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Will record labels carry Microsoft's tune?
By Jim Hu and John Borland
Staff Writers, CNET News.com
June 15, 2001, 4:00 a.m. PT
As the major record labels try to remake online music in their own image, Microsoft's presence
is looming powerfully enough to influence the biggest alliances in the business--even if the
software giant hasn't struck the big deals itself.
Microsoft ultimately hopes to offer music subscription services on its MSN site, charging customers
a monthly fee. But the record labels have been wary of handing it too much power over their online
plans, and the software giant has yet to broker the alliances that would let it offer access to the
labels' full catalogs, as have Yahoo, Napster and archrival RealNetworks.
Nevertheless, the company has been able to use the growing influence of its Windows Media audio
and video technology as leverage over the rest of the industry. This has shown up particularly in the
creation of the MusicNet joint venture between RealNetworks and three major record labels, where
Microsoft's technology has been one source of tension between the streaming media company and
its partners, sources say.
Microsoft isn't an official part of that
venture. But sources say that the
labels pressured RealNetworks to
include support in MusicNet for
Microsoft's Windows Media
technology, which is battling for
dominance with its own RealAudio
and RealVideo formats. Although
RealNetworks will serve as the
default software for MusicNet, other
Web sites that license MusicNet will
have the option to use Windows
Media technology as well.
"If MSN wanted to license MusicNet,
they could do it in Windows Media,"
said a source close to MusicNet
who requested anonymity. "While
agendas may intersect, they diverge
in many places. What's good for
RealNetworks isn't always good for
MusicNet as a service."
Microsoft's future in online music hinges on whether it can turn such influence into a foothold in the
alliances forming between technology companies and record labels. At that point, the company's
ambitions to turn the widespread use of its technology into a recurring stream of new profits could
come together, at least in the digital music realm, analysts say.
"Basically they see (America Online), the biggest consumer-oriented service, on the desktops of 27
million or 30 million people, collecting monthly fees from all of them," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst
with Directions on Microsoft, a research firm that focuses on the software company's actions.
"Microsoft thinks they should be able to collect a monthly fee, too."
Converging ambitions
The record companies and Microsoft have different business goals. But in the last year or so, the
ambitions have come together.
The big music companies are in the process of trying to create their own online subscription
services after resounding legal victories against start-ups such as Napster, which had once
threatened their pre-eminence on the Net.
The labels have broken into two camps. MusicNet is backed by Warner Music Group, BMG
Entertainment and EMI Recorded Music, and controls about 40 percent of the U.S. music market.
Pressplay, a joint venture between Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, owns
about 43 percent of the market. The remaining share is held by independent record companies.
Each group seeks control over the distribution of music online that they had temporarily lost to
popular file-swapping services.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is trying to boost revenues from "Web services," ranging from instant
messaging to software subscriptions to potential services hosted inside the Microsoft Network of
sites. The company has taken one interim step into the music distribution business with online
streaming music services similar to AOL Time Warner's Spinner.com, but it doesn't yet have the
licenses to offer downloads or on-demand services.
Its radiolike site allows people to choose the type of music they want to hear by letting them select an
artist and then listen to a preset stream of music closest to that choice. It doesn't offer music on
demand, however, or even the rudimentary level of interactivity that has drawn industry lawsuits for
other Webcasters including Launch.com and MTVi.
The company is "super careful (to stay) within all the legalities out there today," said Sarah Lesko, an
MSN product manager working with the music service.
The other, and to date more successful, facet of Microsoft's push is its digital media technology.
Windows Media comes with every copy of the Windows operating system, making it one of the most
universally accessible software programs for computers. Under its new Windows XP, the audio
player will be folded more fully into the operating system without separate downloads. But the
company has also built strong copy-protection technology into the software itself, helping to
ameliorate record labels' concerns about people sharing music illicitly online.
Those pieces together provide the framework for a strong new set of revenues from the music
business, which appears to be one of the first areas to truly fire consumers' imaginations on the Net.
There's just the single piece missing: the music itself.
"Look at where the potential revenue streams are for them"--selling music over the Web, selling
advertising on MSN and licensing the music technology, said Gartner analyst P.J. McNealy. "They're
the only ones with everything in-house except the content."
A slow starter?
The announcement of MusicNet, with RealNetworks as the biggest partner, was seen as something
of a strategic slap in the face to Microsoft. The deal instantly gave added life to RealNetworks' audio
technology, which has long been a target of Microsoft.
The pressure from the labels to include support for Microsoft's technology mitigated this somewhat.
But now the software giant needs to prove it isn't falling behind on the content side.
The company says it's in constant negotiation with the labels, both on the technology and content
side, and has good relationships with all of them.
