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For Investors, a Gateway to What?
They're pondering whether the struggling PC maker's foray into consumer electronics will lead to renewed growth or go nowhere
Last May, PC maker Gateway decided on a radical and ambitious transformation. To end years of losses -- including a deficit of $298 million in 2002 on revenues of $4.2 billion -- it would sell not only computers, where it was steadily losing market share, but also consumer electronics, for which demand was hot. What's more, it would help customers integrate various devices, so that they could, for instance, edit a home video on a PC, then show it on the family TV to the sound of a custom-selected digital tune.
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That decision came amid a restructuring that has prompted San Diego-based Gateway (GTW ) to lay off 2,500 employees, or 23% of its workforce, since January, and to set plans to eliminate 1,800 more jobs by mid-2004. Since the beginning of the year, Gateway also has closed 80 retail stores and remodeled the remaining 185 to better display its 75 new products. The net effect has been to reduce its cost of sales to the lowest level in five years. Gateway has also shuffled its management lineup, bringing in four new senior executives from places such as consumer electronics giant Sony (SNE ).
Whether those efforts will turn this caterpillar into a butterfly will become apparent this Christmas, says Megan Graham-Hackett, an analyst with Standard & Poor's. The foundation for success is there: Though price-cutting is keeping PC revenues essentially flat industrywide, unit sales are rising at a double-digit annual rate for PC makers, and Gateway still gets 72% of its revenues from PCs (see BW, 11/10/03, "PCs: The Elves Are Working Overtime").
MORE LOSSES COMING. Moreover, dollar sales in the $114.5 billion market for consumer electronics, which will provide the rest of Gateway's revenues, will grow 3.8% this year, according to market consultancy ARS Inc. Unit sales of products that Gateway is particularly stressing -- such as flat-panel TVs -- are growing at more than 50% annually.
While Gateway is hoping to ride these trends, many on Wall Street are waiting to see the money before they turn optimistic. On Oct. 23, Gateway reported a wider-than-expected, $139 million third-quarter loss -- double last year's. Its $883 million in sales were 20% below last year's.
And Gateway told analysts to expect a loss equal to 9 cents to 15 cents a share, or $29 million to $49 million before restructuring charges, in its seasonally strongest fourth quarter. Wall Street analysts have been expecting a nine-cent loss. Analysts polled by financial service First Call forecast Gateway to lose 92 cents a share, or $298 million, for the full year. The Oct. 23 news triggered a sell-off, knocking the stock down 24% on Oct. 24 to $4.62, or 32% below its 52-week high of $6.85 on Sept. 18.
"NO CONTROL." A few analysts see this as a buying opportunity. On Oct. 28, Michelle Gutierrez, an analyst with investment bank SoundView Technology, raised her rating on Gateway from neutral to outperform and set a $6 target price (the stock has since risen to $5). Yet, cautious investors might want to wait for clearer signs of Gateway's progress before jumping in, if only because "it has no control over its own destiny," says Henry Asher, president of Northstar Group, a New York-based money manager that doesn't hold Gateway shares. "Both PCs and consumer electronics are extremely competitive markets," says Bill Fearnley Jr., an analyst with FTN Midwest Research. "And they are now fighting two fights at the same time."
With more than $400 million in cash and equivalents, Gateway doesn't need additional funding to get to break-even. But it might not achieve profitability until the second half of 2005 -- and then only if its consumer-electronics sales soar, says Graham-Hackett.
The problem there, of course, is that competition is even more severe than in PCs. More than 80 companies manufacture DVD players alone. Pressured by cheaper Asian rivals, Sony, with $62.3 billion in annual sales, just announced 20,000 layoffs. And the plot is thickening, as giant computer makers Dell (DELL ) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) have also entered consumer-electronics market in the past year. "This isn't the Mickey Mouse club," says Asher.
RETAILERS' EDGE? While Gateway has grabbed the No. 1 spot in sales of plasma TVs in the U.S., its success could be short-lived. Dell is expected to release its own line of flat-panel TVs in the fourth quarter. Taiwan manufacturers are moving in as well. And prices of plasma TVs have dropped 30% this year as competition has intensified.
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What's more, Gateway faces a formidable fight from retailers. Today, Wal-Mart (WMT ), office-supply stores such as Office Depot (ODP ), and even drugstores sell consumer electronics. More significant is the competition from long-time electronics retailers such as Best Buy (BBY ) and CompUSA. They may have an edge over Gateway because they attract more customers under 35, who are the biggest buyers of gadgets, says Tom Edwards, an analyst with market consultancy NPD Group. About 40% of Best Buy's customers are younger than 35, vs. 30% for Gateway, he says.
Gateway claims it isn't worried: "Our salespeople are more knowledgeable," says Chief Financial Officer Rod Sherwood. "They can demonstrate how the products fit together," he argues, while most retailers can't. Plus, he figures, Gateway's new stores -- which are fashioned like living rooms, complete with couches and fireplaces (the layout was designed by the same exec who created Starbucks' look) -- allow for better presentation. That's super-important, since 94% of consumer electronics are sold through retail stores.
RELUCTANT BUYERS.
Gateway won't enjoy this advantage for long, however. Already, retailer Circuit City (CC) is remodeling its stores to better demonstrate consumer electronics. Best Buy is pilot-testing its "digital living stores" in Arizona -- an approach similar to Gateway's. And Gateway's edge is blunted by the fact that only a handful of its 185 stores have been thoroughly remodeled, while the others simply received a facelift, say analysts.
The other obstacle is that no company has yet been able to persuade consumers to interconnect their digital devices, says Roger Kay, a vice-president at tech consultancy IDC. Most still have no desire to transfer filmed images from their cameras to their PCs to edit -- even though companies such Apple (AAPL ) have pushed this idea for months. "There needs to be a lot of evangelism," says Kay. And Gateway might not be able to afford that -- or to become a well-known consumer-electronics brand, says Fearnley of FTN Midwest.
CFO Sherwood disagrees. "Our research shows that Gateway has a broadly recognizable brand in the PC arena," he says. "And Gateway is quickly becoming associated with new, innovative digital cameras [sales of which grew 500% between August and September]. So this extension into consumer electronics hasn't been a problem, and I think the brand is extending well."
DROOPING MARGINS. Even so, Gateway still faces the daunting task of resurrecting its PC business. Even as overall PC shipments in the U.S. rose 19% in this year's third quarter, Gateway's market share fell to 3.4%, from 5.5% in 2002, according to market consultancy Gartner. To stem its losses, it has outsourced manufacturing and streamlined distribution. Still, pricing pressure and rising component prices have reduced Gateway's gross margins on PCs to 3.8%, estimates Charlie Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Co. -- hardly enough to support a sustainable business.
In fact, PCs are the one of the key reasons why Gateway's overall gross margin declined from 17% to 14% from this year's second quarter to the third. Another thorn is the ongoing Securities & Exchange Commission investigation into its past accounting practices. The SEC is investigating Gateway's revenue recognition relating to America Online (TWX ) services it bundled with new computers. It has already restated its earnings for 2001, 2000, and 1999.
Thus, most of the restructuring charges are behind Gateway, says SoundView's Gutierrez. And Gateway says its shipments of notebook PCs -- its most profitable computer category -- grew 22% in the third quarter vs. the second. Moreover, it expects consumer-electronics sales to double in the fourth quarter vs. the third.
If so, that gives Gateway a window of opportunity. The question is whether it can move adroitly enough in the face of stiff competition to take advantage of it. Only investors with an appetite for adventure may want to risk their money finding out.
OT Tenzing Makes First Step Into Maritime Market
Successful Email System Trial Is Prelude to Launching Maritime Product
SEATTLE, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Tenzing Communications, Inc., the leading
provider of email and text-messaging for commercial airline passengers,
announced today it successfully completed the trial of a commercial email
system that lets cruise line passengers and crew members use their existing
private and corporate email accounts. The trial was carried out with Lindblad
Expeditions, an expeditions cruise line based out of New York City, and is the
first step for Tenzing into the maritime market. Tenzing is investigating
launching a maritime product in 2004.
"Tenzing email satisfies a major request we have from our guests -- to
send and receive messages from their existing email accounts," said Jason
Grant, network manager of Lindblad Expeditions. "Without Tenzing, we have to
set up temporary email accounts for guests, and they have no access to their
own inboxes."
With Tenzing email, passengers have the ability to send and receive email
from their own email accounts while traveling. Passengers currently have
access to the following types of email accounts: Outlook Web Access (the Web
interface to Microsoft Exchange); AOL; Hotmail; Yahoo!; POP3 (provided by most
Internet Service Providers); and SPOP (a secure version of POP).
The maritime trial of Tenzing's email system is the latest evolution of
the company's product, which is geared toward helping travelers stay in touch
with home and office. With its trials in maritime, Tenzing is satisfying
additional demand for its email and text-messaging systems, now operating on
more than 800 commercial aircraft flown by six different airlines around the
globe.
"We're excited to offer our proven messaging products to this new market.
It furthers our mission of enabling travelers to stay connected to the people
and information they need," said Alan McGinnis, Tenzing's CEO.
Any vessel with an existing satellite or telecommunications system can
rapidly and inexpensively install Tenzing's email system. Tenzing's system
consists of its award-winning software and a laptop-sized server.
About Tenzing
Tenzing Communications, Inc. enhances the passenger travel experience,
generating greater customer loyalty and new revenue streams for travel
providers. Working with leading ISPs and communications, technology and
in-flight entertainment partners globally, Tenzing helps travelers worldwide
stay connected through their laptops or seat-back video screens. Tenzing's
systems are operating on more than 800 commercial aircraft flown by six
different airlines around the globe. Airlines installed with Tenzing email or
text messaging systems are: Cathay Pacific Airways, Continental Airlines,
Iberia, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Based in
Seattle, Tenzing was founded in 1999 and is privately held. Major investors
include Airbus and Rockwell Collins. For more information on Tenzing:
http://www.tenzing.com.
About Lindblad Expeditions
Since 1979, Lindblad Expeditions has provided an alternative way to
explore the world. Drawing on its legacy of adventure, experience and
knowledge, Lindblad Expeditions' commitment is to provide travelers with
opportunities to participate in expeditions which explore the world with a
sense of discovery and wonder, and to preserve our environment for future
generations. For more information on Lindblad Expeditions:
http://www.expeditions.com.
At Sea With MP3's, Boomers Buoy Struggling Record Industry
By CHRIS NELSON
Published: November 2, 2003
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Long-established artists like Van Morrison are popular with a generation that grew up playing vinyl albums.
Beyoncé Knowles and 50 Cent have two of the best-selling albums so far this year. Nonetheless, when Borders Books & Music recently redesigned the layouts of the music sections in its more than 420 superstores, the CD's from these and other young hit-makers were booted from prime browsing display space in favor of albums from the likes of Rod Stewart, Sting and Barbra Streisand.
The rearranging proved prescient, as the release of the latest Billboard top 200 albums chart demonstrated. While Clay Aiken, runner-up in the most recent "American Idol" contest and no hipster himself, took the top spot with his debut album, "Measure of a Man," Mr. Stewart finished second with "As Time Goes By: The Great American Songbook Vol. II."
New releases from Ms. Streisand and the Eagles also landed in the Top 10. All told, artists over the age of 40, like Bette Midler, Van Morrison, Michael McDonald and Simon and Garfunkel, held 11 of the top 50 spots in the Billboard chart. In the same week last year, 7 baby boomers finished in the Top 50.
The growing success of albums by older artists — and of singers like Norah Jones, who appeal to less cutting-edge tastes — offers some solace to an industry mired in a three-year sales slump. Record executives are desperate for any hopeful sign, even if it comes from people with more wrinkles than tattoos.
The record labels have placed most of the blame for the decline on the file-sharing networks on the Internet, and have sued or threatened to sue hundreds of people for illegally distributing free music online.
But the older audience, typically more affluent consumers who grew up buying their music on vinyl LP's, seldom uses the free file-sharing sites, according to Forrester Research. And because they account for a growing segment of the record-buying public, labels are increasingly tailoring their releases and their marketing, particularly on television, to reach them.
"Adults like music, too, and they're underserved," said Will Botwin, the president of Sony Music Entertainment's Columbia Records, which released the albums by Ms. Streisand and Ms. Midler. "And they're starting to get served."
It's not as if the historically strong youth market is melting away. The biggest-selling album of the year is expected to be the rapper 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," according to Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts.
But adult buyers are increasingly making their presence known in the industry. Last year, shoppers over the age of 40, who tend to gravitate to graying artists, bought more than 35 percent of all units sold, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Ten years ago, they accounted for 22.6 percent of all sales.
Some of the sales spurt can be attributed to a staple of the music industry: the never-ending repackaging of golden oldies. The Eagles have already released two volumes of greatest hits, not to mention a boxed set. But that did not stop Time Warner's Warner Strategic Marketing label from releasing a double CD of "The Very Best Of" on Oct. 23. The album sold 162,000 copies, and finished third in its first week on the charts.
Elvis Presley's "Elvis: 2nd to None" and "The Essential Simon & Garfunkel" also made strong showings on the chart. But shoppers are also buying albums of vintage stars recording tried-and-true songs. Mr. Stewart, a long way from his "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" days, now croons classics like "As Time Goes By" and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" (a duet with Cher), and sold 212,000 copies of his new album in the first week. (His 2002 volume of standards leapt from 95 to 46 on this week's chart and has sold 1.8 million copies so far.) Ms. Streisand's "The Movie Album," Mr. McDonald's "Motown" and "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook" also follow the concept.
"It is a voice matched with material where they know every song on the album, they are well-chosen, and there is a chemistry and magic that is appealing to the public," said Clive Davis, chairman of BMG's RCA Music Group, whose J Records label produced both of Mr. Stewart's collections.
Even better for the music industry, these fans actually pay for the music. "We feel like we're losing less sales to file sharing" on albums by older artists, as well as those by younger artists who appeal to baby boomers, like Ms. Jones, John Mayer and Josh Groban, Mr. Botwin, of Columbia Records, said.
"From Discs to Downloading," an August report by Josh Bernoff, principal analyst for Forrester Research, bolsters Mr. Botwin's file-sharing thesis. The report found that while one-half of consumers ages 22 and younger use file-sharing software, only one in nine people ages 23 years old and older do so.
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The recent success of some television advertising campaigns for new albums is also likely to inspire copycats. Until recently, the major labels rarely used television advertisements to drive music fans to stores, content to leave the airwaves to the direct marketing purveyors of schlocky compilations like K-Tel.
That began to change in 1999, when the Universal Music Group created UTV Records to sell compilation albums and single-artist retrospectives through television advertisements. The new label has issued compilations from Tom Petty, the Bee Gees and Kiss.
