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Press Release Source: SRS Labs, Inc.
SRS WOW(TM) Technology Adds Audio Punch to New Portable Digital Audio Player From e.Digital
Tuesday March 4, 7:31 am ET
WOW Technology Rapidly Becoming Audio Standard for Digital Entertainment Products
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030304/latu038_1.html
SANTA ANA, Calif., March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SRS Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRSL - News), a leading provider of innovative audio, voice and ASIC technology solutions, today announced that its patented WOW audio technology has been selected by e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG - News) to deliver the ultimate audio experience for its premier digital audio player, the Odyssey(TM) 1000. WOW creates a natural and expansive audio experience with rich bass enhancement through Odyssey's included collapsible stereo headphones or when connected to the external speakers of a home stereo or multimedia PC system. The Odyssey 1000 is available exclusively through e.Digital at www.edigital-store.com/odyssey1000.html for $349.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to InStat/MDR, worldwide portable digital music player unit shipments (including solid state and revolving media products) will grow from about 7.2 million in 2002 to almost 30 million in 2006. Based on e.Digital's MicroOS(TM) technology, the Odyssey 1000 plays both MP3 and Windows Media(TM) audio files and features an FM tuner and a digital voice recorder with built- in microphone.
Steve Ferguson, e.Digital's vice president of sales and marketing, said, "When designing our premier large-capacity player, the Odyssey 1000, we chose to incorporate SRS WOW audio technology because it delivers the most powerful audio experience possible in a portable entertainment product. Our customers demand the best and we are pleased to offer them the best design, the best features, and the best audio technology."
"e.Digital's new Odyssey 1000 is an example of the growing importance of delivering a high quality audio experience in portable entertainment products," said Ted Franceschi, executive vice president, marketing and sales for SRS Labs. "WOW is the ideal audio solution for this rapidly growing product segment and we are pleased to work with an innovative company such as e.Digital to deliver the ultimate in digital audio entertainment."
SRS WOW is an award-winning, patented, playback enhancement technology that improves audio dynamics and bass performance of any mono or stereo audio. It provides a stunning improvement when used with smaller speakers or headphones that are not capable of achieving a high fidelity experience, especially when the audio has been digitally compressed into formats such as MP3 and WMA. WOW is a compelling audio solution for manufacturers of mobile or portable devices, in addition to products in which speakers are located close together, such as televisions. Hardware and software products that feature WOW include mobile phones from Sharp, Microsoft's Windows® Media Player series software products, car CD receivers from Kenwood, as well as televisions from Sony and Sharp. To date, over 300 million hardware or software products have been shipped or downloaded that include the powerful WOW audio feature.
About e.Digital
e.Digital Corporation designs, licenses, brands, manufactures, and sells digital audio products and technologies. The company's trademarked digital audio players include the MXP® 100, Treo(TM) portable digital jukebox line, and Odyssey(TM) line of flash- and hard disk drive- based players. e.Digital launched WeDigMusic.com to complement its digital audio players by providing consumers with a one-stop-shop for streaming and downloading music from thousands of artists on the Web. For more information on the company, please visit www.edig.com . To shop in the e.Digital online store, please visit www.edigital-store.com .
About SRS Labs Inc.
Over the past decade, SRS Labs has become a recognized leader in the advancement of audio and voice technology. The company works with the world's top manufacturers to provide a richer entertainment experience through patented sound techniques. SRS technologies can be heard through products ranging from televisions, DVD players, and cell phones to car audio systems and computers. Through its SRSWOWcast subsidiary, the company offers hardware and software tools to professionals and consumers for the production of content featuring SRS technologies. SRS Labs' wholly owned subsidiary, ValenceTech, is located in Hong Kong and provides custom ASICs and standard ICs to top manufacturers worldwide. Based in Santa Ana, Calif., the company also has licensing representation in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe, and Korea. For more information about SRS Labs, Inc. or SRS technologies, please visit www.srslabs.com . The information on the above-referenced websites is not incorporated by reference into this press release.
For further information, please contact: Investors, Tami Yanito of SRS Labs, Inc., +1-949-442-1070, ext. 3093, tami@srslabs.com
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Source: SRS Labs, Inc.
Windows Media 9 Enables "Second Session" Creation
By Staff
Mar 10, 2003, 16:38 PST
http://www.uemedia.com/CPC/article_5814.shtml
Redmond, WA -- Microsoft recently announced the availability of its Windows Media Data Session Toolkit, a content protection/copy management component of Windows Media 9 Series designed to enable entertainment media companies to securely create and deliver content for computers via a "second session" on various recorded media formats.
CDs and DVDs created using Windows Media Data Session Toolkit include a protected second session, which includes a version of the audio encoded using Windows Media Audio that can be played back when loaded or downloaded onto a PC. The second session includes packaged Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) content, which allows content owners such as music labels and movie studios to set up specific business rules around usage to protect their intellectual property.
For example, content owners could set up rules to allow a consumer unlimited playback of content from a CD or DVD on their PC and give them the ability to transfer content to a portable device. Entire second session digital offerings also could be made available for direct downloading via the Web.
In addition, content providers can offer content or capabilities that are only available in second sessions. The second session could include artist interviews, bonus tracks, liner notes or enhanced playback capabilities such as support for 5.1-channel surround sound through a PC running the Windows XP operating system.
French replicator MPO has adopted the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit technology and is marketing the capability to its international customer base of record labels, which includes EMI Virgin, Warner, Universal and independent label Naive.
The new technology has also received endorsement from Universal Music Group and EMI Recorded Music.
Some of the first commercial album releases using an early version of the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit include the U.S. version of Sinead O'Connor's Sean-Nos Nua on Vanguard Records, Len Doolin's Once in a Lifetime on Sunbird Records and a forthcoming DVD-ROM from the U.S. band Fischerspooner on Capitol Records.
The Windows Media platform includes Windows Media Player; Windows Media Services, a streaming server for distributing content; Windows Media Encoder for content creation; Windows Media Audio and Video; Windows Media DRM for protecting content; and the Windows Media Software Development Kit for software developers.
( BW)(MA-COPYRIGHT-CLEARANCE) Euromoney Implements Digital Rights Management Solution from Copyright Clearance Center
BW5453 MAR 11,2003 6:51 PACIFIC 09:51 EASTERN
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.031103/230705453&director...
Business Editors
DANVERS, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2003--
Customers Can Easily Secure Rights to Reproduce Content from 'Euromoney,' 'Institutional Investor,' and Many Other Popular Euromoney Titles
Copyright Clearance Center, the world's largest licensing agent of text reproduction rights, today announced that London-based Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC has implemented Rightslink(TM), a digital rights management (DRM) solution, on Euromoney's flagship Web sites euromoney.com and institutionalinvestor.com. Copyright Clearance Center's licensing solution currently enables 24x7 permissions to use copyrighted materials from Institutional Investor, Euromoney and other widely read Euromoney titles, and will provide permissions for content from all Euromoney titles in the future.
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC is one of a growing number of financial information services organizations using Rightslink to derive additional value from digital assets, while easing copyright compliance for customers. Others include Dow Jones and Company, MSNBC.com, and Thomson Media, publisher of American Banker.
Paul Hunt, business manager for Euromoney, is deeply impressed with Rightslink's design. "Copyright Clearance Center is very experienced in rights management and its reach extends to business users worldwide, offering us a low-risk solution," he said. "When we selected Rightslink, we knew that it would meet our needs. It is helping us harness the value of our content in the digital marketplace and test pricing models for this uncharted terrain."
"Digital, point-of-content licensing continues to gain momentum across the financial publishing sector," said Bob Weiner, Copyright Clearance Center's vice president of licensing and rightsholder relations. "With the growing amount of online content that Euromoney provides, it faces the challenges of ensuring copyright compliance and generating measurable value from its assets. By implementing Rightslink, Euromoney simplifies the permissions/payment process, and is able to generate new revenues from the evolving digital marketplace."
Copyright Clearance Center's Rightslink is a complete DRM solution that extends the value of content for rightsholders by creating revenue opportunities, increasing customer satisfaction and improving operational efficiencies. The service facilitates web-based content reuse in print or electronic publications, automates ordering of hard-copy reprints, and provides valuable insight into customer behavior to support intelligent marketing decisions.
About Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Copyright Clearance Center is the world's largest licensing agent for text reproduction rights and provider of licensing services for reproducing copyrighted materials in print and electronic formats. It currently manages rights relating to over 1.75 million works and represents more than 9,600 publishers and hundreds of thousands of authors and other creators, either directly or through their representatives. Licensed customers in the U.S. number over 10,000 corporations and subsidiaries (including most of the Fortune 100), as well as thousands of government agencies, law firms, document suppliers, libraries, academic institutions, copy shops and bookstores. Copyright Clearance Center can be found at copyright.com.
About Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and publishes around 100 business-to-business titles including Petroleum Economist, Euromoney and Institutional Investor. In addition, the company runs conference and training events, database, electronic and other print publishing businesses in a variety of markets internationally. Further information is available at euromoneyplc.com.
--30--MB/bo*
CONTACT: Copyright Clearance Center
Christine Corcoran, 978/646-2631
ccorcoran@copyright.com
or
Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC
Paul Hunt, +44 207 779 8116
phunt@euromoneyplc.com
KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING PUBLISHING
SOURCE: Copyright Clearance Center
Industry still grappling with copy protection tech
15:30 Tuesday 11th March 2003
John Borland, CNET News.com
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2131748,00.html
Demand for chips destined for multimedia devices may mean that companies move digital rights technology onto software, so that they can be more flexible
Plans to hard-wire copy protection into popular digital music and video devices are being shelved as the consumer-electronics industry grapples interminably with antipiracy policies, standards and consumer rights.
Until recently, many makers of chips for consumer-electronics devices had hoped to build anticopying technology into the chips themselves, a process known as "hard coding". That technique speeds up a device, saves on battery power, and makes the antipiracy technology harder to break through. Prominent security researchers say that hardware-based rights management technologies are more secure than alternatives that rely primarily on software.
Chipmakers have not completely abandoned efforts to create such copy protection features. But developers now say that they're ready to move ahead with what some call a second best alternative in order to feed surging demand for chips bound for new multimedia devices such as MP3 players, mobile phones and PDAs. This so-called soft coding -- putting antipiracy rules into software that is more accessible to users -- is slower and less secure, but lets companies adapt to rapid changes in the market more easily, developers say.
"In the past we've invested in hardware security that has not borne fruit," said Michael Maia, vice president of marketing for Portal Player, a company that makes multimedia chips focused on portable devices. "But there's a big risk there, because the market changes so much. Until it stabilises enough, we will be soft-coding."
The impasse over copy protection has stretched on for years, feeding distrust between the entertainment industry and consumer-electronics makers swept up in the digital technology revolution. Delays in hammering out antipiracy features for MP3 players and other devices have led to at least one proposal for legislation that would mandate the creation of a government-backed copy protection standard -- a plan that was greeted with a standing ovation in Hollywood and catcalls in Silicon Valley.
That doesn't mean chipmakers oppose hard-wired copy controls. Indeed, the trend toward software-based protection is at odds with the longer-term direction of companies such as Intel and Microsoft, and their so-called trusted computing initiatives. Under both companies' plans, a hardware-based authentication system would let computers guard against hackers' intrusions and viruses, as well as potentially block use of pirated software, songs or movies.
