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It is a smart move so they don't have to cut Wencor in like it seems they are doing with Amtrac. With you guys damned if they do, damned if they don't. Unreal
"nothing but a stock selling sham" LOL
The company is
"gaining our own access to desirable content to offer to our customers"
This is smart thing to do and should be applauded.
Page 6 of the proxy booklet it states:
Audit Committee Financial Expert
The Company has a standing Audit Committee that includes the following two members of the Board of Directors: Alex Diaz and Robert Putnam. With the recent resignation of Victor T. Ramsauer from the Board of Directors, the Audit Committee does not currently have an audit committee financial expert, as defined by Regulation S-K, or an "independent" director, as defined under the NASDAQ National Stock Market rules and Rule 10A-3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company anticipates that Renee Warden, upon her election to the Board, will be appointed to the Audit Committee and be designated as the Audit Committee Financial Expert.
http://www.edig.com/newsDetail.php?id=96
An audio replay of the webcast will become available through the same link listed above approximately one hour after it concludes and will remain available for approximately 30 days.
.DIGITAL PROVIDES SUMMARY OF ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS MEETING
Company Announces New, Enhanced Digital Video/Audio Technology Platform
(SAN DIEGO, CA – August 5, 2005) – e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG) held its annual meeting of shareholders yesterday at its corporate offices in San Diego, California, using the occasion to announce a new, enhanced version of its proprietary, secure digital video/audio technology platform (DVAP).
The Company’s formal business consisted of four proposals: Proposal #1, to elect Alex Diaz, Atul Anandpura, Robert Putnam, Allen Cocumelli and Renee Warden to the Board of Directors; Proposal #2, to increase the authorized number of shares from 200 million to 300 million; Proposal #3, to approve the 2005 Equity-Based Compensation Plan; and, Proposal #4, to ratify the appointment of Singer, Lewak, Greenbaum & Goldstein LLP as independent auditors of the Company for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006; all four proposals were approved by shareholders.
At the conclusion of the formal business of the meeting, Atul Anandpura, e.Digital’s president and chief executive officer, reviewed the company’s recent financial and business performance, and then detailed the company’s technologies and business strategy.
“Looking beyond the successful design and implementation of the DVAP-based digEplayer™, we have identified promising business opportunities for closed system portable entertainment devices,” said Anandpura. “As a result, we have been enhancing our DVAP by adding a magnetic card reader as well as high speed content transfer which is achieved through e.Digital’s content downloading software. We are also developing a wireless download manager, which will enable secure content downloading.”
“Based on our extensive experience with user interfaces, we have developed a graphical user interface (GUI) builder, which enables non-technical users to develop a complete graphical user interface in just a few days. This GUI builder provides tremendous flexibility for customers seeking to develop their own user interface.”
Anandpura continued, “While we are experiencing increasing market growth and demand for secure versions of our DVAP, OEM business initiatives for consumer electronics-based versions of our players for the retail market have been mostly unsuccessful due to: the lack of desirable, legal, easy-to-download video content; very limited consumer acceptance of hard-drive based portable video players; our limited financial resources; and Apple’s dominance of the music player market.”
“From Apple, other companies, and our own experience, we have learned that good hardware by itself without either pre-loaded or easily accessible, desirable content will probably not be successful. Consequently, we have refined our business focus by aligning our secure DVAP with customers who share our vision of combining desirable, easily accessible video content with their branding of closed system e.Digital-powered devices.”
“While we are successfully supplying versions of our DVAP to the in flight entertainment (IFE) industry through APS/Wencor, we are also currently working with companies who desire to sell or lease branded, closed system video entertainment products based on our DVAP into the following markets:
• Healthcare
• Cruise lines
• Car rentals
• Kiosk-based businesses
“With the smaller screen, Kino™ version of our DVAP currently targeted for customers in kiosk-based businesses, we are moving to exploit the growing market for secure closed system video products by developing a new DVAP based on a powerful new processor providing significantly more functionality and feature sets than available in our current DVAP,” announced Anandpura.
The new DVAP, based on further augmentation of e.Digital’s MicroOS™, will come in the form of a fully finished product featuring:
• High resolution digital LCD
• Embedded magnetic card reader
• Touch screen capabilities
• Internet access
• Voice over IP (VOIP)
• Full featured graphical user interface
• Content security
• RFID for tracking and theft control
• Access to e.Digital-supplied desirable content
Anandpura then unveiled the initial industrial design for the first product based on the company’s new DVAP – The Mobile Entertainment Device, MedeViewer™ E7, featuring a high-resolution 7” LCD screen.
“We expect customer branded versions of the MedeViewer E7 will contribute revenues to e.Digital, along with additional and continuing sales of versions of our current DVAP, this fiscal year,” remarked Anandpura.
“I want to thank APS/Wencor for their business and the opportunity to be working with them on their IFE business. I would also like to thank our highly committed and talented engineering team, as well as express my appreciation to our board of directors and to our shareholders who have supported us this past year.”
“As I look at the progress we have made over the last year and the developments we are making in aligning e.Digital with companies and partners who share our desire to exploit new markets for closed system video devices, I am more confident than ever about our prospects for business and revenue growth,” concluded Anandpura. “Based on current and emerging business, and the information we have presented at this meeting, we expect fiscal 2006 revenues to increase over fiscal 2005 through expected growing sales and acceptance of products based on both new and current versions of our proprietary DVAP.”
A replay of the meeting is available through www.edigital.com for approximately 30 days.
E.DIGITAL CORPORATION ANNOUNCES PRELIMINARY FISCAL Q1 REVENUES
Company Provides Fiscal Q2 Revenue Guidance
(SAN DIEGO, CA, July 28, 2005) – e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG), a leading innovator of proprietary digital technology platforms, today announced preliminary unaudited revenues of approximately $950,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2005. The company also announced that it expects revenues in its second fiscal quarter (Q2 - 2006) ending September 30, 2005 to exceed $1.6 million.
“We expect increased fiscal 2006 revenues by designing, developing, manufacturing, selling and supporting versions of our proprietary content-protected digital video/audio technology platform (DVAP) to current and emerging customers,” said Atul Anandpura, e.Digital’s president and chief executive officer. “We expect DVAP-based Kino™ devices will contribute revenues in fiscal 2006, along with new customer-branded closed system versions of our DVAP. We also expect additional orders and business from
APS/Wencor.”
“Recent results evidence that our strategy of aligning our DVAP with desirable video content and focusing on companies providing or pursuing the sales or rentals of closed system secure video products is working. We look forward to providing more information regarding current and emerging business as events occur and as our business customers announce their products.”
Concluded Anandpura, “We thank our shareholders for their support and look forward to presenting e.Digital’s latest business developments at our upcoming annual meeting.”
E.DIGITAL CORPORATION ANNOUNCES AUDIO WEBCAST OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS
(SAN DIEGO, CA, August 1, 2005)—e.Digital Corporation’s (OTCBB: EDIG), annual meeting of shareholders will be available live through an audio-only webcast on Thursday, August 4, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
Windows Media Player is required to access the webcast. For additional information on Microsoft's Windows Media player click here.