"For us to say we're not part of MusicNet would be premature," said Dave Fester, general manager of
Microsoft's Windows Digital Media division.
Microsoft and Pressplay have also reportedly discussed a technology partnership that could allow
the service to support Windows Media Player. Pressplay executives, however, remain noncommittal
as to what kind of technology they would consider.
The room for alliances is still broad. Pressplay and MusicNet each are scheduled to launch later this
summer or in early fall, and some analysts have said even that is likely to be an ambitious timetable.
Moreover, adoption of these services will likely be somewhat slow, since consumers will have to
move from old habits of downloading music for free to paying for their songs.
Thus, even if Microsoft trails some of its competitors in providing the full spectrum of music, it has
time to cross the gap, analysts say.
"Based on our record, it would be unwise to assume we aren't in this game in a very serious way,"
Fester said.
Portable digital audio player employs rotating media
Richard Nass, Editor-in-Chief
By using a low-cost removable disk to store data, users can build libraries of music without breaking the bank.
This one was hard to take apart. Not because I couldn't get the screws out or anything like that. It was because I really didn't want to. I got a lot of enjoyment out of this product.
Before I tear down a product, I like to get a feel for how it works, to see how well the product is designed from the end user's standpoint. This is true even if the product is somewhat obscure, not for the mass markets.
The HipZip digital audio player from Iomega, which hit the retail shelves last fall, got more than its share of trial time. I really enjoyed using it. What differentiates this MP3 player from others on the market is that it employs the company's 40-Mbyte PocketZip disks, rather than the more traditional flash memory (Fig. 1). In theory, the performance level of a rotating-media player should be lower than that of a flash-based player. In practice, there's a noticeable difference. But it wasn't enough to be bothersome.
The player operates by reading the first 500 kbytes of a song. If the file format in use is MP3, that's about 30 seconds of music, which is read in about 2 to 3 seconds. Then, after about 400 kbytes are read (around 25 seconds of music), the next 2 Mbytes are read, which takes about 5 seconds (but doesn't affect the playing of the music). Then, every 2 minutes, another 2 Mbytes is read until the song is complete. In between, the motor is spun down to conserve power.
A lot less than flash
The whole selling point behind the rotating media is that it's very inexpensive compared with flash memory. The 40-Mbyte disks sell for about $10. That same capacity of flash memory would be in the neighborhood of $80.
Like many portable digital-audio players, the HipZip drive is built with a Cirrus Logic Maverick microprocessor (Fig. 2). The Maverick is an ARM derivative, customized by Cirrus for audio applications. Part of the CPU decision was based on the fact that the Iomega partner that was responsible for the player's firmware already supported the Cirrus device. That part is essentially the only microprocessor on-board. Earlier players built with less powerful processors often required a separate microcontroller to handle some of the I/O functionality.
According to Dave Jones, Iomega's director of consumer products R&D group, "Our partner, Interactive Objects (iObjects), had already developed a set of code to talk to the processor and play music. It wasn't ship ready, but they could demonstrate that it worked."
While the company is happy with the performance of the Maverick CPU, they'll be moving the next-generation platform to a Texas Instruments DSP. The move is being made because the TI part is slightly less costly and offers an encoding capability. Prototype drives will be built with a TI C54x family processor. But the plan is to eventually ship the production-ready unit with a C55x part. Iomega has a long-standing relationship with TI, who builds a channel chip for Iomega's Zip drives, as well as a preamp IC for the Zip and PocketZip drives.
While it does take considerable resources to change host processors between generations, the Iomega design team believed that it was worth the effort. Says Jones, "One of the reasons we're doing it is because of the cost savings. If we can write the code ourselves, which we're doing on the TI part, then we own the code. Therefore, we don't have to pay any royalties."
All the mechanical and electrical design was handled in house, while most of the code, including the operating system, was developed at iObjects. The iObjects embedded OS is called Dadio, which includes an applications layer that's optimized for digital audio. It handles all the MP3 decoding. The Dadio OS is stored in a 1-Mbyte flash-memory IC. The first HipZip shipped with a 32-bit OS. That was soon replaced by a cost-reduced 16-bit version that required a lower capacity flash chip.
See more info
The HipZip is built with a relatively large display (Fig. 3). "We felt we were building a high-end player, so it was important to display a lot of information," says Jones. "Also, it was a display that was readily available."
The design team is proud of the fact that the entire project was completed in about six months. "To do something like this from scratch when we had never done a player before, we're pretty happy," boasts Jones. "If you're going to sell the things for Christmas, August is kind of the deadline."
The decision on the display was one that helped keep the design cycle as short as possible. One of the original features on the drawing board was to use fixed icons, rather than text, to represent various functions on the display. But that would have taken longer to design, and also would have been more costly. This particular display is manufactured with the driver embedded inside.
