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iPod 'could make $1bn this year'
By Macworld staff
Tuesday - March 02, 2004
Music could make Apple a billion dollars this year, said Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich in a note to clients yesterday.
Discussing Apple's market-leading iPods, he said: "The success of the iPod demonstrates Apple's tech know-how and strong brand and could make the company relevant again," Dow Jones reports.
Milunovich estimates Apple's iPod will yield $1 billion this year, and anticipates revenues could double to $2 billion by 2006.
"We're more optimistic in believing that iPod is not just a one-hit wonder that will be knocked off," he said.
Giant Success For iPod mini
by Staff New York Daily News
When the iPod mini was introduced back in January, many balked at the price tag. Why would someone pay US$250 for a device that's less than one third the capacity of the US$50 more expensive 15GB iPod? As everyone now knows, apparently 100,000+ people were willing to pay out to get their hands on this hot little device. The New York Daily News' Nancy Dillon examines the giant success of the iPod mini in her latest column:
The 4-gigabyte digital music player, which can hold a thousand songs in a device the size of a fat credit card, began retailing Jan. 20. By Wednesday, hundreds of units were sold-out at multiple city retailers, including the Apple Store in SoHo and Tekserve in Chelsea.
"I had it in my hands, and then I lost it," said a frustrated Steve Perry, 40, managing director at Kirkland Investors in Manhattan. He missed buying the SoHo store's last iPod Mini by a matter of minutes.
"I went downstairs to ask some questions, and someone snapped it up. I should have done the New York thing and paid first, asked questions later," he said.
"We're turning away a hundred people a day," said Tekserve owner Dick Demenus. "We're hoping to get a new shipment [this week]. I heard there's a component shortage."
[...]
"The response to the Mini has been phenomenal," said Apple spokeswoman Danika Cleary.
Final: iPod mini battery tests
March 2, 2004
Jeremy Horwitz
The results are in: after last week's initial tests of the iPod mini's battery performance, we noted that we were cautiously optimistic that Apple had quietly remedied certain issues of concern to iPod users, most importantly accurately estimating the mini's duration of continuous playback. Mid-week, we updated our findings to reflect surprising intermediate results, and now after a series of eleven tests, we have reached several conclusions that might interest potential iPod mini buyers.
Three Types of Tests
We performed a total of three types of tests on the iPod mini, two of which were documented in our previous reviews and report, and one of which is new.
Type A consisted of a full recharge and discharge of the iPod mini's battery without user intervention or backlighting, using "shuffle songs" mode, no equalizers, and 50% volume with headphones attached.
Type B was identical to Type A except that "shuffle songs" mode was disabled and the iPod was instead allowed to play continuously in sequence through its song list. We did not expect to see a significant difference between the iPod mini's performance on Types A and B, because in both cases the mini was given complete control over the caching of songs, regardless of the order in which they were played back.
Our third test was an attempt to duplicate results achieved by Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, using the same testing mechanism he tried with two pre-production iPod minis some weeks ago. (Thank you, Mr. Mossberg, for contacting us to share your testing conditions.) Like our Type A test, Mr. Mossberg used shuffled playback, but he also set the iPod minis on 75% volume and turned the Vocal Booster equalizer setting on, each of which adds to the strain on the battery.
Type A Test Results
For reasons further described below, after printing our intermediate findings, we concentrated the majority of our remaining testing efforts on Type A-style tests. Initially, the iPod mini had failed to meet Apple's estimates in this type of testing, falling below six hours on its first test and barely exceeding that on its second.
However, after each Type A test, we saw that the iPod mini's performance improved, eventually exceeding Apple's estimates by over an hour and a half in three successive tests. In fact, the mini eventually delivered ten hours and ten minutes of continuous playback, coming within half an hour of Walter Mossberg's ten hour and forty minute performance.
Test 1: iPod mini hits 10% at 5 hours playback, 0% at 5:20, dies at 5:45.
Test 3: iPod mini hits 10% at 5:33, 0% at 6 hours, dies at 6:19.
Test 7: iPod mini hits 10% at 8:55, 0% at 9:22, dies at 9:39.
Test 8: iPod mini hits 10% at 8:43, 0% at 9:23, dies at 9:46.
Test 9: iPod mini hits 10% at 9:21, 0% at 9:54, dies at 10:10.
For comparison's sake, we ran a Type A test on a third-generation iPod that had been discharged and recharged over the course of many months, and found that it came within ten minutes of Apple's estimated eight-hour battery life:
Test 5: 3G iPod hits 10% at 7:14, 0% at 7:29, dies at 7:50.
By Test 7, and continuously through Test 9, the mini's battery appeared over time to outperform the third-generation iPod under similar (though not scientifically identical) Type A testing conditions. We had seen similar better-than-3G results for the mini in Type B tests, but were not sure whether the mini and 3G iPods were behaving truly differently, or whether the iPod mini's battery was still being broken in.
Our working assumption at this point is that after approximately five discharges and recharges of the battery, the iPod mini is capable of consistently delivering power performance near or exceeding Apple's estimates. Prior to that, we assume, it may not charge or discharge as efficiently or predictably, yielding the discrepancy in results we saw during our first four tests. We had not changed any of the testing conditions or the audio library on the iPod mini, or used the device for leisure listening during our test period. Therefore, holding everything else equal, we can only assume that the performance improvements came from an increasingly broken-in battery.
Type B Test Results
After printing our intermediate Type B findings, in which the iPod mini exceeded Apple's estimates by approximately one or two hours, we did not continue to run further Type B tests. Though we continue to caution readers that Type B does not represent realistic usage conditions for typical iPod users, the use of smart playlists and other non-interactive forms of continuous audio playback will yield relatively impressive performance times such as these.
Test 2: iPod mini hits 10% at 7:50, 0% at 8:49, dies at 8:58.
Test 4: iPod mini hits 10% at 8:42, 0% at 9:40, dies at 9:56.
Test 6: iPod 3G hits 10% at 7:10, 0% at 7:30, dies at 7:48.
Even nearly fresh out of the box, the iPod mini outperformed a well-primed 3G iPod by over an hour on its first test, and over two hours on its second. We believe that battery priming is most likely the reason our comparative test of the third-generation iPod yielded results consistent with Apple's stated estimate, and statistically almost identical to the 3G iPod's performance in Type A testing.
We can only assume that another run of this test, slanted as much as it is towards battery conservation, would now yield results matching Walter Mossberg's best time, given that our iPod mini's battery has had additional burn-in time since we ran these Type B tests days ago. But instead of running this easy test, we decided to run Mr. Mossberg's more demanding test and see how our mini would perform.
Walter Mossberg Test Results
Our final two tests of the iPod mini duplicated the test conditions used by the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg on two pre-production iPod minis sent for review by Apple. For reference, Mr. Mossberg achieved three scores across two iPod minis: 7:46, 9:15 and 10:40, or two to nearly five hours better than our first Type A test.
We administered our tenth total test at the relative peak of the mini's performance, following Test 9's ten-hour, ten-minute Type A result, and we were not expecting a substantial difference when this test was run. But we were surprised.
Test 10: iPod mini hits 10% at 6:28, 0% at 7:08, and dies at 7:27.
Puzzling? Yes. We were going to call an end to our testing after ten successive runs, but we had to run one more test to see whether our results necessarily varied that dramatically from Mr. Mossberg's findings. And they did.
Test 11: iPod mini hits 10% at 6:32, 0% at 7:04, and dies at 7:19.
When Test 10 had concluded, we wanted to believe that the iPod's battery was merely experiencing occasional hiccups. After Test 11, that possibility became harder to believe. These certainly weren't the positive notes we had hoped to end our testing on, but we couldn't ignore the results once we had them.
Conclusions
After more than a week of sustained iPod mini battery testing, we've come to three conclusions. First, after nine tests on the mini, we averaged approximately eight hours and ten minutes of music playback before battery death, a respectable number. While this duration may not compare favorably with certain competing products, it exceeds the battery life Apple advertised for the mini, as well as what we squeezed out of the 3G iPod, surely positive findings for potential and current mini owners.
Second, after seeing the mini's battery performance improve after almost every test, we feel as if there's no cause for alarm regarding its day to day performance, and in fact there's reason to believe that the typical user will see better and better results for a week or more after opening the box. While concerns remain over the battery's long-term lifespan, with 300-500 charge cycles (or approximately 18 months) of performance expected from a Lithium-Ion power source, all we could ask for - or perhaps expect - from the next iPod is a battery that's easier for users to replace.
Third and finally, though we were disappointed that our mini failed twice to duplicate Walter Mossberg's results under nearly identical conditions, we're not going to worry about it. Our current working assumption is that the typical iPod mini will exhibit performance peaks and valleys before falling into steady output around or slightly surpassing the eight-hour mark under optimal conditions, falling somewhat sharply if users make significant use of the hard disk, backlight, volume, equalizer and controls, in descending order of importance.
Of course, we would hope that the next-generation iPod includes significantly improved battery performance, but if the iPod mini is any indication, Apple's already on the road towards that goal. For users who want to relax with eight to ten hours of continuous music - like we do, especially after more than a week of monotonous iPod battery testing - the iPod mini will likely deliver all it promised, and probably more.
Jeremy Horwitz is a consumer electronics fanatic who practices intellectual property law in his spare time. His recent book, Law School Insider, has been called the "best book about law school -ever," and he continues to contribute to Ziff-Davis electronic entertainment magazines.
Thomson offering lock for MP3 files
New format can limit duplication of songs
By Jon Healey
Times Staff Writer
Originally published March 1, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- When German audio engineers developed the MP3 format in the early 1990s, they unwittingly created the currency of online music piracy — song files that could be copied freely and downloaded swiftly.
Music fans embraced the format, but it was snubbed by record labels and online music services because there was no way to stop MP3s from being bootlegged.
Now Thomson, the French company that distributes MP3 technology, is trying to make amends to the music industry. It's adding electronic locks that a record label can use to limit the number of times a song can be duplicated onto CDs or portable devices.
Thomson, however, may have a tough time finding an audience for this version.
The online music market already is crowded with competing secure formats from Microsoft Corp., Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Sony Corp. Their incompatibility gives record label executives heartburn, and Thomson's move adds a fifth format that doesn't work with any of the others.
Plus, songs encoded in the new format won't work on many older digital music players for which the original MP3 is the lingua franca.
Figuring out how to make locked music files that play on a range of software and devices — "that's what people should be worried about," said Lawrence Kenswil, president of ELabs at Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group.
Nevertheless, Thomson executives hope that the music industry will look at the update as the best of both worlds: It has the familiarity and cachet of the MP3 name and the security of electronic locks.
By embracing the new format, music services may start drawing the masses away from illegal downloads on file-sharing networks, said Rocky Caldwell, a director of technology marketing, patents and licensing for Thomson.
"MP3 is a brand the average consumer … would [expect to] find on an audio service," Caldwell said.
That logic led Roxio Inc. to pay $5 million for the Napster brand and some of its technology in November 2002. But the new Napster service that Roxio launched in October didn't take the online music world by storm — it's a distant second behind Apple in downloadable songs sold and has attracted fewer subscribers than at least three other services.