Individuals interested in listening to the webcast are encouraged to register in advance of the meeting and to temporarily disable any “pop-up” protection they may have before entering the webcast
An audio replay of the webcast will become available through the same link listed above approximately one hour after it concludes and will remain available for approximately 30 days.
Which is it? Bad new for e.Digital that IMS was involved, and we were to be cut out? Now IMS is out and it can't be good news for e.Digital? LOL
Se ya all at the SHM!
Wencor and IMS Agree to Terminate "Letter of Intent" for Purchase of IMS
SPRINGVILLE, Utah - July 29, 2005 - Wencor and IMS have mutually agreed to terminate their "Letter of Intent" for Wencor to purchase IMS. "During the due diligence period," said J. Brent Wood, CEO of Wencor, "it became apparent to both parties that there were some irreconcilable differences on several key issues."
The parties have agreed to cease further discussions and go their separate ways in the IFE marketplace. "We have ceased discussions on an amicable basis with each company wishing the other best wishes for the future of each company," said Joseph Renton, President of IMS.
Contact:
Contact: Bob Carey
Tel: (801) 489-2127
Fax: (801) 489-2199
Come on. Pellegrini/IMS got no where with the PEA Air Sahara? LOL They were toast on this product and they knew it.
Wencor did well for themselves, as IMS does have some good products now in use and although he struck out with PEA, Pellegrini seems to be well respected in this arena.
How this all shakes out remains to be seen. When Wencor acquired APS, e.Digital was quick to put out a statement talking about continued cooperation. Let's see what happens here.
Good luck to all
Many Amtrak trains have standard 110-volt electrical power supply available at your seat to supply power to these devices.
Personal Electronic Devices
Bring Your Entertainment Onboard
You may bring and use onboard personal electronic devices such as PCs, DVD players, and CD players. Many Amtrak trains have standard 110-volt electrical power supply available at your seat to supply power to these devices.
Be Considerate of Others, Please
To maintain a pleasant environment for all passengers, we require that when using radios, CD players, DVD players, TVs, and all other audio/visual devices, passengers use earphones or headphones, and that the volume be kept low.
Also, in consideration of others, please switch cell phones, electronic watches, pagers, and PCs to silent mode
APS/Wencor primes digEsystem manufacturing pump
May 23, 2005 - APS/Wencor has placed an order worth $635,000 for network-enabled digEsystem units with e.Digital Corporation, the company responsible for industrial design and manufacture of the original handheld digEplayer.
digEsystem is based on digEplayer, with the exception that the passenger unit - called the Embedded Digital Video Player (eDVP) - will run off standard in-seat power from Astronics, KID-Systeme or Page Aerospace and will have an IEEE 802.11a wireless network capability.
Also fitted with a stereo audio jack on the front panel, the eDVP has built-in button controls for on/off, brightness, channel and volume. Its hard disc contains the Linux operating system, a suite of applications, an HTML browser, and a library of content such as audio, video and other media forms.
digEplayer is currently being developed to receive a credit-card reader, and digESystem’s eDVP will be similarly equipped. The reader will be used to pay for content and to support other forms of inflight commerce. Transaction data will be stored in flight and then transferred on a secure wireless network to the card companies after the aircraft has landed for the day.
The eDVP will also have a USB 2.0 port to accommodate game controllers, keyboards and memory sticks. The game controllers are intended allow a wider selection of action-type games.
In a typical installation, the aircraft will have a docking station in each seatback, allowing the airline to fine-tune its IFE provision by installing eDVPs in any seat, zone or cabin, on the ground or in flight. Airline staff will be able to add or remove the eDVP in less than a minute, using a simple security installation tool that will be small enough to fit on a key-ring but complex enough to discourage theft. A quick-disconnect system will allow cabin crew to easily remove and replace defective units in flight.
In a basic installation, each eDVP would hold its content on a 60Gb hard disc, so that no head-end equipment is needed. But a central media server and wireless access point are in development to support the extra interactive functions - moving-maps, gate information, news, weather, sport, pre-recorded TV programming, intranet - that APS/Wencor plans to introduce.
Time-sensitive content will be loaded to the media server on the ground by either a USB memory device or the PML’s wired high-speed port. The server will store the content and then distribute it wirelessly to all the eDVPs at the correct time. The media server could also act as a router for aircraft interfaces, offboard communications systems and all digEsystem cabin and maintenance functions.
Other planned enhancements include integration with inflight television, multiplayer games, broadband Internet connectivity - this would require the addition to the aircraft of a terrestrial or satellite air-to-ground communications system - and onboard public wireless LAN.
Content will be viewed on an 8in LCD touchscreen and refreshed regularly, with the 802.11a network providing the link between individual eDVPs and a portable media loader (PML) while the aircraft is on the ground. The PML - a battery-powered ruggedised computer incorporating a wireless access point and an Ethernet hub - will also be used to retrieve transaction and usage data from each eDVP.
Time to leave this board until it is cleaned up. iHub has many positive features..garbage control is not one of them.
In flight gambling on digEplayer?
Ryanair chief: I would rather end it all now than stay too long
By Christopher Hope in Seattle (Filed: 02/10/2004)
Micheal O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, has given his strongest hint yet that he is considering quitting Europe's biggest budget airline.
"I don't see myself at Ryanair in five years time. If I thought I would spend the next five years doing this I would rather end it now," he said yesterday.
Mr O'Leary was speaking about his future on a visit to Boeing's Seattle headquarters, where he was collecting Ryanair's 60th Boeing aeroplane.
He has always said he would stand down when Ryanair become the biggest airline in Europe. Ryanair, which will carry nearly 30m passengers this year is now nearing that target.
Mr O'Leary predicted that within a few years passengers would be able to treat its jets like casinos in the sky. Ryanair starts trialling a "digebox" in-flight entertainment system from next month and he thinks in-flight gambling is the next logical step: "You'll make a bloody fortune."
The airline claims it has been "inundated" by online gaming companies, such as Paddy Power, offering to let customers gamble on the digeboxes. Passengers will be able to gamble using a credit card as long as they are in international airspace.
He believes profits from these kinds of ancillary businesses - Ryanair also takes a cut from bookings made through it with car rental companies and hotels - would mean that flights would soon be "free for 50pc to 100pc of people" on Ryanair.
The new plane is now being flown to Ireland and will fly from Luton, easyJet's base, next week. The UK budget market is hotting up after easyJet announced three Irish routes in competition with Ryanair last month.
More free seats, Ryanair chief says
By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER AEROSPACE REPORTER
Saturday, October 2, 2004
At a time when many airlines, especially in the United States, are losing buckets of money, Michael O'Leary talks about giving away more free seats on Ryanair, Europe's biggest low-cost carrier.
In a few years, he said yesterday during a Seattle visit to Boeing, up to 75 percent of the passengers on Ryanair might be flying on free tickets.
Last year, about 15 percent of Ryanair passengers got free tickets, although they still must pay taxes and airport fees. This year, that figure will be about 25 percent, he said.
O'Leary, the executive who runs Ryanair, is an Irishman. But he's not crazy.
Well, maybe just a little.
But he's certainly colorful and always entertaining.
And successful.