One of the difficulties in the design was that three different voltage levels were required—the motor and all the I/O run at 3.3 V, the Cirrus Maverick microprocessor runs at 2.5 V, and the Mystic USB bridge runs at 1.8 V.
Several iterations of mechanical design were attempted. That phase of the project lasted at least two months (in parallel with other parts of the design). A third-party industrial design company was brought in for assistance.
Data exchange with the PC is handled through a USB port. Here, the designers took advantage of an IC already in its arsenal, a USB interface called Mystic.
Non-removable LiIon battery
Harking back to the original intent of building a high-end drive, the team chose to go with a fixed LiIon battery that supplies about 12 hours of run time. It's more expensive in the bill of materials, but users never have to swap out batteries. What's more, the LiIon pack is more weight and volume efficient than conventional AA cells.
Charging is handled by a TI bq205x LiIon chip. It's a dual- voltage part that can supply either 2.5 or 3.3 V. Extensive power-management schemes were developed for the motor subsystem, which consumes the majority of the power in the platform. As often as possible, the motor is put into sleep mode.
The motor is a variation of a motor that's used in other Iomega products, including the PocketZip PC Card which, as its names implies, slides directly into a PC Card slot. The HipZip motor uses similar X and Y coordinates, but it's slightly thicker (Fig. 4). There's also another audio player and a camera that ship with the motor that's employed by the HipZip.
The player's drive requires a fairly simple peak detector, which maximizes the drive's cost effectiveness. As a result, no DSP is required within the drive. The whole disk-drive runs on a low-cost microcontroller and a peak-detect channel. The peak-detect channel resembles what was found in a hard-disk drive a few years ago.
The HipZip player uses Microsoft's Windows Media Format (WMA) and digital rights management (DRM) technology, as well as other DRM technologies to secure the data on the PocketZip disks. As a default PC-based software, Windows Media Player 7 ships with every HipZip. The software offers digital audio and video playback, a jukebox, an Internet radio tuner, an integrated media guide, audio CD creation, and easy transfer of digital music to the portable player.
One of the less heralded features of the HipZip is that it doubles as a portable disk drive. When you plug it into a PC's USB port, a drive letter pops up. This is a feature that mobile warriors may take advantage of. It's a distinction that no other portable music player can claim.
Next generation
"We've already announced that we will be doing a 100-Mbyte version," says Jones. "That means that the drive must run at a higher linear density. But the interface will be the same. We'll also use a different format to improve the overall efficiency. That product will read from, but not write to, a 40-Mbyte disk. There had to be some incompatibility as we move to the increased capacity."
Iomega
Roy, Utah
(801) 332-1000
www.iomega.com
Portable Design June, 2001
Samsung Electronics unveils 128M low power consumption flash memory
By Jung, Ji-yeon
Friday, June 15, 2001
Samsung Electronics (chaired by Yun Jong-yong) announced on June 14 that it has successfully developed a 1.8V low power consumption flash memory product and is soon launching mass production in earnest this month.
The new flash memory has markedly lowered power consumption of current 2.7V to 5.5V models in use, by meeting the requirements of the low power consumption flash memory voltage standard (1.65¡1.95V) set by Joint Electron Device Engineering Council(JEDEC).
It is designed in a chip-scale package (CSP) for easy installation in various mobile digital devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA), digital camcorders and MP3 set-top boxes. In particular, it addresses a problem of existing NAND type flash memory products - a slow random access speed. To this end, it adopts a structure that corresponds to DRAM, increasing a speed 63 times for deleting and 17 times for recording.
As a result, upon connected with DRAMs, the product saves as much as 50% of a chip price, compared to high-end NOR type flash memory models. In this regard, it is expected to rapidly replace the current NOR market.
"The new low power consumption flash memory product is expected to replace the NOR market with NAND type as it provide a DRAM-connected structure at a low price for mobile digital devices," said Shin Yun-seung, the Flash Memory Development Team of Samsung Electronics. The company accounts for 35% of the global NAND flash memory market and also plans to launch mass production of 256Mb models in the third quarter.
Media Management Agent (MMA) provides support for multiple CODECs and Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions. MMA enables Vedalabs to customize third-party solutions to provide a unique software solution for your business.
VME can support the following list of CODECs and can be customized to support additional CODECs. Additionally, MMA can support proprietary CODECs and CODEC embedded technologies.
Current supported CODECs / Formats
• Dolby - AAC*
• Microsoft - WMA
• Ogg Vorbis - OGG
• WAV
*Royalties to be paid to third party.
• QDesign - QDX*
• MP3*
• CD Audio
There are multiple DRM solutions available on the market today, to insure compatibility with your current DRM solution Vedalabs has selected the following DRM’s.