"The adult market is out there; they just have to be marketed to," said Kevin Gore, executive vice president for sales and marketing at Warner Strategic Marketing. Aggressive television advertising campaigns, like the one for the Beatles' "1" compilation in 2000, can turn what would have been a modest-selling album 10 year years ago into a chart-topper today, he said.
Warner Strategic Marketing began airing spots for the Eagles' "Very Best Of" on networks like CNN, MSNBC, MTV and VH1 a month before the album was released.
Television marketing has broadened both the types of artists labels can push, as well as the consumers they can reach.
In the past, the labels turned to radio and MTV to drive music sales, said Bruce Resnikoff, the president of Universal Music Enterprises, part of Vivendi Universal. But as radio stations narrow their playlists of songs, fewer artists can reach fans over the airwaves.
It is equally hard to get musicians, particularly older ones, on MTV. General television advertisements allow labels to reach older potential buyers, Mr. Resnikoff said. Label executives hope that when older fans see an ad for an Elton John disc on NBC's "Today" show, they will pick up the disc while shopping in Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, or Barnes & Noble — the stores they frequent more often than record stores.
The growing importance of older fans has led to this month's arrival of a music magazine called Tracks. Leaving the younger set to magazines like Rolling Stone, Blender and Spin, Tracks plans to cater to the musical tastes of adults over 30.
All these signs of a surge are contributing to a long-awaited feeling of optimism in the music industry. The latest Billboard chart represents the seventh week in a row that weekly sales in 2003 have bested sales in the corresponding week last year.
But any rejoicing may be premature. Even with the recent spurt, sales in 2003 are still off 6.2 percent from the comparable period in 2002. And if the record-buying habit is not passed down to a generation raised on Napster, the current troubles of the music business will seem as mild as Barry Manilow.
"It would be dangerous to say, O.K., the kids have gone away and all that's left are the adults," said Billboard's Mr. Mayfield. "That hasn't totally happened. And we ought to get scared if kids do lose interest in paying for music."
Digital Singles Close to Eclipsing Hard Copies
1 hour, 33 minutes ago Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Brian Garrity and Geoff Mayfield
NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Digital tracks are outselling physical singles by a growing margin, a sign that consumers increasingly are embracing the brave new world of Internet downloading.
Digital download sales outpaced physical singles 857,000 to 170,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ending Oct. 26. That's slightly more than a 5-to-1 ratio.
Sean Ryan, VP of music services at RealNetworks, says that the rise of digital track sales carries a "symbolic significance," illustrating the music industry's shift to online delivery options.
He also says it indicates a real opportunity for the music business: "Selling individual songs as an offline strategy wasn't working all that well, but online it can be a huge hit."
Nielsen SoundScan data indicates that the trend has been evident since mid-August.
In fact, from the last week of June -- when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking digital downloads -- through the current week, digital tracks have outsold physical singles 7.7 million units to 4 million.
(The former figure could have been higher, but the digital track figures do not include the first two weeks of sales from iTunes for Mac. Apple reported sales of 1.5 million tracks in its first two weeks on the Mac platform.)
Still, the biggest-selling physical single continues to outsell the top digital track. This week's top commercial single, "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe (INO/Curb), sold 6,900 units. Online leader "Hey Ya!" by OutKast (Arista) rang up sales of 4,700.
What all this means for the music business -- and whether it signals the start of a comeback for single sales -- is open to debate.
EMI Music Marketing executive VP Phil Quartararo says he isn't reading the tea leaves just yet -- echoing a sentiment expressed by many label executives, who say they are not ready to rush to judgment. Quartararo says he is just happy that consumers are seeing a value in music.
"Any way we can drive a consumer to purchase music as opposed to taking music is a win for the industry," he notes.
But many sales and distribution executives at the majors contend that contrasting digital track sales and physical singles sales isn't a straight comparison.
SHIFTING MARKET?
The singles market, much to the dismay of physical retailers, has been in a state of pronounced decline for many years. Because major labels have concerns regarding singles' potential to cannibalize album sales, only a limited number of those titles are available for sale.
Meanwhile, online consumers have access to a universe of more than 500,000 tracks at 99 cents each.
At the very least, some analysts see digital consumption trends as an indicator of growing market acceptance of the nascent online music services.
But a broader view suggests that the trend marks the start of a commercial shift to a market where individual song purchases and digital distribution will play a much bigger role in the industry's profitability equation.
Regardless of the perspective, label and technology executives say the growth of track sales online shows that the industry is starting to fulfill a consumer demand that previously was being met only by unlicensed, free peer-to-peer networks.
Recent growth in the digital tracks market can be attributed to the rise of PC download sales -- particularly from Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store.
After the debut of iTunes on the PC, which came in the middle of the Nielsen SoundScan reporting period that ended Oct. 19, digital track sales jumped 70% to 685,000 from 406,000 in the previous week.
The gap between physical and digital on individual songs has been narrowing as weekly sales for the most popular digital tracks continue to grow.
On the Billboard Hot Digital Tracks chart this week, each of the 25 tracks ranked were purchased more than 1,000 times -- a first. (In all, 32 songs were sold more than 1,000 times last week.)
In another first, two songs on the Hot Digital Tracks chart this week posted sales of more than 4,000 -- the aforementioned "Hey Ya!" and "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne (S-Curve/EMC), which sold just shy of 4,100 copies.
Reuters/Billboard
The Real Cost of Online Music
By Robyn Weisman
E-Commerce Times
November 1, 2003
While music file-distribution companies, such as Apple and Napster, admit they are selling so-called "lossy" codecs, which remove certain details from a file in order to compress it, they are quick to add that the difference between their files and a CD is minimal to the human ear.
Now that Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) does Windows and Napster has been rehabilitated, more people are starting to change their music-buying focus, moving from old-school CDs to new-generation digital formats like AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and WMA (Windows Media Audio).
However, the onset of legal music download services has brought a new issue front and center: sound quality. The bit rate of an iTMS AAC file is 128 kilobits per second (kbps) -- just a fraction of the 1,411 kbps "uncompressed" standard used for CD, WAV and AIFF files.
Heated arguments have erupted about which compressed codec -- WMA or AAC -- sounds better and about whether either one can reasonably stand up to its CD equivalent. As GartnerG2 research director Mike McGuire told the E-Commerce Times, "I don't believe that people commoditize sound the way they commoditize 99-cent music files."
Are those 99-cent files worth the price if a codec is not providing CD-quality sound? Once the initial wave of excitement about legal music downloads subsides, will sound quality become a hurdle for companies seeking to lure consumers to this new market?
Who Can Tell?
While music file-distribution companies, such as Apple and Napster, admit they are selling so-called "lossy" codecs, which remove certain details from a file in order to compress it, they are quick to add that the difference between their files and a CD is minimal to the human ear.
"The beauty of these technologies is that they use psychoacoustics to remove information superfluous to human hearing -- information most ears are not sensitive enough to pick up," IDC senior analyst Susan Kevorkian told the E-Commerce Times. "Most mass-market consumers find [the formats] perfectly acceptable and ... will not be able to tell the difference between WAV and Dolby AAC, WMA or MP3."
In any event, online music stores likely will not rush to improve the bit rate on files they are selling, Kevorkian said.
"It's an added expense for an online music store to reencode at a higher bit rate," she noted. "Reencoding is very secondary to the [store's] priority of recouping its investment in its infrastructure and attracting and retaining new customers."
Audio's Wayward Children
However, many audiophiles, such as Stereophile online news editor Jon Iverson, are not buying the notion that compressed files sound good enough.
"To audiophiles, compression is the worst," Iverson told the E-Commerce Times.
He added that audiophiles will not consider any computer-based system, short of an editing system. He did point out that Stereophile magazine gave Apple's iPod a positive review; however, the review suggests that because the iPod can read WAV and AIFF files, fellow audiophiles can simply use the capacious hard disk space to rip 50 or 60 of their favorite albums onto the device.
Although it does not think today's compressed audio codecs are up to snuff, Stereophile still is tracking many of the online download services, Iverson noted.
"The question has always been, once the mass market selects something, how do we, as audiophiles, perfect it?" he said.
For the average user, too, quality is becoming increasingly important as music files move from small listening devices to the media center, GartnerG2 analyst McGuire said.
He likened the situation to high-school teens listening to music on an older friend's stereo for the first time. Until that moment, they might have been satisfied with the low quality of their car stereos, but the older friend would cause them to see what they were missing in terms of sound quality.
According to McGuire, the onus is on manufacturers to educate the consumer public about ways to enhance the playback experience.
"[Companies] are still positioning themselves, but they don't know how to discuss this with the public," he said. "You can't talk about specs. It's more like a taste test -- 'Do you prefer A or B?'"
Better Equipment, Better Sound
Another factor is equipment. John Atkinson, editor of Stereophile Magazine, told the E-Commerce Times that, to some extent, the better the equipment, the better the compressed music will sound.
"The compression algorithms are based on the user playing back the files on a neutrally balanced system, and a peaky, colored boombox will 'unmask' artifacts that will remain hidden behind the music on a good system," Atkinson said.
"Having said that," he added, "my experience is that the degradation offered by compression codecs can be audible on good-quality systems, mainly because the playback level will be louder than the designers of the codecs anticipated."
Back to the Motherboard
However, the most dramatic improvement to compression formats may occur as a result of changes to computer motherboards, rather than through tweaks to the formats themselves. Intel seems to be of that mind. Since May 2003, all of the company's motherboards have shipped with new technology from a Northern California company called SonicFocus. According to SonicFocus CEO Tom Paddock, his company's technology returns sound quality lost in the compression process.
"SonicFocus refines files by removing granularity and adding more detail, taking holes and putting [in] information we think is missing" from the file, Paddock told the E-Commerce Times.
He said SonicFocus technology works by interfacing between the music file and audio codec I/O, using the processor to translate the digital audio signal. Indeed, the translation process is controlled by a specific processor-based algorithm that acts much like a piece of system software -- except that it operates behind the scenes.
Although the technology is optimized for Intel's digital signal processor (DSP), Paddock said other devices and non-Intel motherboards also can make use of it and that SonicFocus is negotiating deals with other vendors.
Compression Is Everywhere
Additionally, Paddock pointed out that compression is not only a file format issue, but also one that is evident in CDs and throughout the recording process, from recording to mixing to mastering.
He noted that computers are taking on more and more home audio features as they become more integrated into the home audio environment.
"There's a lot of prejudice against computer audio right now, and we're trying to change that," he said. "Through very inexpensive software, [users] can get close to or better than CD listening experience from their computers. Hearing is believing."
niz, dunno but Eclipse by Fujitsu Ten will be there it seems...
2003 International Auto Salon Exhibitor List
List is current through April 22, 2003
AC Autotechnic
3738
Accelevision
3531
ADDCO Manufacturing Co. Inc.
3754
Advanced Clutch Technology Inc.
2420
AEBS
2308
AEM
2705
Airaid Premium Filter
2436
Air Lift Co.
3265
Air Ride Technologies Inc.
3358
Alfa Otto
3761
ALSA Corp.
3906
American Auto Accessories Inc.
3821
American Honda Motor Co. Inc.
3027, 3227
American Sunroofs Inalfa
3853
APC/American Products Company
2827
APEX Integration Inc.
2349
Arias Pistons
3041
ARP Inc.
3308
ATS Design
3143
Auto Custom Carpets Inc.
3817
Auto Leathers.com
2449
Auto Meter
3314
Automotive Express-Motorsports Direct
2316
Baer Brake Systems
3659
B&M Racing & Performance Products LLC
3249, 3261
BBK Performance Inc.
3756
Best Motoring International Video
3539
BF Goodrich TIres
2861
Black Magic
3727
Bomex USA Inc.
3505
Borla Performance Industries
3154
The Brake Man Inc.
3356
Bride
3155
Bridgestone Industrial Products
3927
Buckaroo Communications
2363
California Dream Inc.
3637
Carre Wheels
2215
Centerforce Clutches
3043
Center Line Wheels Corp.
3018
Chikara
3304
Clarion
3820
Classic Soft Trim
3360
Clutchnet Corp.
2440
COMP Performance Group
3241
Comptech USA
3021
Cool-Tek
3962
Cosmic Marketing Corp.
3613
Covercraft
2327
CP Pistons
2257
Crane Cams Sport Compact
3605
CSF Inc
2460
Daikin Clutch Corp.
3253
DC Sports
2413
Dension USA Inc.
3809
Denso
2749
devil Exhaust System
3013
Diablo Racing Wheels Inc.
3913
DNX Performance Exhaust
3639
Dodge
3949
Dodge
3121
Drive Shaft Shop
2418
Dunlop
3765
Eagle Specialty Products Inc.
3837
Eclipse By Fujitsu Ten
3755
IT Vendor's Staff Battles To Save Company Headquarters From Southern California Fires
October 30, 2003
By Mitch Wagner
Page 1 of 2
Staff at ADCS, a San Diego IT services company, spent a day and a half personally battling fires threatening the company's headquarters.
Led by facilities manager Bryan Wilkes, seven facilities staff fought the fires all day Sunday, Sunday night, and most of Monday. They used garbage cans full of water, hoses, and fabric to wet down the building and surrounding parking lot and grounds, and put out embers as they landed. The fire -- which totalled more than 100,000 acres on Sunday -- lapped right up to the building parking lot, about 100 feet from the building itself. Flames shot more than 30 feet in the air.
"It was scary, but it was sort of exciting at the same time," Wilkes said in a Thursday interview. "We were doing everything we could to make sure nothing would happen to the building. At one point, you could look around to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and there was fire all around."
Only two staff were injured; both receiving minor burns that did not require hospitalization.
Within a few hours of Wilkes's arrival on the scene Sunday morning, the fires were getting very close to ADCS. "We could see flames and feel heat. The winds picked up, we probably had fifty to sixty mile-an-hour gusts," Wilkes said. That was around noon on Sunday.
"I don't know the exact time there was the first explosion and the neighborhood starting losing power," Wilkes said. He saw neighboring buildings lose power; power fluctuated at ADCS but it remained on. Wilkes said he still doesn't know what the explosions were.
Wilkes saw three electric poles catch fire. One of them eventually burned through and fell, which pulled down another one. "There was another explosion. We watched the voltage go down the line -- there was a huge spark -- and then the power went down," he said. The electrical poles were about 200 yards from the office building.
The ADCS building stands on a ridge overlooking a valley filled with residential homes. When the electric poles went down, Wilkes could see the power go out at all the homes in the valley.
The adventure started for Wilkes hours earlier.
"I got a call Sunday morning at eight o'clock from the owner's wife," he said. ADCS is owned by Brent Wilkes, Bryan's uncle, whose wife is Jina Wilkes. She asked him to turn on the news, where he saw the fire was threatening the area of ADCS. He immediately called everyone in his department and asked them to report to the building.