One factor is that Roxio's fee-based version of Napster is very different from the original, which enabled people to copy MP3s free from one another's computers. Similarly, Thomson is changing one of the central features of the MP3 format — its ability to be copied and moved without limitation — by adding what's known as digital rights management software, or DRM.
"Anytime they bring up DRM and MP3 in the same sentence, it's going to set off a lot of firestorms," said analyst Mike McGuire of GartnerG2, a technology research firm.
Developed by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, the original MP3 made its formal debut in 1993 as part of a Motion Picture Entertainment Group, or MPEG, standard. The technology squeezes a song into a digital package about one-tenth the size of a track on a CD. Such files can be stored on a computer or portable player, organized into custom playlists, burned onto personalized CDs and sent easily over the Internet via a high-speed connection.
The format has become the common language for music-playing software and portable devices and has made its way into a growing number of car stereos, DVD players and home entertainment systems. It's also the format of choice for the billions of songs downloaded free from file-sharing networks such as Kazaa and EDonkey.
Thomson's new version combines the standard MP3 compression technology with a DRM that hews closely to emerging standards for rights-management techniques, Caldwell said. Music services and device makers can rely on the new version to remain unchanged for years, he said, rather than having to adapt to the periodic updates made by Microsoft, Real and others.
One drawback: The new format won't work on the wide array of portable devices and disc players that can play MP3 files. Some of those devices could be made compatible with new software. For others, Thomson wants to let people make unlocked copies with reduced sound quality, which they could play on any device that supports the original format.
The labels, however, would have to approve that kind of copying.
Laura Goldberg, chief operating officer of Napster, said MP3 may have a marketing advantage over other formats. But Napster also wants to give users maximum flexibility with the songs they buy and to support the widest range possible of portable music players.
"If it were to have all those things, it might be interesting," she said.
SigmaTel Inc., a leading manufacturer of microchips for portable music players, will support locked MP3s if player manufacturers ask it to, said Mark Martinets, a product marketing manager. "To date, we don't have any customers that have requested it," he said.
One of SigmaTel's biggest customers, the Rio Audio division of Digital Networks North America Inc., already has rebuffed Thomson. Kevin Brangan, a marketing vice president at Rio, said he doubted that the labels would adopt the new MP3 because it would only add to consumer confusion.
Referring to Thomson's licensing fees for using the technology, Brangan said, "There's really not much of a reason to pay $1 a player for a [format] I don't think anybody is going to use."
Copyright © 2004, The Los Angeles Times
I've held the future of computing in my hand and its name is iPod.
Apple's little iPod
March 1, 2004
For those unaware, the iPod is Apple's hugely successful music playing computer, which has been so successful it has spawned a dozen competitors. How successful is the iPod? This year Apple will sell more iPods than it will sell computers. At a margin of 27 percent, Steve Jobs is laughing (or listening) all the way to the bank with this tiny Lexan and stainless wonder.
In fact it was Jobs who ordered his Apple faithful to make a Windows version of the iPod, announcing at Macworld that "hell froze over." The result? Sales up 235 percent.
I travel a lot and I have to say that an iPod full of tunes and Bose Quiet Comfort 2 noise-canceling headphones on my head is as close to a religious experience I have ever had in an aircraft. Like Bose, Apple has chosen to take the high road when it comes to details and price. It is Steve Jobs sitting there in California, saying, "Are you willing to pay top dollar for impressive design?" If so, Apple is here.
Can you imagine what would happen if Apple released a Windows version of its Powerbook? Anyway, it is hard to explain what a technical marvel an iPod really is. Inside isn't a flash memory card, like other MP3 players. Inside is an actual hard drive, with sizes ranging from 15 gigs to 40 gigs.
(That's gigabytes, in a package the same size as a cassette tape.)
Forty gigs of music is 10,000 songs; an entire month of songs played 24/7.
It not only can hold music, but also files you need to transport to another PC, your entire contact list and your schedule. Put the iPod in the cradle and it syncs automatically. And its touch-sensitive scroll wheel is a marvel.
The heart of the software is iTunes, the package Apple has devised to send your music from your computer to your iPod. This is very slick, well-designed software. It allows classification of your music into genre, composer and other subsets to make finding the music you want to hear easier.
If you download your music (ahem!) illegally, you'll have to enter those categories and details yourself.
If you own the CD already, you just insert it into your CD-ROM drive and Itunes automatically sucks the music off the disc and into Itunes with one click of a button. Then you cradle your iPod and whooom, you're on your way.
Don't own the disc? ITunes whisks you to Apple's online music store, where you can buy the songs you like for 99 cents. Think no one will pay for music? Apple has sold more than 32 million songs since its launch last year.
The iPod remains pricey ($299 to $499 depending on hard drive size) but exudes quality when you touch it. Now Apple has released the iPod Mini, a smaller, colorful version of the iPod. At $249, it's still pricey and has only a 4 gig hard drive, much smaller than the iPods.
It's a first-class product and Apple ought to take a bow.
iPod Mini battery tests
http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=3108_0_8_0_M
How to Strip an iPod mini For Parts
27 February 2004 07:30 EST
Apple is using the Hitachi 4GB Microdrive in their iPod mini. iPodding has pictures of the dissected iPod mini.
http://www.ipodding.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album09&id=mini_disect_pieces&op=modload&a...
4GB Hitachi microdrive normally costs about $500, so people are buying these and ripping the drive out and using the drive in a digital camera like the EOS Rebel or PDA. They are developing hacks to make the iPod mini drive work right now.
Target.com has the iPod Mini 4GB coming in soon at $249.99 - 10% off Code: TCAB2SAVETEN or TDAW2SAVETEN (Exp 2/29) = $225, $5 shipping. Search for ipod mini
Apple Store for Education has it for $229 for Students and Educators. Free engraving through Apple. (Thanks TechBargains).
iPod mini sales sky rocket
Friday - February 27, 2004
By Macworld staff
The launch of the iPod mini is exceeding all expectations, worldwide iPod marketing manager Danika Cleary revealed.
Early indications are that iPod mini is overtaking the first-generation iPod's sales of 125,000 units in its first quarter.
There are reports of long queues at Apple's retail stores, and of stocks running short.
GartnerG2 analyst Mike McGuire calls the iPod mini "an impressive little unit", and says its success is due to Apple's music store, its technology, design and marketing.
"You really have to take all of these things into consideration, and you can't discount Apple's strength in creating compelling marketing campaigns," McGuire told TechNewsWorld.
McGuire said the iPod mini's success means Apple is being closely watched, as the industry eyes Apple's business model: "They're humming along, but it's not an unobstructed path to success. It will be interesting to see how long the business model will be profitable."
Owen Linzmayer, author of Apple Confidential 2.0, told azcentral: "The iPod is important because it's generating a lot of cash and mind-share that goes beyond its usual share of Apple users."
OT Hitachi exec predicts drives boom
By Martyn Williams
A Hitachi executive expects to see storage-drive sales explode in consumer markets, and anticipates huge deployment of hard drive-equipped consumer electronics devices.
Hitachi – which supplies the 4GB hard drives for Apple's iPod mini – sees a great future for its hard drive business, much of which it acquired from IBM in 2002.
The company is experiencing increasing demand for its smaller high-capacity products for use in consumer electronics equipment.
Speaking in Tokyo company representatives also warned Hitachi doesn't think hard drives are suitable at 1-inch sizes, and that stressed that despite the growing importance of the consumer market, it would not forget the enterprise.
"The miniaturization of the hard-disk drive is fuelling consumer change," said Bill Healy, senior vice president of consumer and commercial hard-disk drives at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), the company's hard-disk drive unit.
A small number of products, such as personal video recorders, music players and digital still cameras, already feature hard-disk drives and Healy said he sees this number increasing so that the number of drives and their capacity far outpaces expansion in the office.
Device driven drive demand
Healy said he anticipates the average user will have two or three hard-disk drives around them in their office in five years but as many as 15 or 20 in devices surrounding them at home.
"You will have notebook computers for all members of your family interconnected wirelessly in your home. You'll have a home server to store your video, high-definition TV recording, music, pictures and data. You will have your set-top box recorders and DVD recorders to record the television signals in each of your television sets. You'll have your PDAs, digital cameras, digital video cameras with hard-disk drives. You'll have your car out in the garage with a hard-disk drive for control of the car electronics and perhaps even the vision of each mobile phone you own will have a hard-disk drive included."
The result will be an expansion in the size of the hard-disk drive market driven largely by consumer electronics applications, according to Healy. He said the consumer electronics portion of the market in 2002 was around 5 per cent and jumped to around 10 per cent in 2003 and is expected to climb to 15 per cent of the total market in 2004. By 2007 around half of the entire hard-disk drive market will be products for consumer applications, he said.
Apple iPod future seer
The impact of such demand is already being seen.
"Two years ago you would not have thought of a hard-disk drive in an MP3 music player," he said. "Apple, at the end of last year, reported 730,000 units of hard-disk drive sales for the iPod music player."
Those drives come from competitor Toshiba, but Apple Computer Inc. has tapped HGST for the 1-inch hard-disk drive for its recently launched iPod mini player, for which more than 100,000 pre-orders were received.
"The growth of this category will be very, very large. Millions of drives will be sold within this year for MP3 players but two years ago there was nothing," he said.
For the enterprise market, HGST announced on Thursday a 300GB hard-disk drive with a rotation speed of 10,000 rpm (revolutions per minute). The company has already begun shipping the drives to OEM customers and they are under evaluation, it said. Aimed at use in mission-critical systems, the new drives will be available with either an Ultra 320 SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) or 2Gbps (bits per second) Fiber Channel interface.
Healy also sounded a conservative note on the market for hard-disk drives below the 1-inch form-factor – a market the company currently dominates. Earlier this year Toshiba became the first hard-disk drive maker to announce a drive with a disk platter diameter of less than 1-inch and said it expects to see the drives used in devices such as cellular telephones.
"Hitachi has looked at smaller hard-disk drives than 1-inch for some time. Our concern, and why we have not introduced a product, is first, our customers are saying the (1-inch) Micro Drive is the correct solution. Also, like everywhere, there is competition and the competition beneath the Micro Drive is flash memory and so we have to be very cautious of that with yet smaller hard drives.
"That will over time conflict or be in strong competition with flash memory, so while we may have a period of time for a small 0.85 (inch) hard drive, Hitachi's approach today is with the Micro Drive and then flash memory," he said. "The 0.85 drives will be competitively intercepted by flash memory."
Hitachi Hard Drive Business Beats Profitability Target before First Birthday
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2004--
Company Jumps to Second Place in Revenue; Consumer Electronics to Play Strong Role in Future Growth
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) today announced it has significantly outperformed against 2003 expectations, ending its first year in business as a new hard drive entity 70 percent ahead of its profitability target*.
Against the backdrop of statistically low merger-and-acquisition success rates and difficulties of the commoditized hard drive business, Hitachi GST beat the odds to turn the profitability tide in its favor after the first nine months of business. Hitachi GST was founded in January 2003 and began moving into the black September the same year, well ahead of schedule. In the fourth quarter of 2003, Hitachi GST earned $105 million in operating profit. The company ended 2003 with $4.2 billion in revenue.