He has built Ryanair into the Southwest Airlines of Europe by using the Southwest no-frills model -- stick with one airplane type in one class, fly direct to smaller airports and find any way to reduce the cost of operating.
Ryanair is a fourth the size of Southwest, based on revenue. But it's growing fast.
Just as Southwest is under pressure from rival low-cost carriers in the United States, Dublin-based Ryanair faces tough competition in Europe and a brutal fare war, from the likes of EasyJet, Air Berlin and a number of other low-cost startups.
But Ryanair is able to offer some of the cheapest fares in Europe. The average Ryanair ticket costs less than $50.
Last week, O'Leary said in an interview, Ryanair began offering 3 million free seats.
Is this anyway to run an airline?
O'Leary noted that the airline is giving away free seats that would otherwise go empty during certain travel times.
And once on the plane, passengers must pay for everything, from a sandwich to a soda. Nothing is free.
These "ancillary revenue," as O'Leary calls them, totaled $180 million in 2003.
On Nov. 1, Ryanair will break with the Southwest business model, however, and begin offering in-flight entertainment.
It is a hand-held device with a screen about the size of a paperback book and a 40-gigabyte hard drive. Passengers can watch movies and recorded TV, play games and listen to music. The system was developed, initially for Alaska Airlines, by Tacoma-based Aircraft Protection Systems.
Handing out a device to passengers is much cheaper than installing seat-back TVs as some other airlines have done, O'Leary said.
The system will first be rented to passengers on five 737s operating out of Stansted Airport in Britain. Passengers will have to pay about 5 pounds ($9) per flight to use the device.
If successful, the in-flight entertainment will be offered throughout Ryanair's growing fleet of Boeing 737s.
Two years ago, O'Leary ordered 100 Boeing 737-800s, which Ryanair operates with 189 seats in a single class
In 2003, O'Leary ordered 22 more 737-800s and took options on 78.
So far, 54 of the next generation Boeing jets have been delivered, with 96 still on firm order. And there are many more Ryanair options for additional 737s on Boeing's books.
O'Leary said he might be ready to convert options into orders by 2006 or 2007, for delivery between 2010 and 2015.
"We intend to keep growing," he said. That growth will see from 10 to 30 new jets added to the Ryanair fleet each year, he said.
Two more 737-800s were delivered to O'Leary yesterday in a ceremony at Boeing Field. One was painted in the new Boeing livery of blues and whites that is featured on pictures of Boeing's planned 7E7 jetliner.
In 2002, when he took delivery of his first 737-800 at Boeing Field, O'Leary picked up Boeing's Carolyn Corvi, vice president of the 737 program, and placed her inside the cowling of one of the jet's two engines as photographers snapped away.
Yesterday, he did it again, only this time O'Leary joined Corvi in the engine cowling.
The 43-year-old O'Leary is known for outlandish stunts, as well as his trash-talking, blunt language and casual dress.
For the delivery ceremony, O'Leary wore jeans, tennis shoes and an unbuttoned dress shirt that revealed a "Ryanair loves Boeing" T-shirt.
And in brief comments to Boeing workers and others at the delivery ceremony, he did a little trash-talking of Boeing rival Airbus.
He said he would make sure the 737-800 that is painted in the livery of the 7E7 is flown to airports all over Europe where they are lots of Airbus planes.
"That should really piss those (Airbus) people off," he said to laughter and applause.
For Michael O'Leary, it was pretty tame stuff.
SigmaTel to supply chips for new Apple MP3 player
Posted on Fri, Oct. 01, 2004
NEW YORK (Dow Jones/AP) -- SigmaTel stock rose Friday after a Wall Street firm said the semiconductor company will supply chips for a music player from Apple Computer Inc.
Shares of Austin, Texas-based SigmaTel traded at $23.50, up $2.29, or 11 percent, midday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The 52-week high of $32.34 was set Jan. 22. The year-low of $13.79 was set July 23.
Citing ``numerous sources in Asia,'' Thomas Weisel analyst Jason Pflaum said Apple will use SigmaTel's controller chips for a player it's planning to launch this Christmas.
SigmaTel and Apple officials weren't immediately available to confirm Apple's plans.
In a research note Friday, the analyst estimates revenue of $2 million to $4 million from the deal in the first full quarter.
Unlike Apple's hugely popular iPod and iPod Mini players, the new player would use solid-state flash memory, which has less capacity but can make for a lighter, cheaper player.
In addition to a possible deal with Apple Computer, the largest maker of hard drive MP3 players, Thomas Weisel's channel checks also revealed a strong third quarter for SigmaTel, Pflaum said.
Thomas Weisel has an investment banking relationship with SigmaTel.
Rio and SigmaTel Forge Strategic Relationship for MP3 Controller Chips
AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2004--SigmaTel, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGTL), the market leader for MP3 audio controller chips within portable MP3 players, announces that Rio(R) has committed to using SigmaTel as its preferred supplier for audio controllers for hard-disk drive and flash-based MP3 players for the next two years.
Rio has selected SigmaTel D-Major(TM) solutions for many of their current and past players including the recently announced 5GB(i) Rio Carbon hard-drive player and the flash-based Rio Forge players. Previously released players that use SigmaTel controllers include the 1.5GB(i) Rio Nitrus hard-drive player as well as the Rio Cali and Chiba flash players.
For future hard-drive and flash MP3 player designs in 2005 and 2006, Rio has expressed a preference to use SigmaTel's next generation ARM-based MP3 controllers as well as the current STMP35xx product family. This newest family of devices, the STMP36xx to be available early next year, will allow Rio to continue to capitalize on the integration and power-management expertise that SigmaTel is known for. Due to a broad engineering adoption of the ARM-based core, new features can be easily implemented and ported from design to design.
"SigmaTel's technology roadmap and customer support is extremely compelling in this competitive market place," said Hugh Cooney, president of Rio Audio. "While we have considered, and at times used alternative MP3 controller chipsets within a small number of past designs, SigmaTel was critical in delivering our latest line of players, the Carbon 5GB and Forge flash players. These players have so far proven very successful and are being received with overwhelming accolades from customers and critics. Because of this, we will continue to strategically engage with SigmaTel on our roadmap for the next two years."
"Rio has always been a strong partner and customer," said Ron Edgerton, SigmaTel's president and CEO. "This agreement officially acknowledges our commitment to enabling Rio to bring the best MP3 player products to the consumer market place."
For more information on SigmaTel solutions, please visit www.sigmatel.com. For more information on the Rio MP3 player offerings, please visit www.rioaudio.com.
MP3 Creator Warns Tech Impasse Dooming Downloads
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Rival technologies that baffle consumers will run more companies out of business in the nascent music download market than will head-to-head competition, one of the lead creators of MP3 playback technology warned on Wednesday.
by Bernhard Warner
"It has slowed the download business for sure, and it's doing the same for the gadget makers," said Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg, director of electronic media technologies at the Fraunhofer Institut in Ilemenau, Germany.
Consumers nowadays can store thousands of songs in a pocket-sized device, play music and videos on their mobile phones and buy albums at the click of a button.
But to their chagrin, a bewildering number of competing playback compression technologies and anti-piracy software options determine which songs play on which devices.
