortium was founded here in October. Founders include Matsushita Electric Industries and Toshiba Corp. along with publishers and other industry members. Dai Nippon and Toppan Printing also belong to both eBook groups.
"Publishing link is open to companies other than founders. We are going to invite investors," said Noriyuki Manabe, vice president and chief operating officer of Publishing link, who joined the company from Sony.
The consortium said it invite others participants. Matsushita plans to begin marketing of its eBook reader compliant with the consortium's data formats this fall.
In the future, the two groups may share the content data format, but there is an immediate possibility that the Matsushita/Toshiba group and Sony will butt heads over eBook distribution in Japan.
Fighting For The Right To Share
Aliya Sternstein, 11.14.03, 12:00 PM ET
NEW YORK - Ian Clarke, inventor of file-swapping service Freenet, has departed the United States for the United Kingdom, where copyright laws are more lax. Wayne Rosso, the man behind file-sharing service Grokster, left for a peer-to-peer network in Spain, again saying goodbye to thorny copyright issues.
File sharing has gotten a black eye from illegal downloads of copyrighted music and movies, but the technology behind it is important. A legal network of shared thinking will hasten drug research, software development and the flow of information. But U.S. copyright laws, designed decades before the Web was ever conceived, have tied file sharing--and many other Internet technologies--in knots.
The traditional holders of copyrighted material have dug in for a long fight against any loosening of the laws. In 1998, after intense lobbying from The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people ) and other companies, the U.S. Congress passed a law making corporate copyrights good for 95 years and those owned by individuals good for 70 years past the creator's death. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court extended that law for another 20 years. But if the old-liners continue to get their way, the public domain in the U.S. will virtually disappear. And early-stage Internet innovations from digital music stores to virtual actors will forever be stuck behind legal firewalls.
The losses suffered by traditional copyright holders have piled up. A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America claims that 2 billion songs worldwide are downloaded illegally every month; software developers like Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) say the industry loses more than $10 billion per year to illegal software; the Motion Picture Association of America puts piracy losses in the U.S. at more than $3 billion per year. According to the Business Software Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group, a ten-point drop in worldwide piracy over the next four years would add 1.5 million jobs and $400 billion in additional economic growth.
Also piling up: lawsuits, against both the downloaders and the Internet service providers that transmit their booty.
Yet the recent gains scored by legal file sharing show just how much money is at stake on the other side of the copyright divide. In just five months, services such as Apple Computer's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iTunes, RealNetworks' (nasdaq: RNWK - news - people ) Rhapsody, BuyMusic.com and others have collected about $9.5 million in legal music-download fees, according to Soundscan.
One of the ways content providers aim to control distribution is through technology called digital rights management, which essentially assigns usage rights and fees to everything from entertainment to e-mails to medical records. Giants like Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) are promoting DRM technology.
Can copyrights be protected without stifling innovation? Ultimately, the protection of content and jobs hinges on collaboration between producers and distributors.
Among the ideas being floated by lobbying groups like P2P United: a royalty pool created from small charges on Internet service, blank CDs and CD burner equipment. These so-called compulsory licenses would mean consumers broadly share the cost for all copyrighted music that passes through the ISP.
But such licenses would require the approval of the U.S. Congress, says William Fisher, a Harvard Law professor and director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The idea would also get pushback from ISPs. "We would become the world's most complicated billing system," says Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon Communications (nyse: VZ - news - people ), which is not promoting compulsory licenses.
There may not be any consensus on how to control distribution and licensing of content, but most agree that it's a train that can't be stopped.
History shows that conventional media reflexively shuns novel technology. In 1908, a music publisher sued a player piano company. The Supreme Court ruled that making piano rolls was not close enough to publishing music to be prohibited. In 1984, Universal City Studios and Walt Disney Productions took the VCR to court. There, the judges decided that taping TV programs at home was fair use, to the glee of VCR and Betamax makers and owners.
Hanson, the teen group behind the hit song "Mmmbop," launched a Web site during the Web's music infancy. Six years later--with a new album and tour--the brothers still support online music. "Whether it's a tax or 99 cents for a song, we gotta work something out," says 18-year-old Zac Hanson.
Somewhere in the middle of cyberspace, the kids and the grown-ups have to lay down some ground rules. Even the U.S. Constitution was a compromise.
How to explain this ahhhh "misunderstanding" shall we call it?
Posted by: Cassandra
In reply to: gernb1 who wrote msg# 43719
Date: 8/29/2003 1:27:41 PM
Post #
GMT Capital closed out their position on EDIG.
I just spoke to Mr. Geiger at (770) 989-8261. He said it was an older position that they no longer hold.
http://www.nubridges.com/investors.htm#GMT
And today we see...
E DIGITAL CORP OTCBB
Institutional Holdings Description / Hide Summary
Company Details
Total Shares Out Standing (millions): 155
Market Capitalization ($ millions): $82
Institutional Ownership: 0.1%
Price (as of 11/13/2003) 0.53
Ownership Analysis # Of Holders Shares
Total Shares Held: 6 137,200
New Positions: 1 100
Increased Positions: 2 1,600
Decreased Positions: 1 200
Holders With Activity: 3 1,800
Sold Out Positions: 1 200
Date Shares Held Change (Shares) % Change (Shares) Value ($1000)
GMT CAPITAL CORP 9/30/2003 109,600 1,500 1.39% $58
HARTLINE INVESTMENT ... 9/30/2003 19,000 0 0.00% $10
RBF LLC 9/30/2002 5,000 0 0.00% $3
BABSON DAVID L & CO ... 9/30/2003 3,500 0 0.00% $2
WELLS FARGO & CO/MN 9/30/2003 100 100 New $0
On it's face this would appear to be a bald-faced lie ...some need to be careful what they post methinks...
Since it's slow...I wonder if APS has pursued the angle of "how to attack and disable a terrorist with your DigEplayer"? They could have an instructional video right on the player maybe at startup....pressure points to attack, throwing your digEplayer as a weapon, which videos to best shock and awe a potential terrorist with...
Sorry to hear that arkie. JV was a pleasure to converse with and we will all miss his "sting".
OT Valenti likely to leave MPAA post in January
Rep. W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin is seen as front-runner to replace the 82-year-old as Hollywood's lobbyist in Washington.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Los Angeles Times By James Bates
Times Staff Writer
Originally published November 14, 2003, 9:56 AM EST
Jack Valenti, Hollywood's voice in Washington for nearly 38 years, most likely will step down in early January as chief of the Motion Picture Assn. of America while retaining the chairman's title and continuing to oversee the movie ratings system he fathered, sources said Thursday.
People familiar with the matter said Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) remained the clear front-runner to replace the 82-year-old Valenti, who last summer disclosed he was planning for succession but left the timing vague.
With an annual salary of $1 million, Valenti occupies one of Washington's highest-paying and most visible lobbying positions.
Tauzin's name has been linked to the job as far back as January, with the 60-year-old chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee edging slowly toward the MPAA post amid repeated reports that a secret deal already has been forged.
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But sources said there still was no formal agreement between Tauzin and the MPAA.
"There's no final stamp," one source said.
Still, several senior studio executives said it was informally understood that Tauzin would accept the title of MPAA president and chief executive if offered. The MPAA's member studios have given their quiet blessing to the move, sources said.
Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said up to this point, "no one from the MPAA and none of the studio heads have contacted him about the position."
But, Johnson said, "is he on their wish list? Absolutely. If Jack Valenti retires, and in fact an offer is made, he will listen to what they have to say."
The MPAA declined to comment.