The Hitachi GST success model brought together an unfettered commitment to the hard drive business, the industry's broadest product line, a technology-first and customer-centered approach, and an intense focus on aiding and accelerating the cultural integration process.
"The success we achieved this year was built on our vision of the hard disk drive as not just an enabling technology but, rather, a transforming one," said Jun Naruse, CEO, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Our challenge in 2003 was to extend this as a collective vision; we spent the first year permeating this concept within our company and with our customers and business partners, and drove the impetus for new and creative ways to implement hard disk drive technology."
"HP, having undertaken one of the largest and most successful mergers in the electronics industry, is pleased with the level of integration achieved so far by the Hitachi GST team," said Dick Conrad, senior vice president, Global Operations Supply Chain, HP. "Hitachi GST is one of our key storage suppliers, and we congratulate their team."
Strong Contender
In beating its targets, Hitachi GST moved to second place in full-year revenue among hard drive companies, according to a January 2004 report by International Data Corporation. Hitachi GST gained continuous quarter-over-quarter growth in revenue and unit shipment in 2003.
"Hitachi GST had its work cut out at the beginning of 2003, but is now well on its way to orchestrating a turn-around," said Dave Reinsel, research manager, International Data Corporation. "Hitachi GST's 25-percent increase in revenue** and second place ranking among competitors is a strong indicator that the company is on the right track."
Hitachi GST is expected to show a net profit in 2004 and a six-percent profit margin in 2006. In 2003, Hitachi GST was budgeted to lose $330 million in its first year of business. Instead, the company ended the year at $87 million in operating losses, representing 70-percent improvement against target.
Hitachi GST accomplished its double-digit gains in 2003 through increased operating efficiencies, penetrating new markets, and gaining the confidence of new and existing customers.
"The solid year-end results are an indication that Hitachi is firmly committed to the hard drive business," said Xia Yang, general manager, Legend Notebook Business Unit. "Despite the year-long integration, the company continues to execute new product introductions, technology innovations and unique methods of strengthening its customer relationships."
"Acer looks to Hitachi to set the standard for notebook and desktop PC hard drives," said Campbell Kan, General Manager of Acer's Notebook Group. "In its first year of business -- even in the throws of a difficult integration process -- Hitachi did not miss a step in living up to our expectations of high-quality and technology-forward solutions. Hitachi's 7200 RPM notebook drive introduced last year is one such example."
Banking on Consumer Appetite
Nearly 50 years after the introduction of disk-based storage, the hard drive has moved out of corporate data centers to reinvent itself as the arbiter of growth and advancement for consumer electronics. The hard drive industry is taking center stage once again as consumer electronics fuel the demand for high storage capacity on miniature devices.
With the industry's broadest portfolio of small form factor hard drives, Hitachi GST is aggressively investing in consumer electronics and emerging applications as the highest growth segment of its business. According to IDC, worldwide HDD shipment for consumer electronics will grow from today's 20 million units to over 70 million units in 2007. These disk drives will be used in portable MP3 players, personal video recorders, set-top boxes, digital cameras, personal digital assistants, etc.
Hitachi GST's miniaturization expertise and roots in consumer electronics, through its parent company, position the company squarely to succeed in the new world order for hard disk drives. Hitachi GST introduced its initiative for extending the benefits of hard disk storage to consumer electronics in early 2003. Since then, the company has delivered on this strategy across its product families, from one-inch to 3.5-inch.
* Hitachi GST's financial results were disclosed on February 4, 2004 as part of Hitachi, Ltd.'s Q3 review for business year 2003
** Comparison to previous year made by combining 2002 HDD business results of Hitachi, Ltd. and IBM
About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies was founded in 2003 as a result of the strategic combination of Hitachi's and IBM's storage technology businesses. The company's goal is to enable users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing access to large amounts of storage capacity in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home.
The company offers customers worldwide a comprehensive range of storage products for desktop computers, high-performance servers and mobile devices. For more information on Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.hgst.com.
Volume low but still BS..fortunatly other stocks (NYRR last few days) keeping me happy.......
Make that .37.....................eom
Upstart JetBlue Surprises Bigger Rivals like Dallas-Based American Airlines
By Eric Torbenson, The Dallas Morning News Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 22 - NEW YORK – Launched just four years ago, JetBlue Airways Corp. has rewritten much of the book on start-up discount airlines.
While other carriers focus on eliminating frills, JetBlue promotes gleaming new planes that boast leather seats, extra legroom and television screens at each seat.
At first, big rivals dismissed the upstart. Continental Airlines Inc. chairman Gordon Bethune said JetBlue's founders were "smoking something" to think they would ever make money.
Now, as JetBlue smokes other airlines financially by posting the highest operating margins in the business, the carrier is shaking up the industry.
At the same time it studies and even copies JetBlue, the industry is striking back. Traditional carriers, such as American Airlines Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc., have launched aggressive promotions to steal JetBlue customers.
And Wall Street, which cheered JetBlue's initial public offering in 2002 and sent its shares soaring last fall, has showered skepticism on the airline's feel-good story. JetBlue stock trades at roughly half its value from October, closing Friday at $23.59.
"I don't think we've had this kind of opposition before," said David Neeleman, chairman and chief executive of JetBlue, speaking in his office at JetBlue's headquarters in Queens, near its main hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
"I think we've got to get a little more thick-skinned about this stuff," said Mr. Neeleman, 44, as he stared glumly at a magazine profile of JetBlue that he considered unflattering.
The criticism hasn't done anything to blunt Mr. Neeleman's confidence.
JetBlue's growth plan calls for adding a new airplane every 10 days by late next year. Some industry experts think JetBlue could eventually have a chokehold on budget-minded fliers in the New York area, the nation's top market for air travel.
"I think we are the best airline," said Mr. Neeleman, who founded discounter Morris Air, then sold it to Southwest Airlines Co. in 1994.
"It's hard to try to stay there."
The carrier operated at a slick 16.9 percent margin in 2003, but Mr. Neeleman noted that promotions and stiff competition will drop the operating margin in the first three months of this year to as low as 9 percent.
That would still top the majors, defined as airlines with revenue above $1 billion a year, but it's been a warning flag to analysts such as Jamie Baker of J.P. Morgan Chase.
"We'd never suggest JetBlue would lose the war, though we do continue to believe JetBlue will lose the next several battles," Mr. Baker said in a research report.
JetBlue wants to plan for the long term, even if investors don't.
"We can't let ourselves get into thinking that we've got to protect our margins for the quarter or they're going to write nasty things," Mr. Neeleman said. "One of the things I detest about being public is this focus on what's going on in the next quarter."
'Rock solid' From the beginning, JetBlue flew its own way. Instead of using leased older planes, it bought new Airbus A320s. It offered no meals but installed in-seat satellite TV, which has become such a draw that rival Delta added it to its low-fare carrier, Song. Both Southwest and American are considering whether to follow.
While considering how to mimic JetBlue, traditional carriers are trying to win back passengers with special deals. Under an American promotion launched this year, customers who fly twice on routes competing against JetBlue earn a free ticket anywhere.
"I don't know how much more aggressive you can get than two-for-one," Mr.
Neeleman said. "But if we still have a double-digit operating margin for the first quarter, that says a lot about the strength of JetBlue."
Consultants agree that Wall Street has a tendency to overreact to bad news. The carrier's underlying model is "rock solid," said Jon Ash of Global Aviation Associates in Washington, D.C.
"They ought to be able to produce margins in the high teens, and that's just not too shabby," Mr. Ash said, noting that any carrier would drool for such figures. "I don't see any reason why that wouldn't be sustainable for them."
JetBlue's costs are the lowest of any big airline when measured by what a carrier pays to fly one seat one air mile, or a seat mile.
They're even lower than Dallas-based Southwest's, though they're nearly even when JetBlue's long flights are adjusted to be closer to Southwest's shorter average flight length. JetBlue's average flight is longer because of its reliance on transcontinental service.
Some of JetBlue's cost performance comes from having newer planes and engines, which are still under warranty from manufacturers and don't need heavy maintenance.
JetBlue recognizes those maintenance costs will rise as its fleet grows older, but all the new planes on order will keep JetBlue's average airplane age the youngest in the business, said Dave Barger, president and chief operating officer.
"By the time we hit 2011, we're the youngest fleet out there by far," he said.
Many were skeptical when JetBlue said it would buy Embraer 190s, which will have higher operating costs. They have fewer seats, and a new aircraft type adds complexity and cost.
But they'll be deployed to cities such as Austin, where a nonstop flight to New York would attract fliers who dislike connecting at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for American Airlines or Houston for Continental. Passengers will pay more on average for that nonstop, Mr.
Barger said. (JetBlue eventually plans to add service to D/FW, but it has no timeline in mind.) Cost advantage Because it has new planes and no labor unions, JetBlue will be able to grow quickly without its costs spiraling from its current level of about 6 cents per seat mile.
That compares favorably with majors such as American, which nearly went bankrupt when it lowered its seat-mile costs to about 9.5 cents. At the other end of the spectrum are US Airways Corp., Northwest Airlines Inc. and Delta, all with seat-mile costs near or above 11 cents.
Fort Worth-based American knows it can't fly at costs as low as JetBlue, but it can match its prices and emphasize its global reach and a broad frequent-flier program. The promotion that targeted JetBlue has exceeded expectations, said Dan Garton, executive vice president of marketing.
"We've added 20,000 new customers to our frequent-flier program, and there's a lot of companies out there that would pay a lot of money to add that many new customers," he said.
The airline predicted that it would lose money when it first offered the buy two, get one free promotion. Mr. Garton said he now believes the promotion will generate cash for American, and he expects the carrier to try more deals using the AAdvantage program to battle low-cost rivals.
"JetBlue is glitzy, and it's hard for me not to say that this wasn't targeted specifically at JetBlue," Mr. Garton said. "But JetBlue is one of multiple challenges we're facing out there right now with low-cost carriers." Many analysts say traditional carriers are fighting a losing battle with their ticket giveaways.
"They can't keep that up for long because they're losing money on those deals," said Ray Neidl, airline analyst for Blaylock & Partners in New York. If the economy continues its improvement, there may be enough passengers for the discounters of the industry and for the traditional carriers, but the low-cost carriers are the ones setting the ticket prices, analysts note.
JetBlue is actually beating American measured by revenue per seat mile flown. That means JetBlue has such a following that passengers are paying, on average, more to fly the low-cost carrier than they are on American on the same routes.
American's Mr. Garton confirms there are some markets where his carrier, the world's largest, runs a "revenue deficit" to JetBlue. But he said the airline earns far more per seat mile across its whole network and measures its success against low-cost carriers in market share rather than in head-to-head revenue comparisons.
Corporate culture Another area in which JetBlue says it beats its competition is corporate culture.
"I'm obsessed with it," Mr. Neeleman said. "You can't do any of this without your employees buying into what you're doing."
