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Emerging video codec set to draw crowd at IBC
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times, September 13, 2002 (10:03 a.m. EST)
http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20020912S0057
AMSTERDAM -- As the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) opens for business Friday (Sept. 13), a new video coding technology, formerly known as H.26L or MPEG-4 Part 10, will be a hot issue. New chips, evaluation boards and software tools targeting the emerging video codec have begun to trickle into private -- and even a few public -- demonstrations.
Chip companies and software technology vendors such as Amphion Semiconductor, Envivio, Equator Technologies, iVAST, Texas Instruments, UB Video and VideoLocus will unveil their strategies for the emerging video codec.
With the ability to reduce bandwidth by 50 percent or more, the yet-to-be-ratified standard is on the brink of turning today's video market upside down. The video-coding approach, now officially designated ITU-T H.264, or the "Proposed JVT/AVC,"promises to deliver Internet Protocol (IP)-based, broadcast-quality video at a data rate of less than 1Megabit per second.
The broadcasting industry's interest in the JVT/AVC codec is no longer just talk. For one, Europeans are already planning to "include MPEG-4 audio and JVT/AVC video as new options for IP-based video delivery, by revising the current Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) specifications," Ken McCann, chair of the AV coding group at DVB, told EE Times. McCann, a director of ZetaCast, an independent technology consulting company specializing in DTV, said DVB's decision to go with JVT/AVC is not a done deal, but it's "very near." Unless some work within JVT goes "horribly wrong," DVB's AV coding group, working in concert with JVT/AVC, is well on its way to putting together JVT/AVC implementation guidelines for DVB's broadcast applications, he said.
JVT/AVC's coding efficiency, however, comes with a price. The consensus within the industry is that the gate counts of a new chip will likely increase at least threefold, compared with current MPEG-2 silicon. ZetaCast's McCann said the complex algorithm used in JVT requires a JVT chip to carry out at least two or three times more instructions in decoding.
McCann doesn't believe the complexity of JVT/AVC silicon will be hurt its chances of success. Rather, a potential barrier lies in intellectual property rights issues for JVT/AVC. Although the intention is to offer H.264's baseline profile free of charge, McCann doesn't believe this can be achieved. "The licensing terms for JVT/AVC could be a lot more complex as fundamental techniques used in MPEG-2 are common to JVT," he added.
You select the MP3 files displayed on your voice-activated PDA and transmit them from your home entertainment system to your car stereo. As you prepare to leave the house, your refrigerator alerts your handheld that you're out of a few staples.
When you reach your car, the air conditioning unit has already cooled the interior to 70°, and the music files you had been listening to are installed. As you pull out of the driveway, your GPS system warns you that there is an accident nearby and suggests an alternate route that is uploaded to your car's dashboard display.
This isn't science fiction, but representative of a host of applications OEMs are beginning to deploy using smart ICs. These devices, which typically take the form of microcontrollers linked to an IP network, may cost more than most consumers are willing to pay today. But the added value made possible by intelligent ICs and the information services they enable could someday rival the conventional market for microcontrollers, according to observers.
"Currently there are hundreds of millions of microcontrollers," said Richard Doherty, an analyst at the Envisioneering Group, Seaford, N.Y. "As the deployment of microcontrollers continues to grow, it will increasingly make sense to incorporate them into a network."
According to Doherty, 2000 represented a "crossover" point for smart ICs, although the number of smart-IC applications is difficult to quantify. Where such devices once worked quietly behind the scenes in applications such as automotive engine and industrial motor control, "post-2000 designers changed [the market], so now you have hundreds of millions of ICs that have begun to [behave as] social animals," Doherty said.
In the U.S. home appliance market alone, as much as 15% of the 40 million units expected to ship in 2005 will include some kind of network-connected microcontroller, according to Allied Business Intelligence Inc., Oyster Bay, N.Y.
A smart-IC platform typically includes an embedded sensor, actuator, transducer, and a memory component combined with an RF device wired or linked wirelessly to a network. Power and other capabilities vary: an 8-bit controller in an air conditioner may be connected to a wireline network, a home server, and a repair service. The Web server might have a 64-bit processor with a Bluetooth interface or an 802.11 connection to devices throughout the home and car.
Protocols and other issues
Despite the smart IC's relatively simple structure, a lack of standard protocols, power issues, and price constraints must be addressed before the market can realize its full potential.