The MPAA's three-member finance committee — made up of Viacom Entertainment Group Chairman Jonathan Dolgen, News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Walt Disney Co. President Robert Iger — would work with Valenti to finalize any deal with Tauzin.
Earlier, certain studio officials privately expressed reservations about whether Tauzin would be a good fit with the MPAA, while some put out feelers to gauge who else might be available. Executives at Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., for example, met with former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke and Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), who was co-chairman of Arnold Schwarzenegger's successful campaign for California governor.
Hollywood's studios have given Valenti wide latitude in setting a schedule for his departure.
Although he has made it known that he wants to formally announce his retirement as chief in January, sources said the date remains somewhat in flux and Valenti's exit could come as late as March. The studios, people close to the situation said, want Valenti to keep the chairman's title of the organization he has led since being hired away in 1966 from President Johnson's White House staff.
Under the plan being discussed, Valenti also would continue his work with the National Assn. of Theatre Owners on ratings issues. The ratings operation would remain independent from the MPAA.
Sources say Tauzin has been reluctant to formally negotiate a deal with the MPAA while Congress is in session, noting that he is behind three major pieces of legislation — relating to energy, Medicare and Internet spam — that he would like to leave as a legacy.
If Tauzin was hired, he would be unable to lobby Congress for a year under laws aimed at curbing influence abuse.
But sources said the studios were comfortable with Tauzin sitting out 2004 as a lobbyist because they didn't expect much headway to be made on their legislative agenda during an election year.
Even before last summer's disclosure, Valenti had been hinting for a long time that he might want to shed his day-to-day work at the MPAA. Although he relishes the job, it carries numerous headaches.
In recent weeks, for example, Valenti has been the target of intense criticism over his move to stem piracy by cutting off the DVDs that studios send out to promote films for awards. Sources said the uproar had nothing to do with Valenti's planned departure.
Very big IMO..Microsoft Plus Digital Media Addition
Written by: Michael Mardings
An overview of what Microsoft Plus is all about.
What is Microsoft Plus? I think that has to be our first question. Basically, it’s an add-on to the Microsoft Windows XP software, which enhances it’s functionality.
Those big words are all well and good, but what does that mean?
Have you ever used Microsoft Windows for digital media (music/movies) and thought, “Wow, I wish it could do this.” Then Microsoft Plus is for you.
It’s broken down into a few sub programs to accomplish those needs:
Alarm Clock: This is really self explanatory. You can start your digital music to play any time.
Analog Recorder: A great little program which enables you to connect a record player, tape, etc and copy the media right to Window Media Format to play on your computer. Now you can update your old songs to new.
Audio Converter: Is a bit of a one-way converter, converting MP3 to WMA, but not back again.
CD Label Maker: Again, as the name sounds, but it’s a pretty easy to use program. Just buy the labels, load them into your computer and you’re set.
Photo Story: Allows you to make VCDs which are read by basically any DVD player currently made. You take your digital photos, load in a sound bite and you have a mini slide-show/movie.
Party Mode: Party mode is interesting. We have our living room stereo hooked up to the computer so it works out well. You can now have your computer work as a screen-saver/jukebox. Nobody can touch anything but your play list.
Dancer: Their cutest little feature. A “dancer” appears right on the bottom of the screen, and “dances” in time with the music. You can download your favorite dancers and see if they can actually keep the beat.
Overall, it’s a neat little package that takes the features of various pieces of software that you might buy and puts them together. If you’re thinking of buying a CD Label Maker Program, a VCD Program, an MP3 Program… well, you get the idea.
Pages Updated On: 13-Nov-2003 - 22:26:08
Multimedia Format Contest Continues
Two pending formats aim to make it easier to move discs among different devices.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Thursday, November 13, 2003
Your music collection is finally digital. You've ripped your 200 favorite CDs to MP3 files and love the way you can build playlists or instantly call up favorites from your personal database of 2000 songs. Setting out for the weekend, you copy 100 of your favorite songs onto a CD-R, pop it into your car's new MP3 CD player, and smile--until you realize your car player isn't half as intelligent as your PC. You must either remember 100 track numbers or hit "next" or "back" to navigate your music.
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Even if you haven't yet faced this problem, it's increasingly likely as more people burn their own multimedia CDs and more consumer electronics devices gain the capability to read such data. Many CD players play MP3 files as well as audio CDs, and some DVD players can run JPEG slide shows along with movies. Televisions are also changing, with the most modern models able to show movies or images stored on memory cards.
While this enhances the convergence of the PC and your living room, problems await. Most of these devices don't know much about the content of your files beyond their file names, and that can make navigating them enough of a hassle to consider going back to analog.
The same problem exists with files on hard drives, but many software products can organize and track collections of songs, photos, or movies. Most of these applications store description data, or metadata, in a format proprietary to the manufacturer or perhaps shared among other applications, but not understood outside of the world of computing.
To the rescue come two cross-industry metadata specifications, HighMAT and Music Photo Video. They were both proposed about a year ago to solve this problem and also to define standard ways to store metadata so different applications and hardware devices could access it. The result should make it easier to find files on platforms other than a PC.
Still, few users are likely to recognize either term. HighMAT is on the market, although is supported in only a handful of devices and applications, while MPV is at an earlier stage. However, backers of both systems include some of the biggest names in computing and consumer electronics, and promise things are about to change.
Microsoft Picks HighMAT
HighMAT, developed by Microsoft and Matsushita Electric Industrial (better known as Panasonic) was launched in October 2002. Then, it supported five file formats: Windows Media Audio, MP3, JPEG, Windows Media Video, and MPEG4, and one media format, CD, although DVD was added earlier this year.
About 15 Panasonic-branded products with HighMAT compatibility are available, and Microsoft supports it in Windows Media player 9 and Windows Media Maker, as well as in a Windows XP wizard. Third-party products with HighMAT support are difficult to find, but Microsoft is satisfied with HighMAT's first year.
"We are both excited about the progress HighMAT has made and the continued progress," says Michael Aldridge, Microsoft group product manager at the Windows Digital Media division.
He notes a number of companies have pledged to support HighMAT since its launch. The hardware vendors include Apex Digital, Creative Technologies, and Victor of Japan (JVC). Software support comes from Ahead Software AG, which makes Nero Burning Rom; Aplix, maker of WinCDR; Roxio; and Sonic Solutions. Japan's BHA shipped in September the first third-party application with HighMAT support, B's Recorder Gold 7. Looking ahead, Aldridge expects more software to support the format as applications are updated, and more hardware products with HighMAT as the new year begins.
"Third-party support is starting to emerge," he says, adding that he expects announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. "Based on what I am seeing, you can expect to see more shipping hardware at CES."
MPV's Route
Competitor MPV was developed by the Optical Storage Technology Association, and is a little broader in scope. Announced in November 2002, MPV has unlimited file format support: It works on optical discs and memory cards or across home networks, and the OSTA offers it royalty-free to hardware and software makers.
Its also running late compared to HighMAT.
MPV has a number of big-name supporters, including Eastman Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, LG Electronics, Olympus, Koninklijke Philips, Samsung, and Sony, but prototype hardware is only just being unveiled.
Several MPV products debuted at OSTA's Optical Storage Symposium conference earlier this week, says Pieter van Zee, a senior architect for HP's imaging and printing group. Samsung showed a prototype MPV player for music and photos, expected to ship in early 2004. Olympus demonstrated a digital still camera with MPV support, also due in 2004.
HP announced its Image Zone digital imaging software, which supports MPV and will be bundled with HP products this quarter, van Zee says. Several other software vendors also committed to MPV, including some of the same companies that are backing HighMAT, although their products are yet to appear.