JetBlue's many similarities to Southwest stem from Mr. Neeleman's brief stint with the king of low-cost carriers in 1994 after Southwest acquired Morris Air.
JetBlue believes in Southwest chairman Herb Kelleher's mantra of investing in employees first. The thinking is that it improves customer service, which in turn benefits shareholders.
"I have quoted Herb so many times on that, I almost think I said it," said Mr. Neeleman, who lived in Highland Park briefly when he was with Southwest.
Mr. Neeleman tries to pitch in with his fellow "crew members," as they're called at JetBlue. When he flies JetBlue, he likes to hand out soft drinks and pretzels, donning a blue apron that says "Snack Boy."
The airline also screens potential employees very carefully, having received 130,000 applications last year for fewer than 2,000 jobs.
New employees go through an intense orientation that includes a program on airline economics that helps them understand how JetBlue makes money, Mr. Barger said.
It's hard to keep the culture intact amid rapid growth. Just two years ago, Mr. Neeleman could name virtually every JetBlue employee. Now the airline has more than 4,700 of them. In three years, employment could surge above 10,000 as JetBlue is expected to move up from its position as the nation's No. 11 carrier. Southwest is ranked No. 7 by revenue.
"We have a lot of respect for Southwest, but we do things a little differently," Mr. Neeleman said. JetBlue assigns seats, something it believes doesn't increase time on the ground for airplanes.
Although Southwest isn't considering assigned seats, its executives say they may want to add the kind of in-flight entertainment JetBlue pioneered. They're also studying whether to add Embraer 190s.
American may be in a street fight with JetBlue at JFK in New York, but the battle has yet to be joined at D/FW.
D/FW, American's largest hub, is one of the few top-tier U.S. airports that doesn't have a low-cost carrier offering nonstop service to the New York area's three airports.
That's allowing American, Delta and Continental Airlines to charge more than $1,000 to get from D/FW to the New York area on short notice; JetBlue's maximum one-way fare is $299. For all its strength in New York, "it would be different than if we were playing down in the Dallas market," Mr. Neeleman said.
The airline has heard strong feedback from North Texans about coming to D/FW. For now, fliers will have to wait before that "Snack Boy" apron makes an appearance at the nation's No. 3 airport.
-----
Defects force Sony to cancel sale of two digital music players
The Associated Press
2/23/04 8:27 AM
TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. has canceled the planned sale this spring in Japan of two portable MP3 digital music players because of problems with the built-in FM radio tuners, the company said Monday.
I like this headline better than the other one HRH posted LOL
Some on this board will try to pin this on e.Digital.....
Another look at Aiwa puck
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=product&id=655
Adapt to slave labor, pollution and the rest? No thanks....eom
ucansee
I believe RP does get a copy emailed to him of posted "conversations/email with/from Robert"....
Sony Electronics HQs Moving To San Diego
(to be closer to e.Digital)
By Mike Freeman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 20, 2004
Sony Electronics will move its U.S. corporate headquarters from New Jersey to San Diego this year, bulking up the company's already substantial presence in the region.
The Union-Tribune reported in November that San Diego was becoming a nerve center for Sony Electronics as the company consolidated businesses in North America and shifted focus away from its former headquarters in Park Ridge, N.J.
At the time, Dick Komiyama, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics since April, declined to say definitively that the company's headquarters were relocating here.
That changed yesterday. "We have been in the San Diego community since 1972, when we first opened a television manufacturing facility in Rancho Bernardo," Komiyama said. "Today, I'm happy to announce Sony Electronics is moving its U.S. headquarters and all of our consumer electronics businesses to San Diego in 2004."
The company began shifting positions to San Diego last fall, and the process is expected to continue through the next few months, company officials said.
Just how many jobs will relocate is unclear, Komiyama said. With its core electronics business slumping last year, Sony Corp. has been in a cost-cutting mode worldwide.
In October, for example, Sony Corp. said it would cut 20,000 jobs over the next three years, including 7,000 in Japan. The company's goal is to trim $3 billion annually from its operating cost and elevate its profit margin from 4 percent today to 10 percent by 2006.
Sony Electronics, a division of Sony Corp., employs about 2,500 in Rancho Bernardo, with jobs ranging from marketing computers to manufacturing television picture tubes.
Not all jobs in Park Ridge will move to San Diego. Some will relocate to San Jose. And Sony Corp. recently offered an early retirement package to workers in its U.S. electronics division.
But even if the headquarters move brings only a few additional jobs, San Diego officials say, it's still significant because of the sheer size and prestigeof Sony Electronics, which posted about $11 billion in sales last year.
"What this shows is that good technology companies are going to go where the talent is," said Kevin Carroll, executive director of the San Diego AeA, formerly the American Electronics Association. "There's a lot of research and development talent in this region."
Komiyama made the announcement yesterday at Petco Park, which Sony will supply with about 800 TVs. They will be throughout the stadium, including more than 200 high-definition sets.
In San Diego, Sony Electronics already makes or markets televisions, Vaio computers, Clie hand-hand computers, digital cameras, digital set-top boxes, camcorders and memory sticks.
Once the headquarters move is complete, it also will market audio products such as Sony Walkman, as well as car audio systems. Administration also will relocate, including Komiyama's office and those of the division's chief financial officer, corporate communications chief and other department heads.
The main business remaining in Park Ridge sells equipment to professional broadcasters, cable networks and production companies.
Last fall, Sony officials said the company hoped to consolidate its 1,600-employee New Jersey operation, now located in five buildings, into one Sony-owned building that holds about 1,000 workers.
Other Sony Corp. divisions in San Diego include Sony Online Entertainment, which makes Web-based computer games, and 989 Sports, which develops console video games. They are not part of Sony Electronics.
Mini iPod: Size, Style Do Matter
Feb. 20, 2004
The iPod mini, it is smaller, sleeker and more portable than the original iPod from Apple Computer Inc.
CBS) I was totally underwhelmed when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPod mini at the MacWorld Expo in January but now that it's actually on the market, and after playing with the new device, I'm starting to understand its appeal.
My first reaction was "big deal." Apple had already impressed me and much of the world with its first three generations of iPod music players. After all, creating a device that enables music lovers to carry not just "a tune," but up to 10,000 in the palm of their hand is indeed an impressive accomplishment - perhaps the biggest contribution to portable music since Sony invented the Walkman back in 1979. But the latest iteration seemed like a tiny step backward.
At 3.6 ounces and measuring 3.6 by 2.0 by .5 inches, the new iPod is about 40 percent smaller and 35 percent lighter than the 15 and 20 gigabyte iPods. But, at $249, it's only $50 cheaper than the ($299) 15 gigabyte model that holds more than four times as much music. Apple's 20 GB model costs $399 and the whopping 40 gigabyte - 10,000 song - version sells for $499.
But, after installing the iPod, filling it up with music and taking it on a couple of long walks, I'm starting to see what all the fuss is about.
Specifications don't tell the whole story. You have to see and feel this machine to truly appreciate it. A half-inch thick and otherwise the same dimensions as a business card, the iPod mini is a truly elegant accessory.
It's not just smaller than its predecessors. It's prettier, more elegant and even a bit easier to use. Instead of a white plastic case and silver colored aluminum back, the iPod minis are surrounded by an anodized aluminum shell in your choice of five colors: silver, gold, blue, green and pink.
Personally, I'm not all that picky about the appearance of my portable electronic equipment, but I recognize that a lot people are. Deservedly or not, possessing an iPod has become something of a status symbol and the prettier and more elegant the status symbol, the better.
To me, the size of a portable music player doesn't matter much because I mostly use it on airplanes and in the car. The larger iPods and the even larger music players from Dell, Gateway, Rio and others are still small enough when carried in a briefcase on an airplane or sitting next to the cup holder on my car's center console.
Size matters a bit more when I take the music player on a walk. I'm not a jogger but I can see how it would matter even more to those who like to listen to music while running up the street. Fitness buffs who jog, walk or take to the treadmill will appreciate the optional ($29) arm band that puts the device, literally, at arm's length yet out of harm's way. The iPod mini comes with a belt-clip.
Apple also improved the interface just a bit by taking a positive step backwards. Like all iPods, there is a scroll wheel that you control with your thumb to select options and play the music. The current generation of larger iPods also has four buttons - menu, back, forward and pause/stop - but these are now built into the scroll wheel, as they were on previous generation iPods that are no longer available.
Like all iPods, the mini plays MP3 files as well as the AAC files created by Apple's iTunes music downloading service. Music players from other companies typically play MP3 as well as the WMA format endorsed by Microsoft.
I don't have a preference between WMA and AAC but it's worth noting that there are numerous download services that offer WMA while Apple is the only major vendor offering AAC files. In other words, once again there is a tower of babble between Apple and the rest of the world.
Other than file format issues, the only drawback of the new iPod is that it won't hold my entire digital music collection - which at the moment adds up to about 12 gigabytes. All other iPods have more than enough capacity, as do hard drive portable music players from Dell, Gateway, Rio and other companies.
Speaking of other company's machines, for the last several months I've been using a 20 gigabyte Rio Karma (street price about $270) which works and sounds great but every time I use it, I have to take a few minutes to re-familiarize myself with the controls. I haven't used an iPod in about three months yet it took me no time to re-adjust. Apple has developed an incredibly intuitive interface that makes every other system feel clunky by comparison.
If the iPod cost $199 instead of $249, it would be an excellent value despite its relatively low capacity. At its present price, it's definitely an expensive alternative to lower capacity memory-based music players as well as some hard drive systems from other companies.
Still, as buyers of luxury automobiles have long demonstrated, there are plenty of people who are willing to pay a bit more for elegance and style.
New iPod mini a good deal By Michael Felberbaum, Associated Press
By Michael Felberbaum, Associated Press
SMALLER, sleeker and even more portable than its big brother from Apple Computer Inc., the new iPod mini is awonderful choice if you can live without as many songs.
While the regular iPod has models capable of storing up to 10,000 songs, the 4-gigabyte iPod mini holds a mere 1,000 tracks and is only $50 cheaper than the $299 iPod model, which stores 3,700.
Still, the iPod mini -- available in silver, gold, blue, pink and green -- offers a sensible alternative to some of the market's most popular flash card MP3 players, giving you a lot more space than any of them can offer.
After I carried the iPod mini around for a few days, it became clear this device is made for portability and convenience.
About 85 percent the size of the regular iPod, the mini is only a little larger than a business card (3.6 inches by 2 inches) and one-half of an inch thick. It weighs less than any cell phone available in the United States (3.6 ounces, or about two-thirds of a regular iPod).
The mini's trendy, too: My green mini is a far cry from the boring, old, white iPod.
The only thing you sacrifice is the amount of storage -- the sound is as pristine, and the software is as easy to use.
Mini includes a few aesthetic alterations, like its solid piece of anodized aluminum that's not only durable, but also scratch and stain resistant. IPods combine separate metal and plastic components.
The mini also showcases a change in the iPod family's interface. A set of four buttons used to navigate the menu and playlist on the larger iPod disappears from the mini. Instead, the controls are built into the touch-sensitive dial, which also manages volume. The change is nice, and managing the controls quickly became second-nature.