1. IBM – Electronic Media Management System (EMMS)
2. Microsoft – Windows Media Rights Manager (WMRM)
If you use a proprietary media management solution or a commercial solution Vedalabs does not currently support, contact us to discuss integration.
VME provides portable device support for end-user audio management contact us for a current listing of compliant products.
VME also incorporates CDDB-Gracenote, an audio information database to provide automatic content information. Additional content databases can be integrated into VME as well.
Vedalabs' vision of connectivity demands constant development and inclusion of new technologies to end current restraints of compatibility issues and provide independence to the end-user. Vedalabs is constantly adding new features and capabilities to its products and solutions to face the continuously changing market. MMA is designed to be the key that unlocks and converges multiple technologies by combining third-party products into a single end-user application. Contact us to incorporate your proprietary technology or learn about any current developments with VME.
This site is currently under construction...
www.remotesolutions.com
Very interesting Tin. Nice find.eom
OT NAME: Seiko 'Me-ism' ME100S
CATEGORY: Portable AV product
PRICE: 49,800 yen
RELEASE DATE IN JAPAN: June 13, 2001
THE GIST: It's getting a bit cliched to draw parallels between cool
new tech kits and Star Trek, but, honestly, when you see the Seiko
S-Yard ME100S, you'll have to admit it's the closest we're going to
come to owning our own trekkie tricorders. Exactly the right kind of
shape, and with its funky flip-up lid, the S-Yard packs a weighty
entertainment punch in a package with about as much style as is
humanly possible to design.
The name Seiko has coined, "Me-ism," actually makes a kind of sense,
too. ME stands for Mobile Entertainment, and an "ism," according to
my trusty dictionary, is "a distinctive doctrine, system, or
theory." The ME100S establishes a very attractive new entertainment
system or ideology by offering up television, music, FM radio, and a
digital photo album in one very cool handheld package. Aimed at the
20 and 30-something crowd, the ME100S has a TFT screen a little over
4 x 3cm, weighs 120g, and accepts SmartMedia cards. So it's a
television, it's a radio, it's an MP3 player, and you can even use
it to bore the pants off your mates with your holiday snaps. The
battery life is claimed to be 10 hrs for audio, 4 hrs for TV, 15 hrs
for FM radio and 5 hrs for looking at your digipix. It handles WMA
(Windows Media Audio) music files and dcf files for the photos.
Way-hey! Beam me up, Scotty!
MORE INFO: http://www.seiko-meism.com/meism/meism.html
OT DoCoMo plans to list in New York - FT
TOKYO, June 14 (Reuters) - Japan's largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo Inc plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange in September, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The listing would diversify DoCoMo's funding options if it decides to invest further in the United States or push its stake in AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE - news) beyond 16 percent.
The paper also said DoCoMo is not expected to issue new shares when it lists in New York.
The move will also help DoCoMo raise its profile in the U.S. market where it plans a mobile Internet service with AT&T Wireless similar to its current i-mode service in Japan, it said.
On Wednesday, shares in DoCoMo closed at 2.05 million yen, down 0.4 percent on the day.
Packers1, could be but IMO the only one that really looks like it could be ours is the last,puck-like one. I say that mainly because of the teardrop like function keys that are similar to our Orbit and seem to come from Volan Design.
cheers
POWERED BY E DIGITAL-update...
Current Status: New application assigned to an examining attorney for examination
Date of Status: 2001-06-11
Filing Date: 2001-02-14
Registration Date: (DATE NOT AVAILABLE)
Law Office Assigned: TMO Law Office 115
CURRENT APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S)
1. e.Digital Corporation
GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
hand held computers, cameras, phones, recorders, audio players, video players, software, hardware, video circuitry and audio circuitry
PROSECUTION HISTORY
2001-06-11 - Case file assigned to examining attorney
OT Palm CEO Says No Company Has Sought Takeover
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of Palm Inc. (NasdaqNM:PALM - news) on Tuesday said no company has approached him about buying the struggling handheld computer maker, a comment that could quell persistent speculation Palm is a takeover target.
``No one has approached me and I have no comment consequently,'' Palm chief executive Carl Yankowski told Reuters in an interview after a presentation at a Bear Stearns technology conference here.
He also said that the company eventually plans to separate its device-making from its software-development businesses, a move the company had indicated it might make.
Yankowski added that Palm has plenty of cash to fund operations despite an inventory glut and slack demand that has slammed sales and its stock price, leading to the speculation it is prime material for takeover by another computer hardware company.
``I hear constant rumors about that,'' said Bear Stearns computer hardware analyst Andrew Neff, referring to speculation Palm could be a takeover target.