Wilkes is a lean 33-year-old with sandy, close-cropped hair and fair skin. For our interview, he wore worn jeans and a V-necked lightweight cotton shirt. He looks far younger than his actual age, which is 33.
ADCS has about 100 staff located at its headquarters in Poway, an inland suburb just north of the city of San Diego. The company is in multiple businesses: It does document conversion and warehousing, scanning in paper documents, extracting the information from the scans and cross-referencing the information in usable form. Its biggest project was archiving 1.2 million engineering drawings for the Panama Canal in 1999. Sister companies that have been spun off from ADCS include a marketing company, Group W Media; Mirror Labs, an independent research and testing laboratory; a catering company and transportation company.
ADCS's offices are in a nondescript high-tech office building, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with similar buildings, each of them surrounded by about 100 feet of parking lot. The street is the same as thousands like it all over suburban California. The building is low and wide, with lots of stone and mirrored glass on the outside, and a fountain in front that was switched off on Thursday, presumably to help preserve water for the firefighting emergency.
DVS to Showcase Car DVD Players at SEMA Expo in Las Vegas;
Friday October 31, 8:31 am ET
Premier Automotive Specialty Products Show to Open November 4
PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Moving to capitalize on the exploding automotive entertainment electronics market, Digital Video Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DVID - News), a leading pioneer of DVD technologies, will introduce its new line of car DVD products at the SEMA 2003 Expo in Las Vegas, November 4-7.
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Manufactured by the Company's subsidiary, DVS Korea (DVSK), featured products include portable as well as in-dash DVD players and the VXD 2000 in-dash Car DVD/CD/MP3/AM/FM receiver which combines the features of a car DVD player and AM/FM radio.
"SEMA is a key show for us," stated DVS CEO, Douglas T. Watson. "We have been looking forward to the North American launch of new higher-margin products and I feel confident our advanced DVD players will establish themselves as preferred systems in the marketplace."
"Some of the advanced features of the DVS line of automotive DVD units, depending on the model," Watson explained. "Include flexible mounting at any angle, superior shock resistance and patented error correction, multiple media capability (8 cm as well as the standard 12 cm discs), ability to read the full range of DVD, CD, and MP3 formats, slot-in loading, and support for several types of input/output connections."
Renowned as the world's premier automotive specialty products trade event, the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) trade show is expected to draw over 113,000 attendees including over 40,000 domestic and international buyers and will unite thousands of leading industry reps and buyers from over 100 countries looking over thousands of state-of-the-art products in two million square feet of exhibits.
"The SEMA show represents a major turning point for DVS and DVSK," stated DVS America -- Sales & Marketing Division President Shaun Kang. "Historically, we have focused on OEM customers for our DVD loaders, the core component of DVD players, and which contain all the high precision engineering, laser optics, electro-mechanics, electronics and software technologies."
"But now, with our new DVD automotive products, we are combining our proprietary DVS technologies with our proven manufacturing expertise to produce feature-rich DVD players with high quality and performance, at competitive prices, under the DVS brand name."
"The SEMA Show is a superb opportunity to demonstrate our DVD products to automotive after-market buyers while reinforcing the DVS brand name with consumers," Kang concluded.
The DVS products and team may be found in SEMA Booth #20809 of the New Products Showcase area in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
About DVS
Established in 1992, DVS is a publicly held company specializing in the development and application of digital video technologies enabling the convergence of data, digital audio, digital video and high-end graphics. DVS is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with subsidiaries and branch offices in South Korea, China and India.
About DVS Korea
DVS Korea Co., Ltd. was established in 1998 following the acquisition by DVS of the DVD operations of Hyundai Electronics. Assets acquired included the management and R&D team, manufacturing equipment and capabilities, patents, and a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, exclusive license to all DVD-related intellectual properties of Hyundai Electronics. In 2002, DVS Korea began trading on the Korean Stock Exchange (KOSDAQ) as DVS. DVS Korea is currently a leading provider in the worldwide external DVD loader market with an estimated 20% market share.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Any statements made in this release that are not historical facts contain forward-looking information that involves risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the strategic direction of DVS and DVS Korea, DVS's new products, sales and marketing initiatives, product quality and features, research and development efforts, expected margins, profitability and its market position. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the timely availability of components, sufficiency of working capital, the impact of competitive products and services, the company's ability to manage growth and acquisitions of technology or businesses, the effect of economic and business conditions, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Digital Video Systems, Inc. assumes no obligation to update these forward- looking statements, and does not intend to do so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Digital Video Systems, Inc.
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No More Waiting For...Music Magic (see last few para.)
With a few bits of technical plumbing, you can listen to any song you want -- wherever you want it.
Back in my college days, I was a music freak. I owned hundreds of vinyl records, often obscure rhythm-and-blues albums that I played as a deejay on my radio program, Jumpin' with Jersey Jay, at Minnesota's Macalester College. But as those days slipped away, so too did my music habit. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy music. It's just that, with work and family, I had less time to spend sifting through music at record stores, and less leisure to sit on my couch and groove on the latest tunes. The arrival of digital music changed all of that. All of sudden, it was easy to find new music by just surfing to a Web site that let me sample songs. And with a portable music player that holds a virtual library full of music, I can have my tunes with me wherever I go. Over the past year, I've copied 1,500 songs to my PC, loaded them onto my Apple (AAPL ) iPod, and burned compilations onto CDs for friends.
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But that's so 2003. I'm eager for what comes next. I want to tap the music in my PC to hear songs throughout my house and in my car, to hear whatever song I want whenever I want to hear it. In just the past few months, an entirely new category of gadgets and software has emerged that promises to let music fans untrap the music now locked up in their PCs. I set up a handful of them to see how well they lived up to that promise.
First, there are a couple of pieces of technical plumbing you'll need to join me in the digital music age. One is a high-speed Internet connection so you can pull tunes off the Web in a snap. And you'll want to set up a home network so that you can siphon music out of your PC and broadcast it to the gizmos that play it.
So let the revolution begin. The first gadget I tried was Onkyo Net-Tune TX-NR900, a $1,500 home-theater stereo receiver. Like any high-end receiver, it plays audio from my CD player, cassette deck, and TV. But it also has a jack that lets me hook it to my PC so I can play the 1,500 songs stored on my hard drive.
All told, it took about 20 minutes to set everything up. It was amazing, using the remote control to scroll through the titles of my music collection, stored in another room, on the receiver's one-line display right in front of me. I cranked up Jerk It Out by Caesars, a Swedish garage rock band, on my new digital jukebox, and my wife and two kids were soon bopping all over the living room.
My eight-year-old son, Will, has grown attached to a scaled-down version of the same thing, the Net-Tune NC-500. I put the NC-500 in his room and connected it to the home network. I gave him a primer on how to use the remote and went into the kitchen to fix dinner. All of a sudden, I heard him flipping through his favorite tunes -- first, the Foo Fighters, a grunge rock band, then the hip-hop band Spearhead.
Like Onkyo, Yamaha has figured out that the key to enjoying digital music is the ability to store your entire music collection in one place and play the songs anywhere in the house. But Yamaha takes a vastly different approach: Its MusicCAST digital music system, a pricey $2,800, has its own hard drive that can store thousands of songs, and it broadcasts them wirelessly to slick-looking receivers in other rooms. I put the receiver in my bedroom so I could go to sleep to some mellow jazz from Maceo Parker and wake up to rock guitar virtuoso Santana.
That's fine for folks who haven't already moved their CD collections to their PC, or who never plan to buy music off the Web. My problem with MusicCAST is that it doesn't let me take advantage of the library already stashed on my PC, and I'm not about to duplicate that collection by slipping CD after CD into the device to copy them. And if you want to buy a song online, you'll have to download the song to your hard drive, burn it to a CD, then copy the CD into the MusicCAST.
By sidestepping the PC, Yamaha fails to capitalize on the biggest breakthrough in the digital revolution. That's the ability to connect to other music libraries through the Web. There are all kinds of legal music services, some that let you download songs for less than a dollar, and some subscription services that stream tunes to you bit by bit so they play instantaneously.
Take Rhapsody, a service that costs $9.95 a month. You get access to 390,000 songs that can play directly from the Web to your computers. In addition, if you want to own songs, you can copy individual songs from about 80% of the Rhapsody library for another 79 cents each. Initially, I thought I would want to copy every song I liked. But it quickly dawned on me that I didn't need to own every one.
GOING KARAOKE
That's where the next gadget I tried answered the call -- the Omnifi Home Digital Media Streamer, for $299. You just hook it up to your home network and plug it into your stereo receiver. Just like the Onkyo boxes, it plays music from your PC. But Omnifi also lets you tap music streaming into your PC from Rhapsody and play it through your stereo as well. Connecting Rhapsody to Omnifi was the coolest thing I experienced.
All of sudden, my digital jukebox went from 1,500 songs to 390,000. I had been eager to hear The Wind, the last CD by the late, great rocker, Warren Zevon. On my PC, I selected the album from Rhapsody's menu and transferred it into the My Library folder in the Rhapsody software. I headed for the living room, clicked on the album title with the remote, and played it.
One of the lures of digital music is fans can take their favorite songs and listen to them in ways once inconceivable. Microsoft figured this out with Music Mixer, a new add-on for the Xbox game console. It's a karaoke player with a microphone and 15 songs with backup vocals and lyrics that scroll across the TV screen. The real cleverness of Music Mixer is how it lets you sing along to any song. I hooked the Xbox to my network and pulled some of my 5-year-old's favorites from my PC to the Music Mixer program. It stripped out most of the vocal track, and Sam serenaded us with Little Red Caboose, the Buckwheat Zydeco providing only the background music.
The next step along the path to digital music nirvana was introducing my music library to my car. Omnifi just put the Mobile Digital Media Player on the market. It includes a control panel meant to be installed in the dash, and a 20-gigabyte hard drive that can be stashed in the glove box or center console, or under the seat. There's also a wireless adapter so that you can pick songs from your PC library and send them to the car player while the car is parked in the garage.
It's a brilliant idea, but there's a kink. The company didn't include an AM-FM radio. Without it, you'll need to find extra space on your dashboard.
Still, it gives you a good idea of where digital music is headed: vast music libraries, owned or rented, that can be tapped anywhere, anytime. We're not there yet. The components, hardware or software, just don't work all that well together. But one day most of this stuff will interact seamlessly. When that day comes, I'll bet there'll be a lot more onetime music freaks getting their groove back.
http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_45/b3857634.htm
By Jay Greene
Three Minutes With RIAA Chief Cary Sherman
Thu Oct 30, 2:00 PM ET Add Technology - PC World to My Yahoo!
Tom Spring, PCWorld.com
To millions of people, Cary Sherman is about as popular as the New York Yankees are in Boston. As president of the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), Sherman hasvigorously prosecutedonline music pirates, as the archenemy of popular file-swapping services from Napster (news - web sites) to Kazaa.
Sherman, 55, coordinates the RIAA's legal, policy, and business objectives. Before joining the RIAA in 1997, Sherman worked at the Washington D.C. law firm of Arnold & Porter, where he headed the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group. Sherman not only represents musicians and songwriters, he is one as well.
His challenges today are daunting. He wants to wean millions of people off freewheeling file-swapping networks and steer them toward legitimate online music services. Sherman also says he aims to lead the music industry into wholeheartedly embracing the Internet and uploading its entire repertoire for legal online distribution.
PC World invited Sherman to weigh in on a variety of hot topics, from suing music fans to buying songs online. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
PCW: How are your efforts to protect your members' copyrights going?
Sherman: Good. People are more aware now than ever before that uploading and downloading other people's copyrighted music without permission is illegal. They're thinking twice about doing it.
Having taken the action we have--namely, going after individual infringers--it looks preliminarily as though we are seeing a beneficial impact.
PCW: How have enforcement efforts evolved over time, and how might they change in the future?
Sherman: We started with an education campaign, and have been running it for a number of years. Next we combined education with litigation against the peer-to-peer services for facilitating infringers.
But it became obvious that it would be necessary to go after the individual infringers once the courts ruled that Grokster and Morpheus couldn't be held liable for the copyright infringements.
We will continue to pursue infringers. Anything less is like telling people that there won't be anymore cops looking for speeders.
But the most significant component of our strategy is to offer legitimate alternatives. Unfortunately, some people feel they have an inalienable right to steal music.
PCW: So protecting copyrights includes offering new services like Apple ITunes.
Sherman: That's right. It's very difficult for legitimate services to compete with stolen copies of the same product. The RIAA is, in effect, taking action against a shoplifter in order to preserve the retailers' market.
PCW: Don't you risk perpetuating a decline in CD sales by suing music fans?
Sherman: People need to understand enforcement actions are intended to support the legitimate alternatives. If consumers gravitate toward those legal services, we will have done our job.
The only people who will not buy CDs because we are taking action against infringers are the people stealing music. That's not a very good customer base.
Retailers sue shoplifters. DirecTV has filed over 10,000 cases against people who steal their satellite signal. It just surprises me that when record companies do precisely the same thing, people think that it will alienate their customers.
PCW: What's the public's biggest misconception of the RIAA?
Sherman: People think the RIAA is insensitive to what consumers want and assume we are trying to preserve old business models. That couldn't be further from the reality.
The record industry has woken up to the reality of the new Internet marketplace. We are excited about the prospects that the Internet offers for an entirely new distribution mechanism for music.
We just have to bring the piracy under control to enable new business models to take root and prosper.
PCW: What kind of new business models are you talking about?
Sherman: We are already making a lot of new business models. Just look at the past month, with the opening of Apple ITunes [for Windows], Napster is launching, and BuyMusic.com is only a couple months old. The number of legal download and subscription services that are getting really good reviews right now is staggering.
PCW: When do you think consumers will embrace legitimate services? I keep trying these services out, and am disappointed because of restrictions--and I still can't find all the music I want.
Sherman: First off, artists have an obligation to support the rest of the artistic community by licensing their works. Music services have not been able to get licenses from superstar artists like the Beatles. When an artist refuses to license their work, I think that is a vote in favor of piracy instead of the legitimate marketplace.
PCW: Do you feel like you need to improve the RIAA's image with music fans?
Sherman: We aren't trying to win a popularity contest. This is about whether you're going to have a vibrant music industry and an investment to support artists' careers. If somebody has to be the heavy on this, better that it be the RIAA than the artists whose livelihoods are at stake.
PCW: Do you believe that the RIAA's interests come before the interests of Silicon Valley companies that are trying to market tools that give consumers the ability to do more with their media?
Sherman: No. This is not a question of one industry's interests being more important than another's. It's a question of finding the right balance.