One reason is the part of MPV relating to music is not complete.
The original specification for MPV supported basic metadata, such as the article, title, and description, but the Music Profile 1.0 adds support for things like the music genre, lyrics, and CD cover art. OSTA expects to complete it in December, van Zee says.
Still Deciding
While a number of big-name companies have endorsed one or the other system, many more have yet to do so. That helps leave undecided the question of which will emerge the strongest.
For example, Toshiba is among those not yet allied with either system, and representatives say it isn't rushing to decide.
"In most cases, when users store music or image data with their computers, they will listen or watch with their computers and not with CD or DVD players," says Midori Suzuki, a Toshiba spokesperson. "Of course, this might change over time. When we find more need for such systems, we will consider whether to employ either system or develop our own system."
While the number of supporting companies will help determine the eventual success or failure of both systems, the ultimate decision may lie in the hands of consumers who will create the content and decide which to adopt. Before they can get started, more products need to be out--and if 2004 really does see the more products supporting the metafiles, users will be much better able to judge.
Hmmmm...Important MP3.com Announcement
CNET Networks, Inc announced today that it has acquired certain assets of MP3.com, Inc.
Please be advised that on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST the MP3.com website will no longer be accessible in its current form.
Following a transition period, CNET Networks, Inc. plans to introduce new and enhanced artist services. If you would like to receive email updates on these new services and notification when they are available, as well as an invitation to their special artists-only preview, please sign up here.
Your personal information, music, images, related content or other information will not be transferred to CNET Networks, Inc. or any other third party.
MP3.com's content administration tools will remain available until the site is redirected on December 2, 2003. Please note, however, that promptly following the removal of the MP3.com website, all content will be deleted from our servers and all previously submitted tapes, CD-ROMs and other media in our possession will be destroyed. We recommend that you make alternative content hosting arrangements as soon as practicable.
Please remember to update or remove all links and references to the URL www.mp3.com. Additionally if you would like a historical record of your page, we recommend that you capture screen shots of the page as well as your artist statistics pages since they will no longer be available once the site goes offline.
MP3.com stopped collecting monthly fees for Gold and Platinum Artist Service subscriptions as of November 3, 2003. For any monthly Gold or Platinum Artist Service subscription fees MP3.com received during the period beginning October 13, 2003 and ending November 2, 2003, MP3.com will be issuing a refund that will be prorated to reflect a termination of the subscription as of November 2, 2003. For any previously paid annual Gold and Platinum subscription fees MP3.com has received during 2003, MP3.com will be issuing a refund that will be prorated to reflect a termination of the subscription as of November 2, 2003. Any artists who subscribed to the Platinum or Gold Artist Service after November 2, 2003 will receive a full refund of any fees paid.
If you subscribe to any other MP3.com services, you will receive separate email messages with specific information about refunds and service availability.
Participants in the truSONIC Business Music Service program will be receiving an email update about the process for their continued participation in that program.
All content uploads will cease immediately. Approvals of previously uploaded content will continue through Friday, November 14, 2003.
CDs will be available for purchase through Monday, November 17, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST.
MP3.com will perform a final artist accounting and check distribution on or around December 1, 2003. Any artist account with a balance of at least $25.00 will qualify to receive a payment in the final artist accounting (reduced from the usual requirement of $50.00). Payment of CD royalties will be included in the final artist accounting. If you anticipate a payment, please verify and update your artist account and contact information no later than November 20, 2003. Click here for help updating your contact information.
Please be sure to check the Sophie message board and System Service Report (SSR) for further updates.
On behalf of all of us at MP3.com we thank you for your patronage and continued support. It has been a privilege to host one of the largest and most diverse collections of music in the world. MP3.com wishes to express its sincere thanks to each of you for making our website an important part of your musical journey. We wish you continued success.
Sincerely,
MP3.com
iTunes helper allows MP3 downloads
Last modified: November 13, 2003, 1:27 PM PST
By Ina Fried and John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
An independent software developer has created a program called MyTunes that lets users of Apple Computer's iTunes for Windows grab song files from other people on a computer network.
While iTunes' main purpose is to let people buy music online and play songs stored on their PC, the software also includes a feature that allows customers to listen to songs stored on another PC on their local network. Apple's software makes no permanent copy of the song, but the new MyTunes software captures that "stream" of music, making a copy that can be burned to a CD, uploaded to the Net or streamed to another PC.
"iTunes does not allow you to save this music to your hard drive," MyTunes' creator, Bill Zeller, said on his Web site. "MyTunes lifts this restriction by allowing you to save music from other computers to your hard drive."
While stream recording is not new--a myriad programs exist for recording Web radio and other streaming Net services for Windows and Macintosh computers--the ease with which the MyTunes software fits into iTunes pushes the experience to a new, and perhaps legally risky, level.
Running the program makes creating your own MP3 songs from someone else's collection as easy or easier than grabbing MP3s via traditional file-swapping software like Kazaa. That could complicate things for Apple, which depends on the music industry's support--and indeed, has won unprecedented kudos from labels and artists--for its iTunes music store.
The iTunes stream-sharing feature has already been widely adopted inside companies and on college campuses, where computer users can sample co-workers' or fellow students' music collections, as long as they're both using iTunes and their computers are on the same network.
As set up in iTunes, this is more akin to on-demand Webcasting than true file-sharing--but even tiny Webcasters are in theory required to pay a royalty to record companies and artists for streaming songs online.
With the advent of MyTunes, the large iTunes collections become more like a collectively distributed database of songs from which anybody can download--something that looks a lot like Kazaa, although without the search features.
Only unencrypted MP3 files are easily captured and copied using the MyTunes software, however. Songs purchased from Apple's iTunes store, which are protected by the company's proprietary digital rights management technology, do not work with Zeller's software.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) declined to comment on the iTunes or MyTunes features. Previously, the RIAA has targeted corporations in which large MP3 libraries were available to employees through an internal computer network, settling for $1 million in one case. The group has also sent letters to businesses and colleges warning about the potential legal dangers of letting employees or students use file-swapping services to exchange copyrighted works.
The ability to stream music stored on another computer has been part of iTunes for the Mac for some time. Apple scaled back the feature after some people started sharing songs over the Internet.
For his part, Zeller said on his Web site that he expects that MyTunes users will not do anything illegal with the software.
"And remember, copyright infringement is illegal," he says at the bottom of the page. "If you have any question whether what you're doing constitutes an infringement, visit the RIAA's great antipiracy Web site."
Churak, you didn't answer my question to you about your statement re: manufacturing costs. Since you and your crew always imply it's all right there in the 10Q...well where is it?...
If those royalties were going to be used to pay for manufacturing costs, then the manufacturing costs would appear and the set off would be against the accounts receivable.
I see no place in the 10Q where manufacturing costs are ever broken out do you? So maybe you just overstated the case a little huh?
So Churak, what your saying is ....
you're not an accountant either and therefore you are speculating as to whether or not the scenario I described could actually play out as I described...
If those royalties were going to be used to pay for manufacturing costs, then the manufacturing costs would appear and the set off would be against the accounts receivable.
I see no place in the 10Q where manufacturing costs are ever broken out do you?
Cassandra, isn't it quite possible that any Digitalway royalties owed to e.Digital might be "bartered" to offset the cost of manufacturing products for e.Digital? Now no doubt the royalties would not cover the costs of our manufacturing with Digitalway and would then fall under the heading of accounts payable? I'm no CPA but this seems like a plausible scenario...