"It isn't so much a chip problem but a protocol issue," said Russ Lange, an IBM Corp. fellow and chief technology officer at IBM Microelectronics in East Fishkill, N.Y. "You and I can speak English together, but if we had someone speaking Swahili on the phone we would get in trouble because we couldn't communicate. That's what the smart-IC world looks like now."
And cost issues still abound, particularly in the price-sensitive consumer market. Installing special software and devices to allow a PDA to connect to a garage door for $200 may make sense for the hobbyist, but would not be attractive to the average consumer.
"It has to get to the point where a light producer will not think twice about adding a [smart IC] for an extra 10 cents [per light]," Lange said.
Smart ICs have gained the most ground in the automotive sector, particularly in telematics applications. Telematics hardware will see global sales of $9 billion this year and $14 billion in 2004, according to Gartner Dataquest, San Jose.
Indeed, consumers already appear willing to pay a few hundred dollars more to outfit luxury automobiles with features such as driver information systems (DIS) and more advanced airbag sensors. Motorola Inc. expects that by 2010, 70% of all cars will contain some kind of DIS package.
To date, however, a slew of networking protocols exist to address separate auto subsystems. According to Motorola, telematics protocols include the car-area network, local interconnect network, and J1850 buses, originally developed for engine, power train, and body controls; MOST, FireWire, and the emerging mobileGT standard for entertainment, navigation, and communication devices; and FlexRay, an emerging protocol that aims to govern brake and steer-by-wire functions.
Still, smart ICs in telematics offer a quick return on investment despite the automotive industry's relatively long production cycles.
"In the car environment, the ubiquitous connectivity pays off almost immediately," said Fred Boekhorst, senior vice president at Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, Netherlands. "Costs are saved by increased productivity; avoiding traffic jams with GPS capabilities translates into a lot of bucks."
Boekhorst estimated that up to 30% of the bill of materials (BOM) that make up brake systems, exhaust units, and other automotive subsystems will consist of electronic components in the next two years. "The functionality and ensuing cost savings for the automakers will only increase," he said.
Role of DSP
A key component in telematic smart-IC applications is the DSP, which, for example, can process analog-to-digital voice conversion in a noise-polluted car environment.
"Voice recognition in the connected car network has to work in a harsh environment, and the human interface, with the noise factor, is very complex," said David Maples, business development manager for the DSP group at Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas. "There's a significant amount of audio and noise-reduction processing with the human interface."
The DSP offers an adaptive process to deliver a signal output, Maples said. The DSP then refines the signal using acoustic cancellation algorithms to reduce background noise.
According to Peter Schulmeyer, a senior engineering manager at Motorola's advanced systems laboratory in Austin, Texas, the company's DSP-based chipset offers the requisite memory and processing power to serve as a viable voice-activated human-interface device in automobiles. The part includes 128Mbytes of SDRAM, an external bus, and an audio system with a 600¥800 LCD screen.
"We're still in the early stages of [smart ICs] in the car and elsewhere," Schulmeyer said. "But new vehicles being equipped with driver information systems are growing dramatically at a rate of over 30% a year."
Hurdles remain, however. In addition to the variety of noncompatible networking standards, circuitry in such connected subsystems must often be reconfigured from automaker to automaker.
"An oil light on a car sending a signal to a microcontroller might be one thing in a GM car but different in a Mercedes," IBM's Lange said. "All these sensors create useful data, but how do you translate this Tower of Babel into something the circuits all understand?"
TCP/IP comes to the fore
The industrial sector, which has been an early but low-volume adopter of intelligent ICs, has also been the slowest sector to resolve the protocol issue, said William Peisel, chief technology officer at NetSilicon Inc., Waltham, Mass.
"In the world of industrial automation, where everyone has been speaking about openness, sharing information, and connectivity, the sector still represents a bunch of islands of proprietary protocols," Peisel said. "But we do see that TCP/IP is beginning to be a popular connectivity software protocol. Even in the world of industrial automation, they're beginning to port some of their proprietary protocols and beginning to tunnel them inside TCP/IP."
Though too bulky to include in a $30 "smart" toaster oven, the robust Internet software stack is relatively cost-compatible with industrial applications, even if it can tax the computing power of an 8-bit microcontroller, according to Peisel.