We love new technologies and have inevitably prospered from them.
What we are opposed to is businesses built on infringing other people's copyrighted products. We love peer-to-peer technology; we hate businesses that are built on using peer-to-peer to sell advertising with the draw of stealing other people's works.
There are legitimate ways to use technology, and then there are abuses of technology, and just because you go after the abusers doesn't mean that you have a problem with the technology.
PCW: Do you support mandating copyright protection mechanisms in PCs, CD players, or anything else that can play, record, or manipulate data?
Sherman: We actually were not supporters of the Hollings bill that called for just such measures. We thought it was an important means of emphasizing the problem of digital piracy. But technical mandates are not the best way to fix the piracy problem. These issues are best addressed voluntarily in the marketplace.
PCW: You mean makers of computer software and devices should voluntarily put restrictions on equipment?
Sherman: Look at the DVD model, where multiple industries worked together to come up with some form of protection that was sufficient to encourage the motion picture studios to release their content on this new format, and consumer electronics and IT companies have been able to support [the medium] because they thought that these were reasonable protections.
PCW: Do you sense that your lawsuits have changed any file-swapper's attitudes?
Sherman: I believe we have. We certainly have received a large number of letters from people commenting how they hadn't thought about peer-to-peer as piracy before. They understand why we're doing what we're doing.
PCW: Senator Sam Brownback [R-Kansas] is concerned that the RIAA is overstepping its bounds, such as when you issued subpoenas for downloaders' names. He and other critics argue that you are invading people's privacy. What do you say?
Sherman: We expect to have those kinds of issues raised. We're fighting with ISPs about this issue right now. I'm not surprised that a senator or two would take the side of the ISPs.
But I think that you really have to look at the big picture. Is Senator Brownback, or any other senator, going to say we shouldn't be able to protect our interests against thieves that are decimating our industry? The answer to that is no.
PCW: In the age of digital distribution, some argue that the RIAA is obsolete. Why should the RIAA, which is composed primarily of five music companies, control 80 percent of the music?
Sherman: We have no problem with a music industry that is more diversified, that gives new opportunities for new labels and new artists. This is not about maintaining control; it's about being fair in regards to the ability of people to get paid for their work.
New Napster Busts Out of Beta
Napster 2.0 lives as new music service tailored for the masses.
By Steve Enders, Tech Live Web producer
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Napster is back!
Stop us if you've heard this one before.
OK, Napster 2.0 was back on Oct. 9, but only as a beta test version for a select and lucky few to play with. But as of Wednesday, Oct. 29, Napster 2.0 really is back for the masses.
Tonight, get the latest from Napster's star-studded Los Angeles launch party. Also, see the exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour "Tech Live" took of the Napster factory. One thing's for certain: Napster's all grown up, and the service is a far cry from the Shawn Fanning-created free-for-all that sparked a music revolution, industry outrage, and legal attacks back in 1999.
Grown-up cat fight
Napster is the fourth major music download service to launch specifically for PC users since the recording industry began its crackdown on online music swapping. Musicmatch, BuyMusic.com, and Apple's iTunes Music Store have all launched offerings for music-starved Windows lovers. It's a huge market considering Windows' overwhelming market share on personal computers. Each of the four services offers its own distinct features -- both good and not so good -- for music fans. Still, all four are arguably better than getting a subpoena from the RIAA.
"We think we've got the model, we think we've got the brand," said Chris Gorog, CEO and chairman of Roxio. "We think we have the best experience out there, so we feel very confident in competing with anyone."
Gorog told TechTV that Hollywood-based Napster brought in "hard-core illegal file sharers" to test the new service. Turns out, they liked what they saw.
"These kids go absolutely nuts because they are so sick of dealing with KaZaA or Morpheus and pop-up ads and spyware," he said.
Napster may very well be in a unique position to gain traction quickly in this crowded field. When Roxio, Napster's new parent company, announced the availability of the beta version of Napster 2.0, some analysts said they expected the service to do well.
"If you look at the brand, the Napster brand dwarfs all others. So I think this is a situation where the dark horse is going to actually win," said Gene Munster, senior research analyst with US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.
The combination of Napster's legal download offerings, subscription-based model adopted from Roxio's former pressplay service, and familiar features from the Napster of old could position Napster above the likes of Apple's iTunes. Both iTunes and Napster include an MP3 jukebox, the ability to buy songs online, CD burning, and various other features.
The iTunes Music Store almost instantly earned recognition from industry watchers after its launch in mid-October because of its flexibility with downloaded tracks and user-friendly interface. Apple also has in its pocket the iPod, the best-selling MP3 player on the planet. (Needless to say, the iPod works seamlessly with iTunes.) Apple said that in its first three days of operation, Windows users downloaded more than a million songs from the iTunes Music Store.
Answering competition
Napster is hoping to tip the scales in its favor. Roxio has partnered with Samsung on the Samsung Napster player, which is advertised as the player to use with Napster 2.0. (TechTV Labs is currently reviewing the gadget.) The player will be sold exclusively through Best Buy stores. A special version of Napster 2.0 will also be available to consumers using the new Microsoft XP Media Center 2004, the new operating system designed to run home entertainment systems.
Napster has also announced the availability of Napster Cards, pre-paid cards that will sell for $14.85 at more than 14,000 retail locations across America, from drugstores to department stores. The cards work like pre-paid phone cards and will give card holders the ability to buy 15 music downloads from the service.
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iTunes Music Store for Windows last week, he also unveiled new iTunes gift certificates users can give to friends, and music "allowance" credits that parents can use to authorize downloads for their music-hungry kids.
Napster 2.0 at a glance
TechTV Labs has reviewed the beta version of Napster 2.0 and found the service to be easy to use. It's a solid music service overall. Tracks download in the WMA file format and can be used on just about any WMA-supported portable player. Here's a quick look at what else Napster 2.0 holds in store.
People using Napster 2.0 on a Windows PC can download any one of about 500,000 songs for 99 cents per track. Whole albums will generally cost $9.99.
For an additional $9.95 per month users can take advantage of Napster community features, including unlimited streaming and downloading, listening to streaming radio, and discussing music on message boards.
Users can integrate tracks downloaded from Napster with existing MP3 collections.
Users can send downloaded music to friends, and they can browse other Napster members' MP3 collections.
Users won't be able to use Napster to rip CDs, but they can use it to burn CDs with downloaded tracks.
Finally, look for Napster's launch to raise the possibility of a format war. Apple uses AAC encoding to compress its digital music, while others, including Napster, use WMA. If you really want an iPod, you're going to have to use iTunes -- a choice that's obviously not an issue for 1.3 million iPod owners. But if you're a PC user who really likes your WMA files from ripped CDs, you should know that they're useless on an iPod.
More legitimate music download services are rumored to be in the works from Dell and even Amazon.com. The music wars aren't nearly over yet.
The music industry will certainly be keeping a watchful eye on music sales to see if the availability of legal, for-pay music services can make a dent in illegal activity.
"Tech Live" reporter Lindsey Arent contributed to this story.
Interested in the Samsung Napster player?
Buy this product at Amazon.com
Originally aired October 28, 2003
Modified October 29, 2003
Microsoft Preps Voice Command Launch
By Matt Hicks
October 29, 2003
Microsoft Corp. is revving the launch of new voice recognition software for handhelds and smart phones that will allow users to speak commands to access information and launch applications.
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The Redmond, Wash., software maker on Monday will release the Voice Command software, which works on devices using the Windows Mobile 2003 operating system, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
The software will support voice-activated commands for Microsoft Outlook contacts and calendar appointments so users can find phone numbers or confirm a meeting; for Windows Media Player so users can play music by saying commands such as "Play Beatles;" and for launching applications such a Word or the Outlook inbox without needing to use a stylus, the spokeswoman said
News of the impending unveiling leaked earlier this week on the Handango.com Web site, a company spokeswoman said, which led the company to provide early details of the launch.
Development of Voice Command grew out of work in Microsoft's automotive business unit, which realized that drivers need a safe way to interact with their mobile devices while they're on the road, she said.
Voice Command will be available for $39.95 from Handango.com.
OT Canadian music retailers toss out Rolling Stones
Wednesday October 29, 3:11 pm ET
TORONTO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Canadians shopping for music this Christmas may have to cross the Rolling Stones off their wish list after retailers yanked their products in protest.
Major music chains vowed on Wednesday to keep the band's music off their shelves indefinitely after the Stones' made an exclusive deal with U.S. retailer Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY - News) to carry its new four-disc DVD, "Four Flicks," due next month.
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The deal extends to Best Buy's Canadian outlets, shutting out other retailers.
"What have these guys become?" said Tim Baker, head buyer for the Sunrise Records chain. "We've been supporting the Rolling Stones for decades and loyalty is a two-way street. To do something like this just smacks of greed."
Stones promoter Michael Cohl said Best Buy agreed to sell the set for the lowest price in Canada, and that was the prime motivator for the deal.
But that failed to satisfy rival retailers who are alarmed by the precedent this might set at a time when their music sales are far from stellar.
HMV North America president Humphrey Kadaner said the only recourse retailers had was to show artists they could lose royalties if their records were not being sold.
"When artists and their management tell...our customers that they're not good enough to have access to the new release product...we have to send a message back that perhaps you're not worthy of having your product in our stores," he said.
The flap over the "Four Flicks" DVD may cast a pall over the British rockers' relationship with Canadian music fans especially in Toronto where the band has a long history.
In July, the band rode to the city's emotional rescue and headlined a massive concert to help boost spirits and tourism after the SARS outbreak in Toronto.
Retailers said they will boycott the Stones indefinitely unless they are allowed to carry the new material.
"If we don't, we will be not just a SARS-free zone but a Rolling Stones-free zone," Sunrise Records' Baker said.
($1=$1.31 Canadian)
Currently working with another large player in auto infotainment arena.
Ody1000 key to getting new 1.8" OEM.eom
iRiver America Introduces 1.5GB Portable Music Player
iRiver's iGP-100 Further Highlights the Company's Commitment to MP3 Player
Innovation and Excellence
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- iRiver, the emerging leader in
digital entertainment, today announced the iGP-100, a new MP3 portable music
player with 1.5GB* of internal storage and an array of features iRiver
customers have come to expect.
The iGP-100 is the best of both hard-drive and flash-memory portable music
players. The new iRiver player is much smaller (80x77.5x24mm) and lighter
(100g) than traditional hard-drive music devices, making it a player in the
pocket-able jukebox category. At the same time, the iGP-100 stores up to 50
hours** of digital music in MP3, WMA, OGG and ASF formats, which is a far
greater capacity than flash-memory players.
The iRiver iGP-100 uses the Cornice Storage Element and works with PC or
Mac computers. The iGP-100 features intuitive one-handed navigation,
integrated FM tuner, long-life lithium-ion rechargeable battery, enhanced 3D
sound and is easily upgradeable to future formats. The iGP-100's extra-large
LCD (41x34mm) displays information on playtime, artist, song title, battery
status, bit rate, file type and equalizer settings.
According to new research from IDC, "MP3 Everywhere: Worldwide and U.S.
Compressed Audio Player Forecast and Analysis, 2002-2007," worldwide shipments
of portable compressed audio players will approach 37 million units in 2007,
up from 11.6 million units in 2002.
"The portable MP3 player market is expanding rapidly, driven in part by
the availability of multiple player form factors that complement a variety of
lifestyles," said Susan Kevorkian, senior analyst with IDC. "New product
categories such as portable MP3 players based on 1.5GB hard drives are
expected to help the market sustain its momentum."
The iRiver iGP-100 gives customers the option of using familiar folder
navigation to sort through files quickly and easily. Plus, it comes bundled
with iRiver earphones, carrying case, AC adapter and USB 2.0.
"iRiver is commited to delivering the industry's best MP3 players," said
Jonathan Sasse, president of iRiver America. "Our engineering and design teams
have again developed a powerful MP3 player for those who want a player with 50
hours of music -- substantially more music than flash-memory players and less
bulky than hard-drive players."
"Best Buy aligned with iRiver on the development of this product and we
couldn't be more excited to offer it to customers in our stores," said Todd
Ciresi, business team leader for MP3 & Computer Peripherals at Best Buy.
"This device truly hits a sweet spot for our customers in meeting their
growing needs -- both from a portability and a capacity standpoint."
iGP-100 features:
Supports MP3, WMA, ASF and Ogg Vorbis files
Plays up to 50 hours of digital music
Intuitive one-handed navigation
Integrated FM tuner
Ultra-fast USB 2.0 transfers
Extra-large, backlit LCD
Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Up to 12 hours of battery life
Skip-free playback***
Upgradeable to future formats and features
Enhanced 3D audio
Pricing and Availability
The iGP-100 is available now exclusively at Best Buy (http://www.BestBuy.com) and
the iRiver E-Store (http://www.iRiverAmerica.com). iGP-100 MSRP is USD $249.99.
About iRiver
iRiver is the emerging global leader in delivering advanced portable
digital audio devices. iRiver provides consumers with listening and recording
flexibility to accommodate their active lifestyles by manufacturing award-
winning hybrid products supporting existing and emerging formats, including
MP3, WMA, ASF, AAC and OGG. San Jose-based iRiver America, Inc. can be found
on the Web at http://www.iriveramerica.com.
NOTE: iRiver America and SlimX are registered trademarks of iRiver
America, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole
property of their respective owners.
* 1GB equals 1,000,000,000 bytes, not all drive space available for
file storage
** Up to 50 hours of music based on Windows Media format at 64kbps.
*** Skip-free playback during many active uses.
Contacts:
Gary Byrd
Nadel Phelan, Inc.
831-440-2414
gary@nadelphelan.com
Lexar joins the MP3 party with new player
Last modified: October 27, 2003, 12:51 PM PST
By Ed Frauenheim
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Lexar Media on Monday joined the crowded field of companies selling MP3 players, but it is pitching its product as a data-storage device first and a music player second.
Lexar, which makes a variety of silicon-chip-based flash memory products, said its flash-based JumpDrive Music device will be available at retail locations nationwide in November.
The gadget connects to computers through a universal serial bus (USB) connection and has a capacity of either 128MB or 256MB. That's room enough to store about two to four hours of music, or the data equivalent of 88 or 176 floppy disks, respectively, according to the company. The 128MB product is slated to cost $89.99 and the 256MB version is expected to sell for $159.99.
But don't expect to find the JumpDrive Music device in the portable music player section of Circuit City. "We are encouraging our retailers to put it in the storage section rather than the MP3 section," Lexar spokeswoman Kim Evans said.
Evans said Lexar is aiming the device at "young, on-the-go consumers" such as students, who might use it to transport documents back and forth to school, but listen to music en route.