European Web retailers to enjoy banner online Xmas
Thursday November 13, 7:53 am ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - European Web shoppers will ring up 9 billion euros in e-commerce purchases for the 2003 Christmas period, closing the gap on the United States, the home of "e-shopaholics", a new forecast said.
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With this year's must-have gifts decidedly on the techy side -- from DVD players to digital cameras and video game consoles -- more of Europe's shoppers than ever are expected to flock to the Internet to browse and buy.
"Europe is hot on the heels of the U.S. this Christmas season," said Forrester Research analyst Hellen Omwando, who estimated that there are 166 million online shoppers in Europe.
She added shoppers in Western Europe are expected to purchase 9 billion euros ($10.52 billion) worth of goods between November 1 and Christmas day, up 18 percent from last year's Forrester Christmas forecast.
The U.S., the world's largest online retail market, will generate $12 billion in 2003 e-commerce Christmas sales.
Analysts have predicted that Europe could surpass the U.S. as the world's largest online retail market by the end of the decade as credit card penetration and trust in the medium grow.
RISING FROM THE DOT-COM ASHES
The projection is a rare bit of good news for a sector that had been decimated by the bursting of the dot-com bubble. Countless Internet firms sprung to life in the late 1990s, selling everything from dog food to jewellery, only to run out of money after their first Christmas.
The big online players today are recognisable high street retailers such as UK grocery chain Tesco (London:TSCO.L - News), Fnac.com, the online arm of Pinault Printemps Redoute (Paris:PRTP.PA - News), plus dot-com survivors Amazon.com (NasdaqNM:AMZN - News) and eBay (NasdaqNM:EBAY - News).
The Forrester forecast counted sales projections for 17 Western European countries -- the 15 EU member states plus Finland and Switzerland.
According to Forrester, the UK and Germany will account for 63 percent of European holiday sales. The largest product categories will be travel bookings, books and groceries, Omwella said.
"It's pointing to a very big year, simply because people started shopping as early as October," said Dorothea Arndt, marketing director for the British arm of Kelkoo.com, the Web-based price comparison shopping service.
She said the top gift search requests are for electronic gadgets such as Apple Computer Inc's (NasdaqNM:AAPL - News) iPod digital music player, the Sony (Tokyo:6758.T - News) PlayStation 2 video game console and Nike (NYSE:NKE - News) trainers.
But the rise of online shopping also has a dark side. British shoppers, alone, are expected to lose 300,000 pounds ($504,800) every day to "card not present" fraud, in which fraudsters intercept credit card details during an online ortelephone purchase, the Association of Payment Clearing Services warned.
"This is where we expect fraud to migrate to," said Carl Clump, chief executive of online fraud prevention firm Retail Decisions (London:RTD.L - News).
GM CTO sees auto industry embracing RFID by 2008
On another note, GM plans to deploy Office 2003 on 100,000 desktops worldwide
Story by Bob Brewin
OCTOBER 23, 2003 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - LAS VEGAS -- The automobile industry will be using radio frequency identification ( RFID) technology to track parts throughout its supply chain within three to five years -- and automobiles produced during that time frame will feature built-in wireless systems, according to Anthony Scott, chief technology officer at General Motors Corp.
On a more immediate note, Scott said GM has decided to migrate all of its desktop computers worldwide -- between 110,000 and 120,000 of them -- to Office 2003, which Microsoft Corp. introduced this week.
Scott, a speaker here at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association annual Wireless IT and Entertainment conference, said at a lunch for reporters yesterday that GM decided to move to Office 2003 because of its built-in XML capabilities. GM has "a lot of XML-enabled applications," Scott said.
The automaker, however, won't change its operating system on those desktops, Scott said. It will stick with Windows 2000 for now, though at some future date, it does plan to move to Windows XP or an updated version of the operating system.
As for the RFID technology, which stores supply-chain data on small tags equipped with antennas, Scott said he expects the entire automobile industry to eventually embrace it in the same way Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to use RFID tags in its supply chain. "It will happen," Scott said, adding that the use of the tags will require backing from the entire automobile industry. Scott said GM has already worked with the MIT Auto-ID Center on the development of standards for the tags' use.
He also predicted that GM will deploy some kind of short-range, high-bandwidth technology such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Ultrawideband technology in automobiles within three to five years, starting first with high-end vehicles and then moving the technology throughout its line. These built-in wireless systems could be used for diagnostics and to help consumers transfer MP3 audio files between home and car stereo systems.
Consumers, he said, "will demand" this kind of wireless connectivity.
And on a different topics, he said remote GM workers now use a wide range of devices to access corporate networks -- including BlackBerry pagers from Research In Motion Ltd., handhelds from Palm Inc. and notebook computers from Hewlett-Packard Co. As a result, the company has determined the only way it can support such a variety of access devices is through the use of middleware, which allows any device to access corporate applications and e-mail.
GM uses middleware from both Extended Systems Inc. in Boise, Idaho, and Synchrologic Inc. in Atlanta. These companies provide the automaker with the software that "connects applications to end devices," Scott said.
On NPR this morning, Wal-Mart to launch music downloads with emphasis on country music and songs less than 99 cents...
Murder on Music Row
Solving a Cold Case, Police Find a City’s Seamy Underbelly
N A S H V I L L E , Tenn., Nov. 10 — Even if you're a country music fan, you may never have heard of Kevin Hughes. But along Nashville's music row, he's a fallen hero.
Hughes, 23, was shot to death on March 9, 1989, after coming out of a recording studio.
He was chased down by an assailant "firing shots at him as they're running down the street," said Nashville police detective Bill Pridemore.
"He fell facedown, the assailant walks over to him, stands over his head and points a gun and fires at least two more rounds," he said. Hughes was shot almost at point-blank range, said Pridemore.
The case remained unsolved for 13 years — until this fall, when the life and death of Kevin Hughes became the talk of Nashville once again.
What He Wanted to Do
When Kevin Hughes arrived in Nashville, he was an innocent small town boy from Illinois who wanted to make it behind the scenes of the music business.
He got a job at Cash Box , the now-defunct trade journal that once dominated the country music industry.
"He was just excited to be there," said Hughes' brother, Kyle. "Because he was doing what he wanted to do. He loved it."
Hughes wasn't dealing with famous artists on major labels but with hopeful unknowns trying to break in. He managed the independent music charts, which kept track of the unknown artists and how often their songs were being played in the radio.
The Power of Payola
Radio airplay, key to the success of any newcomer, was the field where record promoters play hardball.
Promo kingpin Chuck Dixon and his partners knew all the tricks of the trade — and one of them was to get disc jockeys to move his records up toward No. 1 on their playlists.
The playlists were supposed to reflect real airplay. But they never did, said promoter Gary Bradshaw, a former partner of Dixon's.
Bradshaw told ABCNEWS' Primetime he got the DJs to move these records through the age-old practice of payola. "You brought them to Nashville. They couldn't afford a hotel rooms and meals, and so we purchased that for them."
There were offers of free cruises, house payments, car tires — even new septic tanks, he said.
Dixon and company were manipulating the charts, and in turn making a fortune from aspiring artists like Mickey Jones. Jones told ABCNEWS he spent thousands of dollars on promotional fees to Dixon.
In return, Cash Box made him "Male Vocalist of the Year" — even though he never sold a single record.
Death's Long Shadow
Dixon was lining his pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in cash, according to Bradshaw.
But rigging the charts wasn't something Hughes was willing to do. "He mentioned to me that he was being offered money and other things to put songs on the charts that weren't legitimate, weren't even being played," said Kyle.
"He was getting ready to blow the whistle on Chuck Dixon and the whole way that Cash Box was being run," Bradshaw said.