Apple Computers, Real Networks and Sony Corp. each have developed proprietary playback and DRM anti-piracy technologies. Songs bought on Apple's iTunes music store can play only on Apple iPods. Ditto for Sony.
The alphabet soup of technologies is meant to prevent fans from rampantly duplicating and transferring songs to others.
Brandenburg said he twice warned manufacturers and music labels that they risk alienating fans and driving them to unsanctioned file-sharing networks, where the songs are free and encoded in the unprotected MP3 format.
"They didn't listen. Maybe they thought it made commercial sense not to have a standard. It's very strange," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Popkomm music conference.
Brandenburg should be the last man on the planet to complain about the impasse. Granted a lucrative patent in 1986 for developing the MP3, he and the Fraunhofer Institut collect royalties on the sale of MP3 players, including Apple's iPod.
"Blank MP3s is the only standard. It is supported by all," he said. "This has been good news for Fraunhofer. And, I consider myself a wealthy man as well.
They "hint" like they are, but from all that I can find out, the answer is a big NO!
New Portable HD Tech Raises Hopes
Tuesday, September 28 @ 08:00:00 PDT
Oki has announced that they have developed a single-chip system for hard disk drive audio players, enabling the devices to get faster transfer speeds and longer battery life.
Oki announced that it has succeeded in developing two ARM946E-S(TM)-core system LSIs, the ML696500 series, using a single chip to realize the major component functions of hard disk drive (HDD) audio players. Oki begins sample shipment from November 2004, targeting the rapidly expanding HDD mounted mobile audio player market. Volume shipment starts from January 2005, aiming to achieve production of 500,000 units per month designated for the worldwide market in the fiscal year ending March 2006.
"Though HDD mounted portable audio players have been attracting attention recently, slow transfer speeds from PC to player and short battery life have been some issues," said Akira Kamo, President of Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric. "Oki's system LSIs enable greatly increased speed and performance, small size, and low power consumption, in order to meet the user needs. With the total solution Oki provides with its chip and software, HDD audio player manufactures can develop a compact and high performance player in a short timeframe."
The ML696500 series introduced is an LSI intended for HDD audio players. It enables MP3 and WMA audio files to be played, as well as high-speed data transfer between PC and the player's hard drive. It comes in two models; either with an onboard 512 KB Flash ROM; the ML69Q6500, or without; the ML696500. Since both models have onboard USB 2.0 high-speed device controllers and Ultra DMA 66-compatible ATA/IDE controllers, a dramatic increase in data transfer speed between PC and player has been realized; with a current effective data transfer rate of 128 Mbps, compared to that of 8 Mbps for USB 1.1 full-speed controllers.
Furthermore, the ML696500 series has simplified the design of complex analog circuitry by combining primary audio-player component functions onto a single chip. Previously, components such as the DA converter, mounted with a headphone amplifier, AD converter mounted with a microphone amplifier required several chips.
Concurrently with the introduction of the ML696500 series, Oki will begin selling SDKs (software development kits) for this LSI, for use in developing software for reproduction of music files, managing hard drive files, and other purposes. Oki will continue to develop small size, high performance and low power consumption system LSIs together with software and aims sales of 10 billion yen in the HDD audio player market by the fiscal year ending March 2007.
Philips Offers SoC's for Portable Audio and Multimedia Players
Tuesday, September 28 2004 @ 06:30 AM
Leveraging its expertise in high performance digital audio solutions, Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today announced its Nexperia Personal family of ICs for portable audio and multimedia players. The PNX010x family includes a host of key features that, when combined with Philips' software offering, enables consumer electronics manufacturers to quickly bring to market high performance portable flash and hard disk audio and multimedia players.
The market for portable audio and video players is quickly growing with CBIC forecasting growth of 75 percent on a yearly basis between 2002 and 2007 (Source: "Semiconductors: Digital Audio Comes of Age", April 2004). Meeting this market demand, Philips has developed ready-to-use IC solutions that offer manufacturers upgradeable software architectures, small form factors and low power solutions for a wide range of portable audio devices. This includes the PNX0101 and PNX0102 one-chip systems solutions targeted at portable audio players and the PNX0105 for multimedia players.
"With the PNX010x, the consumer now has the freedom to experience high quality audio entertainment on the move. These low power, highly integrated processors deliver Hi-fi quality sound in a tiny package," said Rutton Ruttonsha, vice president and general manager, personal entertainment solutions at Philips Semiconductors. "This is just the first step in our drive to make Audio/Video entertainment portable."
The integrated PNX0101 and PNX0102 combine an embedded 32-bit ARM7TDMI processor and a dedicated DSP for audio processing in a small footprint package to enable high performance portable audio applications. The PNX0105 incorporates the more powerful ARM926 core and an IDE interface to provide an excellent architecture for building portable multimedia players. The entire PNX010x family features a programmable architecture that provides support for multiple audio decompression algorithms including MP3, AAC and Microsoft WMA as well as MP3 compression with LifeVibes™ Music audio enhancement algorithms.
Philips has designed the PNX010x family with extensive flexibility for customized functionality. This includes complete software stacks and optional development tools from Philips to help manufactures stay competitive with fast product design and differentiation.
Availability
Philips' PNX0101 and PNX0102 are currently in mass production. Mass production of the PNX0105 will begin in Q2 2005.
More is information is available at www.semiconductors.philips.com.
InterVideo Demonstrates Multimedia Codecs on Texas Instruments' Digital Media Processor Platform at Photokina
COLOGNE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 2004--
InterVideo MPEG-4 Codec Technology Integrated with Texas Instruments DSP-based Solution to Provide High Quality Video Capture/Playback
Photokina TI Booth, Hall 11.1, Stand B028--InterVideo(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:IVII), a pioneer in advancing DVD and MPEG-related software technologies, announced today that several of its multimedia codec solutions have been ported to the Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) digital media processor platform. InterVideo will demonstrate their codec technology solutions at the TI booth during the Photokina Show, which is being held at the Cologne Exhibition Center, Germany, September 28 - October 3, 2004.
"InterVideo's MPEG-4 codec technology is the ideal video component for system integrators and OEMs of digital still cameras using TI's digital media processor platform," said John Daniels, worldwide marketing manager, Digital Camera Solutions Group at Texas Instruments. "InterVideo's unique technology allows for user-selectable quality and recording time, and provides up to 30 frames per second encoding and decoding at VGA resolution. It provides consumers a crisp and clear picture quality without the jerkiness typical of handheld movie cameras."
"We are delighted to be working with Texas Instruments in delivering high quality video encoding and decoding for our customers," commented Steve Ro, President and CEO of InterVideo. "TI's superior digital media processors made it possible to continue optimizing our codec technology and to produce superior performance with advanced features and functionality and to provide our consumers with high quality images and video."
The incorporation of InterVideo's multimedia codec solutions on TI's DSP-based programmable platform will provide consumers with high quality MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 video capture and playback from digital camera and camera/camcorder products. InterVideo's software-based compression technology allows recording of video clips at several resolutions up to VGA (640x480) at 30fps for MPEG-4 ASP encoding or up to Full-D1 (720x480) at 24fps for MPEG-2 encoding. Another new feature is the option of using various system multiplexers and demultiplexers (MUX/DEMUX) such as AVI, MOV, 3GP and ASF to better suit customers' needs. In addition, customers will have a broad choice of audio codecs including voice codecs (such as G.711, G.726, IMA-ADPCM) and advanced audio codecs (such as MP3 and AAC) at user selectable sampling rates and bitrates.