In conjunction with Apple's iTunes software, PC and Mac users alike can take advantage of the mini. Seconds after docking the iPod mini, iTunes recognized the device and helped with initial setup.
Firewire-less PC users running Windows 2000 or XP can take advantage of mini's USB 2.0 connection. It even comes with a cable, something that costs extra for the iPod.
Like the original iPod, mini allows you to store contacts, play games and keep to-do lists. It doubles up as a hard drive for data storage. Mini does not, however, allow for voice recording or digital photo storage using software that comes with iPod.
Mini also offers 25 minutes -- yes, read that again, 25 minutes -- of skip protection (more than any other product on the market) and up to 8 hours on a single battery charge, comparable to the regular iPod.
How, you may ask? Mini uses the same technology in other MP3 flash players to cache 25 minutes worth of music from the mini's hard drive into flash memory. Since flash memory is solid state, it can't skip.
Every iPod mini comes equipped with headphones, charger and belt clip.
But you can splurge on a $29 armband (made exclusively for the iPod mini), $39 in-ear headphones or a number of different car adapters.
If you're looking for a small, lightweight MP3 player to carry around with you to the gym, work, or anywhere you please, take a serious look at the mini. It offers a great amount of storage space in an adequate size -- I certainly don't have 1,000 songs that I listen to on a regular basis.
NEC tweaks AAC codec
By Macworld staff
NEC has developed its own audio coding algorithm using MPEG AAC (Advanced Audio coding) technology.
AAC is supported within some 3G specifications. It claims to offer CD-quality sound at 96kbps – NEC claims its new codec further decreases the required bit-rate, while maintaining the same audio quality.
The company claims that 128kbps of stereo CD quality (MP3) can be encoded in only 48kbps using its codec.
"An approximate reduction of 50 per cent from MPEG-4 AAC's current requirement of 96kbps. The new MPEG-4 AAC Ext.1 coding technology also supports high compatibility with current MPEG-4 AAC."
This technology has been developed primarily for use in mobile devices. It helps manufacturers in this sector by decreasing the space audio files may require while "maintaining current standards in sound quality."
NEC will demonstrate this technology at 3GSM World Congress and examine feasibility for adoption into mobile services for real-time, high audio-quality music delivery services.
Apple employs the AAC codec within the iTunes Music Store.
Samsung Electronics eyes MP3 player market
Samsung Electronics Co., Korea's largest electronics maker, said it plans to strengthen its MP3 player business this year to claim back the No. 1 position from ReignCom Ltd. on the domestic digital audio equipment market.
Choi Ji-sung, president of Samsung's digital media division, said, "MP3 player is a crucial item for digital convergence technology and the company will nurture MP3 into a core digital media business that puts together multimedia, memory and digital music."
Samsung aims to double the revenue from its MP3 players and increase its domestic market share to 40 percent or more by the end of this year to unseat ReignCom from the top slot.
MP3 is a popular audio compression format on the Internet, and a host of Korean player manufacturers lead the global flash-memory-based MP3 market.
The move is drawing keen interest from the country's IT industry since Samsung used to be indifferent to what it viewed was a niche segment. Over the past four years, Samsung has remained in the top league of the market here but did not commit massive investment, nor did it stage serious marketing.
Instead, former Samsung engineers and development team members left to establish MP3 player start-ups, paving the way for the growth of the digital audio player segment. Samsung continued its MP3 player business by securing the latest models from such manufacturers on an original equipment manufacturing basis.
Now, the sector is growing quickly and some high-flying players are raking in cash, which seems to have sent a wake-up call to Samsung.
For instance, ReignCom, the Seoul-based digital audio equipment maker, had Korea's most successful initial public offering this year. As a global frontrunner on the MP3 player market, the Kosdaq-listed company is now touting its snazzy brand iRiver.
Samsung's belated move to beef up its MP3 came as U.S.-based Apple Computer Inc. received 100,000 orders for its iPod mini digital player, which went on sale yesterday. Apple has turned its sleek and powerful iPod player into a cash cow, while snatching a market-leading position among digital audio players.
Samsung, the world's largest DRAM computer chip maker, also leads the flash-memory market, which is directly linked to portable digital audio players.
Samsung said it would introduce about 20 new MP3 player models this year. In addition to the domestic market, Samsung plans to market its products in Europe, Russia and Southeast Asia. To that end, it recently revamped its MP3 development team, doubling its manpower to promote its YEPP brand of players.
In 2003, Korea's MP3 market was estimated at 1.2 million units and the global market was 5 million to 8 million units.
Some Korean MP3 player makers including Samsung are set to introduce a new players featuring hard-disk drives that can store more than 20 gigabytes of digital audio.
By Yang Sung-jin
(insight@heraldm.com)
2004.02.21
IPod set for Windows Media Audio (WMA)
Posted on 19 Feb 2004 - 16:51
Chip manufacture Portal Player in San Diego US build the embedded PB5502B-C chip in Apple's IPod.
This is the chip that allows the playing of AAC and MP3 - However what is interesting is that the chip firmware by default also allows the playing of WMA.
It looks like for some reason this is locked by Apple.
The Portal Player chip is used in other Mobile Media Players and by default allows all three formats.
This is going to course some concern on the freedom of choice given to users of the Apple IPod.
Were sure that at some point in the not too distant future the IPod will be cracked to allow Windows Media Audio played back on the IPod.
(Heads Up to Ken Radio for the Exclusive!)
New iPod battery problem?
Thursday, February 19 2004 @ 01:34 AM PST
iPod losing charge if connected to a sleeping Mac
A MacFixIt reader recently sent us a very thorough report on an issue that has occurred across several different iPods and a number of long conversations with AppleCare support representatives. The overall conclusion is that leaving an iPod in its dock (or, presumably, connected directly to a Mac via the dock/FireWire cable) while the Mac is asleep can drain the iPod's battery. Below are a few key excerpts from this reader report:
"After over a month's worth of troubleshooting with AppleCare technicians and two round trips to Apple Dispatch to fix a problem where my docked 30 gig iPod would fully discharge overnight while my QuickSilver G4 was in sleep mode, I finally got a tech to admit that there is indeed a 'known software issue' (or perhaps firmware, he wouldn't elaborate) that Apple is trying to fix.
"I dock my iPod and wait for iTunes and iSync to sync, after which I push Play/Pause to put the iPod to sleep and then use the Hold button to lock it down. As the iPod is docked and my Mac is awake, the display shows the charging animation. Later, when I put my Mac to sleep for the night, the iPod display goes blank, to indicate that the unit is still sleeping and but that it is no longer charging. The next morning (but not every morning!) I wake up my Mac and my iPod wakes up too. However, the iPod now displays the Apple logo, which means that it is starting up. [And also generally means that the battery has run down -Ed]. Once the iPod startup cycle finishes, I see a low battery icon, and realize that, once again, my iPod has discharged during sleep. (This occurs about once a week.)"
After talking to the reader about the problem, AppleCare serviced his iPod once, then eventually replaced it with a brand new model. The problem still occurred after each "fix." The reader also noted that even though Apple's documentation doesn't differentiate between charging the iPod using the dock/dock cable (FireWire) and using the AC adapter, an Apple Product Specialist claimed that there is a distinct difference:
"When the iPod is docked, it continues to drain the battery even if both the Mac and the iPod are in sleep mode -- this, the Product Specialist claimed, is due to the fact that an iPod is a Firewire device, and thus it will consume power at a greater rate than if it were not docked. He went on to state that a docked iPod recharges at a significantly slower rate than one connected directly to the AC Adapter, which makes some sense, but is apparently not documented."
Finally, the reader reports that even though Apple has apparently acknowledged this issue, they may be looking for more feedback from users in order to find a solution: "They seem to be a bit baffled by this issue and (at least according to the tech I spoke to today) are seeking more information from the iPod community."
If you've experienced similar issues with your iPod -- completely losing its charge if connected to a Mac in sleep mode -- drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Smiles fade at Napster
Thu, Feb. 19, 2004
MUSIC SERVICE IS LOSING MONEY AND EXECUTIVES
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
Mercury News
It was a breakthrough deal that would have put the Napster kitty on millions of Hewlett-Packard computers.
But in the days leading up to Napster's re-launch in late October, HP suddenly -- and without explanation -- returned Napster's $250,000 check and canceled the agreement to install a link to Napster's online music service on its computers. Worse, in January HP announced a surprise partnership with Napster rival Apple Computer to feature the iTunes Music store on HP computers and sell Hewlett-Packard branded iPod music players.
Neither HP nor Napster's parent company, Roxio, would comment on the soured deal, whose details were confirmed by sources familiar with the agreement. But its collapse was one of several setbacks since the reintroduction of Napster, the pioneering song-swapping renegade, as a paid music service.
Napster is losing money, and top executives have left the company, including its president, chief financial officer, vice president of programming and head of corporate communications as well a key board member. On Wednesday, Roxio began laying off people at its Napster division. A Roxio spokeswoman said the company was ``eliminating redundancies in the organization'' but declined to say how many people lost their jobs.
And while Napster can legitimately claim it's the second most popular online music service, information provided by insiders at two of the major music labels shows it sells only about a quarter the number of downloads from their artists as Apple's market-leading iTunes store. Napster refused to release download figures.
``I think it's a very competitive market with very ugly economics and there's just no money in the download business,'' said Steven B. Frankel, managing director of Adams, Harkness and Hill, a Boston investment bank.
Napster 2.0 launched with a celebrity-studded bash at the House of Blues in Los Angeles and the bold pronouncements of its chairman and chief executive, Chris Gorog, who hailed the reborn Napster as the best-known brand in online music.
The reality of reincarnating the onetime bete noir of the music industry into a legitimate music service proved more sobering. Napster lost $15 million in its first two months of operation. And the most recent sales data reported to two of the major music labels shows Napster with an estimated 12 percent share of the download market, compared to Apple's 56 percent. Analysts estimate Napster's market share at 15 percent to 20 percent.
No music players to sell
Perhaps more telling is the state of Napster's subscription business, which is widely perceived as more lucrative than selling 99-cent songs. That's especially key for a service like Napster, which unlike Apple, derives no income from the sale of a branded music player.
Napster declined to provide specific subscriber numbers for its service, aside from noting that downloads and subscriptions each contributed equally to Napster's $3.6 million in revenue for the last three months of 2003.
That means Napster has attracted about 90,000 subscribers in its first two months -- ranking it fourth, behind RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, America Online's MusicNet and MusicMatch.
Gorog said he resists comparisons with other subscription services because of incongruities in the way subscriber numbers are reported. But he expects the business will mature as users realize it's cheaper to pay a flat fee for access to 500,000 tracks than to pay $1 a song.
Gorog was upbeat in a conference call last week with analysts and investors. He said he expects sales to reach $20 million within 12 months -- possibly even double that, as the Napster service launches in Europe.
``We are very pleased with our performance,'' said Gorog. ``It will again not only prove the strength of our service, but the extraordinary value of the Napster brand.''