"With simple TCP/IP, you can probably get away with 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers," he said. "But when you try to write code for general-purpose Web servers-and especially when you try to implement applications for the next generation of Web servers-most of the smaller microcontrollers run out of address space and processing power."
The consumer market may not embrace the TCP/IP protocol as actively, however, because of its impact on the BOM.
"TCP/IP is a good protocol, but it requires so much processing power and so much cost that you no longer have a 20-cent chip but possibly a $10 chip," IBM's Lange said.
Moreover, though microcontrollers for embedded applications are currently employable at little cost, the radio components for wireless connections to an IP-based LAN are still too expensive, Maples said.
RF devices that connect to cheap, 8-bit microcontrollers in less-sophisticated appliances such as blenders or hair dryers must reach a price threshold of 10 cents, according to Philips' Boekhorst. He predicted that it could be about five years before the BOM for low-end RISC devices reaches acceptable levels of 20 cents for the microcontroller and radio device, 10 cents for the battery, and 10 cents for packaging.
Beyond Bluetooth
Though the emerging Bluetooth wireless standard is on the short list of many OEMs hoping to build interconnected home-based gateways, Lange said the standard that enables low-level RISC devices to wirelessly transmit data in the home will likely be based on what he called "son of Bluetooth."
"Bluetooth is good for what it was designed for, but we need something even smaller, lighter weight, and simpler for [home-based smart-IC applications]," Lange said.
New dedicated silicon for radio devices is a step in the right direction, according to Boekhorst, who noted that researchers are proposing to the IEEE a ZigBee standard as a Bluetooth replacement that operates at 2.4GHz. "At a rate of 250Kbytes/s, ZigBee is ideal because it consumes [almost half as much] power as Bluetooth, which [typically] consumes more than 50 milliwatts," he said.
Learning curve
There are other problems, however, given that most OEMs making household appliances are not well versed in networking technologies such as Ethernet.
"They need to pick up networking expertise and have to [learn to] work with silicon suppliers," Peisel said. "So there is a technological jump that these OEMs have to make. They first have to develop it, then sell the idea to the general public, which has not yet totally bought into the idea of connected devices."
In the shorter term, this means that smart ICs are likely to show up in home appliances that ordinarily retail for $300 and up, according to Peisel. "What will happen is that OEMs will start designing their devices around microprocessors that will give them the best value for their connectivity and where the extra cost is less noticed by the consumer," he said.
From the consumer market perspective, the real value that smart ICs represent for users and OEMs alike may be the added value they provide for improving aftersales services, according to Doug Heintzman, manager of strategy and standards at IBM's Pervasive Computing Division in Somers, N.Y.
"It will be great to control your air conditioner from anywhere in the world with your cell phone," Heintzman said. "But in the business case, the value proposition is the fact that the air conditioner can call out to the service bureau and say that the refrigerator coolant is malfunctioning, describe the part that needs to be fixed, and what needs to be done."
http://www.ebnonline.com/story/OEG20020308S0067
OT: Tolstoy, a little goodie for you...
http://www.snapstream.com/products/sspvs/
And a later development...
"...In a bout of shameless self-promotion, SnapStream unveiled its plans for its new version of its "PVR for PC" software, codenamed Quartz. SnapStream makes software that allows users to record TV shows on your PCs, much like Tivo or ReplayTV in the set top box environment. SnapStream uses can play back video on either any PC inside a home network or over the Internet.
A Q&A with SnapStream product manager Alfonso Acosta shows that the company is adding a premium program guide which will cost an as yet-undetermined monthly fee. Also, the new version will allow for instant viewing after a show is recorded. (Previously, users had to wait while it processed and saved a video).
Other features will include a 30-second fast forward button and DivX support.
Of course users need to have a TV tuner card, and sufficient hard drive space in order to use SnapStream. But one cool application is watching your SnapStream shows on your net-connected iPAQ. (Unfortunately, this is another feature that will require a monthly subscription in the new version.)
Check out the interview and information at: http://www.snapstream.com/news/updates/qa1.htm
Intel chip to include antipiracy features
By Chris Gaither, Globe Staff, 9/10/2002
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/business/Intel_chip_to_include_antipiracy_features%2B.shtml
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Bracing itself for another potential fight with computer privacy advocates, Intel Corp. said yesterday that its next generation of microchips, due next year, would include anti-piracy features that will protect computers against hackers and viruses while giving digital publishers powerful new tools to control the use of their products.