By integrating InterVideo codec technology on its digital media processors, TI provides digital camera OEMs and system integrators with a cost-effective solution for delivering high quality MPEG-4 or MPEG-2 based video recording and playback. This partnership will increase the value of digital camera and digital camcorder offerings and will meet customer expectations for high quality image and video recording and playback. TI's digital media processor line of products are optimized for digital camera applications, leveraging a highly efficient, low-power TMS320C54x(TM) digital signal processing (DSP) core, an ARM(R) RISC processor, plus video acceleration coprocessors and video input and output subsystems to improve performance.
An additional benefit to customers using MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 enabled digital cameras and camcorders using InterVideo technology is seamless interoperability with InterVideo's award-winning PC multimedia software such as WinDVD(R) for video playback and WinDVD Creator(TM) for capturing, editing and burning DVDs.
Licensing
Object code, API and sample application code with ample documentation are available for OEMs, system integrators and other third parties. Licensing and customer support information on InterVideo's codec technology can be obtained by calling InterVideo at 510-651-0888 or visiting InterVideo's web site, www.intervideo.com.
About InterVideo, Inc.
InterVideo is a leading provider of DVD software. InterVideo has developed a technology platform from which it has created a broad suite of integrated multimedia software products that allow users to capture, edit, author, burn, distribute, and play digital video. InterVideo's software is bundled with products sold by the majority of the top ten PC OEMs ranked in terms of sales by IDC. The company is headquartered in Fremont, CA with regional offices in Europe, Taiwan, China and Japan. For more information, contact InterVideo at 510/651-0888 or visit the company's Web site www.intervideo.com.
New RCA Lyra Video Device Released
Tuesday, September 28 @ 07:00:00 PDT
http://news.designtechnica.com/article5510.html
RCA has announced a new Lyra audio/video personal media player that allows recording of TV directly onto the unit for $449.
The RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox lets TV junkies record their favorite programs directly onto a pocket-sized device - without the need to use a PC. The 20 GB RCA RD2780 is a "virtual VCR" in your pocket, featuring a 3.5" screen that easily connects to a television set via an analog composite video output and can record up to 50 hours of video content directly from an analog video source. The RD2780 also plays back digital audio files and JPEG photos.
"A recent consumer survey of RD2780 owners found that 65 percent of users are primarily obtaining their video content by recording programs directly from their television or other A/V devices such as set top boxes," said Mark Redmond, Vice President, Worldwide Audio and Video, Thomson. "Additionally, 52 percent have used the device to transfer video from their camcorders - which can also be accomplished without the use of a PC.
"One of the advantages of being a leader in this product category is that we can survey our own customers to really understand how they use the product, what they like about it, and where we can make improvements. This valuable data is used to provide enhancements to our current products via software updates on the web and in planning future generations of devices," Redmond added.
To directly record a TV show, the consumer simply connects the RD2780 to a television set via the enclosed line-in / line-out cables, highlights the "video" mode and presses the "record" and "select" button to begin recording. A recording menu lets consumers automatically select recording times ranging from 30 minutes to three hours, and automatically shuts off the unit when the recording is completed. When in record mode, the RD2780 displays status, recording time, elapsed time, recording quality and file name.
Featuring a 3.5-inch Thin Film Transistor (TFT) LCD screen, the versatile RD2780 is compatible with multiple audio and video codecs including MPEG-4, MPEG-1, mp3 and Windows Media Audio. The RD2780 doubles as a portable (or desktop) pocket photo album, since JPEG images can be displayed and stored by directly transferring them from the PC or by inserting a CompactFlash memory card. The robust 20GB hard drive in the RCA LYRA Audio/Video Jukebox accommodates up to 100,000 JPEG photo images which can be easily displayed with a convenient, built-in leg stand.
Providing RCA LYRA Jukebox owners with peace of mind, the RD2780 will now be shipped with a label from StuffBak - a loss protection and recovery service. Owners simply attach a StuffBak label, which contains a unique identification number, to the player and register it online, or via a toll-free phone number. Users pay a small service fee to have the item returned, plus the cost of shipping and handling, and have the option of offering a cash reward for the return of the item. The label instructs people who find the lost device how to return the product.
Using the RD2780's onscreen keyboard, consumers can rename files, folders and playlists, providing a quick and convenient solution for organizing the thousands of audio, video and JPEG images stored on the device. In addition to audio playlists, the product has the unique ability to provide playlists for video and photos, also away from the PC. The RD2780 is compatible with Thomson's exclusive LYRA DJ smart playlist generator, which uses the PC to analyze acoustical material, and automatically groups similar songs together.
Smart Tagging™ allows users to "tag" songs, videos, or photos in order to add them to favorites lists, programmable playlists, or for creating folders. Video time stamping eliminates the need to start the viewing over each time the RD2780 is turned on, and video bookmarking allows movie buffs to access favorite scenes at the touch of a button. Video indexing adds further convenience by enabling quick access to skipping forward or backwards for 30-seconds or 15 minutes at a time.
Acting as a convenient storage device for digital images, the RD2780 has a "move all" function that enables users to quickly transfer the entire contents of a compact flash card to the hard drive. Vacationers can quickly "dump" their photos from a digital camera onto the device and free up the camera's memory for more picture-taking. Tile display mode (thumbnails) makes it easier to manage photos on the device, by viewing them all at a glance. JPEG photos can be rotated, zoomed (up to 8X) and panned on the display for optimal viewing. These features can all be accessed from a convenient menu banner displayed on the device. In addition, creative consumers can organize their JPEG images into a personal slideshow, accompanied by background music stored on the RD2780.
About the size of a small picture frame, the RD2780 measures 5.31 x 3.15 x .98 inches, and weighs only 10.5 ounces. It contains a built-in MPEG-4 encoder and decoder, enabling consumers to store up to 80 hours of pre-recorded television shows, feature films, or home videos (when content is loaded directly from the PC), and more than 20 movies (up to 50 hours) when content is directly recorded into the device from a video source. The RD2780 respects analog copy protection signals from pre-recorded media. With built-in separate audio and video recording modes, recording on the device is quick and easy.
Adding to the overall value of the RD2780 are the included AC/DC adapter, "ear bud" style stereo headphones, two audio/video patch cables (for line-in and line-out) and a carrying pouch. The RD2780's car kit provides hours of audio entertainment through a cassette adapter, while the included lithium ion rechargeable battery provides portable video and audio playback. The RD2780 has a suggested retail price of $449.
Yawnnnn. eom
lickly
Then you don't consider Apple the manufacturer of the iPod? If so, then you are consistent. Apple branded? HP branded? OK I am with you
If e.Digital is not considered by you as the manufacturer of the digEplayer, then you do agree that many if not most of the items made today under similar conditions means THOSE companies are not manufacturers either. If so, you are consistent.
I believe we have beat this subject to death.......