Hard coding has proven extraordinarily elusive, however, making software-based copy controls the best alternative for bringing passable, but not perfect, antipiracy features to the coming generation of digital devices.
"For the average user, soft coding is sufficient. For the hacker, soft coding leads to a wide-open hole," said Maia. "But that's the reality right now, because the business is in flux."
Not perfect
Average music listeners surely will have little idea how deeply antipiracy technology might permeate the products they buy. But small differences in built-in rights-management technology can translate into big headaches for consumers, and ultimately have substantial influence over the success or failure of consumer products and digital music business models.
A few examples of that influence have already been seen today. Most MP3 players do not have any antipiracy, or digital rights management (DRM), technology built in. That has led the legal online music services to bar most transfers of songs to portable devices, creating a Byzantine list of what can and can't be done with music downloaded through services like MusicNet and PressPlay.
On the flip side, Sony has been one of the few companies to release portable music players with digital rights management technology built in, but some consumers have criticised its products as a result.
Chipmakers have watched the battles between record companies, consumer groups, file-swappers and legislators for the past year with some impatience. One constant has been Microsoft's rapid growth into the leading rights-protection company, while other once-prominent rivals such as Intertrust and Reciprocal have faltered.
Content companies have pushed manufacturers to support rights-management technology for years. Early cross-industry collaborations such as the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) failed, however. Individual device manufacturers and chipmakers have more pragmatically been signing licences to use varying digital rights management technologies over time, although few piracy-fighting devices have seen their way to shelves in the United States.
"The hardware companies get stuck in the middle," said Mike McGuire, an analyst with GartnerG2, a division of the Gartner research firm. "This issue is going to be part of an ongoing set of negotiations between content and device manufacturers."
Despite a move away from building the rights-management tools deeply into chips, chipmakers' strategies remain widely varied. Given the long lead time in designing and building chips -- often 18 months or more -- this is one sign that DRM support is likely to be scattered and haphazard for some time to come.
Giant Texas Instruments has long eschewed hard-coding DRM technology into its chips, for example, despite the potential speed and memory gains.
"Our philosophy has always been that DRM should be software," said Randy Cole, chief technologist for Texas Instruments' Internet audio business. "The advantage to that is that it's changeable in the field."
What that means is that if a consumer is able to break through the antipiracy technology on a device such as an MP3 player, it can be restored automatically the next time the device is connected to the Net, Cole said.
Other functions that support antipiracy technology are increasingly being added more deeply into multimedia chips, however. Maia's company, which has focused on creating chips for mobile devices such as mobile phones, is working on features that can speed up decryption of protected files such as songs that are transmitted over cell phone networks. That falls short of the benefits of putting the full rights-management system on the chip itself, however.
GartnerG2's McGuire said he expects the hardware manufacturers and chipmakers to stay out of the fray as much as possible until there is more clarity in the market and in the public policy arena. Given the different needs of different kinds of devices, the market may always be fractured, he noted.
"You're going to see some more false starts, but I think the notion here is that there is going to be ongoing experimentation," McGuire said. "Practically, we do not believe there's going to be a single magic bullet."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wrapped up in Crypto Bottles
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/14337/1.html
Stefan Krempl 09.03.2003
A talk with cyber-rights pioneer John Perry Barlow about Digital Restrictions Management and the future of human knowledge
John Perry Barlow or JPB for short is maybe best known for three things: he was the song writer for the Grateful Dead and is still supporting music bands. He wrote the Cyberspace Independence Declaration seven years ago during a visit to the World Economic Forum. And he tried to define a brand new way of thinking about copyright in an well-received article that was published in Wired magazine. Recently, the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation came to Berlin to fight the German version of the Digital Copyright Millennium Act (DMCA) together with the civil rights organization privatkopie.net. Stefan Krempl sat down with him to look forward and back in the history of Cyberspace and copyright.
There are new laws for copyright in the digital age drafted here in Europe everywhere at the moment. What do you think is at stake? Why is this an important issue people should care about?
John Perry Barlow: There are three things at stake. The first is, extending a monopoly to a few large organizations about what people can or cannot know and express. This is really about the control of information and it has the potential to become over time a kind of private totalitarianism. That is not an exaggeration since it has already happened in the United States. The reason that the U.S. is behaving in the completely irrational and dangerous way that it is, is because we have erected private totalitarianism and are suffering a reality distortion field that is as dangerous as the one erupted in Germany in the 1930s. But not being driven by the government, but being driven by the media. Being driven by ourselves. I fear erecting a system which highly advantages a very few corporate channels for human intellectual exchange.
What are the other points?
John Perry Barlow: Secondly, I fear that Digital Rights Management today is Political Rights Management tomorrow. That embedding these kinds of technological controls into the very architecture of computing has the capacity to become a form of political control in the not so distant future. Because you're putting at a very basic level surveillance capacity, control over what information may or may not travel, and a whole range of things in the architecture that can be very easily used to suppress dissent. Third, I am very afraid, that by wrapping a large amount of human knowledge up into bottles that can no longer be opened except at a price, much of it will be wrapped up in crypto bottles that in a very fairly short time cannot be opened even at a price. A huge amount of human creativity will simply be lost for future generations.
So you're mainly worried that the content industries in cooperation with the help of hardware and software makers and their DRM techniques are taking over control of the data universe?
John Perry Barlow: It's not the data universe only, it's human conversation. They want to turn it into a one-way flow that they have entirely monetized. I look at the collective human mind as a kind of ecosystem. They want to clear cut it. They want to go into the rainforest of human thought and mow the thing down.
Many people are worried about the efforts of the computer industry to establish a new computing model based on TCPA and Microsoft's Palladium.
John Perry Barlow: They should be.
What's your take on this issue?
John Perry Barlow: I think it's very dangerous. This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is the first form of Political Rights Management. And there won't be anything we can do about it. After these organizations have come up with a new business model, Palladium will still be there. And the chip and the computer architecture will have been changed so that it will be very easy to track what everybody is doing and saying online. Germany has some memory of what it's like to live in a society where everybody is visible in that way. And I suppose that we don't want to go there again.
Could you express a bit more widely your thoughts about copy protection and informational sustainability? I mean, today we still have a lot of books, and they can be read for centuries. What about the digital world?
John Perry Barlow: This is one of my greatest concerns. I am really afraid that a lot of material that is already in the Public Domain is going to be re-encapsulated and taken out of the Public Domain. I'm also very afraid that they are going to refuse to digitize -- or are only digitizing in this highly controlled way -- much of what has taken place over the last 150 years. And that, as a consequence, this will die embedded in their corpses and be lost to future generations. I'm disappointed with the human species that we are less concerned about that than we are about strengthening a monopoly for a very few large organizations. We're given this choice. Why are we choosing to help them instead of our descendants?
The "culture of the free" has to end, it was a "mistake by birth" of the Internet, Thomas Holtrop, the CEO of T-Online, proclaimed a while ago. If you could talk to him right now, what would you say?
John Perry Barlow: I would say that the culture of the free started the first time when somebody said something and it was heard by another human being. It wasn't started by the Internet. People have been sharing information that they found relevant without cost for their entire history. Do you think that there were royalties collected on the early cave paintings? Do you think that Bach wrote everything he wrote because he was looking to get his copyright royalties? The culture of the free has been around for a while. And people nevertheless managed to be enormously creative and managed to get paid for, by a wide variety of means.
You helped to found the EFF about 13 years ago due to "concerns over the combination of governmental zeal and cluelessness", you once said. How far did you come in educating the politicians?
John Perry Barlow: Unfortunately they are half-clued now in a dangerous way. Now they recognize that something is going on and they are responding to it in a way that is as bad and as harmful as it could be -- in terms of what I would consider to be the optimum future of Cyberspace.
Could you give an example?
John Perry Barlow: What I want to see is a world where anybody can know anything what they are curious about. I want to see a world where any kid in Africa can find out all that human beings know about any subject no matter how obscure. And that's not an unrealizable dream. But if we continue in this way, it will never be realized. And that's because the large media corporations, the content industry, have succeeded in buying our policy makers and taking over the control mechanisms. If you got to WIPO in Geneva, you will not find anybody who has not worked for a large content organization. They are just not there. They own that. If you go to Brussels, it's just the same. And they have succeeded in getting the public to think that there is no difference between sharing knowledge and shop-lifting.
You're maybe most famous in the "old" Internet community for writing the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace. "You titans made of flesh", in that time you wrote, "back off". How do you feel about the piece today?
John Perry Barlow: (laughing) I wish they would have taken my advice. I mean, looking back it seems impossibly quiet. It seems like an incredibly 90s thing to have done. I don't regret it, however, because I think that over the course of time it will be demonstrated to have been correct that the industrial period is simply not equipped to understand the information age. That the traditional nation state does not nearly have the same kind of sovereignty over the virtual domain.
The declaration still stands the test of time?
John Perry Barlow: Now one thing that I have regretted at that time and should have revised was that I didn't make it more clear that I understood that there was a profound connection between the physical and the virtual worlds. The virtual world bares the same relationship to the physical world that the mind bares to the body. Which is to say an intimate connection. But even though they are closely connected, the body and the mind are two very different things. And so are the politics of the virtual world, the global mental space, and the politics of the physical world. And so are the economics and so are the philosophical underpinnings. And those differences need to be recognized. What's been happening is that those differences are not being recognized and that the physical world is trying to impose all of its economics and political philosophy on the virtual world in a way that I think will be in the way of the long term reliability of the human race.
How is the copyright situation in the US in the moment? Do you consider it worse for the average user than in Europe?
John Perry Barlow: It's much worse because we already have the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that you plan imposing on yourself. We already have obscenely long extensions of copyright, which have been recently upheld by the Supreme Court in a way that I think is clearly unconstitutional. And even they had some questions about it. They ruled very narrowly. They ruled that Congress had the right to do what it had done even while expressing concerns that what it had done was wrong. And it's even getting worse. Hollywood wants to rule the world, make no mistake. And I think that there are more uplifting things for the world to be ruled by than Hollywood.
The EFF has warned often about the "chilling effect" the DMCA might have in terms of fair use and free speech. Do you still consider this piece of legislation a threat?
John Perry Barlow: The real threat has still to be seen. We're gonna really see it when all CDs are copy-protected, when all music and all literature has Digital Rights Management embedded, when all software does. And that will be very shortly. At that point it will be too late for us to do anything about it and furthermore we won't be able to have a public discourse on this subject because the channel will no longer be open for that to take place. That's already the case. You can see how difficult it is to get a story about copyright on television, despite the fact that it is extremely important and critical. But the channels just don't want to carry anything about it.
You've coined a totally different notion of copyright in your Wired article about the "Economy of Ideas". Could you please shortly sum up your main points?
John Perry Barlow: I said back in 1993 that it was going to be very difficult -- given the natural human desire to share information and human creativity -- to control that desire in an environment in that everything humans do can be easily reproduced at zero cost. And that we had to come up with a different way of monetizing human creativity than to deal with it as though it was no different from physical goods. Because the physical goods in which it was previously embedded would go away. And that what previously would have been a noun would become a verb. But we didn't know about the economy of verbs and we would have had to learn. Instead, what we've been doing is trying to turn many things that are not verbs into nouns and imposing a large number of very severe constraints on the people in order to preserve the business models of a few large organizations. And that's what the European Copyright Directive is about. It's about consolidating and strengthening media companies that are actually of dubious long term benefit to humanity.
Now, a decade onward, could you run a "reality check" on your thesis?