The technology, code-named LaGrande, was designed to protect computers from viruses and bad-natured hackers. But the feature will also give Hollywood, the recording industry, and software makers much stronger controls over the way consumers use their digital music, films, and computer programs.
Publishers, for example, may prevent PCs that run LaGrande and Microsoft Corp.'s software-based Palladium security technology from copying CDs, forwarding certain documents, or running unlicensed software.
Paul Otellini, Intel's president, said the chip maker would include no copyright protections in LaGrande, but he acknowledged that digital publishers could use the technology with software programs such as Palladium to create their own.
Intel intends to include the technology in the Prescott chip design, which will succeed the Pentium 4 as the Santa Clara, Calif., company's flagship PC chip in the second half of 2003.
Until then, consumer advocacy groups say they will lobby to ensure that publishers don't use these so-called secure computing initiatives to spy on PC users.
''These systems are likely to police copyright by watching who consumes what,'' said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative counsel with the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. ''There are grave consequences for privacy with these systems,'' he added.
Intel's LaGrande effort is part of the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance, a coalition of high-tech giants including Intel, IBM Corp., Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard Co.
While Intel is approaching secure computing at the level of the silicon chips and their accompanying components, Microsoft's Palladium initiative is software-based. Microsoft plans to include Palladium in future versions of the Windows operating system.
Privacy groups locked horns with Intel in 1999 over another attempt to solve the same security problems that LaGrande is tackling. Intel assigned a digital identifier, known as a processor serial number, to every new Pentium III chip, but disabled the feature a year later, after privacy groups said the serial number threatened to make anonymous Web surfing and Internet transactions impossible.
Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, said LaGrande appeared to give users more control over the information revealed about themselves than the processor serial numbers. His group is meeting regularly with Microsoft and others to monitor their intentions.
''A lot of what's decided is going to be on the policy side, not the technical side,'' he said.
Seth Schoen, staff technologist for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Palladium and LaGrande could create a computing environment that is safer for publishers and their content, but less safe for computer users looking to maintain their privacy.
By protecting vaults of data and the pathways that transfer them within the PC, LaGrande will prevent viruses from infecting central parts of the computer, make it harder for hackers to take over computers remotely, and allow for more secure e-commerce transactions, Otellini said in a speech at Intel's twice-yearly developer forum yesterday.
But, he added, the chip maker learned from the processor serial number debacle. In ''creating a safer computing environment,'' he said, Intel is working with privacy groups ''to ensure that we do it in ways that are acceptable to the norms of privacy today.''
Intel used its developer forum to announce other new technologies and show off designs of the future. Demonstrations included an experimental Pentium 4 chip that designers ratcheted up to 4.7 gigahertz, nearly twice as speedy as the fastest chip on the market, a 2.8 gigahertz chip. They also showed a sneak preview of a chip code-named Madison, which is the next iteration of Intel's Itanium line of server chips.
Finally, Intel said it would move a new technology, currently being used in server chips, into top-of-the-line desktop computers this year. The 3.0 gigahertz Pentium 4, due this quarter, will include a feature known as hyper-threading, which improves performance as much as 30 percent with some software applications by making one processor act like two.
Chris Gaither can be reached at gaither@globe.com.
This story ran on page C3 of the Boston Globe on 9/10/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
Key words here are "contributed to". I suspect that CSA developed the PC-resident user interface for Dataplay's Installable File System. (In view of the relative crudity of Music Explorer, that was probably a smart move on DP's part.) Strictly IMHO, CSA provides the 'front end' (user level) part of the IFS, while MOS is probably the 'back end' (hardware level).
OT: Interesting backgrounder re iPod:
http://www.designchain.com/coverstory.asp?issue=summer02
It's real and it's here. Well, almost, J and R ((800)221-8180) says they'll have it in the store next week. http://store.yahoo.com/jandr/edg-odyssey1000.html
By the way, I thought Windows XP DOES support USB 2.0 Am I wrong about this?