Promoting Napster cards
Gorog points to key retail partnerships as spurring growth. An eclectic group of 20,000 nationwide retailers -- from Radio Shack to 7-Eleven and Exxon service stations -- sell prepaid Napster download cards. And this week, Target kicked off a nationwide Napster promotion, selling pre-paid music cards and kitty-branded merchandise.
In an interview with the Mercury News, Gorog said investors recognize the inherent value of the Napster brand and are patient enough to wait for the services to gradually attract customers and become profitable. They don't expect an overnight sensation, he said. Indeed, Napster raised $22.5 million as recently as January.
Differences over strategy have created tension with some music label veterans who came to Roxio through its acquisition of the Universal-Sony Music online music venture, pressplay.
Indeed, the new Napster appears to be plagued by the kind of management turmoil that marked the old Napster.
Music industry veteran Mike Bebel is gone as Napster's president. So is Lawrence Kenswil, the lone board member representing Roxio's largest shareholder, Universal Music Group. Alex Luke, the long-time vice president of music programming, who left shortly after the service's launch to join the rival Apple service. And Roxio's chief financial officer, Elliot Carpenter, who resigned for family reasons.
``You're after something that I don't think is there,'' said Gorog, when asked about top executives leaving the company.
Key executives with music industry backgrounds -- including Napster's chief operating officer, Laura Goldberg -- remain with the company.
``The question is how long can they hang in there? The answer is, for a while,'' said Gene Munster of the Piper Jaffray & Co, which has an investment banking relationship with Roxio.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wasn't there talk of Eclipse "pre selling" the unit? Even though there was talk of strong interest...who knows?
Also our unit was for Eclipse "legacy" products...so it would not have caused conflict with sales of any new products coming out.
Apple expected to expand music presence with new device
By Katie Marsal
02-17-2004
04:50 PM EST
The company responsible for 'saving music' with the launch of the iPod digital music player is again poised to expand its presence in the arena, sources tell AppleInsider.
Apple computer is reportedly pouring R&D dollars into the development and testing of multiple devices that aim to further gel consumers with their digital and music lifestyles. One such device is rumored to be almost 2 years in the making, though it is currently unclear which of the company's many projects will result in a marketable product.
Nevertheless, multiple reports indicate a device that will allow consumers to wirelessly broadcast their iTunes play libraries--from an iPod or PC--to a home stereo, among other things. Details of the device are sketchy and confirmation has been marred by conflicting details from subsequent reports.
According to one statement, the company is said to be developing its own iTunes radio that will wirelessly stream iTunes and internet net radio data, and is rumored to be accompanied by a potential partnership with Bose.
Meanwhile, additional reports point to the potential release of multimedia hub that will perform the same functions, while also allowing for iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD content to be displayed on television screens. The device is said to connected wirelessly to any Macintosh on a rendezvous or AirPort network and will also be capable of digital video recording on an internal hard drive and media burning via a Super Drive.
The aforementioned project is said to have been in development and testing at Apple for at least 18 months, and could possibly represent the previously rumored Apple home appliance.
Introduction dates for a radically new Apple product have ranged in reports from April till later this Winter. The computer maker also has plans to continue its digital media player dominance with the roll-out of a 4th-generation iPod in the latter half of the year, sources said.
Sigma's New Chip to Bring Video into the Palm of Your Hand
Sigma Announces New EM8510 Media Processor for Portable Market;
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2004--Sigma Designs (Nasdaq:SIGM), a leader in digital media processing for consumer appliances, today announced the EM8510, a new media processor for the growing portable and low-power device market. Sigma's new EM8510 decoder chip, based on the company's award-winning REALmagic(R) Video Technology, enables cost-effective solutions for consumer appliances such as portable media players, portable DVD players and other power critical devices.
Demand For Portable Players
With ongoing technology improvements in media compression, wireless communications, and small form-factor storage, portable media players have quickly become the media-on-the-go equivalent of the cell phone. This trend has already occurred in the audio segment with a plethora of devices now available. Hand-held players have moved from the niche market to the mainstream, permitting consumers to transfer music from their computers and play it on-the-go. Industry analysts predict that at the end of 2001, only 4.5 million households had an Internet audio player, but falling prices and increasingly tech-savvy consumers will lead to a market expansion of sales of 27 million devices in 2007 -- making portable audio devices a $3.4 billion business.
New advanced compression schemes are enabling the addition of movies, personal video, and photos in addition to audio, to a palm-sized portable media player. Linked to the right provider services, this translates into videos on-the-go, for use on airplanes, in hotels, within the home and for family road trips. As prices decrease, portable DVD players are also quickly replacing the TV/VCR combo as the portable of choice for taking a movie collection on the road.
In-Stat/MDR, the high-tech market research firm, forecasts that the total available market for portable audio/video players will grow from 4.9 million units in 2003 to 15.4 million in 2007.
"Sigma's foray into the portable space takes them into a high-growth market with upside potential," said Michelle Abraham, Senior Analyst for In-Stat/MDR's Converging Markets & Technologies Group. "From our research we have also found that portable DVD player shipments will reach 13 million units in 2007."
"The constantly changing landscape of digital entertainment offers continued opportunities for Sigma's strengths," said Ken Lowe, VP of strategic marketing. "Sigma's leading technology and ability to quickly seize market opportunities are propelling the company ahead in consumer demand."
EM8510 Media Processor
Sigma's new EM8510 media processor brings an enhanced feature set to the portable arena through improved integration with lower power dissipation. Based on a low voltage process and proprietary power control logic, the EM8510 provides a complete one-chip decoder solution using less than 500 milliwatts of power. This translates into substantial battery life improvements for portable media players. The chip also supports direct TV output, enabling portable players to connect to existing televisions in the home or hotel.
The EM8510 also sports a new, high-performance audio DSP, capable of decoding virtually any audio standard. This includes important standards such as MPEG-1 or -2 audio, MP3, WMA, Dolby AC3, DVD-audio and others. Furthermore, the field upgradeable capabilities allow this chip to download new audio codecs when they become available in the future. The EM8510 provides drop-in compatibility to designs based on the EM8500, making quick work of designing new portable players with full video features, longer battery life and increased audio support.
Based on the company's award-winning REALmagic(R) Video Technology, the EM8510 provides the highest quality possible from digital media, including MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and DVD formats. Unique features offered by the EM8510 family include analog YPbPr/RGB video outputs with optional scaling up to HDTV resolution, video over IP, and support for DVI/HDCP or LCD displays. A wide variety of media types are supported, accessible through a powerful navigation engine.
Availability
The EM8510 media processors will be sold through Sigma's direct sales force. Samples will be available in March with production scheduled for May.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including statements about the projected timing and extent of customer shipments as well as the expected use of Sigma's MPEG decoder products. Actual results could vary from those projected in the forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including worldwide economic conditions, changes in the customer's ability or desire to complete the roll-out, consumer reaction to the new products and services being offered, the ability of Sigma to deliver sufficient quantity and quality of MPEG decoder chips, prices for the Sigma chips, alternative offerings by competitors, and the ability of the parties to work together successfully to achieve the rollout.
Apple sends out iPod Mini
Ina Fried and Dinesh C. Sharma
CNET News.com
February 18, 2004, 11:00 GMT
Apple has started shipping the cut-down version of its digital music player, saying more than 100,000 orders have already been received
Apple Computer said on Tuesday that it has started shipping its iPod Mini, adding that it has received more than 100,000 preorders for the tiny music player since it was announced last month.
The $249 (£130) iPod Mini, which uses a new generation of diminutive hard drives, includes 4GB of storage -- enough for about 1,000 songs -- and is about the size of a half-inch-high stack of business cards. Like the older, larger iPod, the new version will work with both Macintosh and Windows PCs.
"We're definitely excited by the response we've had from customers," iPod product manager Stan Ng said in an interview, referring to the orders that individuals placed through Apple's Web site. Apple is still watching to make sure that the iPod Mini doesn't cannibalise sales from the original iPod, but Ng said that so far, it appears to be attracting a new audience.
"Does the iPod Mini take away from iPod sales?" Ng said. "What we've seen so far says it really doesn't."
Ng declined to quantify traditional iPod sales since the Mini's announcement, but he said, "It continues to be a very strong seller for us." The new player appears, anecdotally, to appeal more to young people and women than the original iPod. The device also appears to be more popular among the fitness crowd.
While some early orders are now shipping, Apple said the Mini, which comes in silver, gold, pink, blue or green, will show up in Apple stores and at authorised retailers on Friday evening.
The iPod has given Apple a strong market share lead, an edge the company is looking to maintain with the Mini. As of November, the iPod had a 31 percent market share among all MP3 players sold and an even larger share of the hard drive-based music player market. The company sold a record 730,000 iPods last quarter.
At the same time, Apple is facing increased competition from a range of products, many including tiny hard drives similar to the iPods'. The Mini will also have to compete with devices that, though bulkier, cost the same or less and hold more music.
Cornice, which makes a hard drive that competes with the one the Mini uses, said Tuesday that its drive is powering several new devices, including the Wi-Fi-equipped Aireo from Soniqcast, Digitalway's MPIO HD200 and Nextway's NHD-150D. Cornice's drives are also used in devices from Digital Networks North America (makers of the Rio line), Creative Technology, RCA and iRiver.
Apple, meanwhile, is also trying to maintain the top spot in the online music download market, where the company claims a 70 percent market share with its iTunes Music Store, despite competition from Napster, MusicMatch and others.
Over the weekend, Apple started selling $15 prepaid music cards at Target. The cards are being sold both with the iPods in the electronics department as well as in the CD section, Apple said.
Tim Deal, a Technology Business Research analyst, praised Apple's move to offer the prepaid cards.
"This is another way for Apple to generate interest in the iPod," Deal said. "By placing gift cards on end caps in 1,200 Target stores, Apple will appeal to impulse shoppers, last-minute gift buyers and many who have yet to learn about the music store."
Deal also said the cards may appeal to those who are leery about using their credit card for online purchases.
Apple is also moving ahead with its Pepsi promotion, in which 100 million songs are being given away. Although most of the winning codes are in certain Pepsi and Diet Pepsi bottles, the soft-drink maker is also testing out putting the codes in cans as well as in fountain drinks and Slurpees sold at 7-Eleven.
The 4 GB Microdrive will be available for $499 USD"..which is exactly why any product based off of it will be a non-starter
The mini iPod is already using the product. Entire player is less than listed price of HDD..so much for suggested list price LOL Also some other 4gb players are using it as well
lickily
Thanks I was posting this latest info for those who think our player is the only one that allows independent control of program viewing.......
Latest IFE allows start pause stop features
(from latest Northest pr)
The World Business Class cabins of Northwest's 747-400s are also being equipped with a new, fully interactive in-flight entertainment system, offering a wide variety of music, movies, short subject programs, games, shopping, and in-flight information, all "on demand."
The new system permits customers the freedom and flexibility to start, pause or stop any of these options at any time. World Business Class customers have a better viewing experience with a 10.4 inch video screen, which is 50 percent larger than the screens found in business class seats on other U.S. airlines and many international airlines.