John Perry Barlow: I think it stands up quite well. Well, one thing where it does not stand up that well is that I don't think that I proposed the right kinds of approaches to solving the problem. I stated that there was a problem and I didn't talk much about solving it. Actually, one of the solutions I proposed is what I think extremely dangerous, which is the use of cryptography to bottle information. Which is much all this is about, giving a legal protection for that method. And I don't think anymore that this is a particularly good method. At this stage I have other suggestions how to monetize human creativity. I'm not too hard on myself on not having them because even today I feel like what needs to happen is for us to have an open field of experimentation what the appropriate business models are. When Gutenberg created the massively reproducible book there was no model for the economic return on that product. And actually it was another 250 years before they came up with copyright. And they somehow managed to have books in the meantime. I would have been a lot happier if we would have stuck to that waiting period instead of going right through the door as we've gone.
Giving away content might work in the realm of music. But would it also apply to other content and copyright areas?
John Perry Barlow: Well that was misunderstood. I mean, what I think the reality is that making freely available virtual copies increases the sale of physical copies in many cases. And it certainly did for the Grateful Dead. Despite the fact that our fans had access to better recordings that we made commercially available, they went out and bought our commercial copies. Not right away, but over the course of time just about all of our records went black. And I think that the fact that much literature is available online is in some way responsible for the fact that somehow book sales are higher than ever. Furthermore I think that even tough I would concede that some people are not buying CDs that the might have bought otherwise economic I would also insist that there are many people -- myself among them -- who have bought CDs because of downloading that the never would have bought. Otherwise you would see a much greater fall-off in the record industry.
Why?
John Perry Barlow: There are probably five or six million people trading files at any given moment with Morpheus or Kazaa. And the fact is that the record industry is only off ten percent. In the United States everything is off at least ten percent. We are in a recession. In fact, the record industry is not in anyway dying. It has just to become much more realistic after a long period in which it has seen obscene profits. Because when they first produced the CD they had huge gross margins. The cost of a CD was based on the cost of making a CD, and that cost plummeted immediately. And the cost of selling one and the cost of buying one staid the same. Huge amounts of many was pored into the record companies. They got ridiculously fat and heavy, and now they are having to pay the piper. And they claim it's not their own mismanagement and greed but that they are being attacked by pirates. In fact they had been the most unconsciousness pirate at all.
Would this model also work in other content areas?
John Perry Barlow: Yes, there the demonstration is even much more clear. You can get a DVD of any first-run movie now before it is released. But the actual attendance in theatres has never been higher. DVD sales and video cassette sales are on a all-time high. So if downloading is injurious to these industries, why are we not seeing the results? What they would tell you is, that we haven't seen them yet, but that we will. Well, I'm a big fan of solving problems that we have, not problems that we think we might have.
Do you have a long-time strategy to protect the knowledge commons?
John Perry Barlow: I don't think it's a matter of protecting them. It's a matter of distributing them properly. The whole notion of protection is based on the assumption that there is a hard-coupled relationship between scarcity and value. Which there is in physical goods, but not in virtual services, where there seems to be a relationship between familiarity and value. There are a variety of ways to monetize it. But one way that I think may work in the short run is for us to create a pool of money at the ISP level from a percentage of what people are charged for their online accounts and make those funds available on a statistical basis to the creators themselves as you do with entities like ASCAP. And unlike these licensing and collection entities, you have the potential to come up with a very clear understanding what material is actually passing online. You don't have to know who it's coming from or where it's going. But easy enough to know what it is quite accurately and then dividing up the proceeds from that general pool to the people who are responsible for the material that is passing through the ISPs on a most regular basis. That's my current idea for solving this problem. But his presupposes something that I am not very comfortable with which is compulsory licensing such as you've got it in broadcast now.
What role could Open Source play in this context?
John Perry Barlow: I think this movement will ultimately prevail. My big concern is what damage gets done before that happens. What architectural changes will be made in the substrate of computing, what intellectual output will be lost forever, and what freedoms will be endangered. But ultimately, it's hard to come up with a better model than open source where everybody can be involved improving everything. I don't care how smart you are, how rich you are as a company. You don't necessarily have the world's greatest programmers working for you. And even if you did, if you think about human knowledge and how it grows: it grows in an open system. It doesn't grow in a closed system. Science is about an open self-feeding process, it's about expanding the consensus and reality-checking at the broadest possible level. The same thing applies to any form of human creativity.
You've been doing a lot of research about Internet censorship too. Here in Germany, or better say: Nord-Rhine Westphalia, a government official has forced access providers to "block" access to two controversial US-sites with Neonazi content, which is, of course, illegal in Germany.
John Perry Barlow: Where does that stop?
Many people are worried that this is just a beginning. Do you see web blocks as a workable solution for the problem?
John Perry Barlow: I don't think that the answer to hate speech is trying to shut your ears to it. The answer is love speech. And as terrible and stupid I find Nazi propaganda, I still remember that Hitler was in jail when he wrote "Mein Kampf". So it would seem apparent to me that oppressing that kind of expression actually strengthens it and gives it a kind of credibility that it would not otherwise have. The answer to it is to let it disprove itself which it does quite easily when given the opportunity to flop out. But also I would say that a community has the right to define what is a permissible topic to discuss. I just think that a community by necessity is a smaller entity than the entire nation state. And the right to express inherently includes the right not to listen. But it doesn't necessarily include the right to make everybody else not listen.
In ten years, what will the Internet look like? Will there still be a culture of sharing information or will it be totally walled down?
John Perry Barlow: I would be very disappointed of my species if it is all walled down. But I'm afraid that what we're gonna see is two separate entities. One of which will look like interactive television and will have all of the commercially made available material that has been produced. And the other which will be an open-source Freenet and will have little access to the previous works of humanity. This is already more or less the case. If you go to Google and search on a topic what you get is what has been written but not published in a material form.
A German translation of this talk was published in c't 5/2003.
Intervideo Introduces Divx/AC3 Compatible Windvr 3
By Vipul Shah
DT: 12/03/2003
vipul@gate2info.net
Today at CeBIT 2003, Hanover Germany, Intervideo, Inc. announced release of WinDVR 3, the newest version of its digital video recorder for computers. WinDVR 3 lets users record TV shows directly to CD or DVD that can be watched later on a PC or a consumer DVD player. In fact, users don’t even have to be there to record, WinDVR 3 will even wake your computer up when it is time to record a show and then shut down all by itself when it’s done.
Divx encoding feature was missing link in DVR market and it was not addressed by any major player, With WinDVR 3 Intervideo will be able to get into this segment. Divx is very popular video codec used for high quality video files for transporting on CD or via net. Quality of video can be very close to DVD. Control over file size is possible without sacrificing quality in Divx.
Apart from Divx, WinDVR 3 also adds DV device support for camcorders and Multi-monitor and TV output options.
Is the Tech Industry Ready to Rebound?
One exec says yes, and knows exactly when the recovery will begin.
Peter Sayer, IDG News Service
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
HANOVER, GERMANY -- National Semiconductor Chief Executive Officer Brian Halla refined his forecast Tuesday for the beginning of economic recovery in the technology industry.
Halla said at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas last November that the recovery would begin on June 21, 2003, basing his prediction on a mathematical model developed by a colleague of his.
That model has been tweaked, he said Tuesday.
"The equation gave a date of June 21. We have refined the equation now. It's going to be at 2:15 p.m.," he said, adding "Pacific Time" in response to a question from the audience here on the last day of the ICT World Forum. The conference precedes the CeBIT trade show.
Getting Serious
While Halla made clear that the forecast had begun as a joke, he seemed serious about what will drive the recovery when it comes: digital video and audio.
"Computers are no longer processing ones and zeros, they are processing sight and sound," he said. "The growth will be driven by sight and sound."
Imaging technology such as that developed by Foveon of Santa Clara, California, could drive the market for IT, he said. National Semiconductor has licensed Foveon's X3 image sensor technology, which increases the density of pixels in an image captor by layering sensors for red, green, and blue light one on top of the other, rather than placing them side by side.
In addition to allowing the creation of new converged devices with low-cost integrated cameras, such image captors could also drive the market for faster, more powerful microprocessors in PCs, he said. A compressed image file from one of these captors contains so much information that in a demonstration it took a Pentium 4 processor 12 seconds to decompress it, he said.
Past the PC
But the semiconductor industry can look further afield for the roots of its recovery. While the chip industry still sells 30 percent of its output to mobile phone manufacturers, the balance of what's left has tipped: before the latest economic crash, the PC industry consumed 40 percent of the world's semiconductors, and other applications the remaining 30 percent. Now they've switched, with PCs taking only 30 percent.
So it could be the automobile industry, or medical applications, that kick off the recovery this summer, Halla said.
He cited examples of remote sensing systems in these two markets that could stimulate demand for IT products.
One, a proximity detection and remote sensing system proposed by automotive parts manufacturer Robert Bosch GmbH for inclusion in future BMW cars, combines imaging, ultrasonic, and radar technologies to provide information about obstacles around and ahead of moving vehicles.
Medical Applications
The other is a remote sensing system for conducting minimally-invasive endoscopy, colonoscopy, and proctoscopy examinations. The capsule, containing a tiny camera, light source, and radio transmitter, is designed to be swallowed by the patient. It then transmits pictures to a receiver on their belt, which stores them on its hard disk, he said.
Current versions of the device only run for eight hours, the time to examine the interior of the patient's stomach, but future versions will go further.
"The next version goes 24 hours, from launchpad to splashdown, and costs $450. Why $450? Because that's the alternative costs," Halla said. "And anybody who has had the alternative knows why the pill gets my vote," he said.
Halla predicted that, in the future, we could be swallowing as many as half a dozen of these disposable devices a year to detect different medical anomalies, which would provide a welcome revenue boost for someone in the industry.
Nokia announces new products, services
11 March 2003 -- PMN -- Nokia has announced several new products and services at the CeBit event in Hannover, including two new mobile handsets. Jorma Ollila, the company's Chairman and CEO, also used the opening of the world's largest IT trade show to deliver an upbeat message on the future of the mobile industry.
Nokia had earlier released a mid-quarter financial update confirming that it would meet previous guidance, albeit at the lower end of its existing forecasts.
The handset releases included a new camera phone - the 6220 - which is aimed at business users and features a colour screen and tri-band EDGE compatibility. Nokia also showed the 3300, intended for the consumer market, which occupies a form factor similar to a handheld gaming console and includes MP3/AAC/FM music capabilities. The 3300 has a colour screen and can record FM radio directly into AAC format.
In a separate announcement, Nokia said that KPN is to start making i-Mode content available on the Nokia 3650. The move will come as a blow to Japanese manufacturers which had been hoping to improve their market share in Europe on the back of i-Mode service deployments. It comes as part of DoCoMo's drive to widen the appeal of the service by extending camera phone and Java capabilities to the European market. Samsung also said yesterday it was working with DoCoMo on GPRS handsets.
"Mobile phones are not purchased just for their voice functionality any more. Messaging, business applications, entertainment and other value-added features, infused with a strong brand experience, are the most compelling attractions. Standardised open technologies create an essential platform for the industry and for Nokia to fully leverage the market potential of mobility," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia Mobile Phones. "This is concretely illustrated for example in KPN's decision to make i-Mode content available on open standards starting with the Nokia 3650 imaging phone."