Hughes knew he was in danger, and his brother could sense it even over the phone. One hour before Kevin died, the brothers spoke for the last time.
"He was very concerned about something, you could tell by the tone in his voice, he was nervous, and almost scared," said Kyle. "At the end of the conversation he told me he loved me on the phone. And when he said that I knew something was wrong because we didn't talk about that on the phone."
The Dam Breaks
For years, police had theories about who killed Kevin Hughes, but they couldn't prove anything. But three years ago, Dixon died of cancer, and everything changed.
Bradshaw said Dixon had told him a couple of times, "'If anybody gets in my road or anything happens in this Cash Box situation that gets in gets in my road … the same thing will happen to them that happened to Kevin Hughes.'"
But Bradshaw added that at no time did Dixon ever admit killing Hughes.
New evidence and a flood of witnesses eventually led police to one of Dixon's partners. Thirteen years after the murder of Kevin Hughes, police arrested Tony D'Antonio.
Prosecutors believe Dixon ordered the murder and D'Antonio carried it out. Earlier this fall a Nashville jury found him guilty of first-degree murder.
Kyle Hughes said his brother died only trying to do a good job. "My brother was trying to clean it up and make it a reputable chart," he said.
"That's what he was trying to do, because he didn't want to work at a place where his integrity would be questioned at all."
Can Comdex Redefine Itself?
By Matt Hicks
November 12, 2003
When Comdex Las Vegas 2003 opens next week, gone will be the massage tables, the luxury cars and the consumer trinkets and gadgets that once dotted the trade show floor disguised as enterprise IT.
This year, Comdex's organizers are promising to focus solely on business IT in a markedly downsized show being billed as "year one of the new Comdex." But Comdex won't be the only show vying for the attention of IT managers.
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A competing show is debuting 3 miles away from Comdex's home at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Jupitermedia Corp.'s Jupiterevents group is putting on the Enterprise IT Week at cdXpo conference and exhibition at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in hopes of capturing vendors and attendees disaffected with Comdex.
Comdex's aim is to rebuild trust with both exhibitors and attendees that it is a premiere show for IT, not a catch-all of technology gadgets, said Eric Faurot, vice president and general manager for Comdex.
"The buyers were telling us that Comdex just got too big and that it was hard to do business there," Faurot said. "Was it a consumer show and what was the value it was offering?"
Whether the changes will be enough to sustain Comdex remains to be seen. Comdex's parent company only emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. At that time, the company renamed itself MediaLive International Inc. from Key3Media Group and relocated to San Francisco.
As part of the makeover, Comdex organizers have turned away exhibitors who can't prove that they have an IT product to demonstrate—including refunding $45,000 in booth space—and have required attendees to prove that they are IT buyers in order to receive free admission to the show floor. Others will have to pay $50 for an advance exhibit pass or $100 at the show, Faurot said.
Comdex is expecting about 50,000 attendees, about half the attendance it had last year. The exhibition, which covered nearly 875,000 square feet in its 1990s heyday, this year will fill one hall with 150,000 square feet of space and between 500 and 600 companies, Faurot said.
Meanwhile, Jupitermedia Chairman and CEO Alan Meckler said he saw an opportunity for a smaller, more-focused enterprise IT show as Comdex has fallen in attendance and stature. He expects Enterprise IT Week at cdXpo to draw between 3,500 and 6,500 attendees and 50-odd exhibitors, Meckler said.
"My belief is that the [Comdex] show won't run again," Meckler said. "I call them a tumbleweed show, and we are going to try to fill the void."
Comdex isn't Meckler's only target. Jupiterevents earlier this month also added a spring Enterprise IT Week at cdXpo show in New York to coincide with the CeBIT America trade show in May, he said.
Though Comdex itself has opted for a renewed focus on IT with a smaller show, Meckler said it's too little, too late and that it is difficult for a trade show that once was known for extravagance and largesse to redefine itself.
"Comdex suffers from what it was, and I'm not sure you can overcome that," he said.
But Faurot sees the new competition helping Comdex redefine itself.
"One benefit is it will let us be compared to something besides our past," he said.
Comdex, no doubt, has drawn keynote speakers of a higher stature, including landing the perennial Sunday night keynote by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Enterprise IT Week at cdXpo's lineup includes mainly executive vice presidents and vice presidents at large enterprise IT vendors including Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Global Services. One exception is Darl McBride, the CEO and president of The SCO Group, who is scheduled to speak about his company's legal battle around Linux.
Comdex organizers also are touting new and returning vendors. Siebel Systems Inc. is making its first appearance on the exhibition floor as well as having its chairman and CEO, Tom Siebel, featured as a keynote speaker. Dell Inc. also is a returning with a booth after a six-year hiatus, Faurot said.
Also making its debut at Comdex this year is open-source database vendor MySQL Inc. The small company decided to add Comdex to its trade show list partly because of its renewed focus on IT and because it has a track in the conference portion that emphasizes open source and Linux, said CEO Marten Mickos.
"This year we realized that Comdex will be significant," Mickos said. "There aren't that many shows left and Comdex is not just a gadget show this year."
Comdex has targeted seven core themes this year. Along with open source and Linux, they are security, wireless and mobility, Windows, on-demand computing, Web services and the digital enterprise.
HERE WE GO!..Fun name Ted's tie to United may be invaluable for marketing
November 12, 2003
BY LEWIS LAZARE SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
Ted? Who is Ted? It's a question that's been asked a lot in Denver the last several weeks, as United Airlines and its ad agency of record, Fallon/Minneapolis, have carried out an exhaustive guerrilla teaser campaign to boost interest in the Feb 12 launch of -- and here's your answer folks -- a new low-fare airline called Ted.
Why Ted? Why not, say United executives. And hang in there, Denver. You're going to get to know Ted a whole lot better in the days and weeks ahead.
United executives say they wanted a name for their new airline that really is a name, for one thing. Ted not only is a real name. It's also a fun, personable sounding name, and more importantly, it's actually a part of Uni-ted, a neat touch that could prove invaluable in developing both Ted, the brand, and also in executing an effective and engaging ad campaign for an airline that wants to have a separate and distinct identity from its mainline sister, yet remain a very real part of United too. And make no mistake. Fallon executives say they are very exci-ted about the marketing possibilities inherent in the carrier's new name.
United worked with the New York office of branding agency Pentagram to develop the name Ted. In recent months Pentagram tossed around a number of other possibilities, such as Flyer, United Red and Rhapsody, a reference to "Rhapsody In Blue," that has been the carrier's theme song for some time. But they all sounded much too "me too," according to United executives.
But one day when Pentagram executives in New York were teleconferencing with their counterparts in the firm's London office, somebody just happened to mention the name Ted.
Suddenly everything clicked into place, said Stephanie Burnham, United's director of brands and product development. "It was almost a gift, and it was staring right at us all the time. We see Ted as a call to action, and a challenge to be different that harkens back to our roots."
Even so, internally, United executives already have acknowledged Ted is an unorthodox name for a carrier, and that does pose some risk. But they are counting on at least a couple of pluses to counteract the obvious risk: Namely the friendliness of the name and its uniqueness within an industry where generic is more the norm. Just think Song or Jet Blue.
Fallon was first presented with the name Ted on Sept. 30, and quickly set about developing the teaser campaign that Denver residents have been experiencing. All manner of Ted buttons and stickers have popped up on people, on newspapers and even on plastic wrapped cookies being passed out in the Mile High City. People have been walking around with signs saying "I'm not Ted," and billboards have carried messages such as "One Word. Ted".