From dc, September 05, 2002
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/e.Digital_Odyssey_1000_user_reviews.htm
Best jukebox buy around?
http://electroline4u.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/classicxp3.html
Photo of the Samsung YP-900 Jukebox:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/pc/docs/2002/0903/ca0221.jpg
Looks like there are 7 different versions of the Musical/EMI Global DP200 available for branding/retailing: http://www.musical.com.hk/dataplay.html
Perspective: MVC Insight from John Grillos
08/26/2002
Welcome to this month's Perspective, a section of the MVC website where I offer my view on recent news about MVC and its portfolio companies. This page is updated periodically, so be sure and check back to get my take on the latest Fund news. You can also click here to view previous Perspective pages.
The Fund's board of directors recently stated that they expect to appoint a permanent Fund manager by September 30, 2002. I have accepted the board's request to serve as interim CEO while the board conducts a thorough review of candidates for a permanent Fund manager. I am also a candidate for the permanent position.
The Fund also recently announced that a U.S. District Court in Delaware dismissed MVC from a lawsuit by Millenco L.P., an arbitrage hedge fund.
We did not make any new investments since our last update as I continue to believe that private company valuations may not have reached bottom yet. We are providing continued financial support, however, to worthy current portfolio companies. The need to provide financing to current companies is a key reason venture capital firms maintain a strong cash position. Without that cash the value of the portfolio would be severely damaged.
We were encouraged to learn recently that technology revenues grew in the second quarter from the first quarter of this year. It appears that tech spending may be turning the corner.
A Closer Look - DataPlay
"So what are the benefits of DataPlay over MP3s, CDs, and Minidiscs? The discs are smaller and can hold far more information than Minidiscs or audio CDs. And unlike with MP3 players, songs can be easily shared without a computer." "The sound quality is impressive, virtually identical to a prerecorded compact disc. And try as I may, I couldn't get the device to skip." - Christopher Muther, The Boston Globe - August 2002
This month I would like to talk about DataPlay, a Boulder, Colorado-based portfolio company that I am particularly excited about. DataPlay just recently launched their quarter-sized digital media that hold 500 mega bytes of information - that's the equivalent of about 11 hours of MP3 quality music, over a hundred high-resolution photographs, or several digital games. Blank DataPlay digital media are now available for purchase at the DataPlay Store and pre-recorded discs will go on sale later this year. iRiver has also developed the first audio player to operate DataPlay digital media, and the players are now available online and at Best Buy, CompUSA and J&R Electronics stores. Beginning this week the Classic DataPlay-enabled music player will be available at CircuitCity.
DataPlay's technology is compelling not only because of its size, but also for the additional capabilities it offers. ContentKey™ allows consumers to purchase additional content that is contained on pre-recorded DataPlay albums. Once the first album has been purchased, users will have the option to unlock, via the web, additional albums, videos, and photos already stored on the disc. This makes obtaining extra content for consumers convenient while providing another revenue stream for content providers.
Having signed agreements with three of the top five music companies: BMG, EMI, and Universal, the DataPlay format has already gained considerable traction in the music industry. As a result, a solid lineup of top-selling recording artists like Santana, Whitney Houston, and Britney Spears are scheduled to appear on DataPlay discs.
In addition, several original equipment makers (OEMs) are on board with the DataPlay format. iRiver and EMI Global/Classic are currently selling their players, and Toshiba and Samsung have plans to manufacture players in the future. I believe that these endorsements from large record labels and OEMs will greatly help DataPlay in the critical market adoption phase of their product cycle.
DataPlay, developer of the new portable music format, and Arista Records announced that multi-platinum selling artists Santana and Whitney Houston and popular newcomer Avril Lavigne are planning to make albums available on pre-recorded DataPlay digital media.
DataPlay and RCA Label Group - Nashville, announced plans to make releases from some of the industry's top-selling artists available on pre-recorded DataPlay digital media. As a result of the deal, BMG's RCA Label Group - Nashville will release albums this fall from best-selling artists such as Brooks & Dunn and Kenny Chesney on DataPlay digital media.
SafeStone Technologies, a global leader in secure system and user management, announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Grantham Sutch Associates (GSA), a specialist iSeries solutions provider and consultancy. Under the terms of the agreement, GSA will be integrating SafeStone's DetectIT security management system into its iSeries solutions.
SafeStone Technologies also announced that it has agreed to a strategic business partnership with DVV Solutions. DVV Solutions is acknowledged as one of the foremost providers of networking and internetworking security solutions in the UK.
Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. This article is not a solicitation, offer or recommendation to acquire or dispose of shares of the Fund. For more information, please contact us toll free at 1-877-474-meVC (6382).
http://www.mevc.com/funds/mvc/newsletter.html
How Radio Works:
(A cacophonistic discourse courtesy of MP3.com)
http://www.avmrnetwork.com/AVMRMusic/Threads/HowRadioWorks.htm
(Mr. Barsanti may be getting paid to play a different tune nowadays.)
Bosox, I saw an Evolution ad on cable TV Sunday afternoon in a Sandusky, Ohio sports bar. If they are being shown in Sandusky, they are liable to turn up anywhere. In my estimation, the campaign has already started... just in time for the back to school CE shoppers to have their appetites whetted.
The Archos DivX player is only capable of 352x240 pixel resolution. (CIV standard). An ordinary TV is capable of 704x480 pixel resolution (or the analog equivalent thereof). Hopefully, the EDIG/DivX team will do somewhat better than the Commodore 64ish (320x200 pixels) resolution achieved by Archos; SVGA (800x600) ought to be a minimal goal, with XGA (1024x768) following close behind.
For techies only:
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800106494.HTM (FPGA functionality in MP3 players)
http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800107074.HTM (TI's DSP-BIOS implementation in an MP3 player)
Hmmmm; it seems that the highest intraday price for EDIG in 1997 was $1.13, reached on 1/13/97. The trend throughout the rest of the year was generally downward, finishing up at 8 cents on 12/31/97. Also, it was NCII back then, not EDIG. The e.Digital name didn't arrive until January 13, 1999.
Henceforth, all coyote 54 posts will be deleted as they appear. There is no room on this board for obvious lies.
To wit: "... i am selling today, but that is not the end of this story." - posted 8/22/2002 11:08:43 AM
"...investors are now shorting our stock." (emphasis mine - TR) - posted 8/24/2002 2:36:12 PM
We do not delete negative posts out of hand; credibility of the poster plays a large part in determining what gets removed. In this case, no credibility exists.
More re Kouwell DP player:
http://www.computex.com.tw/news_archive_detail.asp?index=4541
http://www.kouwell.com.tw/8000du.htm
and another Kouwell DP design for PCs:
http://www.kouwell.com.tw/f8105.htm
A thought re Voice Nav marketing:
Why not make the voice nav feature an extra cost upgrade, with the new owner purchasing it (via paid download or CD) if desired. That'd give the retailer a lower unit price point and EDIG a very high margin product to offer via direct sales.
My roommate bought an Archos Jukebox about a month ago. After a frustrating few weeks of deciphering the manual and trying to create a logical display of its musical contents, he finally managed to load a dozen or so albums onto it. When he tried to play one of them back, the Archos obliged by skipping merrily thru the first song he cued up, repeatedly playing maybe 2 seconds then jumping ahead. Disgusted to the max, he returned it the same day and bought an XP3. It has yet to disappoint him.
Cksla... does this mean all is coppisettic at EDIG?
OT paraphrase for LawyerLong:
There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with iPod over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
- apologies to Stephen Stills
A bigger picture of the Toshiba Gigabeat:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0206/images/gigabeat.gif
Haven't heard of any lawsuit from Apple against Toshiba yet.
OT: iMUSIC: A New Direction for the Music Business
Cutting-Edge Label Offers Better Economics, Greater Control to Artists
Releases From Blues Traveler, Johnny Marr and the Healers, John Doe, Berlin, Speech, and More on the Way
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--August 5, 2002-- Here, for a change, is some good news about the music business.
The new label, iMUSIC, a subsidiary of ARTISTdirect, Inc., has arrived with a radically simple-and-fair new model for signing, promoting and compensating artists. That's why performers as diverse as Blues Traveler, Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Speech (of Arrested Development), John Doe (of the seminal L.A. band X), Sir Mix-a-Lot, Tre (of the Pharcyde), Folk Implosion, Gene, Tom Tom Club, and Berlin have signed on to release albums on iMUSIC.
The Company's maiden release, Britpop faves Gene's LIBERTINE will be released on August 6, and new-wave hitmakers Berlin's VOYEUR will hit store shelves on August 20. New discs from hip-hop luminaries Speech and Tre Hardson (of the Pharcyde) and punk-rock innovator Doe are due September 10, while street dates for a live Blues Traveler set and albums from Marr, Tom Tom Club, Sir Mix-a-Lot and Lou Barlow's Folk Implosion are expected shortly.