Nokia is showing several new accessories at CeBit, including a digital pen which records notes and drawings and transmits them via Bluetooth to a compatible handset. The notes can then be sent as multimedia messages. It also announced an enhanced lens for the Nokia 3650, enabling close-up shots.
In a new departure, Nokia said that it would start offering a mobile business service to enterprise customers. Nokia One service is a multi-access service for accessing e-mails, contacts, appointments and company directories using a mobile phone, web browser or fixed voice line. It will operate as a hosted service, with Nokia undertaking integration with existing corporate systems and providing local access numbers.
The company's US operations also issued a statement today saying that Nokia expected to produce its 25 millionth CDMA handset later this month and reiterating its objective of pursuing market share in the expanding CDMA market. Nokia plans to start testing handsets with next generation CDMA2000 1xEV-DV chipsets in H2 2003.
Germany's chancellor opens CeBit
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has officially opened the world's largest computer fair, CeBit, in Hanover. More than 6500 computer representatives from 69 countries are displaying their new computer and telecommunications products. Some 600,000 visitors are expected to attend the fair. In his speech opening the event, Schroeder warned of the economic consequences of war with Iraq. The current tension surrounding the Iraqi crisis has already had a negative effect on the world's economic climate.
so don't think. that shouldn't be hard for you to do.
March 10, 2003
Microsoft Ships Office 2003 Beta 2
By Peter Galli
Microsoft Corp. on Monday formally announced the release of the second beta for its Office 2003 family of products, which is known by the code name Office 11 and is the upgrade to Office XP.
That beta comes only days before Sun Microsystems Inc. releases the first beta of StarOffice 6.1 and follows last week's release of Corel Corp.'s first beta of WordPerfect Office 11, which is expected to be available in North America late next month.
Microsoft on Monday said it will be distributing the second beta to some 500,000 customers and partners globally to begin testing. The company has also provided a Web site where interested parties can find more detail about Office 2003 and the other system components.
This beta contains, for the first time, new CRM (customer relationship management)-type features designed to attract more small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), as well as other features to sway enterprises to upgrade. It includes a new feature called Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, as well as the first incarnations of DRM (digital rights management) in the suite.
Microsoft Office 2003: Beta Shows Promise of this Major Overhaul (PC Magazine)
Office Beta Eyes SMB
Sources familiar with the product said Business Contact Manager, previously code-named Iris and aimed at the SMB market, will let users track clients, create accounts, generate product lists, and track sales and account leads.
"[It's] a nice CRM-type solution for small business that plugs into the Outlook framework," Joe Eschbach, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Information Worker Product Management Group, told eWEEK recently. "It's a sales-process contact manager solution. It will function as a desktop application and not need other Microsoft server products to work."
On the enterprise front, Office 2003 Beta 2 will give testers their first view of the DRM technology in the product. "The information rights management solution is one of the most compelling solutions in Office 2003 for enterprises," Eschbach said, adding that this solution will run only in conjunction with the upcoming Windows Server 2003.
However, Beta 2 code will include a trial solution that can be run without Windows Server 2003. Testers can try the feature using Microsoft Passport for validation and authentication. "But longer term, it's for enterprises who want it to work inside their intranet and do authentication on a central server," he said.
The second beta also includes the Office 2003 suite, comprising Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access and two new applications—OneNote and InfoPath—as well as FrontPage, Publisher, Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2.0.
The final versions of the product are expected this summer, according to Microsoft. The Redmond, Wash., company previously said the product would be released by the end of June. Pricing and details on which products will be included in which SKU and which will have to be bought as separate add-ons were not disclosed.
The release of the second beta provides an infrastructure and platform that enables Microsoft business partners to build the next generation of information worker solutions that incorporate collaboration and portal capabilities and improved desktop tools, Eschbach said.
Microsoft, in line with its goal of ensuring that its products maximize the use of other company products, pointed out that its upcoming Windows Server 2003 product will play a complementary role with the Office family of products, as will Windows SharePoint Services, which is the engine for creating Web sites that enable information sharing and document collaboration. This infrastructure will be delivered in Windows Server 2003.
Latest Microsoft News:
• Exclusive: A Chat with Bill Gates
• Microsoft Ships Office 2003 Beta 2
• Microsoft Holds the Line on Server Prices
• With BuildIt, .Net-Based Apps Will Come
• Microsoft Debuts Collaboration Server
• more
Search for more stories by Peter Galli.
COLLABORATING FOR MOBILE COMMERCE
(PRESSI.COM 03/10/2003) M-Commerce Discovery Event Addresses the Market Need for Trusted Relationships
PLEASE NOTE REVISED DATE
Sophia-Antipolis, France - 10 March 2003
The third in the series of ‘m-Commerce Discovery Events’, organized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to help companies apply mobile technology to their businesses, will be held at ETSI headquarters in Sophia Antipolis in the South of France on 9 and 10 April as a joint event with The UMTS Forum. (PLEASE NOTE THIS DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM 27 MARCH TO SUIT THE AVAILABILITY OF SPEAKERS.) This series of seminars is being organized by ETSI Project M-Commerce (EP M-Comm) in various venues around Europe and will cover both financial and telecommunications aspects.
This event, entitled ‘Global Collaboration for Mobile Commerce Transactions Workshop – Addressing the Market Needs for Trusted Relationships’, will bring together the telecommunications and banking communities to address market needs. It will examine the role of collaboration in enabling mobile commerce, concentrating particularly on the importance of trusted relationships in e-Transactions. The event will provide a market analysis and strategic outlook for 2003-2005 and will help to identify the prospects for interoperable platforms. It will review partnering scenarios and technical aspects of m-commerce arrangements, leverage the current mobile payment infrastructures and assess collaborative solutions and the value chain business model.
This seminar brings together standardization bodies, fora and consortia for the first time in a global collaboration effort, presenting lessons learned, offering opportunities and identifying potential threats. By bringing together telecommunications and banking communities in one location, it will help to build consensus and enable trusted transaction relationships, paving the way to partnerships which will make m-Commerce a reality.
Topics to be covered include: m-Signatures, operator requirements for mobile commerce standards, mobile Digital Rights Management (DRM), the work of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), the Mobile Payment Forum, Radicchio and liability in mobile transactions. There will be presentations from an industry perspective and by ETSI, The UMTS Forum and CEN/ISSS - Information Society Standardization System, as well as panel discussions on Market Players and the Need for Global Collaboration; Developing User-Centred and User-Trusted Services; and Partnering for Success.
Previous events in this series have already been held in London on 28 February, entitled ‘Mobilizing Business’, and in Rotterdam on 12 February, entitled ‘Mobile Services and e-Banking’. These seminars attracted delegates from the world of finance, banking and telecommunications, as well as consumers such as local authorities and commercial users. The fourth event in the series, which was to have been held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 12 March, has been cancelled.
Recognizing that mobile communications have a significant part to play in the changing face of business, the European Commission is funding these seminars under its eEurope initiative, which includes among its goals the development of e-Commerce. All the seminars are open to everyone.
Like the other seminars in this series of Discovery Events, the ‘Global Collaboration for Mobile Commerce Transactions Workshop - Addressing the Market Needs for Trusted Relationships’ is open to everyone. The closing date for registration is 2 April 2003. A full Agenda and Registration forms are available at: http://www.etsi.org/agreement/Workshops/Workshops_Home.htm and at www.noblestar.com/extranet/etsi/index.htm
Alternatively, e-mail: etsi@noblestar.com,
Tel: +44 (0)207 629 4888 or Fax: +44 (0)207 629 0111.
[End]
NOTES TO EDITORS
About ETSI
ETSI - the European Telecommunications Standards Institute - is officially responsible for standardization in telecommunications, broadcasting and certain aspects of information technology within Europe. It produces a wide range of standards and other technical documentation as Europe's contribution to world-wide standardization. A non-profit making organization based in Sophia Antipolis, France, ETSI unites nearly 800 members from more than 55 countries inside and outside Europe, and brings together manufacturers, network operators, administrations, service providers, research bodies and users - in fact, all the key players in the telecommunications arena. For more information: http://www.etsi.org/
Further information about EP M-Comm: http://portal.etsi.org/m-comm
About The UMTS Forum
The UMTS Forum is the only global body committed exclusively to the market success of 3G systems world-wide. It welcomes mobile, fixed and satellite network operators alongside manufacturers, regulators, IT companies, conference organizers and research organizations, and is an authoritative source for widely-respected, independently produced reports on market, regulatory, spectrum, services and technology topics. The Forum’s objectives are to promote the global success of UMTS/3G, including all third generation system technologies recognized by the ITU; to forge high-level dialogue between operators and other market players to ensure commercial success for all; and to present market knowledge that aids the rapid development and uptake of new services and applications. For more information: info@umts-forum.org
About the European Commission's eEurope Initiative
eEurope 2002 – An Information Society For All – was launched in 2000 to ensure that the whole of Europe reaps the benefits of the Information Society; it is a key element in the strategy for modernizing the European economy and aims to bring everyone in Europe – every citizen, every school and every company – on-line as quickly as possible. This Initiative has already been remarkably successful; for example, since its launch, Internet penetration in homes has doubled, access prices have fallen and almost all schools and companies are now connected. Building on the success of eEurope 2002, in June 2002, an Action Plan for eEurope 2005 was launched. Its objective is to provide a favourable environment for private investment and for the creation of new services and new jobs, to boost productivity, to modernize public services and to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the global information society. For more information: www.eeurope-standards.org/
This material has been produced by ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute. It is delivered by Pressi.com in its original form.
Samsung to introduce i-mode phones
http://www.eet.com/sys/news/OEG20030310S0053
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
March 10, 2003 (2:45 p.m. EST)
Recent Articles
Systems and Software News
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Archives
TOKYO — NTT Docomo Inc. has signed up Samsung Electronics as the first non-Japan-based supplier of i-mode mobile phones. The two companies have agreed on the joint development of mobile phones for i-mode services on the GSM/GPRS platform.
Only NEC Corp. and Toshiba Corp. have been supplying the GSM/GPRS handsets for i-mode thus far.
Like the i-mode phones used in Japan, the Samsung phones will include a compact Net Front browser developed by Access Co., Ltd. (www.access.co.jp) and Java. The phone is scheduled to hit the market in early 2004. Samsung is expected to show a prototype at CeBIT 2003, which will be held this week from March 12 - March 19 in Hanover, Germany.
The i-mode is Docomo's propriety mobile internet platform, and is now offered in five countries outside of Japan via GSM/GPRS wireless networks. E-Plus is offering the service in Germany, KPN Mobile in the Netheerlands, KG Telecommunications Co., Ltd in Taiwan, BASE N.V./S.A in Belgium, and Bouygues Telecom S.A in France.
"NTT DoCoMo's i-mode offers mobile users a variety of options to maximize their wireless experience. We believe that the adoption of i-mode into our phones will enable us to establish the mobile communication context of satisfying customers' various needs," ByungDuck Cho, executive vice president of the mobile communication R&D Team of Samsung Electronics said.
The Embedded Systems Conference San Francisco 2003
Exhibitor and Attendee Registration
http://cmp.iconvention.com/sf/v33/index.cvn?id=10014&p_navID=28
Group Registration Discount: 4 for the price of 3!
Bring your whole team the Embedded Systems Conference and save up to $1545.
Submit all 4 registration forms and payment, and get the 4th registration (of equal or lesser value) FREE!
Exhibitor Registration
To Register as Exhibitor Booth Staff or as an Exhibitor Representative, click here. For definitions of Badge Categories, click here.