Apple ships iPod mini; over 100,000 pre-orders already
Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 08:40 AM EST
Apple today announced that iPod mini, the world's smallest portable music player ever to hold up to 1,000 CD-quality songs, will be available on Friday, February 20 at 6:00 p.m. at the Apple Store(R) (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers throughout the U.S. iPod mini is encased in an ultra-portable, lightweight anodized aluminum body and available in a choice of five colors-silver, gold, pink, blue and green. Apple has received over 100,000 pre-orders for the iPod mini which was introduced last month.
"The response to iPod mini has been off the charts," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing in the press release. "iPod mini broadens the market for iPod by competing head-on with flash-based players. iPod mini costs only about $50 more than a 256MB flash-based player, yet it holds 16 times the music, is smaller, is easier to use and provides superior
audio."
Smaller than most cell phones and weighing only 3.6 ounces, iPod mini builds on the success of the original touch wheel with Apple's innovative patent-pending Click Wheel, which combines the ease and simplicity of the touch wheel with five push buttons for precise, one-handed navigation.
iPod mini features the same award-winning user interface as the rest of the iPod family and works effortlessly with Apple's iTunes Music Store, the world's number one digital music service, and the iTunes digital music jukebox software for seamlessly buying, managing and listening to digital music collections. iPod mini uses Apple's patent pending Auto-Sync technology that automatically downloads an entire digital music library onto iPod mini and keeps it up-to-date whenever iPod mini is plugged into a Mac or Windows computer.
iPod mini for Mac and Windows will be available in the U.S. through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers on Friday, February 20 for a suggested retail price of $249 (US). iPod mini will be available worldwide in April. iPod mini comes in a choice of a silver, gold, pink, blue or green 4GB model and includes a belt clip. All iPod minis include earbud headphones, an Apple iPod mini power adapter, a 1.2m 30-pin to FireWire(R) cable, a 1.2m 30-pin to USB 2.0 cable, and a CD with iTunes 4.2 for Mac and Windows computers.
Optional accessories with the following suggested retail prices include the iPod Dock for $39 (US), in-ear headphones for $39 (US) and arm band for $29 (US). Laser engraving is available for iPod mini for $19 (US) and can include two lines of text with up to 23 characters per line.
iPod mini can be charged with either the FireWire or USB 2.0 cable and gets up to eight hours of battery life. iPod mini requires a Mac with a FireWire port and Mac OS(R) X version 10.1.5 or later (Mac OS X v10.2 or later recommended); or a Windows PC with a FireWire or USB 2.0 port, or a Windows-certified FireWire or USB 2.0 card and Windows 2000, XP Home or Professional.
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
iPod wanna-bes have some good points
By DAVID POGUE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Even this early in the campaign, the battle for the popular vote is really heating up; the incumbent is being challenged by lesser-known candidates from all over the country. The winner will be the candidate with the best balance of new ideas and appealing looks -- and battery life.
I am referring, of course, to the battle for supremacy among portable music players.
So far, Apples iPod is by far the best seller among high-capacity players. You can't stand in a public place without seeing a pair of those telltale white earbud cords pass by; for once in its life, Apple gets to find out what its like to be Microsoft. The iPod's success has spawned an entire industry of iPod cases, iPod accessories, iPod software -- and now, inevitably, iPod imitators.
The rivals come from electronics makers (Samsung) and from fellow computer makers (Dell, Gateway), as well as from veteran music-player makers (Rio, Creative Labs, iRiver).
Most have the familiar iPod ingredients: a screen, a tiny hard drive and a rechargeable battery, all packed into a rectangular case and accompanied by earbuds. Most come with jukebox software that loads your collection of music files -- which you've either downloaded or ripped from music CDs -- onto the player over a USB 2.0 cable.
The other notable feature of these competitors is a marketing message that's either just like the iPod, only cheaper or just like the iPod, only better.
Now, you're a busy person, so here's the gist: most of these rivals are cheaper -- usually $100 less. But better is another story. The iPod is still smaller, more attractive and more thoughtfully designed than any of the upstarts.
It's also much more than just a music player. The iPod also can display your calendar and address book, serve as a text reader and alarm clock, help you pass the time with a suite of games, and so on. And that's before you tap into the universe of add-on shareware programs. (One intriguing example is iSpeak It for the Mac, which converts any text file, Web page or Microsoft Word document into a spoken-word soundtrack, using synthesized voices.)
Even so, certain audiences will prefer the iPod alternatives. For many people these days, cheaper is better than better. Maybe you crave this bell or that whistle that the iPod lacks -- a built-in FM radio, say, or a built-in microphone. Or maybe your Windows PC doesn't have Windows 2000 or XP -- a requirement for iTunes, the iPods companion software. (The iPod works with both Mac and Windows; most of the rivals are Windows-only.)
Furthermore, if you want to shop at one of those $1-a-song music Web sites, buying an iPod pretty much limits you to Apples iTunes music store. (The Apple store's AAC files play only on the iPod. The other stores, like Napster and Musicmatch, deliver WMA files that work on any player except the iPod.) Of course, that's like being forced to drive a Lexus or limited to staying at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons, but you get the point.
Finally, most of the iPods-in-training can run 13 to 16 hours per charge (manufacturers estimates), compared with the iPod's eight. That may be important if you routinely commute from, say, New York to Tokyo, although bigger batteries add bulk.
If cost is your main concern, you'll find that the standout feature of Dell's cleanly designed, very easy-to-use DJ 15 player is its price: $250 for the 15-gigabyte model, $300 for the 20. For now, Dell is even offering an additional 10 percent off at dell.com. (The corresponding iPods cost $300 and $400.)
Unfortunately, the Dell feels half-baked, especially in comparison with the highly polished iPod. For example, its the only player that falls silent when you try to fast-forward or rewind through a song. Incredibly, you can't make it play your entire music collection, beginning to end. And although it has a microphone for low-quality voice notes, the Dell offers no way to copy such recordings back to your PC for transcription or sending to friends. It's a feature in search of a purpose. (Dell says it will fix the latter two glitches later in a revamped player this March.)
Like the Dell, Gateway's 20-gigabyte DMP X20 ($300) is bigger and heavier than the iPod. It features the industry's biggest screen (2.5 inches diagonally); a microphone like the Dell; and an FM radio, which is a logical and welcome enhancement to a music player. (Yes, yes, I know 5,000 songs fit on here -- but what am I supposed to listen to after that?)
The Gateway and the iPod are also the only players in this derby that can play digital books on tape from Audible.com.
But here again, some of these improvements over the iPod seem to have been designed more for the brochure than for the customer. Why on earth, for example, can't you record songs off the radio? (You can on the Samsung YP-910 GS player, and it's a great way to expand your music collection legally.) And to load up the Gateway, it's too bad you have to use plain old Windows Media Player, a clunky program not particularly suited to the task -- and one with no integrated online music store.
The Samsung ($300), by contrast, was designed to sync with the Napster 2.0 $1-a-song service. Unfortunately, the Napster jukebox software is no iTunes; it offers, for example, no way to rip your CDs into audio files for loading onto your player.
When it comes to bonus features, the Samsung gets an A for effort. It can memorize 44 FM stations as presets; record from the radio; and, when you attach the included antenna stick, it can even broadcast its music to an unused FM frequency on your home or car stereo. (Alas, interference prevents this kind of transmitter from working very well, regardless of the player.)
Ultimately, though, the Samsung is just too eccentric. Its button layout is random and illogical, its plastic case feels cheap, and the large neon-blue lights that surround its control pad are just as tacky as those light-up frames people install on their license plates.
Now, most of these machines fall short because their designers have tried to mimic the iPod without fully understanding its appeal. Two of the players exhibit personalities and fresh approaches all their own.
One is the black metal-clad iPod-size iRiver iHP-i20. The price is the same as the iPods ($400 for 20 gigabytes; a 40-gigabyte model costs $500). But you also get an FM radio, a superb built-in voice recorder (with a choice of recording quality and format), an external tie-clip-style mike and two line inputs for recording directly from, say, a CD player or tape deck. Like Apple, Dell, Gateway and Samsung, iRiver provides a wired remote that controls the player in your purse or pocket -- but iRiver's remote has a little backlighted screen of its own that identifies the current song.
The iRiver's crushing disappointment is that it was designed by engineers, for engineers; its menus make the cockpit of a 767 look spartan.
None of the companies who lust for some of Apple's pie can deliver the elegance and convenience of Apple's music trinity: iPod, the iTunes software and the iTunes music store.
But if an iPod isn't for you, you could do worse than buying the Dell for its simplicity and economy, the iRiver for its super-geeky feature list or the Rio Karma for its excellent design and compact dimensions. In this election, at least, there can be more than one victor.
Apple sits on digital-music throne with iPod and store
February 16, 2004
There may be a mini-revolution – iPod mini, that is – with Apple's release of its junior digital music player, due out soon. The full-size iPod dominates the field with about 25 percent to 30 percent of the digital-player market.
Since 2001, Apple has sold more than 2 million iPods, 733,000 in the last quarter alone. The company has achieved the kind of market share with the iPod that it never will with its computers, unfortunately.
The iPod's success parallels that of Apple's online iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 30 million downloads since it opened for business in April.
Both the iPod and the music store work with Windows-based PCs as well as Macs.
The mini, at 3.6 ounces, or 2 ounces lighter than its sibling, will hold 4 gigabytes of music (about 1,000 songs) and sell for $249. It will come in a rainbow of colors – blue, pink, green, silver and gold.
The full-size iPod now starts with a 15-gigabyte hard drive ($299) and goes up to a 40-gigabyte model ($499).
Yes, there are other less-expensive – and perfectly decent – players out there. And there are new ones in the offing.
This spring, Sony, which started the whole portable-music revolution 25 years ago with the creation of the Walkman, plans to launch a downloading service that will work with its new players. Players from iRiver, Dell and Gateway are also well-regarded.
Class by itself
But the iPod is in a class by itself. Not only is the device inspired, the software it uses makes it easy to add and update music. In many ways, the iPod is the epitome of what good technology should be: easy to use and awfully fun.
It is also one of the most personal gadgets in the personal-technology universe. Forget spreadsheets here! We don't need no stinkin' spreadsheets! To heck with e-mail. Bah, humbug to boring desktop calendars. We're talking music here! Who doesn't like music?
And while iPods may look alike, each holds a key to its owner's personality. In a country replete with strip malls, tract houses and big-box retailers, the iPod represents individuality. No two iPod owners will have the same music on their devices.
Being able to carry your entire music collection on this one device, no matter where you go, makes 12-CD players in cars seem very 20th century.
An early bump
Careful readers will note that I said "in many ways" – but not all – the iPod is the epitome of good technology. When I got mine recently, it worked great – the first time. After that, it was like amnesia had struck the player. I wound up sending it back to Apple, and it was returned to me 10 days later, repaired and ready to rumba.
So far, so good. I add new tunes to it almost daily, and now have more than 600 music files on it, with more than half of them coming from my own CDs. With a 20-gigabyte drive, I have about 4,400 songs to go before it's filled up. I'm a happy camper.
The battery issue
There is controversy about the iPod's battery life over the long haul. The iPod has a hard drive that stores music and uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery, with up to 8 hours' play. Most other players rely on flash memory for storage and AA or AAA batteries to run.