Lexar joins a growing number of companies offering portable digital music players. These include computer makers that are trying to break into the consumer electronics market. Apple has the disk-drive-based iPod, and Dell on Monday launched a disk-drive-based portable music player. Gateway also has MP3 players for sale.
Lexar is not the only competitor to say that its device can do more than just hold music files. Dell says its "Dell DJ" product also serves as a digital voice recorder or a way to back up critical data. Gateway's 256MB and 128MB digital music players also offer digital voice recording and data storage.
Dell's 15GB MP3 player will sell for $249, while a 20GB version will sell for $329, according to the company. Gateway's 256MB player lists for $169.99 on the Gateway Web site, while its 128MB player lists for $129.99.
Yahoo buys BT music site
By Bernhard Warner
Tuesday October 28, 12:11 PM
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Web outfit Yahoo has made its biggest push yet into Europe's music download sector, acquiring popular online service dotmusic.com from BT Group, the companies said in a statement.
Financial terms of the deal, which also included the purchase of video games enthusiast Web site GamesDomain.co.uk, were not disclosed.
A Yahoo Europe spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday that content from the music and gaming sites, which include games and album reviews, would be integrated in the coming weeks into the firm's own offerings -- Yahoo Games and music service Launch.
A decision on selling music downloads would be determined after the sites are integrated, said the spokeswoman, Sue Jackson.
"Globally, we're looking at the download market with interest. That's where we are right now," she said.
Dotmusic is one of the select music sites in Europe to sell music downloads. It has obtained digital licences from each of the five major music labels to offer song downloads via its partnership with UK-based music technology firm OD2.
BLACK MARKET FOR MUSIC
Music and Internet executives have been rolling out European download services in the past year to combat the rise of file-sharing sites which have created a sizeable black market for free music on the Internet.
If Yahoo enters the suddenly bustling European download sector it will face stiff competition.
In the past month, AOL, a division of Time Warner, and Real Networks, announced plans to launch European music download services in the first half of 2004.
Also in the mix are Apple Computer Inc's iTunes and Roxio Inc.'s Napster, which many industry observers expect to launch in Europe by mid-2004.
BT acquired dotmusic.com, one of the UK's oldest music sites, last year with an aim to leverage the site's music content and fan base to attract new customers to its OpenWorld broadband Internet services.
The future of dotmusic.com became murky though when Yahoo struck a deal in June with BT to bring entertainment content to BT OpenWorld broadband customers. Yahoo has put its weight behind Launch, which made its European debut in June.
Yahoo's Jackson said the future of the Games Domain and dotmusic brands has not been determined, but added "I don't anticipate either the Launch brand or Yahoo Games brand being changed in any way."
Microsoft to Launch Portable Media Center in 2004
35 minutes ago
Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) said on Monday that it would launch software for a new portable media device to be launched next year that will allow users to listen to music and watch movies on the road.
Portable Media Center, Microsoft's answer to Apple Computer Inc.'s (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) iPod digital music player, will be able to play MP3 files as well as audio and video content recorded in Microsoft's own digital format.
The devices, which will be built by various manufacturers, including Tatung Co. (2371.TW), Creative Technology Ltd. (CREA.SI), Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. (6764.T), and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS), are set to hit store shelves during the second half 2004, Microsoft said.
The world's largest software maker said that its device will allow users to listen to "thousands of hours of music, watch digitally recorded TV shows or home movies, and store and view digital photo albums."
Apple's iPod, which became a huge hit for the computer company known for its distinctive designs, is one of the best-selling digital music devices on the market, according to various research firms.
Although various manufacturers have long sold portable players for digital music and even videos -- both for Windows and for Apple's computers-- the larger computer software and hardware makers had put little of their marketing muscle behind such devices.
Recently, Dell Inc. (Nasdaq:DELL - news) also announced plans to make a digital music player.
Poll: Readers want iPod radio next
By Karen Haslam
Wednesday - October 22, 2003
Apple got it right on several counts when it updated its iPod software and announced two new peripherals for the digital-music player last week. But 37 per cent of Macworld readers who voted in a recent poll believe that radio is the main feature lacked by the iPod.
The Macworld Online Poll asked: "What are the missing features" just days before Apple added support for a new Belkin voice-recording and photo-storage accessories to its dockable iPods.
Before the iPod update the most popular requested features were a radio with 36 per cent of the vote, and a voice recorder - selected by 20 per cent of readers. Following the update 37 per cent were still looking for radio, but the percentage of readers looking for a voice recorder (now provided) fell 8 percentage points to 12 per cent.
The feature that experienced the biggest vote increase following the iPod upgrade was a colour screen, moving up from 16 per cent to 21 per cent and taking second position from voice recorder. The iPod now offers photo-storage accessories with users able to store thousands of digital photos on their iPod, but not view them, yet.
Another wish-list accessory that grew in popularity following the iPod refresh, was a built-in mobile phone, originally receiving 7 per cent of the vote, following the announcement this gained 3 percentage points bringing it to 10 per cent.
Despite the added photographer's storage function the number of readers requesting a built-in camera decreased from 5 per cent to 4 per cent, and memory-card reader remained at 5 per cent. Digital video to TV output, which was 10 per cent, reduced to 8 per cent while a video-camera function increased its vote from 1 per cent to 2 per cent.
Despite figuring highly on most voter's wish-lists, some Macworld readers didn't feel that a radio is such a must-have: "Why the hell would you want a radio when you can have 10,000 decent songs," said one.
Pause and Effect
One missing feature advocated by a few members of Macworld's online forum is continuous play: "It should play from track-to-track without a forced pause. A lot of people listen to DJ mix albums or albums that are continuous, and that little pause can be a tad irritating," said one.
Another reader suggested: "You should be able to check what non-music files are stored on your iPod and view a single iPod's contents on both Macs and PCs."
Some readers felt that rather than expanding the iPod, more ports should be added: "Then people could choose to make their iPod more than an MP3 player rather than be stuck with unwanted extras that will make it more bulky," said one.
Another said that: "More than anything the iPod needs to be smaller, lighter, and have a much better battery life."
One reader who suggested "The only real missing feature is an affordable price tag," will be pleased to hear that Steve Jobs has not ruled out a $100 model.
A first-generation iPod owner complained: "Apple should offer continued support and updates to first and second generation iPod owners. All the new software updates and sexy new add-ons are aimed at dockable iPod owners only."
But for some readers the iPod already offers perfection. One said: "Call me a killjoy, but I don't think the iPod needs any other features - for me the joy of using the iPod is its simplicity and uncluttered interface. Any new features would either increase the bulk, price or number of buttons on the fascia."
Storage-driven future
Published on Oct 23, 2003
The widespread use of consumer electronics capable of storing digital data will be a key driver for the growth of the digital storage market over the next seven years, one computer hard disk manufacturer has predicted.
It is estimated that sales of storage devices ranging from hard and floppy disks to portable flash and thumb drives could reach 500 million units by 2010.
Brent Bargmann, vice president of operations for Seagate Technology (Thailand), said consumer electronics would provide a huge opportunity for the storage market and would take around 30 to 50 per cent of the total market in the next seven years.
"Storage will play a key role for the emerging digital world as it can help people store digital data and enjoy a digital lifestyle," he said.
It has been estimated that the production volume of storage products will reach 1 billion units during that seven-year timeframe.
Bargmann said that the entertainment industry would drive the use of storage devices as it was generating many terabytes of new content each week, all of which will be recorded in digital format.
He said that the volume of music purchased online and downloaded is expected to rise to more than 30 per cent of the total market in 2006, and that this would be a significant part of the expansion of storage demand in the market.
At the same time, he said the growing trend for MP3 players, as well as the emergence of what are called "portal media players", will require much more use of hard disk drives in the near future.
According to Bargmann, storage would be a key function of consumer electronics devices such as handheld computers, personal video recorders and digital video recorders, as well as game consoles.
"These devices are part of the digital home of tomorrow that will allow people to download, capture and store information. However, there is a tremendous amount of devices that don't yet have storage. . . these will be a huge market in the future," he said.
Besides entertainment, Bargmann said the automobile industry was a unique market that showed a huge potential for storage in different parts of a car, such as the car's communications system, onboard diagnostics and voice control systems, as well as entertainment, information and navigation systems.
Bargmann was making his comments at the recent Apec Investment Mart 2003 at the Impact Arena in Muang Thong Thani.
Pongpen Sutharoj
Suchalee Pongprasert
THE NATION
Apple tweaks iTunes for Windows
By Ina Fried
CNET News.com
October 22, 2003, 11:57 AM PT
Add your opinion
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Apple Computer plans on Wednesday to release an updated version of its iTunes program intended to fix bugs encountered by some Windows users.
The company is in the process of posting to its Web site version 4.1.1 of iTunes, which aims to remedy some initial glitches with the jukebox software that Apple released last week. As previously reported, some Windows users were reporting bugs with the software, including a problem that caused some Windows 2000 Professional machines to freeze after installing iTunes.
"A few customers reported conflicts with specific PC configurations and we quickly updated the iTunes software in response," Apple said in a statement. "iTunes 4.1.1 addresses an isolated incompatibility with Windows 2000 and older third-party CD burning software, as well as problems caused by corrupt MP3 files on some users' PCs."
Apple told CNET News.com last week that it was looking into the problems.
More than 1 million copies of the Windows software have already been downloaded, Apple said on Monday. The software was announced amid much fanfare by Apple last week.
"More than a million Windows users have downloaded iTunes since its launch less than a week ago, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive," Apple said.
johny d, LOL, no, I haven't. Steve's just a little out of touch. Kinda like W's daddy when he didn't know how much a loaf of bread cost...
Jobs comments on competition, iPod pricing
Monday, October 20, 2003 @ 3:25am
In a Newsweek report, Steve Jobs said that contends that "in the long run the [online music] competition will boil down to Apple and Microsoft: 'Between the license fees and the credit-card charges, there’s no money in online music,' he says. For Apple, the payoff comes in selling the iPod players that work hand in hand with the store.'" Commenting on iPod pricing, however, he says that the No. 1 MP3 player is not too expensive: " No, of course I don’t think it’s too costly. Fifty million homes have DVD players that cost that kind of money. For music lovers, I don’t think it’s a hurdle at all. There are sneakers that cost more than an iPod...We’d love to have a $100 iPod! We just don’t know how to do it right now. We’re constantly trying to make cheaper iPods. We’re working on the next step."
Details on file sharing could come next month
By Daniel Bal
Collegian Staff Writer
As early as next fall, Penn State might be involved in a pilot program that would allow students to legally listen to free music online.
During Monday's Undergraduate Student Government Academic Assembly meeting, Penn State President Graham Spanier said he hopes to announce next month details about the service that will allow students free access to music from online companies.
Russell Vaught, associate vice provost for information technology, said although there are unforeseen forces that could halt the program from being implemented, he does not have any reason to believe otherwise.
"It's highly likely this will happen," he said. "I don't see any snags."
Vaught said the program will not be free for the university, but it will be provided to the students at no additional cost.
"The university bulk buys newspapers and then provides them to students, at no additional charge," he said. "It's the same as the movies in the HUB; they are being paid for, but not by students."
The program will allow students to access streaming music files, which can be transferred to an MP3 player, but cannot be burned onto a CD.
Students could listen to a song continuously, but upon disconnection from the Penn State network, they would no longer have access to the song.
The program will not allow anonymous downloads such as those on Kazaa.
It also differs from LionShare, which is an authentic peer-to-peer program. LionShare will not primarily be based on sharing music. A recent $1.1 million grant will allow for the development of technology for LionShare.
Spanier said the university wants to put a legal file-sharing system in place before any students get in trouble with the law.
Last year, in front of a congressional panel, Spanier said several congressmen labeled college students as criminals who should be "locked up."
So far, no student has been sued at Penn State due to illegally downloading music, and the university said they would deny access before the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) takes action.
"We like our approach to be educational in nature, not criminal," Spanier said.
In September, the RIAA filed 261 lawsuits against individual Internet users, 52 of which have been settled since.
The RIAA has said they plan to file more lawsuits this month.
University spokesman Bill Mahon said, "[The university] has to look at what companies are out there that provide music legally and a pricing structure [the university] can afford."
Mahon said illegally downloading music is a big issue and is causing traditional music stores to close their doors, but it also has an effect on students here at Penn State.
The university wants the work of students who write plays and produce television shows to be protected, he said.
"[The students] have a lot at stake with copyright," Mahon said.
Penn State has taken a leadership role nationally to restrict illegal file sharing and has attempted to come up with a reasonable solution, he said.
Janet Moccia (senior-international politics) said, "I think it's a good idea because students need a legal way [to listen to music online], so it's definitely needed and appreciated."
Evan Schoss (junior-geography) agreed adding that he buys a lot of CDs from artists he enjoys and wants to support.
Although he will not be able to burn CDs, Schoss said, "It's good to just have an MP3 collection."
Although students will not be able to burn CDs with Spanier's proposed program, some are still looking forward to the program's benefits.
The Associated Press and Claudia Vargas contributed to this report.
Archos Introduces the Industry's First Line of Customizable MP3 Players
IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2003--
GMINI 120 and 220 Feature 'Build Your Own' Concept with Media Add-ons, Icon-Based Interface and the Smallest 20-Gigabyte Hard Drive Available
Archos(R), Inc., a global provider of innovative handheld entertainment and storage solutions, introduced today a new line of portable MP3 players that can be customized to suit individual preferences.
The GMINI(TM) 220 and GMINI 120 players are the first to offer music fans add-on accessories for creating a custom player with music, radio and photo options, and an icon-based interface for easy navigation. The GMINI 120 is available today at major U.S. retailers, or at www.archos.com. The GMINI 220, the industry's smallest 20-gigabyte MP3 player, will be available in November.
The GMINI Series is designed for music fans who want a specific player and price customized to them. The GMINI 220 is the smallest 20-gigabyte MP3 player on the market, and weighs only six ounces. With the GMINI Series, Archos introduces an icon-based interface and the ARCLibrary(TM), an advanced music management program that allows for controlling and organizing music directly on the device. The GMINI devices can store 5,000 songs, or 500 full-length CDs or 300 hours of audio.
"With the GMINI Series introduction, Archos continues its strategy of delivering innovative products with flexible features and price points, and delivers another breakthrough product today," said Hyder Rabbani, Archos president in the United States. "Aside from the sleek appearance of the new products, for the first time, music enthusiasts of all ages and tastes will be able to personalize their MP3 player to their listening habits and cost preferences, and create a truly personal and powerful MP3 player."
Compact and Powerful with Features and a Price for Everyone
The new GMINI product line is powerful in size and performance, yet both the 220 and 120 fit comfortably in a shirt pocket. The differences in the GMINI 220 and 120 devices are in the form factor and screen size, where the GMINI 220 is the smaller and has a 2.5 inch LCD screen. The GMINI 220 screen is grayscale with a blue backlight for easy viewing of photos and icons.