Although Palm dominates the global market for personal digital assistants, or PDAs, its sales slump has led to rumors regarding potential suitors with experience in selling gadgets and software, such as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Apple Computer Inc. (NasdaqNM:AAPL - news).
An Apple representative said the company had no comment. An IBM spokesman also declined to comment.
In the past, IBM has said its wireless efforts would focus on the higher-margin, highly customized components, back-end systems and related services.
``IBM doesn't like consumer stuff,'' said Neff, adding that while any number of scenarios could link Palm with another company, the fact that Palm was recently spun off from 3Com Corp. (NasdaqNM:COMS - news) could be a barrier to a deal.
``For tax reasons it becomes more expensive to acquire them for the first two years,'' following the spinoff, Neff said.
Yankowski said he still expects Palm -- which also makes the software that powers its own PDAs and those developed by Handspring Inc. (NasdaqNM:HAND - news) -- to split its operations at some point.
``As soon as I am convinced that we can deliver shareholder value, we will separate the two companies,'' he told analysts.
Yankowski also insisted that the company would not run out of cash, a possibility that analysts have considered due to Palm's warnings that revenue would be smaller than anticipated.
Palm shares fell early on Tuesday morning to a low of $5.46, but recovered later in the day, to close up 11 cents on Nasdaq -- well off its 52-week high of $67.38.
the mp3 way: RIAA - up to its neck in...
By: Jon Newton (the-mp3-way)
2001-06-12
The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and its progeny (near
as damnit ; ) the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), are now fervently
wishing they hadn't importunately attacked a group of researchers who, at
the RIAA's own behest, tested six security technologies and hacked at least
four of them.
The researchers had reverse-engineered and defeated four "audio
watermarking technologies" and "studied and analyzed" two
non-watermarking technologies and were on the verge of publicly
presenting details of what they'd done, and how they'd done it.
They comprised team leader Edward Felten (Computer Science, Princeton);
Scott Craver, John McGregor, Min Wu and Bede Liu (Princeton's Electrical
Engineering Department); Ben Swartzlander, Dan Wallach and Adam
Stubblefield (Computer Science, Rice University); and Drew Dean
(Computer Science Laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center).
Felten & Co's paper, "Reading Between the Lines: Lessons from the SDMI
Challenge," was scheduled for the Fourth International Information Hiding
Workshop in Pittsburgh in April when the RIAA panicked. It urged the Felten
team to withdraw the paper, and "assure that it is removed from the
Workshop distribution materials and destroyed, and avoid a public
discussion of confidential information".
The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation said on its site, "RIAA attorneys
spent nearly a month on the phone threatening litigation against everyone
associated with publishing the research paper and demanding changes to
the paper."
Then on April 9 the RIAA, wrote a letter to Professor Felten which included
this paragraph:
"We appreciate your position ... that the purpose of releasing your research
is not designed to 'help anyone impose or steal anything.' Further more,
your participation in the Challenge and your contemplated disclosure
appears to be motivated by a desire to engage in scientific research that will
ensure that SDMI does not deploy a flawed system. Unfortunately, the
disclosure that you are contemplating could result in significantly broader
consequences and could directly lead to the illegal distribution of
copyrighted material. Such disclosure is not authorized in the Agreement,
would constitute a violation of the Agreement and would subject your
research team to enforcement actions under the DMCA [Digital Millennium
Copyright Act] and possibly other federal laws."
These tactics were enough to stop Felten from delivering the paper,
although copies of earlier versions immediately started appearing on
various sites such as this one.
Realising it had failed to adequately examine its surrounds before
propelling itself into the stratosphere, the RIAA attempted to re-trench. In a
disingenuous letter by Matthew Oppenheim, RIAA senior vice president of
business and legal affairs, the RIAA tried to come across as an innocent
bystander caught in the middle of a dispute between "the competing
interests of scientist," instead of the instigator. "Further questions should be
directed to Verance at 858-677-6522," it said without blushing.
The story was picked up on- and offline, the RIAA and SDMI took on a
distinctly unpleasant odour and the EFF ranged itself alongside Felten who,
backed by the EFF, is now suing the recording industry and federal
government on grounds that the Felten team has a First Amendment right to
present its findings at the USENIX Security Conference this coming August.
"EFF and the plaintiffs seek not only publication of this research paper
without fear of prosecution, but a clear legal determination that no one
needs the permission of the record companies before publishing and
presenting scientific work," said the EFF.
EFF executive director Shari Steele said, "This case is likely to cost EFF over
a million dollars, an overwhelming amount for a small nonprofit
organization like ours, but a drop in the bucket for the movie and music
studios that we oppose."