The OEM/ODM crowd... differs from EDIG
There are numerous companies in numerous areas of business that while they sub out or out source the manufacturing the actual products, are considered to be manufacturers. Also many companies USED to do their own manufacturing, but they no longer.....They are still considered manufacturers.
Not comparing e.Digital (yet LOL) to these other companies, but give credit where it is due, just as you give blame.
Asustek to make iPod mini for Apple
Latest news
Emma Wang, Taipei; Steve Shen, DigiTimes.com [Friday 3 September 2004]
Asustek Computer has received OEM orders for the iPod mini digital music player from Apple Computer, according to market sources. Asustek is the second Taiwan-based manufacturer of the digital devices since Inventec Appliances also produces the iPod for Apple.
Asustek will assemble and ship the iPod to Apple from its plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province (China), the sources said.
The iPod orders will help Asustek in working toward its goal of becoming a key provider of consumer electronics products, the sources noted.
In related news, Inventec is expected to continue to supply Apple with its current iPod models. In addition, Inventec is also likely to secure orders for a similar version of the iPod from Hewlett-Packard (HP), the sources said. Apple and HP entered into an agreement earlier this year for HP to resell the iPod under the HP brand.
Made by Who, what?
What is in a name? Would a rose smell just as sweet if it were called by a different name? The famous Bard answered these questions very eloquently hundreds of years ago. Today in the laptop industry, these questions are asked once again. The answer hasn’t changed.
In June of 2003 major Taiwan notebook makers reported record sales growth in the industry. The world’s largest Notebook Computer manufacturer, Quanta Computer, shipped more than 800,000 notebooks in June thanks in part to major brands like Dell Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba, NEC and Acer. Quanta sold over 5 million notebooks to Dell over an 18 month period beginning in June 2002. The IBM Thinkpad G series and certain Sony VAIO models are also produced by Quanta Computer.
Companies like Quanta Computer are known as Original Design manufacturer (ODMs). The ODMs are contracted by Original Equipment manufacturer’s (OEMs), companies whose names you would be familiar with, to produce notebooks for them. Then the OEM’s take delivery of these models and install the hard drive, processor, memory and affix their label on them and go to market. IBM, Toshiba and Fujitsu have been well established as the top hard drive manufacturers, that is why most of the world’s notebooks carry one of their hard drives.
Most brand name notebooks out in the market today are not manufactured by the companies that market them. There are exceptions like Asus, Toshiba and IBM but even the latter two don’t manufacture all of their laptops. Here are some examples of ODMs that actually manufacture the notebooks you are familiar with. Winstron ships over 3 million notebooks per year, including the Acer TravelMate, IBM ThinkPad X series notebook, the new Centrino based Dell Latitude D400 and the NEC Versa P440.
Clevo, one of the most successful and rapidly growing ODMs, designs and manufacturers the ProStar/Sager NP5670 series. The much hyped AlienWare Area 51M which had accolades showered upon it by industry critics is the same notebook. The ProStar/Sager NP 8882 series is the same notebook as the pricy Voodoo M600. Of course the ProStar/Sager notebooks are priced much better since they spend less on marketing the same notebook.
Inventec makes notebooks for Toshiba, although Toshiba also manufacuteres some of its own notebooks in Japan. Inventec is responsible for the popular Satellite models. Inventc and Arima, which is struggling, produced the Compaq Presario and Armada models respectively.
Compal, the worlds second largest laptop makers, was just contracted to produce the new line of HP consumer notebooks. Compal is projecting sales of over 5 million notebooks this year with 350,000 notebooks going to Acer. The new mobile Pentium 4 Toshiba, Dell Inspiron 8500 notebooks are produced by Compal. Even the new Apple 15.4” wide screen notebooks and 17” PowerBooks are made by Compal. Apple also orders its 12-inch Powerbook from ECS.
HP led worldwide notebook market the first half of this year and are the undisputed King of the Hill in the notebook market, not because their Notebooks are much better than anyone else’s but because HP is a monster markeing jugeranaut. Remember HP buys most of its Notebooks from Quanta Computer.
Although, the configurations vary between these “brand names” the quality of most notebooks is consistently similar. You will find the same notebook in a broad price range depending on which company is marketing it. Don’t be fooled by brand name marketing gimmicks that promise better quality for a premium price. Look at the Sony recall recently of two of its more popular models.
Among the world’s top Notebook manufacturers are Winstron, Compal Electronics, Inventec, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), First International Computer (FIC), Asustek Computer, Arima Computer, Mitac Technology, Clevo, and Twinhead. Together these companies account for over 90% of worldwide notebook sales. These companies aren’t exactly brand names you may be familiar with but chances are that if you own a notebook it was manufactured by one of them irregardless of the “name brand” that it was marketed under.
Quanta Computer Posts Drop in 2Q Earnings
08.30.2004, 06:48 AM
Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc. - the world's largest laptop maker - said Monday that its second-quarter net profit dropped by 7 percent from a year earlier because of rising component costs.
Quanta said net profit totaled 2.96 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$86.8 million, euro 72.2 million) in the three months that ended June 30, compared with NT$3.19 billion (US$93.8 million, euro 77.8 million) a year earlier.
The company makes notebook PCs and mobile phones on a contract basis for global clients like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Quanta said in a statement that rising component costs hurt the company during the first six months of 2004. The price of liquid-crystal-display screens, one of the most expensive parts of a laptop computer, have especially been surging.
Eve Jung, an analyst at UBS Securities in Taipei, said there also seemed to be a slowing demand for computers because of seasonal factors. The April-June period is normally the slowest for the personal computer industry.
The Taiwanese company said second-quarter revenue totaled NT$69.37 billion (US$2 billion, euro 1.6 billion), up 6 percent from NT$65.34 billion (US$1.9 billion, euro 1.5 billion) a year earlier.
Quanta said that although growth in the laptop PC industry had so far been a "disappointment," it still expected global laptop PC shipments to rise 20 percent to 25 percent in 2004.
Looking ahead to the third quarter, Quanta said it will likely post a 20 percent to 30 percent on-quarter rise in notebook PC shipments.
The company's second-quarter notebook PC shipments rose 10 percent on year and 7 percent on quarter. Its shipments of mobile phone handsets totaled nearly 1.1 million, up 5 percent on year but down 7 percent from the first quarter.
But Jung predicted that stiff competition in the computer industry will continue to erode Quanta's profitability.
"I expect further downside for Quanta's gross margin in the third quarter, even though the firm predicted growth across all product segments," Jung said.
Need I go on?????
Does Apple make the ipod or even some of their own computers? NO! The same goes for many products made and marketed by many MANUFACTURES! How many computer companies make their own laptops as an other example? Yet we say it is manufactured by Apple, Compaq, DELL etc. The examples are endless and you know it.
Manufactured by e.Digital Corporation for APS eom
A380: The flying Power PC server farm
How many MIPS flying high
By Mike Magee: Monday 27 September 2004, 08:16
AIRBUS AND THALES have let loose information about the in-flight entertainment (IFE) system to equip the A380 mega-monster 550 seat aircraft scheduled to take fight in August 2005. The Thales TopSeries i-5000 system has been under development for over four years and been extensively lab tested in Irvine, California, with Airbus taking possession of the system. Several articles have come out on the i-5000, but AIRFAX.com definitely has the tech scoop over Aviation Week on the hardware behind the seat cushions.