Both players offer MP3 and WMA recording and playback, an icon-based interface, and advanced music management capabilities through the Archos ARCLibrary and Musicmatch Jukebox Plus. The new ARCLibrary lets users delete, rename, copy and move files, and create folders directly on the GMINI Series -- all without using a PC. MUSICMATCH Jukebox Plus, the award-winning digital music software, lets music fans convert entire CD collections to MP3 or WMA format, and organize songs by artist, album, genre, album art and more.
A Modular Approach to a Compact MP3 Player
Music fans can select up to four personalized add-on accessories for the GMINI Series:
-- Audio Recorder/Voice Recorder -- With a built-in microphone, this accessory offers recording of music from any audio source and holds up to 700 hours of voice recording.
-- Photo Wallet -- With the compact flash memory card, customers can easily store, organize and view JPEG photos on the GMINI built-in screen. (Adaptors for other memory cards also are available.)
-- MadWaves Interactive Music Composer -- Exclusive to Archos, this unique interactive software allows aspiring artists to compose their own music by interacting with pre-loaded, copyright-free digital music samples.
-- FM Remote Control -- An add-on remote control transforms the GMINI series into an FM radio with full MP3 recording capabilities. Connect the module and record songs from the radio at any time.
Pricing and Product Specifications
The GMINI series modular concept allows the music listener to choose the player and accessories that best meet their needs. The GMINI 120 and 220 have suggested retail prices of $249.95 and $349.95, respectively, and products are sold with a USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, batteries, stereo headphones and MUSICMATCH Jukebox Plus software. For the GMINI 220, all of the add-on accessories are available on a promotional basis at no additional cost. The add-on modules for the GMINI 120 are priced as follows:
-- Audio Recorder/Voice Recorder: $19.95
-- Photo Wallet: $29.95
-- MadWaves Interactive Music Composer: $9.95
-- FM Remote Control: $39.95
Product information and add-on accessories are available at www.archos.com.
The GMINI Series requires a PC running a Windows 98 Special Edition or higher operating system and a 233 Megahertz or faster processor, or Mac 9.2 or X (10.2.4) USB Manager version 1.2 or higher.
About Archos
Founded in 1988, Archos is a global provider of mobile multimedia products for consumers and businesses. The company's award-winning audio, video and storage products are designed for business and personal use, and lead the industry in innovation. Archos is based in Paris, France, with U.S. headquarters in Irvine, Calif. Company information and products are available at www.archos.com.
The names of companies mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.
Contacts
Archos, Inc.
Allison Jones, 858-722-5616 (Media)
jones@archos.com
or
Marco delRosario, 949-609-1483, ext. 246 (Marketing)
delrosario@archos.com
Everybody Wants A Piece Of The iPod
OCTOBER 27, 2003
Apple's e-music dominance will be sorely tested as cheaper players hit the market
Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod MP3 player was an instant hit when it was launched two years ago -- the must-have gadget for music-loving digerati. The iPod was head and shoulders above its rivals: It was easy to use, elegantly designed, and, best of all, held 1,000 songs in a device no larger than a pack of playing cards.
The iPod has flown off shelves ever since and has allowed Apple (AAPL ) to pick up the single largest chunk of the MP3 player market. In August, says market researcher NPD Group Inc., 18% of all digital music players sold in the U.S. were iPods. Those sales -- and the iPod's lofty $300 to $500 price tag -- helped the Cupertino (Calif.) company power to a fiscal fourth-quarter sales gain of 19%, the biggest jump in almost two years. On Oct. 15, Apple announced net earnings of $44 million on sales of $1.72 billion, reversing a net loss of $45 million a year earlier.
Now Apple is angling to take iPod to a whole new level. On Oct. 16, the company was scheduled to announce a Windows version of the iTunes Music Store it launched in April for Mac users. The move follows the 2002 launch of a Windows-version iPod. Moving into Windows MP3 players seems like a no-brainer. It's Apple's most aggressive attempt ever to move beyond its core of Mac loyalists -- and for good reason. Apple badly wants to maintain its market share as the $35 billion music business moves away from CDs to digital downloads. By 2005, the portable player market is expected to reach $2.6 billion, up from $1 billion in 2003 -- so even with a 10% share Apple could reap dividends for years to come.
Still, the company will have to contend with a host of new rivals. By Christmas, a variety of iPod wannabes will hit the market, from Samsung Group's YP109GS to Dell Inc.'s (DELL ) Digital Jukebox, due on Oct. 28. A range of new gizmos also will join the party, from smaller, cheaper models like Rio Audio's 2-ounce Nitrus to devices that play movies on liquid-crystal displays. Meanwhile, say industry insiders, Apple has lost a key advantage: the exclusive use of the tiny Toshiba Corp. disk drive that made it possible for the iPod to store so much in such a tiny package -- even as other disk-drive makers put out their own diminutive products. "Any time you can get a full-year head start, it's awesome," says Kevin Magenis, CEO of Cornice Inc., which makes a tiny drive that will appear in a dozen or so players. "But there's going to be a lot more competition."
The risk is that Apple could end up where it has so often before -- with only a high-end niche of a market it pioneered. To keep that from happening again, it's betting Windows users will be drawn to Apple's trademark elegance and ease of use. Moreover, the emerging MP3 player business will remain highly fragmented, much like the early days of the PC market, when Apple prospered with an 11% share. In the short term, at least, the launch of the Windows Music Store is expected to galvanize iPod sales.
PRICE SENSITIVITY
The question is whether Apple will go far enough to win Windows users over the long haul. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) says Apple has not licensed its Windows Media technology or its copyright protection software -- both of which are used by many of the new iTunes-like services popping up. That means people who want to use the likes of Musicmatch, Napster 2.0, or BuyMusic.com likely won't be able to use iPods.
What's more, as cheaper players hit stores this fall, Apple may have a hard time persuading consumers to pay up to $500. "We've been positioning our products to [cost] 30% less than a competitive iPod," says Craig McHugh, president of Creative Labs Inc., which sells a range of players. The cheaper devices could force Apple to cut prices, pressuring margins now estimated at 20%-plus.
Another threat comes from below. Take the gadgets that use Cornice's 1-inch drive, which is the size of two quarters stacked up. Some are no bigger than a cigarette lighter and could cost well below $200 by next year. True, their 1.5-gigabyte drives hold just 800 songs. But that's more than enough for most people. For those who do need thousands of songs in their pocket, iPod will always be the cream of the crop. For everyone else, any of a slew of new rivals may be just as good -- at a fraction of the cost.
By Peter Burrows in San Mateo, Calif.
RealNetworks to Launch Europe Music Download Shop
15 minutes ago Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - RealNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq:RNWK - news) said on Wednesday it will bring its Rhapsody music download service to Europe in the second quarter of next year, the latest American firm aiming to cash in on Europe's emerging digital music scene. Earlier this month, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX - news) told Reuters it was in negotiations with the world's largest music labels for licenses to sell song downloads to European music fans by the second quarter of 2004.
Also in the hunt are Apple Computer Inc.'s (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) iTunes and Roxio Inc.'s (Nasdaq:ROXI - news) Napster (news - web sites), the two most recognizable brands to music download fans, which are widely expected to make their Continental debut in mid-2004.
The band of new entrants will go head-to-head with some of Europe's biggest music retailers including Britain's HMV (HMV.L) and Virgin MegaStores, plus download stores run by Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) MSN and Tiscali (TIS.MI).
So far, industry-backed services have proved no match for free download services such as Kazaa and Grokster, which have triggered a robust trade in free tunes. Music executives blame such services for contributing to a three-year sales drop in recorded music.
Rhapsody carries a catalog of 385,000 songs for Web streaming and more than 275,000 for permanent download of such artists as Elvis and Pink Floyd. It is now available only to U.S. customers who pay a $9.95 monthly subscription fee and an additional 79 cents per download.
A similar pricing scheme is being developed for Europe, a spokeswoman for the Seattle-based digital media firm said.
Earlier this month, Rhapsody said subscribers had streamed more than 21 million songs in September.
A year on, multimedia metadata yet to shine
By Martyn Williams
IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau
21-10-2003
Your music collection is finally digital. You've ripped your 200 favorite CDs to MP3 files and you love the way the software allows you to create playlists or instantly call up favorites from your personal database of 2,000 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 you're smiling until you realize: your car player isn't half as intelligent as your PC. You have to either remember 100 track numbers or hit "next" or "back" to navigate your music.
It's probably not a problem you've faced, but it's one that is becoming increasingly likely as more people are burning their own multimedia CDs and more consumer electronics devices are gaining the ability to read such data. Many CD players can understand MP3 files in addition to audio CDs, and some DVD players can run JPEG slideshows as well as movies. Televisions are also changing, with the most modern models able to show movies or images stored on memory cards.
While this is great for the convergence between the PC and your living room, there's a problem. Most of these devices don't know much about the content of your files beyond their filenames 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 there are any number of software products that can organize and track collections of songs, photos or movies. Most of these applications store descriptional data, or metadata, in a format that is proprietary to the manufacturer or perhaps shared among other applications, but these are not understood outside of the world of computing.
To the rescue come two cross-industry metadata specifications, HighMAT and MPV (Music Photo Video). They were both proposed around a year ago as a solution to this problem and attempt to define standard ways or storing metadata so that a number of applications and hardware devices have access to it. The result should make it easier to find files when using platforms other than a PC.
It's been about a year since both were proposed but you'll be forgiven for not recognizing either. HighMAT is on the market although is currently only supported in a handful of devices and applications while MPV is at an earlier stage. However, the backers of both systems, which include some of the biggest names in computing and consumer electronics, promise things are about to change.
HighMAT, developed by Microsoft Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., better known as Panasonic, was launched first on Oct. 18, 2002. At that time support was announced for 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.
Currently around 15 Panasonic-branded products with HighMAT compatibility are available around the world and Microsoft has added support to Windows Media player 9 and Windows Media Maker, and has a Windows XP wizard for the same task. Third party products with HighMAT support are difficult to find but the software maker says it is happy with HighMAT's first year.
"We are both excited about the progress HighMAT has made and the continued progress," said Michael Aldridge, group product manager at the Windows Digital Media division at Microsoft.
He noted a number of companies have pledged to support the system since its launch including, on the hardware side, Apex Digital Inc., Creative Technologies Inc. and Victor Co. of Japan Ltd (JVC). Software vendors including Ahead Software AG, which makes Nero Burning Rom; Aplix Corp., which makes WinCDR; Roxio Inc. and Sonic Solutions Inc. have all pledged support, and Japan's BHA Corp. released the first third-party application with HighMAT support, B's Recorder Gold 7, in September.
Looking ahead, Aldridge said he sees the number of software products with support expanding as new product release cycles come around and the number of hardware products with support growing as the new year begins.
"Third-party support is starting to emerge and I expect more momentum towards CES," he said, referring to the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas the second week of January. "Based on what I am seeing, you can expect to see more shipping hardware at CES."
MPV is the second system and was developed by the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA). It is somewhat of a competitor to HighMAT although its a little wider in scope. First announced in November 2002, MPV has unlimited file format support: it can work on optical discs and also memory cards or across home networks, and is available to hardware and software makers royalty-free from the OSTA.
Its also running late compared to HighMAT.
There are a number of big name supporters, including Eastman Kodak Co., Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), LG Electronics Inc., Olympus Corp., Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp., but prototype hardware is only just being unveiled.
At OSTA's Optical Storage Symposium conference earlier this week, Samsung showed a prototype MPV player for music and photos, due to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2004, while Olympus demonstrated a digital still camera with MPV support, due in 2004, said Pieter van Zee, a senior architect for HP's imaging and printing group, who represented the company at the event.
HP announced its Image Zone digital imaging software, which supports MPV and will ship from this quarter bundled with HP products, he said. Several other software vendors are also signed up to support MPV, including some of the same companies that are backing HighMAT, although their products are yet to appear.
One reason is that the part of MPV relating to music is not complete.
The original specification for MPV included support for 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. It is due to be finalized in December, said Van Zee.
"We think there is a strong need (for MPV)," he said.
While a number of big-name companies have declared support for one or the other system, many more have yet to do so, leaving the question of which will emerge the strongest undecided.
Toshiba is one of several companies not allied with either system yet and says it isn't rushing to make a decision.
"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," said Midori Suzuki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba. "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 be an important factor in 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. For that selection process to begin more products are needed and, if 2004 really does see the systems making their way into more products, users will be in a much better position to judge.
Feds, states question XP's music link
Last modified: October 20, 2003, 5:02 PM PDT
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Federal and state regulators have voiced concern that a feature in Windows XP that involves online music purchasing may violate terms of Microsoft's antitrust settlement.
The issue surfaced in a court-mandated briefing filed jointly by Microsoft and federal and state regulators. The compliance update says there are ongoing discussions over the "Shop for Music Online" feature in the operating system.
"Plaintiffs are concerned that the feature invokes Microsoft's Internet Explorer, rather than the user's chosen default browser, in a manner that may be inconsistent" with the settlement, according to the filing.
Discussions between the parties have continued, though the issue remains unresolved. "If Plaintiffs and Microsoft are unable to resolve this issue, the parties may seek assistance from the Court," the filing states.
The filing also notes that four additional companies have signed up to license certain Windows communications protocols that the company is required to make available as part of the settlement.
A Microsoft representative said Monday that the company believes it has adhered to the settlement terms.
"We believe that the use of Internet Explorer by the Shop for Music Online feature in Windows XP is consistent with the design rules established in the consent decree," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said.
The feature is located inconspicuously inside the Windows "My Music" folder, which is created automatically when Windows XP is installed.
Clicking the link opens an Internet Explorer window--even if another browser such as Opera is the computer's default browser--and takes the computer user to a Microsoft page advertising a handful of top artists' albums, along with a space to search for other artists by name.
Typing an artist's name into the search box results in a list of albums, which in turn lead to links to Web stores including CDNow, Buy.com, A&B Sound Online and MusicSteps.com where the albums can be purchased. In the case of Buy.com, the first and most prominently highlighted store, the link leads to the company's presence on MSN, rather than to the independent Buy.com Web site.
The parties are due in court for a status conference on Friday, according to the filing, although it is unclear whether this issue will come up.
The court-mandated filing was an update by both Microsoft and regulators on various matters pertaining to Microsoft's compliance with the terms of its settlement agreement.
News.com's John Borland contributed to this report
TV to Go
Exclusive from Add Ziff Davis to My Yahoo!