Badge Mailing
Badges will be mailed to conference attendees who register by April 7. Exhibits-only attendees will receive an e-mail confirmation. All attendees must check in on-site. Pre-registration is available by telephone at 877-684-4471 (toll free) or 801-495-2306. You may also print out this pdf version and fax it to 801-406-0129.
KiSS Technology Launches First DivX Certified DVD Players at CeBIT Trade Show
KiSS DP-450 and DP-500 Are First CE Devices to Play Back All Versions of DivX Video; DP-500 Equipped With Ethernet Connection and KiSS PC-link Software Lets Anyone Easily Download a Protected Movie and Watch It on Their TV
HANNOVER, GERMANY -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 03/10/2003 -- KiSS Technology, a leading manufacturer of DVD products throughout the world, and DivXNetworks, Inc, the company that created the revolutionary patent-pending DivX ® video compression technology, today announced the release of the first fully DivX Certified DVD players at the CeBit computer show in Hannover, Germany. The DP-450 and DP-500 from KiSS Technology are the first DVD players to support high-quality playback of all versions of DivX video content. The devices are on display at the KiSS Technology booth at CeBit in Hall 20, Stand E33.
The KiSS DP-500 and DP-450, powered by the EM 8500 DVD decoder chip from Sigma Designs, are the first publicly released consumer electronics products to pass the rigorous certification process developed by the DivXNetworks team of video engineers. The certification process ensures that the devices offer playback of all versions of DivX technology (5.xx, 4.xx and 3.xx) at the highest possible quality levels and fully support digital rights management technology developed by DivXNetworks.
The revolutionary KiSS DP-500 is the first network-capable DVD player to offer DivX playback, enabling users to download DivX content from the Internet and then play it directly on a television. DivX video, which offers DVD-quality video at 7-10 times greater compression than MPEG-2, is the world’s most popular MPEG-4 compatible video compression technology with over 75 million worldwide users. A wide range of DivX-certified consumer electronics devices, from portable video players to DVD players and set-top boxes, are scheduled to hit the market in 2003.
“The release of the KiSS DP-500 represents a real milestone for millions of DivX users all over the world. Now anyone can easily download a protected movie and watch it on their TV, not just the computer,” said Kevin Hell, Managing Director and Chief Marketing Officer at DivXNetworks, Inc. (www.divxnetworks.com) “As the first device to enable high-quality playback of all versions of DivX video with full support for DivX digital rights management technology, the DP-500 is the model for a true ‘convergence’ device that represents the future of consumer electronics. And because it is a connected device, the DP-500 will allow the consumer to easily move secure content through the connected home.”
“The DP-500 sets a new standard for networked consumer products bringing digital content into our everyday life. Things like download and playback of DivX movies on-demand, listening to Internet radio, viewing digital images and sending instant messages was until today something that was done in front of the PC. Now anyone can easily do it anywhere in their home,” said Bo Lustrup, Marketing Manager of KiSS Technology (www.kiss-technology.com).
In addition to supporting all versions of DivX video technology, the DP-500 offers a number of cutting edge features including progressive scan, Ethernet 10/100, support for DVD, SVCD, VCD, CD, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, CD-RW & DVD-RW playback, and a photo album feature that enables users to view digital photos on a television. For more information on the DP-500, visit www.kiss-technology.com.
DivX Certification includes a full DivX software development kit to help third parties make their existing solutions compatible with DivX technology, or to help them create new solutions from scratch. The DivX Certified Partner Program was created to enable the development of official DivX-enabled consumer electronics products to meet the global demand for high-quality DivX convergence devices. For more information on DivX certification process, visit www.divx.com/certified.
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 ™ video codec, the world’s most popular MPEG-4 compatible video compression technology with over 75 million users worldwide. Often called “the MP3 of video,” the patent-pending DivX video technology offers DVD-quality at 10 times greater compression than MPEG-2 files, enabling full length films to easily fit on a CD or be delivered over broadband connections. DivX video technology powers a range of applications that span the convergence value chain, from a secure IP-based video-on-demand solution to next-generation consumer electronics products and video software applications. DivXNetworks is headquartered in San Diego, California, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.divxnetworks.com.
About KiSS Technology
KiSS Technology A/S was founded in 1994 and has established itself as one of the leading manufacturers of DVD products and DVB-receivers throughout the world. KiSS Technology headquarters is in Hoersholm, Denmark. KiSS Technology A/S has four principal activities: DVD solutions, Plasma and TFT Displays, DVB solutions, and distribution of multimedia products. Please visit the company's web site at www.kiss-technology.com.
A Cure for KaZaA, or How to Avoid Digital Content Piracy at Your Company
BURBANK, CA -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 03/10/2003 -- Remember Napster? These days the #1 file sharing software that has replaced Napster in the hearts of users who download MP3s, movie files, etc. is called KaZaA and if any of a company’s users have installed KaZaA on their desktops to share files using the network, it opens the organization up to several potential liabilities.
Copyright Infringement
In April 2002 the recording industry entered into a $1 million settlement with an Arizona company whose employees accessed and distributed thousands of songs using company equipment. Last October, four entertainment industry groups sent a letter to 2,300 university presidents and CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies urging a tough stand on copyright infringement. In late November, authorities at the United States Naval Academy seized more than 90 computers in an investigation into illegal downloading.
The entertainment industry has cited estimates that up to 2.6 billion copyrighted files are illegally swapped each month. There will likely be legal battles raging over this issue for years to come and the last thing you need is for your organization to show up on some lawyer's radar screen because a few of your employees used your network to downloaded thousands of gigabytes of copyrighted files. You can read a current CNN story about this at www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/industry/02/14/illegal.downloading.ap/index.html.
Security
There are computer viruses deliberately disguised as media files (MS Security Bulletin MS02-072) to entice KaZaA users to download and run them. Plus the KaZaA program itself is loaded with fairly aggressive spyware.
System Resources
It’s probably a safe bet to say that no company intended their network to be used as a high-speed download and storage facility for their employee's illegal movie and music files.
Regardless of how one may personally feel about the subject of sharing MP3's or movies on the Internet, it's unlikely that any enterprise wants users or employees using company equipment and considerable system resources for this purpose -- and during business hours no less.
Until now, KaZaA was not easy to detect and get rid of.
How can an IT department easily check for and get rid of KaZaA? It was not designed to be installed or uninstalled over a network. The uninstall for KaZaA 2.1 is not "silent" (it has some pop-ups that must be addressed). It would seem eliminating KaZaA and illegal content is a laborious, machine-by-machine manual process. Another of an ever-expanding list of site management duties a system administrator is compelled to do manually.
Sitekeeper Systems Management Software changes all that. It can be used to easily scan and detect KaZaA and other similar software programs across an organization in a matter of minutes (as well as MP3 files). Sitekeeper doesn't require dedicated servers or expensive databases. It installs and runs on the same machine used to administer a network.
Here's the step-by-step procedure on how to use Sitekeeper's PushInstall Module to remotely uninstall KaZaA 2.1 from a network. This procedure and the provided files are for v2.1 of KaZaA only.
Highlighted Links
Executive Software
Sitekeeper
The goal is to remove the product from the network, with no intervention required from end-users (especially considering they installed this in the first place) or the need for the system administrator to hike to each machine and remove KaZaA manually, one machine at a time. While it is the case with most software that only a parameter need be added to make the installation silent, KaZaA 2.1 will require a bit of extra work.
Three problems need to be solved in order to uninstall KaZaA v2.1 over the network; KaZaA uses InstallShield as the "wrapper" for the KaZaA installation and uninstall, so an "Answer File" is needed to "answer" questions that come up during the un-install. Executive Software has already created an Answer file so all one needs to do is copy it. The Kazaa.exe process, which remains running even when the program is closed, will need to be killed, so the termination of the KaZaA.exe process needs to be incorporated into the un-install procedure. Lastly the un-install of KaZaA begins (but does not complete) the un-install of a target advertising program installed with KaZaA. A short "Windows Shell" script is required to finish this product's un-install.
HOW TO UNINSTALL KAZAA 2.1 FROM YOUR NETWORK:
Before starting, a version of Sitekeeper needs to be installed on the target system. Sitekeeper trialware that will scan up to 20 machines can be downloaded by going to executive.com/sitekeeper/sitekeeper.asp?ad=skemail21.
To create answer files for future versions of KaZaA, research the knowledgebase at www.InstallShield.com. One can also check out the PushInstall tutorial built into Sitekeeper.
STEP 1-GET KaZaA: Download KaZaA's download management executable (kmd.exe) from www.KaZaA.com and save it to your hard drive (you'll actually be re-directed to www.download.com).
- Run this program, which will download kmd210_en.exe to your temp folder
(i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Temp).
- Do not continue the installation once this file has been downloaded
(an installation will automatically start once the download completes).
- Grab the kmd210_enu.exe file from the temp folder and copy it to a file share,
then cancel the local install.
Note: Once you cancel the installation process the downloaded file
will be deleted from your Temp folder.
STEP 2-CREATE UNINSTALL FOLDER:
Using a Zip utility you will need to "extract" the product you have downloaded to a folder.
Create a folder called "KaZaA 2.1" and within it, a sub-folder called "Uninstall." Locate them within an existing file share on your network or share the KaZaA folder. You can "share" a folder by right-clicking on it with your mouse and selecting "Sharing and Security."
STEP 3-CREATE (or GET) AN ANSWER FILE:
Go to www1.execsoft.com/kazaacure.exe and download Executive Software’s self-extracting zip file for KaZaA 2.1.
Once you open it you'll find three short scripts and one ReadMe file. Place all the files into your KaZaA un-install folder.
You will need the "Setup.iss" for this step (#3) and the "Kazaa.bat" file for step #5. You won't need to make any modifications to SaveNowRemover.vbs though you can view/edit this file with any text editor.
Setup.iss is the "Answer File" mentioned earlier, and is provided for you. Place it in the appropriate "Uninstall" folder that contains the Setup.exe for KaZaA. This setup.iss file (proprietary to the version of KaZaA) contains the information to answer all questions asked during the software's uninstall routine. By adding a parameter (-s) to the setup.exe command, you're telling InstallShield to look for and use the answers already provided in the Setup.iss file. The use of this file will eliminate you or any one else having to do this manually.
STEP 4-GET KILL.EXE:
As mentioned earlier, the KaZaA.exe process remains running even when the program is closed and this process must be killed in order to uninstall the program. To accomplish this download a tool from the Microsoft Resource Kit called Kill.exe. This should be a part of every Administrators toolkit. Best of all, it's free. Kill.exe will allow you to kill the KaZaA process and continue on with the un-install (Kill.exe can kill local or remote processes).
You can download the entire Administrators Toolkit from Microsoft at: www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/ntkit/default.asp.
Place the tool (Kill.exe) into the shared Uninstall folder created earlier in Step 2.
STEP 5-CREATE BATCH FILE:
To automate calling Kill.exe, running the KaZaA un-install in one action and completing the removal of SaveNow, you'll need to create a batch file. This simple script is the "Kazaa.bat" file downloaded in Step #3. Make sure the batch file is in the same shared folder with all the other files.
Important Note: This file must be edited by you before it is ready to use. Using Windows Explorer, right click on the batch file and select "Edit." Then substitute the correct UNC path to the shared KaZaA Uninstall file you created in Step 2.
When you edit the file you can note the command line parameters used. (-f) is used to "force" the process to terminate, and then the name of the process is listed.