A generous Ted even picked up the tab for some lucky diners at Denver restaurants. More guerrilla style marketing will go on over the next couple of months, as Ted representatives make visits to hospitals and participate in Thanksgiving dinners in Denver.
On Thursday, the most visible component of the teaser campaign to date will kick into gear via the launch of three 15-second television commercials from Fallon designed to make the people of Denver even more curious about Ted. One spot starts with just a speck on the screen that slowly moves forward to fill the screen with the name "Ted" as Wagner's dramatic "Ride of Valkyries" opera music plays on the soundtrack.
Another simple spot shows various names such as Hank, Mary and Horatio being crossed out one by one until the name Ted pops up on screen along with a Web site address, www.meetted.com. Yet a third spot shows theatrical spotlights scanning the screen to the sound of a drumroll until they finally all focus on and illuminate the word "Ted."
Next Tuesday, United executives plan to hold a press conference to officially announce Ted is United's new low-cost carrier. The next day Denver newspapers will carry a two-page display ads showing the new Ted aircraft livery and ad copy that tells readers United is finally putting a face to the name Ted. Like much ofthe print advertising yet to come, these Ted ads will be done up in blue and marigold, the carrier's official color scheme, which will be visible on the aircraft fuselage.
In all the advertising that follows next week's official unveiling of Ted, Fallon will try to convey to the public the personality the agency has created for the new low-cost carrier. A Web site will be an integral part of the marketing effort too, according to Jerry Dow, United's director of marketing communications. "We want it to be a robust site that people can go to for information, but that also conveys Ted's personality."
"Ted is a giver," said Fallon President Rob White. "We want people to be on a first-name basis with our airline, and we want our Ted to be well-rounded and very down to earth."
United wants Ted to be his own brand, but not a huge departure
Fun and low fares will be the two guiding forces behind the launch of United's new low-cost carrier on Feb. 12. Initially, the carrier will fly to just eight leisure destinations from Denver International Airport: Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Reno, Ft. Lauderdale and Ontario, Calif. But if customer response proves favorable in Denver, United brass already are considering quickly adding Ted routes into the Caribbean and Mexico, according to John Tague, United executive vice president/customer.
United executives are clear about one thing: They want Ted to be a distinct low-fare United brand, but not so different that frequent travelers on the main carrier feel a jarring jolt when they walk on to a Ted aircraft. In interviews with several United executives, they all talked about crafting the Ted brand in a way that appeals to the more relaxed leisure traveler mind-set, but still has the mainline carrier's mileage benefits and many of its most popular onboard amenities.
For one thing, Ted will have an especially large Economy Plus section of 66 seats (with a generous 35 or 36 pitch) out of a total of 156 seats on board each Airbus 320 Ted aircraft, about 18 more seats in all than are found on mainline United Airbuses, which have a 12-seat first-class cabin. Tague said the Economy Plus feature has proved popular with United business travelers, and Ted's core planning team, which also included Sean Donohue, United's vice president/low cost operation, felt it was crucial to make Economy Plus a feature of Ted as well.
The color scheme on the outside of Ted aircraft will feature blue and marigold. The interiors of the planes will have a blue and gray color scheme. Onboard video and audio entertainment on Ted will be unique to the brand and might include options such as a video featuring local bands from destinations to which Ted flies. Donohue also said Ted is exploring making available handheld video equipment on which passengers could view premium entertainment offerings for an additional fee. And in another move to differentiate the brand from other United offerings, there is already talk of establishing a Ted Carpet Club, a dedicated lounge for Ted flyers and a cousin to United's familiar Red Carpet Club.
Food will be available on board Ted for purchase, Tague said, and it will include branded products from the Denver area, as well as other markets in Ted's route structure, where feasible. Because pilots and flight attendants may work on both Ted and mainline United flights, they will wear the same basic uniform on both brands, Tague said, but different accessories will be added to the attire on Ted flights to give the crew a look and a personality unique to the new low-cost carrier.
Will Chicago get to know Ted anytime soon? Both Tague and Donohue were vague about if, or when, that might happen. But they indicated much about Ted's future will hinge on the initial passenger response in Denver. The likely scenario, Tague said, is that Ted would expand next into United's Dulles International Airport hub outside Washington, D.C., within six months after the Denver launch, and that Chicago could come some time after that. Ted destinations from Chicago would be Florida and the Caribbean and Mexican destinations.
Lewis Lazare
United low cost carrier..It's Ted, officially
United embraces friendly nickname for low-fare carrier
By David Kesmodel, Rocky Mountain News
November 12, 2003
CHICAGO - What's in a name? At United Airlines, a lot.
United executives said they picked Ted - "Yup, Ted," as the ads say - as the name for their new low-fare carrier because it met two seemingly conflicting goals: to be familiar and different.
Ted is the last half of United, so it's already part of the United brand, executives said. It's also a nickname, making the new carrier seem approachable and friendly. And yet it's an unusual name for an airline.
"Our objective was to provide both a product and a brand that was comforting to United loyalists but also would surprise new consumers," said John Tague, United's executive vice president for customers.
Ted beat out more than 100 other names in a nine-month process led by consulting firm Pentagram Design. One finalist was Rhapsody, part of Rhapsody in Blue, United's theme song.
United and its ad agency, Fallon Worldwide, have used the Denver teaser campaign for Ted - including mysterious pizza giveaways and spectators at sporting events shouting "Go Ted!" - to make Ted seem chummy and alluring.
"We came to the conclusion that unexpected outcomes have much more upside in terms of creating a community around the new brand," Tague said. "Unexpected outcomes are particularly unexpected for airlines."
Ted, with blue and marigold-orange colors, will start flying from its main hub, Denver International Airport, in February and will be integrated into the United route network.
Ted will offer food for sale and possibly pay-per-view TV programming. Tickets go on sale this month.
The carrier-within-a-carrier is part of United parent UAL Corp.'s effort to emerge from bankruptcy next year and fend off growing competition from discounters. One of Ted's chief goals is to wrest customers from Denver-based Frontier.
Chicago-based United, DIA's biggest carrier, is launching Ted in the face of deep skepticism among analysts. Many say airline-within-an-airline concepts are doomed, citing the failure of all previous efforts, including one by United.
United says Ted will succeed in part because its cost structure will be much lower than that of the company's previous discounter, Shuttle by United, which stopped operating in 2001.
"Every time you hear people with supposed industry experience saying something can't be done, be a little skeptical," said Phil Roberts, an industry consultant in Hayward, .Calif. "At this point in time, it hasn't been done. But that's not to say it can't be. But there are lots of hurdles to overcome."
Roberts said the branding "sounds quite clever."
He added: "I thought JetBlue was kind of strange when they came up with it, but you get used to a name."
Some are blasting the moniker.
"It is hard to believe that this is the best they can do," Robert Polk, head of Denver travel agency Polk Majestic Travel, said in his weekly newsletter. "We have decided that this name is worse than Delta's (fledgling) low-cost carrier named Song, and just about as bad as" Air Canada subsidiary Zip, he said.
The highlights of Ted that United soon will announce include:
Ted will offer food for sale a la carte, including Ted-branded meals and beverages.
Ted initially will fly to at least eight leisure markets from Denver, including Las Vegas, Phoenix and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a city United never has served from Denver. Destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean are under consideration.
Ted's 156-seat Airbus A320 jets will have 66 seats with extra leg room.
United's frequent-flier program will include a "Ted club" component
Ted will fly from designated gates at DIA. The group of gates will be either on Concourse A or B.
United executives say they are working on an in-flight entertainment system unique to Ted. "We're exploring some new, rapidly developing technology that will give our consumers access to free in-flight (TV) but also some paid-for-choice options," Tague said.