TV to Go
Thu Oct 16, 9:02 AM ET
Jim Louderback - ExtremeTech
I'm in seat 23B on a coast-to-coast flight, wedged between Chatty Cathy and Snorin' Norman. Despite that, and even though the guy in front of me has reclined his seat past Boeing's mechanical tolerances, I'm deliriously happy. Why? Because I'm watching the Patriots play football, live – well, live to me -- I recorded the game just before I left home.
If you're addicted to TiVo (news - web sites), unfiltered TV can be painful to watch. Personal Video Recorders (PVR) are amazing, because you get to watch whatever you want whenever you want. Now you can also watch it wherever you want.
I'm watching my football game on a cunning little device – the Archos 320 Video Jukebox – that holds up to 40 hours of video. The screen is tiny and the sound strained. But like the singing frog, it's not about how well it sings, just that it does so at all. I've been toting my entire music collection around for the last few years on my MP3 jukebox (more on those next week) – and now I can bring video too.
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The Archos isn't the only way to take video with you, of course. Here's my run-down of the options available.
Portable DVD Players: When they first hit the market four years ago, these clamshell-type devices had small screens – usually no bigger than 5" across -- poor battery life and were difficult to use. They also typically cost well over $1,000. That's all changed. The best portable DVD players today feature large screens – some as big as 10" diagonally. They also include enough battery power for at least a 2-3 hour movie. Best of all, you can find them for well under $700 – and cheaper versions come in at around $300.
Portable DVD players also connect to home theaters and regular televisions, so you can use them as both home and portable players. Of course, now that a good DVD player costs $70, that's less of a selling point than in the past.
Keep in mind that these players won't cut it if you want to record something when you're on the road. If you also carry a PC with a DVD burner, you can record DVDs and then watch them on some models, but that's not nearly as good as just recording it directly to the unit.
Notebook Computer: This is how I've brought video along in the past. I've copied DVD movies to my notebook's hard drive, and even brought along special devices to record TV and movies directly to the notebook. That works pretty well, but since video munches hard-drive space, I either get about five hours of high quality video or I'm stuck with either a tiny playback window or blocky-full screen video.
On the other hand, if you've got a DVD/CD drive on your notebook, it'll double as a decent portable DVD player. But there's one large problem with playing video on a portable computer – whether DVD or hard-drive based. Video stresses every part of your system – the CPU has to work hard decompressing video, the screen never turns off, and constantly spinning either the DVD or hard drive hammers your battery life. Running video on my IBM Thinkpad typically cuts battery life in half. So watching Gangs of New York on a cross-country flight means I need three batteries.
Some newer notebooks have done away with external video input devices, combining a TV tuner with composite and S-Video input ports. But these heavyweight champions top out at over 10 pounds, with battery capacity measured in minutes, not hours. Not the best travel companion.
Handheld Video Player: This is what saved my flight. About the size of an Apple iPod, they include a 20 Gigabyte or bigger hard drive, and can play MP3 songs. But they also have a video screen big enough – and fast enough – to make watching even a football game exciting. At around 4" across, the screen's not huge, but it works.
Unlike a portable DVD player, these also record video. And they hold much more, despite the smaller package. The Archos crams about 40 hours of video on a 20 Gigabyte drive, thanks to the new MP4 video-recording standard. The downside: it's new. Expect a few glitches as the company teases out the bugs.
In a few weeks, RCA will release its own version – the Lyra. Although the company was unable to provide a sample – or indeed any product information -- in time for this story, I rustled up some specifications over at Amazon.com For more details on how these products stack up, see our sidebar on What To Buy.
Which Is Right: If you want video to go and you already have a notebook computer, you're probably all set. You'll need some way to get video into that machine, whether via a DVD drive or through a video-input add-on. We detail our favorite TV add-on in the sidebar. You can make backup copies of your DVDs to the machine's hard drive, if you wish – we explained how in a previous Tech Tuesday . A notebook also does more than one thing – you can play games and write emails as well.
But like the Bass-O-Matic (it slices, it dices, mmm that's great bass!), jack-of-all-trades means master of none. Don't expect great quality video – particularly if your machine is two or three years old. And get yourself another battery or two as well.
If you want a portable player, your choices are clear. If it's mostly for DVD playback, and you don't mind lugging around the DVDs, portable DVD players are more mature, the screens are bigger and audio and video playback is much better than the newer handhelds.
But just as CD-based MP3 players gave way to Apple's iPod, hard-drive based portable video players should eclipse portable DVDs. I expect a raft of new hand-held video players over the next year. Expect to see Creative, Apple and other MP3-player vendors deliver units with a wide range of features, screen sizes and prices. Keep an eye on the two most important features though: battery life and screen size. As the screen size goes up, the battery life plummets. I hope the next crop of players will also include removable batteries – so you can keep on watching even after draining the one that's inside.
Jim Louderback is the Editor-in-Chief for Internet sites at Ziff Davis Media, which runs the popular technology sites PCMag.com and eWeek.com, along with print magazines like PC Magazine, eWEEK, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Computer Gaming World. Jim's first adventure with computers began with playing Star Trek during high-school on a PDP-11. Since then he's developed applications and installed networks for many Fortune 500 companies. For the last 12 years he's been reporting on the technology industry in print, radio, television and the Web.
US FCC to head off Internet piracy of TV-officials
Tuesday October 21, 4:44 pm ET
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators in coming weeks will adopt strict limits on sending digital television programs over the Internet to avoid the problems now plaguing the music industry, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
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The Federal Communications Commission will likely adopt rules that will allow programmers to attach a code to digital broadcasts that will in most cases bar consumers from sending copies of popular shows around the world, said the officials, who declined further identification.
The approval, expected as early as next week, would be another step along the long road to the higher-quality, crisper digital signals, which have been slowed because of worries about piracy, high-priced equipment and limited available programming.
An agency spokeswoman declined to comment on when the five commissioners would vote on the issue.
Consumer advocates have warned that consumers will have to buy new DVD players if they want to play programs that have been recorded on machines that recognize the digital flag. But agency officials stressed that that always happens when new technology hits the market.
"It will simply prevent consumers from illegal piracy, from mass distribution over the Internet, which is the problem with the music file sharing," Kenneth Ferree, head of the FCC's media bureau, said in a telephone interview.
The music industry has been plagued over the last few years with consumers illegally sharing and copying songs over the Internet, which has led the recording industry to sue music downloaders for damages up to $150,000 per song.
Consumers will still be able to make unlimited copies of their favorite shows and watch them in various rooms of their homes, but they will not be able to send them over unsecured networks until protections are established.
"Why should anyone in the world buy if it's on the Internet," said Andrew Setos, president of engineering at News Corp.'s Fox Entertainment Group.
Initially, the FCC is aiming for a relatively open process for approving equipment that will read encrypted shows, officials said, and the agency will likely retain some oversight along the way to help ensure a fair review of new technologies.
Programmers had wanted a role in approving television equipment to ensure that security features were robust enough. But some technology firms, like Microsoft (NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) , had worried they would be shut out from developing new ways to deliver protected digital content.
IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) has been developing technology so that some day consumers will be able transmit shows over secured networks, such as between their homes and offices.
Television set makers hope to begin installing the necessary equipment for the broadcast flag in new sets to go on sale next year.
"As a solution for addressing the single narrow problem of Internet redistribution, this is a pretty good solution," saidDave Arland, a spokesman for Thomson(Paris:TMS.PA - News), which manufactures RCA television sets.
But consumer advocates warn that it would make obsolete 50 million DVD players already in Americans' homes.
"If a consumer records a program on a new Broadcast Flag equipped machine and then tries to take that program and play it on Grandma's older DVD player, it's just not going to work," said Chris Murray, legislative counsel for Consumers Union.
New Stereo Linked to Online Music Store
Tuesday October 21, 12:41 pm ET
By Kenji Hall, Associated Press Writer
Japan Electronics Makers Unveil System That Can Download Song Files From Online Store
TOKYO (AP) -- Four Japanese electronics makers have teamed up to make stereo systems that can download music directly from an Internet service, without a home computer serving as middle man.
Sony Corp., Sharp Corp., Pioneer Corp. and Kenwood Corp. unveiled prototypes of the new equipment Tuesday and said they expect the systems to go on sale early next year. There are no plans yet for marketing it overseas, the companies said.
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Each company owns one-fourth of a joint venture, Any Music Planning Inc., that developed the Linux-based stereo equipment in an attempt to adapt to rapid changes engulfing the music industry.
Sony, Sharp, Pioneer and Kenwood plan to sell versions of the music receivers under their own brands. The prototypes shown Tuesday resemble traditional stereo components, but have a liquid crystal display and Ethernet ports for broadband Internet connectivity.
The systems are automatically set to access a Web site run by LabelGate, a Japanese online music shop that opened in August. LabelGate has music licensing rights with some of Japan's biggest recording companies and offers a limited amount of Western music.
Users will be able to browse, download, store and play song files, record them on a mini-disc or transfer them to other digital music devices, said Any Music CEO Fujio Noguchi.
Any Music plans to focus first on the Japanese market, but "ultimately, our dream is to make the service a worldwide standard," Noguchi said. In fact, four other Japanese audiovisual equipment makers -- NEC Electronics, Denon, Yamaha and Onkyo -- are also developing similar products.
Some consumer electronics companies have introduced so-called media receivers in the United States that can stream music from the Internet as well as play music files that are stored on networked computers. The model of purchasing music online via a standalone stereo component, however, is so far foreign to the U.S. market.
Details remain sketchy about how Any Music's system will work. It's unclear whether Any Music's hardware will restrict the number of times that users can copy songs, as U.S.-based services such as iTunes and MusicMatch do.
Also, executives from the companies refused to say how much the systems would cost, and said LabelGate hasn't decided how much it will charge per downloaded song.
The service will be separate from the one LabelGate offers to computer users. Currently, LabelGate charges 210 yen ($1.90) per downloaded song.
The electronics makers are betting that as broadband Internet connections spread in Japan, they can attract consumers who prefer downloading music to a trip to the music store. They hope Internet-savvy youngsters and adult music aficionados alike will be drawn to the prospect of convenience.
"Our industry is in crisis," said Moriyuki Okada, who heads Sharp's audiovisual systems department. "We want to emerge from that by offering new business ideas."
Audible Service Could Teach Music Industry a Lesson
By LISA NAPOLI
Published: October 20, 2003
Reasonably priced secure downloads. Compensation for writers and artists. Peaceful alliances between publishers and online distributors.
A utopian vision for the music industry? Perhaps. But that approach, which appears to be the goal of Apple Computer's iTunes music store and others like it, is already a reality for delivering audio books and other spoken word offerings over the Internet, as created by Audible, a small company in Wayne, N.J.
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Technological challenges for Audible - like having to invent a playback device to fulfill the promise of mobile listening, and a small target audience not accustomed to going online - have been daunting. So have financial woes: Since the company went public in July 1999, its stock has ranged from a high of $25 a share to just pennies, and Audible has never made a profit. The stock closed at $2.03 on Friday, up 44 cents. And yet, in part because of investors like Microsoft, Amazon and Bertelsmann, Audible, which was begun in 1995, survived an era that destroyed many other digital start-ups.
Survival also has something to do with the fact that Audible's business has nothing to do with music, Donald R. Katz, Audible's founder, said. While the music industry has struggled with how to work with the Internet, initially denying it was even a threat and keeping it at arm's length for years, Audible has been using digital downloading to reach new audiences and to deliver the wares of the audio book industry more efficiently and less expensively.
"Consumers are listening to audio books on cassette, on CD, on MP3's," said Mary Beth Roche, president of the Audio Publishers Association, a trade group. "Our challenge in the bricks-and-mortar stores is limited shelf space. How do you figure out what format for which title?''
Digital downloading offers a solution. Ms. Roche, who is also the publisher of Audio Renaissance, an Audible partner, said that the audio books industry had traditionally lagged behind the music business in technological innovation. But it has forged well ahead of the record business in developing a viable and secure delivery system that customers are willing to pay to use.
"Audible was able to come up with a digital rights management system that worked and made everyone comfortable,'' she said. "Maybe we benefited because we were a smaller business."
There are big differences between the two recording industries. Audio book sales, about $2 billion a year, are a small fraction of the music industry's $12 billion in revenues from the United States. Unlike CD's, audio books - often filling four or more cassettes - can be unwieldy, more naturally suited to the digital format. And users of spoken word content, which covers a variety of products, including radio programs and daily digests of newspapers, are typically older, which makes them more respectful of copyright laws, industry executives say. "A book is a substantial cultural artifact, where a song doesn't have much weight to it," Mr. Katz said. He cited the "politicization of sharing music'' as another reason for the music industry's problems.
An author and former journalist, Mr. Katz founded his company before the term "dot-com" was tacked on to every business plan, before portable digital audio players existed, and when rumblings about music piracy were as new as the Web itself.
At the beginning, Mr. Katz's team had to concoct not just the software for secure digital delivery of its offerings but the portable hardware device on which to play them back. Initial users had to buy portable devices that predated MP3 players; the company's first portable digital audio device is so innovative that it is preserved as an artifact at the Smithsonian Institution.
"One of the reasons we didn't grow as quickly as we could have is that the business was predicated on the ubiquity of playing devices," Mr. Katz said. The devices have only taken off in the last two years, particularly with the introduction of the Apple iPod, which works with Audible.
On Thursday, Audible's reach grew with the announcement that thousands of hours of its offerings will be available from Apple's iTunes music store.
Audible long ago abandoned making its own device; it now gives away an MP3 player as an incentive for new subscribers.
Persuading audio book publishers and radio producers to allow him to sell their content online was not easy at first, Mr. Katz said, particularly because many publishers were still feeling the sting of failed experiments with the CD-ROM. But unlike the record industry, book publishers agreed to share their rights long before a free alternative like Napster or Kazaa came along to make copyright violations as easy as clicking a mouse.
"Audible had to go out and convince publishers that this new technology would shepherd their content in a secure way and that it wouldn't cannibalize their business," Mr. Katz said. "I was pretty honest that the revenues would be very, very small at the beginning. Everybody basically was fundamentally happy to have this extra revenue stream."
The market for audio books has grown 360 percent since 1990, industry figures show. One in five American households includes someone who has heard an audio book, said Robin Whitten, editor of AudioFile magazine. "When I started you had to explain what an audio book was to people,'' Ms. Whitten said. "Now it's part of most people's experience."
As the business has grown, Audible has managed to carve a niche. Its alliances with publishers have improved and offerings have become more comprehensive. Audible is growing but it is not yet a financial success, Mr. Katz said. "We're getting close to being self-sustaining,'' he said. "The big challenge is it's just not well known enough."