She went on, " Imagine a world where our culture and heritage are locked
up by the entertainment industry and turned into a pay-per-view theme park
-- a theme park where consumers pay our admission and then pay again
with our freedoms. Music and movie lovers are gagged, unable to exercise
our rights to free expression. Scientists can no longer publish their
research if it talks about studio-controlled content. Technological innovation
is illegal if it encroaches on the profits of the music and movie studios.
"Unfortunately, this isn't science fiction. Through cases like Felten vs RIAA,
EFF is fighting to prevent this theme park world by challenging the
constitutionality of the law being used to unfairly lock up content and take
away our rights to free expression. But we need your help. While we believe
that we will win this case and protect scientists' rights to publish their
research, we can't do it without funding for the legal costs."
The EFF is also funding an earlier DMCA case in which eight major movie
studios sued 2600 Magazine to stop it from publishing, or linking to,
DeCSS, a computer program which circumvents the encryption on DVDs,
called CSS. DeCSS was developed to help enable DVDs to be played on
computers running Linux. "It also allows the constitutionally protected fair
use of DVDs, which is otherwise prevented by the encryption," says the EFF.
Sorry...e.Digital is Growing
Join a team of highly qualified people in an exciting start-up environment developing new technology for the
emerging portable digital device markets. e.Digital offers a very competitive compensation package,
including excellent benefits and qualified Incentive Stock Option plans.
Current Openings
Note: Mail/Fax/E-mail your resume to
e.Digital Corporation
13114 Evening Creek Drive South
San Diego, CA 92128
Attn : Beth Bell. No Phone calls please.
E-mail : jobs@edig.com
Fax : (858) 748-6894
Engineering
Sr DSP Firmware Engineer
Electrical Hardware Design Engineer
TO TOP
SR DSP Firmware Engineer
Design and develop DSP firmware for digital media players and recorders
Qualifications:
BS CS/CE/EE or equivalent
Minimum 5+ years experience in embedded DSP software/firmware development
Strong working knowledge of C/C++, and assembly language skills are a must
Embedded programming combined with hardware knowledge is desirable
Experience with TI DSPs and tools is a plus
Experience with Linux and other embedded Operating Systems a plus
USB, IEEE-1284, Firewire, IrDA, BlueTooth, and network firmware development experience a plus
TO TOP
Electrical Hardware Design Engineer
Design and develop micro-controller and DSP based digital music players and voice recorders.
Qualifications:
BSEE or equivalent
Minimum 5 years experience in embedded system design and development
Experience designing low-power portable equipment
Experience designing mixed signal circuitry and/or audio products
Experience with DSP and/or ARM based system design
Experience developing portable digital consumer electronic products a plus
USB, IEEE-1284, Firewire, IrDA, and network design experience a plus
Jart, the absence of bashers looks like this.eom
Video boost for portables
By Anthony Clark
Electronics Times
(11/06/01 03:19 PM GMT)
Alphamosaic, a spin-out from Cambridge Consultants, has
developed a flexible, low-power, high-throughput video
processing platform for mobile phones, personal digital assistants
and surveillance devices. VideoCore draws just 50 to 60mA
when encoding and decoding 30frame/s MPEG4 at the CIF
resolution measure.
Robert Swan, Alphamosaic's vice-president of marketing, says
the platform's low power consumption allows video to be added
to mobile devices with no impact on battery size.
"The problem a lot of people miss is size," he said. "No one
wants to go back to the days when mobiles were the size of a
brick."
The 0.13µm device has been in development for the past year
and first silicon is expected at the start of 2002. Products
featuring VideoCore will start appearing six months later.
"The majority of interest from handset manufacturers has so far
been from Europe, although we are also talking to companies in
the Far East," said Swan.
He foresees a range of applications beyond mobile devices: "Our
technology has potential for the automotive industry, in toys and
around the home."
OT Microsoft, AOL Compete, Partner
Updated: Mon, Jun 11 1:42 PM EDT
By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - It's hard to imagine two companies more familiar to computer users than
AOL Time Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
It's also hard to imagine two companies competing more fiercely for your mouse clicks (via
branded Web sites), your electronic correspondence (e-mail services), your eyes and ears
(digital media players) and even your gossip (instant messaging systems).
"Microsoft is both our competitor and at times our partner," says AOL spokeswoman
Kathy McKiernan. "That's how business works today."
Microsoft officials like to stress how the companies do work together - when the benefits are mutual.
"It is a priority for this company to ensure that AOL users have a great experience on Windows," says Microsoft spokesman Jim
Cullinan.
Microsoft has provided AOL and many others with the technology that lets their products work with Windows XP, its new desktop
operating system due out in October. But it remains to be seen whether AOL will enjoy the cozy relationship it had in previous
versions of Windows, when its icon had a place reserved on the Windows desktop in exchange for AOL's use of Microsoft's Internet
browser.