United chose the name Ted for a number of reasons. One is that it's a diminutive - short for Theodore.
"That seemed to signal a promise of a slightly more fun or casual experience, as opposed to the business- like professional experience people have come to associate with United mainline," said Michael Bierut of Pentagram.
United is not targeting a specific demographic. Instead, it sees its fliers "as sort of ageless," Tague said.
The teaser campaign began Oct. 29 and continues. The focus is on goodwill - such as flowers sent by Ted to the hospitalized - instead of statements such as "Ted is coming."
United kept the mystery of Ted alive until the evening of Nov. 6, when the Rocky Mountain News unmasked him in a Web site report.
Industry experts, having heard the hype, are waiting to see how the new carrier performs against tough competition from Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and others. Frontier serves all of Ted's initial markets.
Evergreen-based consultant Mike Boyd said in a report Monday that "key questions remain blissfully unanswered about Ted." He said it will be tough to get Ted's costs low enough to outperform rivals, and he questions whether some premium United fliers will be turned off by the "intermingling" of products.
United says Ted will be cost-competitive because the company has drastically cut labor costs in Chapter 11, turnaround times at the gate will be faster than United's and planes will average 11.5 hours a day in the sky, up from less than 10 at United last year.
kesmodeld@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2514.
Gateway reveals iPod clone
By Tony Smith
Posted: 12/11/2003 at 15:05 GMT
Reg Kit Watch
MP3 players
Gateway has announced its first hard disk-based MP3 player, the 20GB Digital Jukebox DMP-X20.
It's not a pretty as the Apple machine, nor as compact. The DMP-X20 weighs 218g (7.7oz) to the 20GB iPod's 159g (5.6oz), and measures 10 x 6.5 x 2cm (4 x 2.6 x 0.8in), compared to 10.3 x 6 x 1.5 (4.1 x 2.4 x 0.6in) - yielding volumes of 130 and 92.7, respectively.
Gateway has Apple licked on price, however. The DMP-X20 costs $300 - $100 less than the 20GB iPod. Its 2.5in 160 x 128 LCD is larger than the Apple's 2in panel. But it only has 16MB of anti-skip buffer memory. Feature-wise it has clear advantages, too. There's a built-in FM tuner with 12 station pre-sets, five EQ pre-sets and an integrated voice recorder.
The DRM-X20 supports MP3, WMA and Audible content, transferred to the player via a USB 2.0 link. The player's battery will go for ten hours before needing a recharge, Gateway said,
The black-coloured, aluminium-clad player will ship with earphones, remote control, carry case and belt clip. It requires a Windows XP, XP Pro or 2000-based PC. It will go on sale on 26 November.
goodtogo, just born today. www.edig.com or www.edigital.com one of these two should work for you.
welcome aboard
Yep, remember him well and it seems he primarily uses this board to collect most of his "news" LOL...
Gateway DMP-X20 (Reskinned e.Digital Odyssey 1000)
Gateway, like Dell, has been expanding the reach of its brand name from computers to other electronics products. Now, Gateway has its own hard-drive MP3 player, the DMP-X20. Look familiar? It should - this is a tweaked version of the e.Digital Odyssey 1000, a mediocre model released earlier this year. Features, controls, and the input/output locations are identical. Hopefully Gateway was able to add some key features that Odyssey was missing, like an ID3 tag database so you can browse music by Artist, Album, Track, etc. The Odyssey was limited to browsing music through a file-tree structure only, and music files have to be stored in a particular arrangement of directories. Still, there are some positive features to consider : USB2, 20gb, large screen, thumb-scroller on the front, dedicated "back" button, built-in radio and voice recorder, and it should not require drivers or special software (as the Odyssey did not). The Gateway version has smaller dimensions : 3.99" x 2.64" x 0.83" inches and 7.7 ounces. The battery is built-in and playtime is average at about 10 hours. Retail is $300.
http://www.austinv.com/news.htm
Most kids on campus have relatively recent PCs capable of running XP imo murgirl. In addition, many campuses offer operating systems at reduced rates to students and faculty so that shouldn't be a huge hurdle and if so only a temporary one I'm sure.
Like this thinking...Purdue needs a smarter approach to downloads
Starting in January, Penn State will offer its student body access to Napster's new service to on-campus students. The service will be paid for by student information technology fees and offers students living in the residence halls the ability to access unlimited streaming audio and restricted downloads. In order to download permanently, however, students at PSU will have to pay Napster's 99-cent fee.
Not to be outdone, Purdue University is looking into similar services for its students. But if the University does decide to implement a legal file-sharing service for students, Purdue should learn from the mistakes and shortcomings of Penn State's plans.
First of all, if the University decides to pay for any service through the use of student fees, the University should get the full backing of the student body before signing a contract with any service. Students are likely to want the service available to everyone — not just the students who live on campus. This, especially, if the funds to pay for the service is distributed equally across the student body.
Furthermore, better service options than those available to Penn State students are a necessity. Remember, this service will still be competing with services students may already subscribe to, as well as less-than-legal means of downloading files. Unlimited streaming audio isn't a good selling point: www.shoutcast.com as well as iTunes Player's radio feature offer users free streaming audio already. Additionally, students are likely to want their downloads to be permanent. If they aren't, burning files to CDs or uploading them onto MP3 players becomes difficult, if not impossible. And since these are the most common uses of MP3s, not be able to perform either function would make any file-sharing service useless.
If there was a small, one-semester fee for such a service that allowed downloading of permanent files — even if there were reasonable limits to how much one could download — the service would be much better.
The issue is certainly a pertinent one with the Recording Industry Association of America continuing to sue file-sharers — a majority of whom are college students. Offering free file-sharing services to students is certainly a benefit. But before the University commits to a service, it should take into consideration some of the concerns students have, as well as make sure that they are committing to the best service available.
The Editorial Board is: Jason Tomcsi, Matt Poston, Tom McHenry, Yuri Victor, Michael Williams
Mind like a steel trap...I like that. eom
New Plastic Memory Technology Unveiled
Wednesday November 12, 1:04 pm ET
By Matthew Fordahl, AP Technology Writer
Researchers Create New Plastic Memory for Consumer Electronics
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- A new memory technology promises to store more data at less cost than the expensive-to-build silicon chips used by popular consumer gadgets including digital cameras, cell phones and portable music players.
ADVERTISEMENTThe magical ingredient isn't smaller transistors or an exotic material cooked up by the semiconductor industry.
It's a plastic.
Researchers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP Labs developed the memory, technically a hybrid that contains a plastic film, a flexible foil substrate and some silicon. The findings appear in the journal Nature on Thursday.
Unlike flash memory found in consumer devices, the new technology can be written to only once, though it can be read many times. It acts in that respect like a non-rewriteable compact disc. But the new memory, which retains data even when there's no power, won't require a power-hungry laser or motor to read or write, and promises more capacity.
"For music or photographs, it's actually an advantage to have something you can't rewrite," said Warren Jackson, one of the paper's co-authors and scientist at HP Labs. "Even in accounting, it would be quite useful if you have a trail of files that you can't erase."
The goal is to make the technology fast enough to store video.
It also could become one of those items people need to keep buying because, once they fill up a card, they'll need more.
Because production would be simpler, costs for consumers should be lower on a per-megabyte basis than today's flash memory, researchers said. Yet it has the potential to store considerably more data.
"We're looking at a different way of manufacturing that we think will eliminate clean rooms and be a lot less expensive in the end," said Craig Perlov, an HP Labs scientist and another co-author of the research paper.