Adding IFE?? Southwest reports 41% increase in net profit
By Caroline Daniel in Chicago
Published: October 20 2003 18:57 / Last Updated: October 20 2003 18:57
Southwest Airlines on Monday underlined the strength of its low-cost model, as it reported a 41 per cent rise in net profit to $106m and brought forward orders for five Boeing 737-300 aircraft to 2004.
Southwest said it planned to add a net 30 new aircraft next year - close to its peak additions in 2000 - representing an annual capacity increase of about 7 per cent. For 2005, if Southwest exercises all its 34 total options and firm aircraft orders, capacity could rise by 10 per cent.
Gary Kelly, finance director, acknowledged that the decision to accelerate the orders had been driven by the rise of low-fare rivals. "Having more low-fare competition meeting us head on is potentially a different ball game . . .We can't be complacent about growth. There is a risk of being pre-empted in some markets. We sense some urgency to get there first [with low fares], at least more than we had in the past."
Operating revenues for the third quarter rose 11.6 per cent to $1.55 billion, against $1.39bn a year ago, driven by pent-up demand for leisure travel. Mr Kelly said: "We are pretty pleased with revenue trends so far in the fourth quarter."
Southwest said the percentage of tickets sold at full fares rose to 36 per cent. "It was a much better performance than last year. It does suggest that demand for business travel is strengthening," he added.
However, third quarter operating expenses rose 5.2 per cent to $1.37bn, driven by higher labour and fuel costs. Excluding fuel and the effect of a 2002 special item, third quarter 2003 unit costs rose 2.4 per cent to 6.34 cents. Southwest warned that it expected "more year-over-year unit cost pressure in fourth quarter 2003 and higher unit cost levels than in third quarter 2003".
The carrier said it would follow the rest of the airline industry in reducing commissions paid to travel agents to zero, generating savings of $40m next year. It is also seeking productivity improvements and could put pressure on airports, such as St Louis, to reduce their costs.
Mr Kelly said Southwest would consider following JetBlue and Song in introducing in-flight entertainment. He also said the airline was considering adding larger regional jets to its fleet, such as from Embraer, but "it is nothing that is imminent and it may never happen".
Southwest closed the quarter with $2bn of cash. As a result of bringing forward the aircraft orders, it expects capital spending in 2004 to rise to $1.8bn, up from $1.2bn this year. The shares rose 2 per cent to $18.82 in early New York trading.
Here Are The Real Facts Surrounding The "Shift Key" According To SunnComm
Tech News [10-20-2003] more news
It's important to note that SunnComm made a conscience decision to have its license management technology reside on the user's computer (with their permission) rather than just on the CD itself. Doing it this way increases playability of the CD to near 100%. The shift-key work-around was a consequence of building universal playability into the CD and thus, was a byproduct of a conscience decision made by staff. This was NOT something Mr. Halderman discovered. He represented his disclosures as newly discovered, but, in fact, every SunnComm customer and most analysts covering Macrovision/SunnComm knew of this work-around weeks or months prior.
MusicDish Network AdvertisementHere are the real facts surrounding the "shift key."
1. A consumer must hold down the shift key for about 30 seconds at same time the CD is loading in his PC tray in order to bypass the computer's autorun feature. However, if a customer has previously enjoyed the bonus features of one of the 1000's of MediaMax CDs anticipated to be in the marketplace, THEN THE SHIFT KEY WORK-AROUND IS RENDERED USELESS because the License Management technology is already on the person's PC. This very important fact was missing from Mr. Halderman's report and almost every news story on the subject. It's important because as MediaMax grows in usage, the shift key becomes less and less of an issue.
2. By bypassing the autorun feature, the consumer also bypasses all of the "second session" value that is added to the CD such artist promotions, discount artist tickets, lyrics, photos, bonus tracks, etc. In other words, even if the consumer knows about this workaround, there's a better chance than not that he (or she) will choose NOT to try it in order to not miss out on the album's bonus features.
3. The main purpose of MediaMax is to provide a structure for users empowering them to make and share copies of the music in a licensed and legal way. This is in sharp contrast to ripping and unprotected (and possibly unauthorized/illegal) duplication. MediaMax provides this important "first-step" structure without getting in the way of the user's listening experience.
4. It was always a given that some people will choose to circumvent MediaMax (Ver 1). The record companies accept this and believe (as we do) that MediaMax can be an effective tool in slowing down unlimited "casual" copying...the kind of copying which occurs when one person, who buys a CD, makes copies for friends, who then make copies for friends and so on. We think the early numbers on SunnComm's recent release will bear this out.
5. Why would a great many people even attempt to bypass MediaMax and why? With MediaMax, users can make and share copies. Now, if MediaMax prevented them from doing any of that, it would be different. Fact is, average users can now make copies easier than through the use of ripper programs...it's just that their copies are limited.
6. Penn Gillette (of Penn & Teller fame) said (and he wasn't the first, I'm sure) that "if you don't buy the premise, you won't buy the bit." Mr. Halderman of Princeton Shift-Key fame discovered nothing new in his report. The fact that he created a media circus surrounding these issues is no accident. He is a vocal and recognized opponent of the use of technology to reduce unprotected copying, and masqueraded to the press as just a simple, "scholar" trying to find the best solutions for copy protection for the industry. He did this because he had to sell his "bit" to the press.
There will be much more on this subject coming up, but I must end this now in order to get to work.
In recapping:
Nothing was new in Mr. Halderman's report.
The shift-key workaround was included in the technology as a conscience trade-off for playability.
All of SunnComm's customers, prospects and most analysts already knew about the work-around, so the report served no purpose other than as attempt to embarrass the music industry into backing down on the use of copy control technology altogether. Mr. Halderman, himself, said this.
I believe Mr. Halderman had an undisclosed agenda in writing this report that he did not disclose to the onslaught of reporters he charmed to his doorstep, and thus has proven himself to be intellectually dishonest. The press fell for his "I'm just a simple researcher trying to do God's work" bit, and he bought his "15 minutes of fame" with very little "research" on his part.
Mr. Halderman made it appear that all one needs to do is "tap the shift key" to circumvent MediaMax. He made it "news" for the press and most of them "bought it."
All in all, it was a stellar performance for Mr. Halderman, and although I give him "two thumbs, way up" for his performance, we at SunnComm, believe it won't slow us down a bit.
OT Sony Ericsson Unveils The P900 - A Flagship Multimedia Smartphone
Monday October 20, 2:00 pm ET
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 2003--At simultaneous events in Las Vegas and Beijing today, Sony Ericsson unveiled the much-anticipated P900 smartphone. Building on the success of the P800, the P900 is smaller, faster, and easier to use. With significant upgrades such as video recording capability, a 65K color touch screen, and increased memory, the P900 is not only a high-quality mobile phone, but also provides full PDA/organizer functions, as well as a solid gaming experience.
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The much-anticipated successor to the P800 has created strong interest for Sony Ericsson's Symbian-based smartphone offering among application and content developers, corporations and consumers. The wide range of downloadable applications available increase its value for both consumers and carriers, turning the P900 into a device that can do much more than make voice calls The P900 is based on Symbian OS v7.0 and the established UIQ user interface. Symbian is the largest-selling operating system for smartphones.
The inclusion of a video recorder is the most significant addition to the multimedia facilities of the P900. The P900's VGA camera uses the QCIF picture size with MPEG4 video compression for video clip recording, the standard supported by 3GPP. A P900's video clip recording can be inserted into MMS messages. In addition, video streamed to the P900 from other sources can also be inserted into MMS messages for the user's convenience.
The P900 is a QuickShare(TM) product, incorporating the ease-of-use principles that Sony Ericsson first introduced in the T610/T616. QuickShare(TM) has been praised for being one of the smartest ways for mobile imaging. Not only can a picture be taken with only two clicks, it is also easy and intuitive to share pictures between the phone, a PC and other consumer devices - either locally over Bluetooth, Infrared or cable, or across the mobile phone networks with MMS or e-mail.
Viewing images and video on the P900 is simple; the P900 screen has improved color depth, with 65,536 colors compared to 4,096 colors in the P800, and images can be viewed across the full size of the screen and in wide-screen mode. There is a wide range of downloadable JavaTM games for the phone, and included on the CD that comes with the P900 is the very popular racing game V-Rally1, in a 3D edition taking mobile gaming to a new level. The Jog Dial(TM) becomes the steering wheel and together with the polyphonic sound, stereo headphones and 3D landscape details, the game play is getting closer to a console-type gaming experience.
The flash memory has been increased from 32 MB to 48 MB ram and this increases the available user memory up to 16 MB. Additional storage space is available by using Memory Stick Duo. A 32 MB Memory Stick Duo is included with the P900 and Memory Sticks up to 128 MB capacity are supported, which makes it easy to create a music or video library, on several Memory Sticks. Private home videos can be scaled down using Packet Video recorder on a PC so that you can show friends and relatives snapshots from your vacation. The P900 features a complete MP3 music player and also comes with a selection of innovative MP3 ring signals.
The P900 browser supports HTML, WAP and cHTML content types within one single browser. The much praised Opera browser is designed to display practically all Web pages. The Opera browser comes on a CD with the P900 and is also available for download on www.sonyericsson.com. When viewing Internet content through this browser, pages are reformatted to fit inside the screen width and eliminate the need for horizontal scrolling, providing a fast and pleasant mobile browsing experience.
The CD-ROM enclosed with the P900 provides a generous selection of software and applications for productivity, connectivity and entertainment.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB offers mobile communications products for people who appreciate the possibilities of powerful technology. Established in 2001 by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Sony Corporation, the joint venture continues to build on the success of its two innovative parent companies. Sony Ericsson creates value for its operator customers by bringing new ways of using multimedia communications while mobile. The company's management is based in London, and has 4,000 employees across the globe working on research, development, design, sales, marketing, distribution and support.
For further information, please visit: www.SonyEricsson.com
Any product features, specifications or statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual product features, specifications or forward-looking statements are subject to change.
P900 Key Features
* Large TFT touchscreen with 65K colors
* 5-way Jog Dial for rapid selection of many of the functions
* Office Handsfree (speaker phone) function
* Voice dial, voice answer, and 'magic word' activation
* Integrated Digital Camera for still pictures and video clip recording
* Video and audio players (including an MP3 Music Player)
* Multimedia Messaging (MMS), SMS, EMS and E-Mail
* Combined Web and WAP browser
* High speed data communications using GPRS
* Memory Stick® Duo(TM) Slot for up to 128 MB removable memory
* Personal Organizer with Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Written and Sound recorder
* Calculator
* Document viewers for E-mail attachments and downloaded files
* Games with widescreen and sound capabilities
* Built-in stylus for touchscreen operation
* Support for TTY devices
* BluetoothTM, Infrared, and USB connectivity
* PC and remote synchronization (SyncML) Outlook and Lotus v2
* Easy personalization of appearance and tones using Themes
* M-Services & MeT (Mobile electronic Transactions)
* Corporate Telephony
* Flight mode
* Tri-band communication giving international operation (900/1800/1900)
* Symbian OS 7.0 Platform: C++ and JavaTM SDKs
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Contact:
Sony Ericsson
Nicky Csellak-Claeys, 919-472-7340
Strong debut for iTunes for PCs
Apple's iTunes is now available for users of Windows
Apple's online music store for Windows has got off to a flying start.
Music fans have bought more than a million songs since the service for Windows users was launched on Thursday.
The service lets people legally download songs from the internet for 99 cents (60p), but had previously only been available to Apple computer users.
"We're off to a great start, and our competition isn't even out of the starting gates yet," said Apple boss Steve Jobs.
Competition
Apple has another cause to celebrate. More than a million copies of the Windows version of its iTunes music software have been downloaded in the past three days.
The program offers PC users the same services, prices and catalogue of songs, which Apple hopes to increase to 400,000 by the end of October.
Since the online music store opened its doors for business in April, a total of 14 million songs have been purchased.
Apple's service is bidding to be the number one legal music download service in the world, as the music industry tries to clamp down on the millions of songs shared without permission online.
Its success contrasts with other industry-backed, subscription-based music services which have been criticised by users as complicated and expensive.
Mr Jobs hopes iTunes will have sold 100 million songs by its first anniversary at the end of April 2004.
The PC version of the service is available to users with Windows XP and 2000 operating systems.
At the moment, both the Macs and Windows versions are only available in the US. International versions of the online store are expected to be launched next year.
Music industry faces revolution
Sat 18 October, 2003 04:50 BST
By Keith Girard, Billboard Editor-in-Chief
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Years from now, October 2003 could well be considered one of the most significant months in the history of recorded music.
The debut this month of Napster and iTunes seems to herald the age of Internet distribution of music -- legal distribution, that is.
In the coming weeks, we'll be witness to a great experiment: whether the Internet moves to the forefront of music technology, surpassing the last great innovation, the
CD.
Some experts say it could take as long as five years for that to happen, and they still don't expect CDs to go away forever. But if the shift takes place, it would be one of the most significant since Thomas Edison recorded the first human voice (reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb") in 1877.
That landmark event ushered in the use of the first tinfoil cylinder phonograph. The patent for the device was filed on Christmas Eve of that year. How fitting; what a gift to the world.
In 1885 Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter invented the Graphophone, which used wax-coated cylinders with vertical-cut grooves.
Edward D. Easton produced the first record catalogue in 1890.
The first coin-operated "juke box" was invented in 1890. In its first six months of operation, it raked in more than $1,000, a princely sum in its day. Sounds a lot like the launch of iTunes. Not long after, the nickel jukebox was born.
By the late 1890s nearly half a dozen record and recording-machine companies were in business. And by the turn of the century, the recorded-music industry was in full bloom. In fact, the business was booming to such a degree that ASCAP was founded in 1914 to collect fees under the nation's first copyright law, enacted in 1909. A year before, flat discs began overtaking cylinders as the premier device to record music for the masses.
In 1931, the first magnetic tape recorder was developed. By the end of the 1940s tape recorders were in wide use.
In 1948, Columbia introduced the first 12-inch, 33 1/3 rpm micro-groove LP vinylite record with 23-minute-per-side capacity.
A year later, RCA Victor came out with a seven-inch, 45 rpm record and player, and Capitol became the first major label to support 78, 45 and 33 1/3 rpm record speeds. The first open-reel recorder also debuted.
The first stereo LPs were sold in 1958, and within five years the first compact audiocassette had been introduced. Eight-track car stereo cartridges followed in 1966, and Dolby Noise Reduction was introduced in 1969.
Ten years later, Sony sold the first Walkman portable audiocassette player. In 1982, the digital age was born, with the introduction of the first digital audio five-inch CD.
DVD players were first sold in 1996, mp3.com was founded a year later, and in 2001 Apple Computer introduced the iPod.
What a rich history of technological development. Somehow the music industry survived and prospered. And our bet is that it will do the same as the new era of Internet distribution dawns.