With net profits shared equitably between artist and label, and the artist retaining ownership of masters, it's no wonder musicians are embracing a concept Speech says is "like brotherhood."
Combine the progressive deal points with top-notch international distribution (via BMG in the U.S.) and cutting-edge, targeted and low-cost marketing, and you've got a structure custom-made for artists who aren't necessarily the flavor of the month but who retain a loyal fan base.
"The iMUSIC concept was developed through our early forays into releasing Internet-only CDs," says Company founder Marc Geiger. "We found that we were able to work efficiently and inexpensively, while allowing the artists greater control and better economics than they'd traditionally receive. With iMUSIC, we have the added value of brick-and-mortar distribution through BMG, but essentially we're following the same model that we used in our online-only releases, which proved to be tremendously successful."
Rather than attempt to "pirate-proof" discs and attack online file-sharing with litigation, Geiger says he prefers to offer some music from each release online as free, unrestricted MP3 files, counting on the "viral" distribution to spread interest, and to allow the music to speak for itself.
More importantly, iMUSIC eschews prohibitively expensive major label marketing tactics in favor of online initiatives that reach out to existing fans and accurately target potential ones. The savings enable both label and artist to achieve a profit selling far fewer copies than a traditional label must sell to break even. In addition, iMUSIC agreements with artists cover only one release, providing greater freedom for the artist than under typical multiple-artist deals.
"It was initially something that my manager suggested, and I checked into their philosophy on music and agreed that this is the label for me," declares Speech. "My company, Vagabond Productions, had already been distributing my music on the Internet, and I was already licensing my albums to different labels. iMUSIC was a great opportunity because they allow me to keep artistic control and, in essence, became an extension of Vagabond. It's like brotherhood."
"iMUSIC seemed like the only place for me to be right now," Johnny Marr commented. "I met with a lot of different people but the old way of doing things doesn't really appeal to me. I wanted to be with a label that thinks the same way that musicians think, almost like the original independent labels. I think iMUSIC understands that if the music is taken care of first, then the business side works out."
"iMUSIC is a great label for career artists like John Doe who have a legitimate fan base and want to be involved in deciding how, when, and where money is spent to promote and market their music," adds Jordan Kurland, Doe's manager. "Although it has distribution through BMG and access to the services and expertise of iMUSIC staff, iMUSIC has the feel of an independent label."
"I signed with iMUSIC because they're the best situation for me at the moment," notes Hardson, who, after noting prevailing trends in the biz, concluded "iMUSIC had a better idea of how to put out good music."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
iMUSIC
Julie Farman, 323/634-4160
julie.farman@artistdirect.com
or
ARTISTdirect, Inc.
Heidi Ellen Robinson, 323/634-4112
heidi.robinson@artistdirect.com
Pressplay Compatible Portable Devices
http://www.pressplay.com/compatible_devices.html
This page contains information about the current portable music players that are compatible with pressplay. In general, most flash and hard disk based portable music players that support the Windows Media Format are compatible with the pressplay service.
Net MD Devices
Portable Downloads with burn options can be copied to portable devices that support Net MD. Besides all Sony Net MD devices, there are other Panasonic and Sharp portable Net MD players that are compatible with pressplay. If your player has the Net MD logo and Open MG Jukebox 2.2, then it should be compatible with pressplay.
Windows Media Portable Devices
In general, portable devices that support secure WMA format can be used to transfer pressplay tracks that have the transfer icon in the Options column. The following portable music players have been tested and are determined to be compatible with pressplay:
SONICblue Rio 600
SONICblue Rio 800
SONICblue Rio 900
Nike psa[play 60
Nike psa[play 120
Compaq iPAQ Personal Audio Player PA-1
Compaq iPAQ Personal Audio Player PA-2
Sanyo SSP-PD7X
Sanyo SSP-D77R
Sanyo SSP-PD20
Sanyo SSP-PD10
Sanyo SSP-PD9
Creative Nomad Jukebox 6GB
Creative Nomad Jukebox C
Creative Nomad Jukebox 20GB
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3
Creative Nomad II
Creative Nomad II MG
Creative Nomad II C
Note:Pocket PC and Pocket PC 2002 PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), including the Compaq iPAQ, are also compatible, provided they have a removable Compact Flash memory card installed.