Since that contract was reached, Microsoft has received a federal court order to break up for antitrust violations, prompted largely by
complaints from competing browser maker Netscape - which AOL now owns.
Microsoft, a software empire valued at $394 billion, and AOL, a media conglomerate with market value of $226 billion, have been
trying to negotiate a new deal since that five-year marriage of convenience ended in January. Early this month, negotiations got so
testy that the companies said talks had broken down, though they subsequently resumed the next day.
It's one of many indications that beneath the public facade, things aren't quite so pretty.
"Both of them would kind of like the other to go away; however, their customers depend on each other," says Rob Enderle, a research
fellow with Giga Information Systems.
While competition can motivate the competitors to build better products, it can also turn consumers into "cannon fodder," Enderle
says.
For example, AOL is so intent on maintaining its dominance in the instant messaging market that its system remains incompatible
with Microsoft's. In the telephone world, that would be like people with AT&T telephone service not being able to call those with
Sprint.
The situation also may bottleneck the two companies, Enderle says, leaving an opportunity for a third party such as Yahoo! Inc. to
enter with a more customer-friendly solution.
The Microsoft-AOL relationship is likely to become even more strained, analysts say, as the once distinct realms the two companies
grew to dominate - PC software for Microsoft and Internet services for AOL - become increasingly intertwined.
"Five years ago, Microsoft saw the office at its primary environment, and AOL saw its primary environment as the Web," said Phil
Leigh, an analyst who tracks both companies. "Now, both of them see it as the Web. So the overlap in the turf war is bigger."
Until now, the most visible fight has been for Web access, where AOL currently prevails with more than 29 million customers.
Microsoft's MSN is making inroads with just over 5 million customers but also has an edge because its browsers and operating
systems are so dominant.
As competition moves to a more complex set of paid online services for everything from delivering film to managing the family
calendar, the fight is likely to get even uglier.
Microsoft plans to debut .NET, a set of Internet-based services that will eventually be a conduit for everything from personal
communications to flight information, accessible anywhere through any computer device.
That system will depend on Microsoft's MSN Web sites and Internet services, its instant messaging program and Passport, a service
that holds personal information such as Web site passwords and credit card numbers.
AOL, meanwhile, is making inroads into similar fields - working to steer consumers toward branded services including its Time
Warner magazine and cable properties.
That struggle, says Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Seamus McAteer, is going to be about owning something much more than your
e-mail account or your office software - the winner is the company that gets your personal information, or profile.
"Owning the user's profile is a really important part of an overall platform," McAteer says. "It gives you a lot of leverage in dealing
with third parties."
This could help AOL or Microsoft make money off, and help keep track of, virtually everything a user does online.
The struggle between these two companies runs deeper than a commercial tangle for the store shelves of cyberspace.
A main source of bad blood is Microsoft's antitrust case, and AOL's support of prosecutors who eventually succeeded in getting a court
order to break Microsoft up.
That media giant is not letting up.
At a private briefing in March, it expressed concerns to the attorneys general of the states that sued Microsoft in the antitrust case
about potentially monopolistic elements of Microsoft's upcoming .NET and other services.
Microsoft hasn't been shy about moving forward at full speed as it waits for a ruling, expected in coming weeks, on its appeal of the
breakup order.
In the past week, the software giant introduced two new Windows XP features, Windows Messenger and Internet Explorer Smart Tags,
that will aim to keep users within the Microsoft playing field while online.
Both could threaten AOL's attempts to do the same.
"Windows XP continues the Microsoft strategy of incorporating features into the operating system," says Howard University law
professor Andy Gavil. "From the point of view of firms that have developed (similar programs), it's the same thing Microsoft did to
Netscape."
Intel, Comcast Will Team Up on Home Networking Gear
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) and
Comcast Cable Communications Inc., a unit of Comcast Corp.,
(NasdaqNM:CMCSK - news) (NasdaqNM:CMCSA - news) said on Tuesday that
they will work together to develop, test, and distribute broadband home
networking products, part of an industry-wide effort to speed the adoption of
high-speed Internet connections in the home.
Comcast Cable, the No. 3 cable company in the U.S. and Intel, the world's
largest semiconductor maker, also said they will set joint marketing and
promotional agreements to promote Comcast's high-speed Internet service and
Intel's home networking products.
Specifically, the two companies will sell a home residential gateway that will
provide high-speed connections to the Internet for all computers in a customer's
home using various networking technologies, including Ethernet and the
802.11b high-speed wireless transmission standard.