Last fall, Casey Neistat, a New York filmmaker, took his 2001 iPod to an Apple store in Manhattan last fall to ask about replacing the device's battery. He said he was told that his best bet was to buy a new iPod, that a replacement battery was not an option. That resulted in his creating a Web site (http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com) to protest Apple's handling of the matter. The site got lots of publicity. And it probably spurred Apple to create a $99 battery-replacement offer, which Neistat now describes as "fair."
Still, Apple is facing a class-action lawsuit by some who say the company has misrepresented the iPod's battery life. Apple says it is doing its own investigation.
Suzanne Choney: (619) 293-2226; suzanne.choney@ uniontrib.com
iPod mini wins over press
By Karen Haslam
Apple's new iPod mini is earning rave media reviews prior to it hitting US shops on Friday.
Regarding its styling, Cnet states: "The Apple iPod mini's design surpasses even that of its photogenic older sibling."
Similarly a Mercury News article says: "The Mini's elegant exterior. The one-piece anodized aluminum shell, the same casing as Apple's PowerBook laptop computers, is a thing of beauty."
The mini also receives praise for its diminutive size. The Mercury News makes the following comparison with the standard iPod: "The regular iPod squeezes into a shirt pocket and drags down your shirt front. The Mini gets lost in a shirt pocket. The regular iPod can be cradled in your hand. The Mini can be hidden in your fingers."
Cnet notes: "The new player takes up less volume than any other player that uses Hitachi's 4GB one-inch hard drive."
The tough exterior of the iPod mini is also commented on. Cnet describes its "stylish, anodized-aluminum shell" and states: "It is so tough that we felt as if we could stand on the device without consequence."
Also praised is the iPod mini's new style scroll wheel. Cnet says: "The tastiest design treat to our palate is the revamped scrollwheel."
Similarly Bizreport states: "That ClickWheel is a revelation. As a result, this may be the first MP3 player that can be operated while wearing mittens."
Other new functions are also highlighted. Cnet singles out Autosync mode saying: "iTunes sizes up your Mini's available storage space and creates a playlist that fits the capacity perfectly, consisting of songs you've rated highly or listened to more frequently."
One area where Apple could have received criticism is over battery life. But all the journalists who have reviewed the new device are satisfied with the battery performance of this new model.
In fact Bizreport found that battery life surpassed Apple's promise: "Battery life, at about 10 hours, actually exceeded Apple's estimate of eight hours."
One area where the iPod mini did attract criticism was price, with the Mercury News noting that a 15GB iPod costs a mere $50 more.
The author of the Mercury News report says: "My digital music library is now 8 gigabytes, so it wouldn't fit in the Mini. But it would fit in the 15-gigabyte model with lots of room to grow. This cools my love-at-first-sight reaction to the Mini. I don't yet own a portable hard-disk music player, although I'm seriously contemplating a purchase this year. But it won't be the Mini; at the moment, I'm leaning toward the 15-gigabyte iPod."
But Bizreport doesn't see the need for the extra gigabytes. The report states: "Unless you just can't live without having your entire music library in your pocket – say, if you're planning a trip around the world -- the mini iPod's more than enough."
In Cnet's opinion: "At $250, the iPod Mini is more expensive than some hard drive-based players with larger capacities, but bragging rights alone could make it worth the price."
Despite the author's decision to opt for the 15GB iPod, Bizreport still believes that the new iPod mini is better than the original iPod. The report states: "The old iPod worked fine, but this is better. This kind of painstaking perfectionism explains why the iPod continues to sell so well -– the rest of the industry runs on a "get it working, then move onto something else" mentality."
DivXNetworks Partners With Plextor to Release First DivX Certified Hardware Video Encoder
SAN DIEGO & FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 2004--
Plextor ConvertX Video Capture Device Enables High-Quality DivX(R) Encoding and Editing
DivXNetworks Inc., the company that created the revolutionary, patent-pending DivX(R) video compression technology, and Plextor(R) Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance CD-RW and RDVD disk drives and digital video converters, today announced a partnership to enable consumers to easily encode and edit high-quality video content. The two companies also announced that the Plextor ConvertX(TM) Digital Video Converter is the first official DivX Certified(TM) hardware encoding and editing device to hit the market.
ConvertX allows users to convert video from a wide variety of sources to high-quality DivX video in real time using a Windows-based PC. The hardware device is used for consumer and business video applications. Before certifying ConvertX, the DivXNetworks expert team of video engineers subjected the device to a rigorous testing process to ensure high performance and interoperability with all versions of DivX video. The ConvertX Model PX-M402U is available today for $159 at www.divx.com/hardware.
"We're excited to partner with Plextor to bring the first DivX Certified hardware encoding device to market. Our users can now easily achieve real-time DivX encoding without maxing out their processor or shutting down every other application running on their PC," said Bill Holmes, director of product management for consumer electronics at DivXNetworks Inc. "The ConvertX device is a great product that satisfies a significant need in the marketplace. We have seen numerous requests for hardware DivX encoding from partners and consumers, and with an officially certified hardware encoder, users can now create video files that will be 100% compatible with the millions of DivX Certified DVD players hitting the market in 2004."
The new ConvertX device also allows users to easily edit DivX video content, making it faster and easier for users to cut unwanted scenes and add titles, transitions and special effects. Thanks to the industry-leading compression ratio of DivX video, ConvertX users can store up to 2 hours of high-quality video on a single CD or 10 hours of high-quality video on a single recordable DVD. The standard for highly compressed high-quality video, DivX is among the world's most popular video technologies with over 100 million users worldwide.
"ConvertX is the first hardware encoding device on the market with full DivX video encoding and editing capability," said Howard Wing, vice president of sales and marketing, Plextor. "By partnering with DivXNetworks, we are providing great value to DivX users everywhere who have been awaiting a high-performance, easy-to-use hardware device to encode and edit all their content."
With the launch of the DivX Certified Program for encoding devices, DivXNetworks includes a full DivX software development kit, rigorous certification testing, and marketing and sales support focused on helping third party development and OEM partners create DivX Certified hardware encoding solutions. The DivX Certified Program enables companies to meet the global demand for high-quality DivX video-enabled encoding devices, including video peripherals, video cards, digital cameras, digital camcorders, personal video recorders and more. For more information on the DivX Certified Program, visit www.divx.com/certified. For more information on the Plextor ConvertX device, visit www.plextor.com/english/products/ConvertX2.htm.
About DivXNetworks
DivXNetworks is a consumer-focused video technology company positioned at the center of multimedia convergence. The company's core offering is the DivX(R) video codec, the world's most popular MPEG-4 compatible video compression technology with over 100 million users worldwide. Often called "the MP3 of video," the patent-pending DivX video technology offers DVD-quality at 10 times greater compression than MPEG-2 files, enabling full length films to easily fit on a CD or be delivered over broadband connections. DivX video technology powers a range of applications that span the convergence value chain, from a secure IP-based video-on-demand solution to next-generation consumer electronics products and video software applications. DivXNetworks is headquartered in San Diego, California, with satellite offices in Los Angeles and San Jose, Calif., Taipei, Taiwan and Dortmund, Germany. For more information, visit http://www.divxnetworks.com.
About Plextor
Plextor Corp. is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment for professionals, consumers, and enterprises. Headquartered in Silicon Valley since 1990, Plextor has introduced generations of award-winning products, including optical drives for CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+/-/R/RW and video capture devices. Plextor is privately owned by Shinano Kenshi Co. Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of advanced technology hardware and precision electronic equipment headquartered in Japan. Contact Plextor at www.plextor.com.
Agreed, but I was responding to peoples accusations about shares and I Kant...which again were not given, sold or exchanged any shares.
I KANT received money and were paid back with money...a terrible ripoff interest rate to be sure.. (as well as other choking conditions with the loan )but no shares were given, sold or exchanged.
I KANT DID NOT RECEIVE SHARES FROM e.DIGITAL! eom
CONFIRMATION FROM UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear John
Thanks for the Idea!
Thank you for submitting your idea to enhance the customer experience and help change the way we do business at United.
You are thinking out of the box for inflight entertainment!
Luckily, so are we. We are in the process of evaluating several inflight entertainment options, including the DigEPlayer. Look for exciting news in the next 60-90 days in this competitive product arena.
Please continue to send in other ideas to help achieve this goal.
Regards,
Division Representative for Marketing
From Ragingbull
johnin773
13 Feb 2004, 10:18 AM EST
Msg. 1180221 of 1180223
UNITED (TED) To TEST DIGIPLAYER!?!?!
(repost?)
United discount carrier takes off
Named Ted, airline hopes new strategy is a money-maker
By Catherine Tsai, Associated Press
DENVER -- Ted has taken off.
United Airlines' discount carrier took its first flight from Las Vegas to Denver before dawn Thursday, launching a key component of United's strategy to emerge from bankruptcy this summer.
United parent UAL Corp. hopes Ted will be competitive with low-cost carriers that are rapidly snatching customers from big airlines. The new airline is based in Denver, home to discount carrier Frontier Airlines.
Ted took off on its first flight from San Francisco International Airport to Las Vegas at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. A return flight from Las Vegas landed at SFO at 9:30 p.m. Initially, Ted will have just that flight everyday from SFO.
"The airline is going very slowly, and doesn't want to expand too quickly," said Mike McCarron, spokesman for SFO. "We're very pleased. The flight left six minutes early."
McCarron said that additional Ted flights from SFO to Phoenix and Denver will be added over the next two months by the airline, targeting leisure passengers.
Ted has not affected advance bookings for Frontier, whose executives handed out treats Thursday, spokesman Joe Hodas said.
United, the nation's No. 2 airline, has pitched Ted as laid-back fun, with free overhead programming -- Tedevision -- that includes music videos and comedies, and free music on Tedtunes. Executives said they will also test handheld entertainment units customers can rent.
Delta Air Lines launched a similar operation last year, Song, on East Coast routes to try to emulate the success of JetBlue Airways.
Analysts have been skeptical of Ted, citing the failures of low-fare ventures like United Shuttle and the fact that neither United nor Delta has been able to negotiate lower wages on their new airlines.
"This isn't a new airline," aviation consultant Mike Boyd said. "It has the same costs as United and the same fares as it did yesterday."
Executives said Ted differs from other low-fare carriers because it is linked to United's frequent-flier program. It also includes a 66-seat section with 4 extra inches of leg room.
The Ted fleet will expand to up to 45 Airbus A320 aircraft by year's end. Each A320 will have 156 seats.
Sean Donohue, United vice president of Ted, said early bookings are filling 90 percent of the airline's seats. Frontier Airlines recently reported a record quarterly load factor of about 77 percent.
Routes include Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Denver to Las Vegas, Phoenix, New Orleans and Reno, Nev. Ted -- as in UniTED -- is expected to have 106 daily flights by early April.
United flight attendants, accusing the airline of reducing retirement benefits, organized rallies to coincide with the launch of Ted. The union says United is reneging on an agreement to give more benefits to flight attendants who retired before July 1, even as it