Running in at a cool $8 million per aircraft, each A380 will have an average of about 6 terabytes of networked computer storage onboard capable of holding up to 1200 movies in MPEG-22 format – a far cry from today's half dozen looping video channels. Every seat on board will have a copper gigabit Ethernet connection and be able to pull up video-on-demand. On the back-end, there's a pair of fiber GigE switches, enough horsepower to add (i.e cram) more than 550 seats for on-demand video if necessary. (It might not be comfortable for the passengers, but they'll have access to a big movie library to keep them happy during the course of the flight).
Screen size will depend on your seating class, with those in steerage, er, economy getting an 8.4 inch LCD while those traveling first-class will get a whopping 17 inch LCD seat-back display with a 16 x 9 (i.e. HDTV grade) aspect ratio. As noted earlier, the video is currently MPEG-2 format and there are plans to roll out a software upgrade to support MPEG-4 once there's a little bit more comfort with the standard being formalized. Processing power to turn the MPEG-2 into video is done by a IBM PowerPC CPU behind the LCD. Thales looked at Intel chips, but decided the PowerPC family had a better performance growth path over the next 10 years.
Let's stop for a minute and review: PowerPC chips in 550 seats. Up to 6 TB of networked storage. GigE to each processor. It can't be long before some sick puppy tries to con A380 operators into uploading grid computing applications on their airplanes for processing data between stops. Just think of all that idle computing time at the gate while passengers get on and off, and the plane gets turned around for its next flight. It's about a 5.5 hour flight from DC to London and a hop from LA or SF to Sydney can take 12-14 hours. Not everyone will be watching movies the entire time, so there's bound to be a lot of excess cycles during a typical flight.
The system is fully equipped to handle off-aircraft communications for web surfing, e-mail, and "live" broadcast television, so (in theory) you could actually run that grid application on an A380 and do remote programming through the plane's wireless network connection. Sorry, forgot to mention that Thales already has a remote diagnostic capability where an engineer can remotely access the i-5000 network through the Internet to take control and do testing. Ain't that cool?
Thales has also demonstrated a capability to support up to 260 video streams wirelessly on an aircraft, a feature that is less attractive today due to a potential for RF interference, but as further testing and certification of Wi-Fi-esque technology is done, future versions of the Thales server could be backfitted into older aircraft and built into aircraft by ditching the wires. Less wire means less weight and better fuel economy. Everyone in the airline industry wants better fuel economy these days.
About the weakest "link" here is the off-board broadband connection between this flying set of processors and the rest of the world. Inmarsat is expected to offer a single-channel 432 Kbps data link by early 2006 with an option to double it (i.e. 864 Kbps net). Boeing's Connexion is agnostic and is supposed to offer 5 Mbps performance.
Remarkably, there's little mention of how people are supposed to connect their laptops into the system so they can tap into a plane's broadband connection to get the office e-mail and the latest INQ; I'm guessing it's an RJ-45 at the seat and/or an option for a couple of Wi-Fi hubs. Airlines are starting to get comfy with Wi-Fi as it operates on a frequency that doesn't seem to muck with flight avionics and also gets rid of the silly wires and maintenance on unsealed Ethernet ports. µ
Virgin launches online music service
By John Borland CNET News.com September 26, 2004, 9:00 PM PT
Virgin Digital, the online arm of the Virgin Group, will launch an online music service Monday aimed at replicating on the Net the success of its offline chain of retail music stores.
The company is jumping into the market with a full-featured music jukebox written from scratch, in which it is offering a music download store and music subscription service powered by wholesaler MusicNet.
With an entry 18 months after Apple Computer first launched its iTunes song store, Virgin is starting well behind its biggest rivals. But the company says it can use the powerful Virgin Megastore brand--and the access to the millions of customers who shop at the stores every year--as a way to reach out to mainstream consumers more effectively than competitors can.
"We wanted to look at feature sets that (are) actively represented (when) walking around a Virgin store," Virgin Digital President Zack Zalon said. "(Our rivals) are technology companies developing music services. We are a music company developing technology. We look at things differently."
With the move, Virgin becomes the first major offline music retailer to enter the market now dominated by software, hardware and consumer electronics businesses. As such, it could help test the viability of the bridge--if there is one--between the old offline world of music selling and the new digital medium.
Big record retailers have watched with trepidation as the online music market has developed. They saw the rise of Napster and other file-swapping services as a threat to their core CD business--but then saw the moves of record labels to create their own digital song distribution services in 2001 as another threat.
In 2003, a coalition of big music stores joined to create a kind of digital music co-op, jointly supporting a venture called Echo Networks that they all would use to power their own online ventures. That project fell apart early this year, however, when it became clear that other options might be cheaper than Echo.
Zalon said the Virgin service had been built in part after months of informal interviews with Virgin Megastore customers, aimed at discovering what mainstream music listeners liked and disliked about the existing online music products.
What the company found is that few customers actually used any of the legal music services, Zalon said. Many complained that the services were confusing or that they didn't know how to find songs on their computers, among other problems. The lesson Virgin drew was to create a new jukebox from the ground up without relying too heavily on Windows interface conventions or other services' practices, Zalon said.
In truth, the player and products will be familiar to anyone who's spent much time with digital music, although there are slight interface differences.
The store sells downloads in a high-quality, copy-protected Windows Media format. The "Virgin Music Club" service offers unlimited streams and "tethered" downloads that are locked to the computer for a price of $7.99 a month--$2 cheaper than the parallel subscription offers from RealNetworks and Napster.
The company has spent considerable time building artist information, reviews, biographies and discographies into the system, all of which are linked to one another so that a listener might browse through related artists and genres as though flipping through stacks at a real music store, Zalon said.
Analysts said Virgin would not have an easy task ahead of it in gaining market share but that the financial and brand backing of the Megastores would help.
"It's a crowded market, but there is certainly opportunity here," said Mike Goodman, an analyst at The Yankee Group. "There's already a certain level of name recognition, and they'll also have the backing of Virgin, which, from a financial perspective, is very significant. That will give them the ability to sustain losses while they grow the company."
The Virgin Group, which offers cell phone service in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, has also recently branched into a consumer electronics business that includes MP3 players. Both businesses are expected to be linked to the music store eventually.
Toshiba Readies 60GB Gigabeat
Upcoming device will be the first audio player to use Toshiba's 60GB hard drive.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Monday, September 27, 2004
Toshiba will launch three new versions of its Gigabeat hard drive-based portable music player starting in late November, the company says.
The biggest difference between the three models will be in the storage capacity, which will be 10GB, 20GB, or 60GB. All three players use 1.8-inch drives manufactured in-house by Toshiba, and this will be the first digital music player from any company to make use of the 60GB drive, says Midori Suzuki, a spokesperson for Toshiba in Tokyo. The drive was announced by the company in August.
The exterior design of the Gigabeat player has been revised to sport a 2.2-inch QVGA (240 pixels by 320 pixels) color LCD and a navigation button that looks like a large "plus" sign in the center of the player's front panel.