The (-s) parameter is used for the KaZaA un-install, so that the answer file will be used.
STEP 6-SELECT MACHINES:
Now that the setup work is complete, it's time to begin the un-installs. Start by selecting the machines (in Sitekeeper) from which you want to remove this product. The Uninstall can be run safely (without error) on machines that do not have the product. So you can select a range of machines and if KaZaA is installed on any of them it will be uninstalled by this procedure.
STEP 7-CREATE A PROGRAM LISTING:
Next run the Sitekeeper Add/Remove Programs wizard. You'll need to create a new Program Listing for the un-install batch file. You could name it "Remove KaZaA" as this will make sense if you look at it again a few months from now. You don't need to set any command line parameters in this dialog box, as they are already included within the batch file.
STEP 8-SPECIFY SHARE:
Identify the share path and batch file where the uninstall folder is located and put in your administrator user name and password.
STEP 9-RUN/SCHEDULE KaZaA UNINSTALL:
At this point you can choose to run the KaZaA uninstall procedure immediately or schedule it to happen at a later time. You’re done.
You've now created a KaZaA 2.1 uninstall script that you can run anytime a Sitekeeper scan discovers KaZaA 2.1 installed on your network.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: Colleen Toumayan
Company: Executive Software International, Inc.
Phone: 818-771-1600
Email: ctoumayan@executive.com
Apple launch the AAC (Audio Advanced Codec)
Saturday March 8, 2003. 02:12 PM, by wfplb (translated by pesji)
Rumor
Apple http://www.macmusic.org/news/viewnews.php/lang/EN/id/532/?vRmtQjpAznOhM=1
is on the way to enter in the music online download scene with the help of the five Majors: Universal, Bertelsmann, Warner and EMI who would open their whole catalogs.
Steve Jobbs himself presented a revolutionnary platform which will make buying and dowloading of music as easy as buying a book on Amazon, thanks to a new technologic standard named Audio Advanced Codec.
Further on this tool would also include an anti-piracy system which would limit the numeric copies.
> Apple AAC
Plus Digital Media Edition Hits Stores
1 hour, 34 minutes ago
Yardena Arar, PCWorld.com
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1093&ncid=738&e=7&u=/pcworld/200303...
Plus Digital Media Edition--a Windows XP (news - web sites) add-on for digital media enthusiasts--moves to shrink-wrap packaging and adds a couple of downloadable freebies Monday.
Plus DME, a bundle of assorted applications for managing and exploiting digital media, has been available only as a $20 download since its release in early January. But this week, Microsoft is making it available on retail store shelves, as well.
As of Monday, some 8000 retailers--including giants Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Wal-Mart--will begin carrying the shrink-wrapped edition for the same $20 as the download version, Microsoft representatives say.
Wait, There's More
Microsoft is also beefing up the Plus DME package. The company is announcing the availability on Monday of five new downloadable performers for Plus DME's Dancer application, which places small, videotaped figures that dance in a corner of your screen, regardless of whether you are playing music.
The original digital dancers in Plus DME were all actual amateur or professional dancers from the Seattle area. The new ones, however, aren't even flesh-and-blood beings: All are heroes of Microsoft Xbox (news - web sites) games. The newest dancers are Arkantos from Age of Mythology, Exile from Tao Feng, Hawk from Brute Force, Jade Dragon from Tao Feng, and Master Sho-Yu from Kung Fu Chaos.
Also scheduled for availability as a free download for Plus DME on Monday is the new Portable Audio Devices PowerToy, a file transfer tool.
It is designed to make transferring music between a PC and a supported portable digital audio player a simple drag-and-drop affair. This PowerToy will support a number of popular models by Creative and SonicBlue, plus the Nike PSAPlay 64 and 128.
Bundled Utilities
In addition, Microsoft announced that Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard plan to bundle Plus Digital Media Edition on some PCs.
Plus DME includes various handy utilities and novelties.
Microsoft has included skins for Windows Media Player 9, which is bundled with Windows XP.
WinDVD Hits 45 Million Copies Sold
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK2.story&STORY=/www/story/03-07-2003/00...
World's Most Popular DVD Player Keeps Growing
FREMONT, Calif., March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- InterVideo, Inc. today announced
that WinDVD, its software for playing DVDs on a PC, has now sold over 45
million copies around the world since its initial introduction. It continues
to be the most popular PC DVD player in the world for watching DVD movies on a
PC.
"45 million copies is roughly equal to the combined populations of New
York, Berlin, London, Shanghai, Taipei, Paris and Moscow," said Steve Ro, CEO
and founder of InterVideo. "This is a terrific milestone for InterVideo and
shows the phenomenal popularity of watching DVDs on a computer."
Since its initial launch at Comdex in 1998, WinDVD has established itself
as the DVD player of choice for major computer manufacturers. Currently, 8 of
the top 10 PC makers in the world bundle versions of WinDVD with their
computers and InterVideo currently sells more than 1 million copies of WinDVD
per month through various channels.
WinDVD Platinum, the latest version of WinDVD, is a powerful DVD player
that combines the features of a standard consumer DVD player and adds advanced
audio and video functions. WinDVD Platinum includes must-have features such
as time stretching, screen capture and TV-out support and then adds a dozen
new extras including the ability to play DivX with all WinDVD's features and
Dolby Virtual Speaker -- a brand new technology that uses advanced algorithms
to replicate 5.1 surround sound over just 2 speakers. WinDVD Platinum also
adds 24 bit/ 96kHz audio support for rich, high resolution audio.
Availability
WinDVD Platinum and WinDVD 4 are currently available at http://www.intervideo.com
and at retail outlets around the world.
About InterVideo, Inc.
InterVideo is a leading provider of DVD software. InterVideo has
developed a technology platform from which we have created a broad suite of
integrated multimedia software products that allow users to capture, edit,
author, distribute, burn and play digital multimedia content on PCs and
consumer electronics devices. The company is headquartered in Fremont, CA and
with regional offices in Europe, Taiwan and Japan. For more information
contact InterVideo at 510-651-0888 or visit the company's Web site at
http://www.intervideo.com.
Mio 8380 Smartphone Includes Digital Camera
By the Brighthand News Team
March 8th, 2003
http://www.brighthand.com/article/Mio_8380_Smartphone_Includes_Digital_Camera
The Taiwanese company MiTAC has announced the Mio 8380, a mobile phone that runs Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 operating system. It is the first handset running this OS to include a built-in digital camera.
This is also the first Smartphone 2002 device to use a clamshell design, with the screen on one side and a keypad on the other. The color screen is a 2.2 inch TFT transflective LCD.
This is a tri-band GPRS mobile phone that supports 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz cellular networks, meaning that it can be used virtually anywhere in the world. It offers SMS text-based messaging and MMS multimedia messaging.
Besides conventional cell phone-based voice calls and messaging, the Mio 8380 also supports high-speed wireless access to e-mail and the Web through an MSN Messenger client and a version of Internet Explorer.
It includes a MPEG-4 encoder/decoder and a media player to handle multimedia content such as MP3 music.
This smartphone has an SD card slot for memory expansion. It's 110-kilopixel camera includes a digital zoom.
Smartphone 2002 is a version of the Windows CE operating system specially redesigned for mobile phones. All handsets running this OS have a 220 by 176 pixel screen and a joystick for user input, not a touch screen.
So it pays to listen
09mar03
FOR years the mere idea of an Internet music service you would pay for was enough to make users of free services such as Napster, Kazaa and Gnutella break out laughing.
It wasn't merely the absurdity of paying for something that they could get for free.
Rather it was the fact the subscription sites set up by the major record labels were so woefully put together that, even if they were the only source of music on the planet, people would prefer to hum tunes rather than use them.
The song selection was awful, prices were astronomically high, there were strict limits on how many times you could listen to the songs, and on what machines you could play them, and you were usually banned from burning copies of the music on to your own compilation CDs.
The awfulness of the offerings provided ample justification for members of the Net generation to swap their music over the legally challenged file-sharing networks, which the music companies -- despite an aggressive legal onslaught -- have failed to shut down.
Online fans argued music companies were drastically over-charging for CDs and failing to offer any viable alternatives for the millions of users for whom music was something they listened to via a computer rather than a hi-fi system.
That argument now rings hollow. Internet giant AOL recently began offering its 27 million US subscribers the MusicNet service for the first time. AOL Australia says it is also looking to provide a similar subscription music service to Australian users, but that they must first sort out how to protect the artists' digital rights.
"We need to resolve the issue of artists' rights before we could launch a local service," says AOL's Australian corporate affairs managers.
"We are definitely looking at the opportunities at the moment, but need to sort out these issues first."
Previously, AOL had judged that the catalogues offered were too stingy and expensive. Now subscribers to MusicNet can pay a sliding scale to access more than 250,000 tracks for download and streaming. The service offers CD quality tracks from all five major record companies.
More tracks are being added each week and soon the service will unveil a pay-to-burn feature which will allow users to copy music on to MP3 players and other devices.
MusicNet, part owned by Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI and Warners, is one of six comprehensive online music services making rapid advances. Together with MusicMatch, pressplay , Rhapsody and Streamwaves, these revamped download sites offer a credible alternative to Kazaa and other free sites.
While the pooled musical resources of Kazaa's millions of members still offer an unrivalled collection of songs, many are of dubious quality, searchers often experience difficulty finding what they want and music companies are increasingly using spoof files that appear to be genuine songs, but merely waste the user's bandwidth and time.
It's still early days yet, but the quality of the new services means the writing's on the wall for free music on the Internet, according to many experts.
"It's time for all you pirates to haul down the skull and crossbone flying over your PC's and give legal music a chance," said tech reviewer Mike Langberg writing in Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury News. "All six services offer some form of free trial, so there's no excuse for not at least trying to go legit."
Internet analyst Phil Leigh compared the situation to that of bootleggers during the prohibition era of the 1920s.
"Once alcoholic drinks were legalised, outlaw activities became fringe activities. I think we'll see the same thing," he said.
Saturday, March 08, 2003 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Q&A / Patrick Marshall
USB 2.0 port will run USB 1.1 device just fine
Q. I have a 4-year-old Dell Dimension with an internal USB 1.1 card with two ports. Will changing this card to a USB 2.0 card with four ports speed up downloading music from my hard drive to my portable MP3 player, synching with my Palm PDA, and uploading images from my digital camera?
— J. Geller
A. Unfortunately, USB 1.1 devices won't run any faster on USB 2.0, also known as USB Hi-Speed. USB 1.0 devices have a maximum speed of 12 megabits per second, while USB 2.0 devices have a top speed of 480 megabits per second, or 40 times as fast as USB 1.1.
The good news is that USB 2.0 port will run your USB 1.1 device just fine. And it does offer one advantage: You'll be able to daisy-chain more USB devices on the port before you max out the port's bandwidth.
By the way, keep in mind that if you have a USB 1.1 hub and you connect it to a USB 2.0 port, you'll be slowing everything connected to that hub down to USB 1.1 speeds. And you won't be able to connect a USB 2.0 device to a USB 1.1 port or hub.
If you want to learn more about USB, you might want to visit www.everythingusb.com.
Q. My Dell L550r PC has only a 4 gigabyte hard disk. I use this PC for my business and have no music or games. However, I have only 475 MB of space free. I have Windows 98. I have 766 files that have extension *.tmp or *.TMP. A lot of these are in Windows/Temp or MS Internet Explorer folders. Someone said I can delete all these files. Can I do this without fear of losing files that I need to run programs?