If your device is not listed above it does not necessarily mean that is not compatible; it means that the device has not been tested and approved for compatibility with pressplay. Any other portable device that supports Windows Media should be compatible with pressplay.
The following portable music players have been currently determined to NOT be compatible with pressplay:
SONICblue Rio Riot
Frontier Labs NEX II
Olympus DM-1 Digital Voice Recorder
We are constantly adding to the list of supported devices, so check back in the near future if your device is not listed.
If your Windows Media compatible device does not work with the pressplay service, you may need an updated device driver. Updated device drivers may be available from the manufacturer of your portable music player or from the Microsoft Web site at http://windowsmedia.com/mg/portabledevices.asp .
IMHO, Steve, the only company with even a prayer of successfully suing anyone over a HD-based jukebox is Compaq. I'm reasonably certain that the cosmetics of the iPod case/controls are not the first occurrence of same.
Read the iPod thread with growing amusement. Have any of the Apple dumplings ever given any consideration to whom might actually be the OEM of their beloved iPod. The way I see it, there is a 70% chance that it was Digitalway. I won't even bother to mention the quiet rumor from mid-2000 that we "were doing something with Apple". (Wowsa, dude; them grapes sure is sour!)
Corrected Dataplay MKI link:
http://www.business2.com/gallery/0,2182,10,FF.html
Click on the 'Find a Toy' menu , scroll down and select DataPlay MK1.
FWIW & IMHO, it's possible for EDIG to hire a few decent A&R people and sound engineers, begin signing up some of the multitude of talented but obscure bands out there, and become a major player in the cyber-recording industry. (That, of course, assumes that they are clever enough to avoid a buy-out.)
DataPlay File System Interface -DFS-
-Supports content protection-
-Intelligent device level caching-
-Only requires single software translator-
-No limit to storage capacity-
-Supports long file & directory names
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C O N F I D E N T I A L C O N F I D E N T I A L
ContentKeyTM Definition
ContentKeyTM -- A DataPlay mechanism that allows an authorized user to gain permanent or temporary access to digital content on a DataPlay.com cartridge via the internet.The ContentKey TM itself is encrypted on the disk cartridge in a region that is not accessible by the user. ContentKeyTM is a part of the DataPlay File System.The ContentKeyTM can take on two forms: Enable or Enable with decryption key.
http://www.hotchips.org/pubs/HC01/19dataplay.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/2002/06/21/0621tentech.html
(Sorry if a repost)
OT: More iRiver DP products on the way:
http://www.reigncom.com/en/business/digi_data01.htm
New MTV-branded players from NowEvolution:
http://www.nowevolution.com/products.html
(USB 2.0 & Mac-compatible)
Ergo there is empirical evidence that Kant isn't really out to screw us. JMHO, of course.
OT & FWIW re Immanuel Kant:
Immanuel Kant, the famous philosopher who fathered the theory that all knowledge originates in experience (known as empiricism), died a virgin at the age of 80.
Coyote, here's something for you to howl about:
Ancient and tribal peoples, according to Joseph Campbell and others, enjoyed a participation mystique, such that each person identified emotionally with what we would call a "community." The word "community" comes from the Latin communitas, which is a noun form of communis, which means "common." The New Testament Greek term koinonia, translated into Latin as communitas, also meant "common" or "property held in common." The words from which "community" is descended had both an emotional side, mystic identification, and a practical side, sharing of resources.
In more modern times, the word "community" usually describes something the writer approves of, but its radical meanings are diluted. Thus the 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant defined communitas as comercio, commerce. In the 19th and 20th centuries having a "community" came to mean sharing meanings, e. g. sharing values, sharing an ethnic identity, having a sense of common purpose.... Today, avant-garde social scientists deconstruct even the idea that community is based on shared meanings, arguing that meanings are idiosyncratic, local, and constantly reinvented - not nearly as widely shared as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and other pioneer social scientist thought they were. Nevertheless, even today, even when the academic elite has forgotten that communitas was more about sharing property than about sharing meanings, the first meaning for "community" given in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is "common possession or enjoyment; as a community of goods."
You ain't from around here, are you.