Also new is the shape, measuring 4.2 inches long by 2.5 inches wide, which is longer and thinner than previous models. The two lower capacity models are .6 inches thick and the 60GB model is .7 inches thick, the latter because the hard drive uses two disk platters and so is physically thicker. The capacity of the drive also affects the weight, which is 5.6 ounces for the lower-capacity models and 6.0 ounces for the higher capacity model.
Let the Music Play
The players support either MP3, Windows Media Audio, or WAV files, although the files have to be passed through Toshiba's "Gigabeat Room" software to be loaded onto the device and recognized by the player. This process results in the files being encrypted and is an anti-piracy measure, says Suzuki. If music files can be dragged and dropped onto the Gigabeat's hard drive without using the software the device won't recognize them.
In addition to encrypting the files, the software can also grab music information from Gracenote's CDDB database of Compact Discs, and stores all of the transferred music into a database for searching. JPEG image files can also be attached to albums or songs, Toshiba says.
A by-product of the need for this software is that it restricts use of the Gigabeat players to people with computers running Windows XP or Windows 2000, from Microsoft.
Other specifications include a USB2.0/1.1 interface and battery that supports about 11 hours of continuous playback.
Like previous Gigabeat models, the new players have an on-screen menu that supports Japanese, English, French, Spanish, and German. However, Toshiba doesn't yet have any plans to sell them overseas, says Suzuki.
The portable music players will go on sale in Japan from late November. The MEGF10 10GB model will cost $360 and the MEGF20 20GB model will cost about $400. The MEGF60 60GB model will be on sale from early December and will cost about $580, she says.
They will be unveiled to the public at the Ceatec Japan 2004 exhibition, which takes place from October 5 to October 9 in Chiba, Japan.
My bad. New charts
http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/company.asp?ob_no=741&p_no=2021
http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/company.asp?ob_no=741&p_no=2022
http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng/company.asp?ob_no=741
Aeroflot has summed up its operating results for August and eight months of 2004
September 20, 2004
Aeroflot-Russian Airlines operating results for August and eight months of 2004 have been summed up.
In August 2004 the airline company carried 794 000 passengers (including 8 500 passengers of charter flights) and 12 400 tons of post and freight. There were made 2.316 billion passenger-kilometers and 279.6mln ton-kilometers.
Operating volumes have increased according to all indicators vs. the prior year and amounted to: according to passenger-kilometers – 110.6 per cent (+221.2 million passenger-kilometers), according to ton-kilometers – 117.2 per cent (+41.0 million ton-kilometers), according to carriage of passengers – 113.2 per cent (+92 800 passengers), according to freight carriage – 133.8 per cent (+3060.8 tons).
Percentage of enplaned traffic amounted to 60.8 per cent in August. Passenger seats’ occupation rate was 76.3 per cent.
For eight months of 2004 Aeroflot carried 4.595 million passengers and 89 400 tons of post and freight; there were made 14.012 billion passenger-kilometers and 1.780 billion ton-kilometers.
Passenger seats’ occupation rate amounted to 69.9 per cent; and it exceeded the prior year level by 1.7 per cent. Percentage of enplaned traffic amounted to 58.0 per cent; it exceeded the prior year level by 2.3 per cent.
In comparison with the last year operating volumes have increased according to all indicators and amounted to: according to passenger-kilometers – 117.9 per cent (+2125.8 million passenger-kilometers), according to carriage of passengers – 118.6 per cent (+719 400 passengers), according to ton-kilometers – 124.0 per cent (+344.2 million ton-kilometers), according to freight carriage – 130.7per cent (+20 426.2 tons).
They have flown on all airline types on the whole by 18.8 per cent more than last year.
The average daily fly of hours per an average properly functioning plane amounted to 10 hours; this exceeds the prior year level by 0.1 hour.
Aeroflot Airbus A-310 first class/business class seat numbers
http://www.aeroflot.com/about/a310.shtml
Another yaawwnnnnnnnnnn.....eom
Aeroflot today
Aeroflot Russian Airlines is one of the world's largest commercial carriers with flights to 108 destinations in 54 countries. Aeroflot is proud to provide convenient, direct service to Moscow from 5 US cities with connecting flights to other destinations in Russia and the CIS.
At Aeroflot, our commitment is to provide world-class service and safety. Aeroflot pilots, technicians and other personnel undergo rigorous training. For the last three years Aeroflot flight safety level has been outstanding - 99.90%- 99.98% (well within ICAO standards). Aeroflot boasts a fleet of more than 100 planes, including new Boeing aircrafts. In 2000 alone, the company transported 5,100,900 passengers and 107,000 tons of cargo and mail.
Already a reputable partner of many global air carriers, Aeroflot is preparing to join the Sky Team global alliance, formed by Air France, Delta Airlines, Korean Air and Air Mexico by 2003.
AEROFLOT to Offer APS' Latest In-Flight Entertainment Technology; digEplayer 5500 Will Be Used on New Airbus Fleet
WAEA Show
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 23, 2004--APS of Tacoma WA and Inflight Dublin (Ireland), announced at the 2004 World Airline Entertainment Association Conference that AEROFLOT Russian Airlines will be bringing APS' unique, in-flight personal entertainment product to its travelers throughout destinations in Europe. The digEplayer 5500(TM) is the world's first completely self-contained, portable video on demand entertainment unit preprogrammed which can hold up to over 60 feature-length movies, as well as television shows, cartoons, videos and music choices.
AEROFLOT will initially make the units available on their new Airbus mid-range fleet and their IIyushin 96 long range fleet. The units, which offer the passenger 15 movies with multi-language tracks, including Russian, English and Japanese also offer 20 sitcoms and up to 1000 music tracks. Of course, AEROFLOT will also feature a selection of top Russian movies with English subtitles. Coordination of program content will be managed by AEROFLOT's in-flight entertainment service company, Inflight Dublin.
AEROFLOT Russian Airlines will distribute the digEplayer 5500(TM) in business and first class only during phase one of their project. Phase 2 will see the airline distribute the hand held in-flight entertainment centers to all classes on a rental charge basis.
AEROFLOT Russian Airlines are delighted to partner with APS, Inc. in the provision of cutting edge in-flight entertainment across their selected fleets.
Content will be refreshed every 60 days, giving even the most frequent flyers enough programming variety to meet their needs. DreamWorks SKG, Buena Vista, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox currently have content provision agreements with APS, and additional studios are to be announced. Films are made available one month ahead of store rentals with initial titles available include Troy, Shark Tale, Master and Commander, Friends, and The Simpsons.
Each APS digEplayer 5500(TM) VOD unit is about the same weight and size of a typical portable DVD player. Units contain a 40-gigabyte hard drive and utilize the latest technology licensed from e.Digital Corp (O/S and engineering) and DivX (compression).
About APS
APS is a privately held company based in Tacoma, Wash., which specializes in innovative technology for the airline industry. The digEplayer 5500(TM) is an example of the industry-changing products developed by APS as the company looks into the future of the transportation and leisure industries.
About Inflight Dublin
Inflight Dublin is a privately-owned Irish company dedicated entirely to the production, sourcing and management of in-flight entertainment software for over 60 international carriers.