I also have files like Win386.swp. This must be coming from my older PC that was 386 upgraded to 486.
— Umesh Nisargand
A. As a rule, TMP files are automatically deleted when you close Windows. If Windows closes abnormally, however, TMP have to be deleted manually. If the file is currently in use, you'll receive a message saying so. Otherwise, zap the sucker!
If you eventually upgrade to Windows XP, you'll find a utility called Disk Cleanup that makes it a snap to reclaim disk space from unneeded files.
As for the Win386.swp file, I'd recommend against deleting it. Despite the 386 in the name, the file is the Windows 98 swap file, where the operating system stores information during a session.
Q. In Internet Explorer, Web sites kept under My Favorites are automatically stored in alphabetic order. How do I change that to order them by their creation date?
— James Verson
A. There is no way to sort items automatically by date entered. The only auto-sort option is alphabetic. You can, however, manually rearrange your favorites by dragging them with your mouse and, so long as you don't select the auto-sort option, the favorites will stay where you put them.
Q. We have a new Dell 8250 with Windows XP and have installed Outlook 2002 for e-mail. There are three users on the computer, all of whom share the same ISP provider and the same e-mail address. We are used to having the same Outlook screen and sharing e-mail information irrespective of who is logged on. Now each user downloads e-mail (some of which is meant for other users) and this is unavailable to the others unless they log on as the downloading user to see the messages. How can we tweak Outlook so that we all see the same e-mail?
— Dana Stiner
A. Hmmm. That one is tough, since Microsoft understandably designed separate logons to use separate Outlook files. You can share an inbox among several users if you're using a Microsoft Exchange e-mail server, but I'm not aware of any way to accomplish this if you're using an Internet-service provider as your mail server. My suggestion: If you all trust each other enough to share the same e-mail inbox, why not share the same logon and user profile?
Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
Maybe it doesn't have any. So are you a moderator on
this board now?
Vivendi Loses $26 Billion in 2002; Biggest Loss Ever in French History
By KIM HOUSEGO
French media giant Vivendi Universal posted a net loss of 23.3 billion euros ($25.6 billion) in 2002, the largest in French corporate history.
Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou said Thursday that "2002 has been an extremely difficult year for Vivendi Universal," but that "2003 will be a year of transition and of financial and economic progress."
Vivendi's board met Thursday to discuss the possible sale of the company's vast entertainment empire. The disposal is seen as vital to help Vivendi pay off its multibillion-dollar debt and could turn into one of the largest entertainment auctions in years.
Fourtou said the company had been "approached by several potential partners." But he said any deals would be made public only once they are concluded.
Some of the assets under the spotlight are Vivendi's U.S. television and film businesses, which include the world's biggest music company, Universal Music Group, the Universal film studio and theme parks, as well as the USA and Sci-Fi cable networks.
The France-based conglomerate barely staved off bankruptcy last year as it struggled to cope with billions of debt, a collapsing share price, boardroom infighting and no clear strategy.
Chairman Jean-Marie Messier was ousted in July, and a new team led by Jean-Rene
TI video processor provides VGA resolution
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
March 5, 2003 (9:06 a.m. EST)
PARIS — Edging into the stronghold of ASICs traditionally favored by big-name consumer electronics manufacturers, Texas Instruments Inc. has rolled a DSP-based digital media processor targeting high-resolution digital still cameras, video camcorders and a host of portable multimedia products.
The TMS320DM270 integrates TI's low-power TM320-C54x digital signal processor with an ARM7 RISC core and video and imaging coprocessors. The DM270 is "the only processor slated for portable devices capable of VGA-resolution video encoding at 30 frames per second," said Kanika Ferrell, U.S. marketing manager for digital still/video cameras at TI (Dallas).
With hardware blocks specifically designed for auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance, the DM270 also minimizes shot-to-shot delays that result from changes in light conditions, Ferrell said.
As digital still cameras become mainstream consumer devices, chip makers are waging a "heated battle" for the market, she said, adding that camera makers are looking for better image quality and new features such as video. "This is a market that's really moving quickly," Ferrell said, and camera makers will find it "hard to keep up with the market and make money on their products if they purely depend on a whole new ASIC they'd have to develop for every new product."
Market share doubled
Although acknowledging TI's uphill battle against internally developed ASICs, Ferrell pointed out that TI's family of DSP-based imaging processors has already been designed into prod-
ucts by Kodak, Panasonic, JVC, Sharp and Archos. "We doubled our market share [in digital-camera silicon] to 10 percent in 2002," she said. TI expects to double its share again, to 20 percent, this year.
TI will make the DM270 available in volume at the end of this month. Fabricated in a 0.13-micron process, it will be priced under $15 in quantities of 25,000 units.
With the DM270, TI offers software support for all major video, imaging, audio and voice compression standards, including JPEG, motion-JPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, H.263, DivX and Windows Media Video, as well as audio standards such as MP3, Advanced Audio Coding and Windows Media Audio.
Supported voice standards include G711, G.723.1 and G.726. TI's R&D team is in the process of converting the new H.264 encoding/decoding algorithms for use in the DM270, said Ferrell.
The DM270 can run various operating systems, including Nucleus, Linux, ulTron and VxWorks. It is upwardly code-compatible with Texas Instruments' DSC2x platform.
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s800641.htm
Friday, March 7, 2003. Posted: 01:25:04 (AEDT)
Record companies take unis to court over music piracy
Record companies EMI, Universal and Sony have said they hoped three Australian universities would address alleged music copyright infringements, erasing the need for further court action.
The companies have taken the universities to the Federal Court over alleged music piracy detected by a routine check on Internet usage, a spokesman for the Music Industry Piracy Investigators (MIPI), Michael Speck, said.
They are seeking access to the universities' computer systems to more precisely track the infringements.
But at least one university, the University of Melbourne, said it was reluctant to give external investigators access to its computers.
Mr Speck said MIPI's surveillance discovered that staff and students had been "providing instructions on how to rip off music".
"Staff members and students were either hosting caches of illegal MP3 music files or linking to those files," he said.
Mr Speck said 11 universities had been detected and the companies had started court proceedings against the Universities of Melbourne, Tasmania and Sydney after they refused to cooperate.
He said at least 400 music tracks had been identified and "a few" Internet sites had taken several hits but without access to more precise evidence, held by the universities on their computer systems, the companies could not determine how much the infringements were worth.
The University of Melbourne last week agreed to preserve the evidence until the court reached a decision on access but would not grant it for the moment.
"We believe that it raises many concerns, not least of which is student and staff privacy," university vice-principal Helen Hayes said.
She said two websites, unrelated to the university but created by its students, had been found by MIPI to have links to Internet sites which allegedly offered free access to commercial music.
Ms Hayes said the links were removed as soon as the university was informed and the students had been counselled.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bizwk/030306/b3823088mz063_1.html
BusinessWeek Online
A Real Hollywood Horror Story
Thursday March 6, 8:37 am ET
By Heather Green in New York
Picture a fellow named George sitting in his living room on Sunday evening. He's watching a digital playback of the latest episode of The West Wing. Zapping through commercials, he starts yawning and decides to finish watching it in bed. With a flick of his remote, he wirelessly dispatches the show to the bedroom TV. He also sends a copy via the Internet to his sister and asks her in an e-mail to make a DVD of the show to pass along to their mom.
This vision of the future is closer than you think. To date, Napster and its music-sharing offspring have reigned supreme as Hollywood's biggest headache. But four insurgent technologies that will make George's Sunday possible are fast picking up steam. Together, they promise to turn the gamut of copyrighted programming into convenient files that can be downloaded, stored, and shared almost as easily as e-mail. And this shift could happen quickly--within 18 months--because early forms of these technologies are here now.
The insurgency starts with compression, a new system to shrink digital files into smaller packages that are easier to send through networks. Step two is storage: Advances there put enough memory for shelves of movies into laptops or even handheld gizmos. The third technology is digital recording, such as the one used by TiVo Inc. (NasdaqNM:TIVO - News), which is now being jammed into a host of devices and computers. And to link all of this programming, whether in a house or on campus, a new high-speed wireless system is emerging that can zap an episode of The Simpsons between laptops 50 times faster than most broadband connections. Add it all together, and Hollywood will be reaching for a bigger dose of aspirin.
The danger is evident. Unchecked, these advances spell the Napsterization of movies and the scorching of TV ad revenues. The threat already is pushing Tinseltown to raise two levels of defenses. The industry is hurrying to build safeguards into networks and computers to limit copying or transmission of copyrighted fare. And entertainment companies are pressing cases in court, suing companies, and pursuing individuals. "It's not just one fight," says Clay Shirky, a tech consultant and professor at New York University. "The entire [technology industry] is playing against music and movie companies."
It's easy to understand why. With a weak economy dragging down sales and earnings, tech companies are pulling out all stops to entice consumers to buy new products. And what's more alluring than entertainment? So it's little wonder that all four technologies--wireless networking, massive data storage, faster compression speeds, and powerful recording technologies--are showing up everywhere, from Toshiba home media centers and Apple Computer laptops to Samsung Group handhelds. "The next wave of the personal computer is the digital lifestyle," says Philip W. Schiller, Apple's (NasdaqNM:AAPL - News) senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing.
It was a compression innovation called MP3 that opened the Internet to music-sharing in the late '90s. That technology transformed songs into files small enough to send over a dial-up connection. Now comes MPEG4. This compression standard shrinks audio and video by a factor of two to three, and it will be programmed into most computers, stereos, and DVD players by yearend. "It's the MP3 of video," says analyst Lou Latham of Gartner Inc.
Thanks to breakthroughs in high-density storage, there will be loads of room to warehouse those videos. When Napster surfaced in 1999, a gigabyte of storage--enough to hold around 250 MP3 songs--cost $12.27 wholesale. Now, it's down to $1.15, according to IDC. With storage this cheap, it's easy for RCA to stuff 20 gigabytes into its $400 handheld personal video recorder, which can handle 80 hours of video.
Such recording machines are at the heart of Hollywood's vulnerability. Pioneered by startups TiVo and ReplayTV Inc. (NasdaqSC:SBLU - News), PVRs make it a snap to digitally record any TV show--and it's just as easy to skip through commercials. Now, PVR technology is starting to pop up in Toshiba laptops, Panasonic's $1,000 DVD machines, and Hewlett-Packard's $1,600 entertainment PCs. These devices all connect to networks, and they can make movie-length copies on DVDs. This makes it ever easier for viewers to own, and to share, nearly everything they see.
In time, most entertainment systems will sport their own PVRs, with gobs of storage and connections to the Net. At January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic, Royal Philips Electronics, and Sony (NYSE:SNE - News) unveiled their new media centers. These machines, costing from $1,000 to $2,000, offer next-generation remote controls and servers that link virtually every home-entertainment device in the house. Meantime, RCA, Samsung, and others are rolling out mobile video players to let consumers take all this content on the road. "The threat that the mobile MP3 players was for music, this is for movies," says Tim Bajarin, president of consulting firm Creative Strategies. "It's video on the go."
The final piece of the puzzle is wireless. In the past year, networking in homes, campuses, and cafes using low-cost Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, has taken off. This summer, a high-speed cousin, compatible with the previous version, is coming out. Known as 802.11g, it's five times faster than its predecessor.