The new memory, which could end up in a small format similar to CompactFlash or SD Cards, doesn't use transistors to store information. Instead, bits are written when a strong current passes through a polymer fuse, causing it to blow and change its conductivity. Smaller currents determine what junctions are opened or closed -- which translates into the digital world's ones and zeros -- to retrieve the contents.
Because manufacturing wouldn't require vacuum chambers or high temperatures, layers could be stacked atop each other, like a layer cake. Such stacking has yet to be attempted.
"There are no critical alignment steps and no lithography," said Stephen Forrest, a Princeton scientist and study co-author. "Most importantly, it's not on a crystalline substrate so that we can stack these memories very tightly. We can use three dimensions to create the memory."
Other companies are pursuing polymer-based memory. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. recently bought the startup Coatue, which is working on a reprogrammable memory. It has since been folded into FASL LLC, AMD's joint venture with Fujitsu.
Intel Corp. also has a program to develop ferro-electric polymer memory.
"They're aiming at harder targets," said Vladimir Bulovic, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "They're trying to work on rewriteable memory, which is the second step. The (write-once, read many times) memory is the first obvious step."
New memory has become a hot topic of research since current flash memory is expected to run into trouble in coming years. As the dimensions get smaller, the transistors leak more electricity and require more power to operate.
Bulovic, who was not involved in the research, said several more steps must be worked out before such memory becomes commercially available. But the results are promising, he added.
"It's a real technology," he said. "And that's a tremendous difference to anything else that's been shown in the molecular electronics field."
HP Labs: http://www.hpl.hp.com/
Full Audio Next To Offer Non-Sub Music Downloads
By Joseph Palenchar
TWICE
11/10/2003
NEW YORK— Full Audio has joined the trend to offer authorized music downloads without charging a monthly subscription fee.
Full Audio will make a non-subscription option available through its MusicNow site and through a national retailer's Web site, where it will be co-branded with the MusicNow name, a spokesman said. Like the current service, the non-subscription option will also be available through ISP services operated by EarthLink, cable MSO Charter Communications and Clear Channel Communications.
Like most of the other major non-subscription services, the MusicNow service uses the Windows Media Audio codec and DRM technology, making the downloads playable on a growing number of Internet audio portables. Compatible portables include the new iRiver flash-memory portables and Dell's first two HDD music portables.
At least three other non-subscription services — Napster 2.0, MusicMatch and Buymusic.com —also support WMA and the WMA DRM. Apple's iTunes store, on the other hand, supports the AAC codec and uses Apple's proprietary DRM technology, making downloads compatible only with Apple's music portables.
In adopting a non-subscription option, Full Audio is charging 99 cents per downloaded song or $9.95 per album. Previously, consumers who wanted to download were required to pay $9.95/ month for a service that included 40 non-interactive streaming-music channels and offered an unlimited number of downloads to the subscriber's hard drive. The songs, locked to the hard drive, would time out when the subscription lapsed. Subscribers pay an additional 99 cents per song to burn those songs in Redbook Audio format to a CD or to transfer the song to a compatible Internet audio portable. The burning/transfer option became available only in February.
"In the future, no subscription will be needed to download a song," a Full Audio spokesman said. "We're following the market."
In another change, Full Audio subscribers and non-subscribers will be able to burn or transfer all 400,000 songs in the site's collection. Previously, only select songs could be burned or transferred, the spokesman said. Songs are available from the big five music companies.
Beginning in February, MusicNow began offering more liberal usage rights, thanks to a relaxation of copyright restrictions by the major music companies. Similar rights are enjoyed by users of the Apple, Napster 2.0. MusicMatch, and Buymusic.com services (see TWICE, Oct. 13, p. 4).
Among other rights, MusicNow downloaders enjoy the right to play back a downloaded song on up to three PCs registered with the company. The songs can be transferred among the three PCs via email or via a local area network.
Music-management software available with Dell's new portables direct users to MusicMatch's download service, which charges 99 cents to download any one of its more than 250,000 songs and $9.99 for most albums. By the end of the year, MusicMatch promises to offer more than 500,000 songs.
MusicMatch personal-use features include:
Unlimited transfers to WMA-compatible portables.
The ability to burn each downloaded song in Redbook Audio form to an unlimited number of CDs, although only five discs can be burned with the same playlist, or downloaded album, in Redbook audio form.
The ability to play the compressed-music files on up to three PCs in three different locations. Downloaders must use their user name and password to register the PCs on-line. After that, the file can be played from those PCs without being connected to the Internet. The compressed files can be exported to the second and third PCs via e-mail or via a WMA CD.
MusicNow and Dell Store songs can be transferred to about 40 models of portable music players, including the first two HDD portables.
Dell's HDD-based 7.6-ounce Dell DJ comes in 15GB and 20GB versions at $249 and $329, respectively. They play MP3 and WMA files and do triple-duty as a voice recorder and backup data drive. Their built-in rechargeable lithium-polymer battery provides up to 16 hours playback time.
For its part, iRiver in mid-November will make a running change to its WMA flash-memory portables to support the Microsoft DRM, which will also be available at that time as a download to upgrade consumers' existing iRiver flash-memory portables. In January, iRiver will also make a running change to its first HDD music portable, the $399-suggested 20GB iHP-120, and the company will make the DRM available as a download to current iHP-120 users. The FM-tuner-equipped model features MP3 encoder and playback of MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, and ASF formats.
It delivers 16 hours of use on the internal rechargeable lithium battery.
Gateway's Waitt says cheap PCs are 'loss leaders'
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
By Fred Fishkin / Bloomberg News
Gateway Inc. Chief Executive Ted Waitt, whose personal-computer company has had losses in 11 of the past 12 quarters, said PC makers industrywide lose money selling the cheapest machines.
"The low end of the PC business, nobody makes any money -- not people that make them, not the people that sell them," Waitt said in a Bloomberg News radio interview from New York. "It's basically become a loss leader for the whole marketplace."
Waitt today introduced a digital music player and a DVD recorder and added new models of Gateway's televisions and cameras to help it diversify away from PCs. Computer maker Dell Inc. has said its PCs are profitable and that it doesn't have loss leaders, money-losing products used to attract clients to buy other, profitable goods. Hewlett-Packard Co. has forecast a profit in its PC division in its recently completed quarter.
The new products "are all significantly more profitable than PCs," Waitt said. "It doesn't take a whole lot of lift in all these broad categories" for Gateway to become profitable.
Waitt predicted the Poway, California-based company's consumer-electronics business will "double quarter-on-quarter." Dell, which has taken sales from Gateway in PCs, also is entering the consumer-electronics market by introducing products such as flat-panel televisions.
"I'm not afraid of competing with them," Waitt said. "We have a much broader product line."
Gateway shares fell 8 cents to $4.58 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 46 percent this year.
The PC maker has added almost 100 new products this year, Waitt said. Among those unveiled today are a $130 2-megapixel digital camera about the size of a large pack of chewing gum and a $300 MP3 player that can hold 5,000 songs. The company also said it will soon be shipping new storage gear for businesses.
Gateway makes money on PCs by adding software, services such as training and other peripheral products, Waitt said. The company will continue selling PCs, he said.
Gateway is outsourcing the manufacturing of many of its products to focus on marketing and selling over the Internet, by telephone and at its stores. That model will give the company an advantage over consumer-electronics retailers such as Best Buy Co., Waitt said.
"We control every aspect of the chain, from the product design to the quality of the product to how it gets fulfilled, how it gets displayed in our stores -- because it's our stores, our Web sites," Waitt said. "Our business model allows us to generate higher margins in these products than anyone."