The implications are huge. One example: Even as universities battle piracy by monitoring mega data transfers on their networks, students will soon be able to set up their own high-speed networks in dorms or labs and trade files willy-nilly. That will be easier with the new standard, whose 150-foot range is about twice the length of old Wi-Fi.
These advances are setting the stage for a new round of conflict among tech companies, consumers, and Hollywood. The technology industry is working with music and movie studios to create new services, digital locks, and filters that can balance consumer rights and copyrights. But they'd better hurry. Once consumers get their hands on the power these new technologies deliver, Hollywood will have a tough time getting it back.
Go to www.businessweek.com to see all of our latest stories.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3199385&thesection=technology&thesubsecti...
Technology News
>> Home >> Technology
The Sony Ericsson P800 is organised more like a traditional mobile phone, whereas the Qtek is really a handheld computer.
New super-mobiles ring the changes
07.03.2003
By PETER GRIFFIN
If you can overcome the paranoia of painting the town red with a $2000 phone in your back pocket, there's a good chance you'll enjoy the new wave of super-mobiles.
Just don't lose your grip. Despite their hefty pricetags, these feature-packed devices are getting smaller, lighter and easier to carry - unlike the solid bricks of earlier versions.
QTEK
The best thing about this handheld computer/phone combo is that if you've had anything to do with Windows (and most of us have), you'll know where everything is.
That familiarity comes in handy when you're in the back of a taxi, squinting at a two-inch screen trying to enter your pop3 mail settings.
Pocket versions of Word and Excel are included, and Windows Media Player will play your mp3 audio files nicely.
Outlook Express integrates your email and text messages, and good old Internet Explorer will let you browse websites on Vodafone's GPRS mobile data network - see the attached caveat on data pricing.
This device is primarily a handheld computer, so if you're just looking to talk and send text messages go instead for a mobile handset (see below) - although you can do both fine on the Qtek.
Using the handwriting recognition software can be frustrating, but this is as good as it gets at the moment. A collapsible keyboard will set you back about $300 - when the keyboards become available here.
There's no brandname associated with the Qtek, but it is made by HTC, the company responsible for the Compaq iPaq handheld computer.
You'll get funny looks holding it to your ear, but the speakerphone works well and the Qtek comes with a hands-free kit.
Its one big flaw is a nagging reception problem that occasionally sees incoming calls directed straight to voice mail.
This is a problem referred to widely overseas, so it wasn't a matter of my phone being the odd one out. Synchronising with Windows on your PC via the Qtek cradle is easy - and make sure you do it regularly.
The thing crashed on me twice, forcing me to revert to back-up data on my PC.
The Qtek is good on expandable storage, using the Secure Digital (SD) standard, though you'll have to pick yourself up a card (around $180 for 64MB) - they don't include one in the box.
The phone is pricey, but I reckon the added features and the familiarity of the Windows interface are worth the extra.
Price: $2249
Herald rating: 8/10.
SONY ERICSSON P800
On the other hand, this is where true mobile phones are going. It's shaped like a phone, is organised like one, but really masquerades as a computer.
Based on the Symbian 7.0 software, the P800 has a long, oblong screen that can be covered with a removable keypad to resemble more traditional phones.
It can also be used as a pen-based device - if you have dainty fingers and good eyesight. It's similar in shape to Nokia's 7650 camera-phone, but a lot better looking.
The styling of the T68i, the successful Sony Ericsson high-end phone, has thankfully been retained.
The digital camera is a nice gimmick but of limited use, producing the type of hazy shots a tiny digital camera is capable of.
Likewise, the inclusion of Bluetooth - a standard that allows the phone to talk to other like-minded devices - is largely a waste of time. How many Bluetooth-enabled devices do you own?
Everything else is great - email, and web browsing, handwriting recognition, a good mp3 player, video player, computer syncing, web browser, contact book and calendar features and, of course, games.
The phone is comfortable to hold and carry. It's also a tri-band phone, which means you can use it roaming in both Europe and America.
Incorporated on Sony's behalf is a removable storage chip in the form of the Memory Stick Duo, a postage-stamp-sized wafer of plastic and metal that boosts the phone's storage capacity.
The frustrating thing is, the Duo is incompatible with the millions of slightly larger Memory Sticks already out there.
This is a major issue if you're planning to use your phone as an mp3 player and want to be able to fit in more than half a dozen songs. Your old Memory Sticks can't be used. Apparently, an adapter for the older Memory Stick standard is available, but that just seems like more hassle.
A Sony fan, I have several Memory Sticks floating around, none of which will slot into the P800.
Price: $1799
Herald rating: 7/10
Posted on Thu, Mar. 06, 2003
Best Buy sales up 9 percent in fourth quarter
KARREN MILLS
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS - Best Buy Co. Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter comparable store sales and online sales declined 0.2 percent at a time when the company had expected them to remain flat.
Comparable store sales, which Best Buy defines as sales at stores open at least 14 months instead of the usual 12, are considered a leading indicator of a retailer's health.
However, total sales for the fiscal quarter ended March 1 increased 9 percent to $7.61 billion, from $6.98 billion a year earlier. The increase reflected the opening of 90 new stores, including 67 Best Buy stores in the United States, eight Best Buy Canada stores, nine Future Shop stores and six Magnolia Hi-fi stores.
Best Buy also said fourth-quarter earnings before non-cash charges are expected to range from $1.07 to $1.10 a share, with fiscal 2003 earnings expected to range from $1.74 to $1.77 per share. The Thomson First Call consensus estimate of 24 analysts was $1.07 for the quarter and $1.74 for the fiscal year.
Best Buy is due to release its fourth quarter and fiscal 2003 results on April 1.
The company's Musicland group stores were the poorest performers, with total revenue down 15 percent to $580 million in the fourth quarter. Best Buy said it continues to evaluate its alternatives for the Musicland business, and expects to record a non-cash charge of about $110 million after taxes, or 34 cents a share, in the fourth quarter related to revaluation of Musicland's assets and corporate facilities the company is vacating.
Best Buy acquired Musicland in January 2001 for $696 million. In the first quarter of fiscal 2003, Best Buy took a non-cash charge of $308 million in connection with the acquisition.
Fourth-quarter sales for U.S. Best Buy stores increased 11 percent to $6.41 billion and results of international stores increased 23 percent to $580 million, the company said.
"While the challenging economic and political environment constrained revenue growth, I am pleased that we are on track to meet or exceed analysts' earnings expectations, before non-cash charges," said Brad Anderson, vice chairman and chief executive.
"As consumers pulled back on spending, we continued to effectively manage our promotional activity and expenses," Anderson said. "We believe we have well positioned Best Buy for the future, when consumer spending rebounds."
For the full fiscal year, Best Buy's revenue increased 16 percent to $22.71 billion, from $19.60 billion a year earlier. Comparable store sales increased 1.4 percent.
Consumer electronics remained the company's strongest product category in fiscal 2003, making up 32 percent of total revenue, because of continued popularity of digital TVs, digital camcorders and cameras, personal video recorders and satellite TV systems. Liquid crystal display and plasma televisions also sold well, Best Buy said.
Home office products continued to make up 26 percent of Best Buy's sales mix, as strong sales of notebook computers, wireless communications, MP3 players and peripherals nearly offset weakness in sales of desktop computers.
In the entertainment line, Best Buy said a strong increase in sales of DVD movies and video gaming offset comparable store sales declines in CDs.
iPod Aging Problems
Wed, 05 Mar 2003, 10:30
from the iPod dept.
Spencer Cross
I've been having problems with a 5GB iPod that's approximately 13 months old. It became problematic, and now it no longer boots up or mounts on the desktop (displaying a folder icon with an exclamation point). Researching solutions has led me to the conclusion that the HD is "permanently damaged."
The only solution I can find is to send it to Apple and pay US$250 (plus shipping) to have them repair it. Meaning that they'll ship me a refurbished replacement. In other words, I'm paying approximately US$260 to "repair" a device that costs US$299 new.
I find it hard to believe that a device that's only 13 months old (and cost US$399 to begin with) is already damaged to the point of being, for all intents and purposes, unrepairable (despite me taking careful care of it).
In short, my iPod cost me $30/month! NO THANKS. I don't think I'll be replacing it. The interesting thing is a quick run through of the Apple iPod discussion pages reveals quite a few people with the same problems, and one user who says that Apple repeatedly deletes his posts asking how many other people are experiencing this.
iPod Killers On The Way...
http://www.ipodhacks.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index
posted by blakespot on Thursday, February 13, 2003 - 04:35 PM EST
CNET has a story about some upcoming rivals of the iPod, the most powerful of which maybe the next-generation iPod itself! See what's in store for the iPod in the way of enhancements...and competition.
Solution for iPod Battery Dilemma
http://www.ipodlounge.com/
Smalldog Electronics, in a response to a post in the Apple forums, has started a new service offering a hardware reset for your iPod. This procedure will void your Apple warranty. You might consider doing this if your iPod is out of warranty. iPodlounge emailed SmallDog and got a reply from Troy Kingsbury, Customer Service and Tech Support, describing the program.
"Yes it is true, we discovered on the Apple Discussions that a customer had taken apart his "out of warranty" iPod and had reset a capacitator that does not discharge and will limit your battery life. I have a 5GB iPod that after 1 year would only stay on about 20 minutes. After taking my iPod apart and going through the reset. I once again enjoy numerous hours of music on the iPod."
SmallDog will perform the iPod restoration for $50 and requires you to get an RMA number before sending in your iPod. iPodlounger "patricko" posted a copy of the email distributed to SmallDog Newsletter subscribers detailing the iPod Restoration Program in our forums. The iPodlounge forums were down at the time of this posting, click here to view the iPod Restoration information.
You can also try opening and resetting your iPod yourself. The hardware reset instructions requires you to open your iPod case, disconnect and reconnect your battery cable. Remember, if your iPod is still under warranty, it will be voided by opening it.
There is also an article written by Robin Grant of SmallDog describing the hardware reset with links.
This may just be the answer to the infamous iPod battery drain. Email us if you chose to send in your iPod to SmallDog or tried the hardware reset yourself. We'd like to know how well it's working.
New iCleaner Website Launched
http://www.applelinks.com/boards/Forum12/HTML/000101.html
Has this happened to anyone else?
I have been using my iPod via iTunes on both a graphite and a pink iMac with no problems whatsoever. I have also been using the AC adaptor to recharge and play the iPod through my home stereo, also with no problems.
The horrific experience was with the dalmatian iMac. When the iPod is connected to it, the iPod gets so hot its screen turns black and it is uncomfortable to hold. Luckily, this has only happened twice; the second time was an experiment to see if I was imagining it the first time (and I did not let it go on once I verified it was happening again).
Has anyone else seen this phenomenon when their iPod is hooked up to something via firewire? My guess is there is something kerflooey with the iMac since the iPod is fine everywhere else.
my understanding is that the tags will be a fix in the near
future.
"Practically every other flash and hard drive player on the market support it as a result of _consumer demand_."
How about:
Practically every other flash and hard drive player on the market will be obsolete as a result of _consumer demand_.
DABOSS, I have heard in post that O-1000 records
from FM. But from the specs I don't get a confirmation
that it does. Could you tell me if O-1000 does or
doesn't record from FM. TIA
Cadence, my thanks for trying to save me.
LOL
wallace did you forget all those funds
lost money (a good deal of it) in the
same time frame as EDIG. Or are you
just being selective?
Any company's stock price will fluctuate -
that's a given sassy.