Philadelphia-based Comcast and Santa Clara, California-based Intel also said the residential home gateway will
include firewall and security software that will help guard against hacking attacks that are more prevalent in
always-on Internet connections.
A broadband connection to the Internet allows for faster downloading of Web pages than with a standard dial-up
connection, playing interactive games, transferring large files, and downloading video and music clips.
But to the chagrin of many companies that have been pushing broadband in the home -- including Intel, Cisco
Systems Inc. (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news), and others -- so far most consumers are content to do without it.
San Jose, California-based Cisco, the biggest maker of computer-networking equipment, had planned last year to
make a home gateway, to be sold by cable companies, but it has since shelved that plan in light of weak, overall
demand for broadband access in the home.
Only about 10 percent of U.S. households -- 5.4 million -- had a broadband Internet connection at the end of last
year, according to the Yankee Group, a technology research division of Reuters Group Plc.
Cable operators wary of advanced set-tops
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(06/11/01, 4:35 p.m. EST)
CHICAGO — As the cable industry gathers for the start of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association show Monday (June 11), industry executives said they are "crazy about going digital," but said their darling is not the advanced digital set-top of tomorrow, but rather the low-end thin-client of today as embodied by such set-tops as Motorola Inc.'s DCT-2000.
Coupled with the current economic downturn, this pragmatic attitude among cable operators could slow the industry's drive to the OpenCable specification, intended to allow advanced interactive set-tops to interoperate, and eventually to be offered for sale in the retail market.
Richard Green, president and chief executive officer of Cable Television Laboratories Inc., said CableLabs' member companies will continue their strong support for the OpenCable initiative. The industry needs OpenCable not only to lower risks for operators and programmers offering future services, but also for political reasons, Green said. "We need to satisfy the government's needs" to make the cable industry open, he said. "For that, [the spec] has to be real."
Speaking at an opening plenary session on Sunday (June 10), Kim Kelly, executive vice president at Insight Communications Inc., said cable operators can already offer "pretty expansive services on DCT-2000 just through software downloads, without a truck roll." In contrast, advanced set-tops such as Motorola's DCT-5000 are "just not an economic investment," she cautioned.
Steve Burke, president of Comcast Cable, agreed. Three years ago, Burke said, U.S. cable operators asked, "Do we do thin boxes now or wait until big boxes arrive?" At Comcast, the debate is clearly over. To leverage the company's upgraded cable plants, "We have to get DCT-2000 out there now," Burke said.
Patrick Esser, executive vice president of operations at Cox Communications Inc., also expressed his company's enthusiasm for thin clients. Forecasting 2002 as "the year of video-on-demand," Esser said, "We have to get more content and boxes out on the market. It will be huge next year."
Such a trend coincides with AT&T Broadband's recent acknowledgement that it will roll out more thin clients rather than the DCT-5000, a full-blown interactive set-top featuring Microsoft Corp.'s WindowsCE-based software.
Multiple fronts
CableLabs' Green, however, said the cable industry is moving forward on several fronts. "We are exploring both ends of the business spectrums — on one end, rolling out fully capable set-tops now, while on the other end, looking for ways to make use of already existing upgraded cable plants and amortize that investment with thin clients." The hybrid fiber-coax plant "gives us more options," he said.
Industry observers noted two major reasons why U.S. cable operators are generally cautious about advanced digital set-tops. The first is cost, and the second is a lack of interactive programming that would require such advanced set-tops. "The cost of the advanced boxes is still very high, while there is really nothing to run on advanced set-tops," said Paul Kagan, chairman and chief executive officer at Paul Kagan Associates Inc., a market research company for media and communication industries.
Michael Paxton, an analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group, agreed. "The one box type in the cable industry that seems to be gathering dust is Motorola's DCT-5000," Paxton said. "Several cable operators purchased a total of about 100,000 last year, but they were never deployed [except for a few experiments] That was due to the fact that most applications for the DCT-5000 were beyond the capabilities of the operators to support. It literally was a set-top box too far ahead of its time."
Motorola confirmed that it has shipped "a little over four million digital set-tops" to the North American cable market since last fall, said director of systems engineering Lawrence Vice. "A majority [of those] was DCT-2000."
The DCT-2000 runs a Motorola's 68000 processor and comes with a basic MPEG-2 main-level profile video processor and AC-3 audio processor. It has a bit-mapped graphics display that ranges from 2-bits to 8-bits.
The DCT-5000, meanwhile, run a RISC processor with better than 300 million instruction per second performance, and features an integrated cable modem as well as an MPEG-2 main-level video processor, AC-3 audio processor, 32-bit graphics and hardware support for 3-D graphics. The box also incorporates 14.3 megabytes of standard memory, but is field-upgradable to 90 Mbytes.
murgirl, not when 6 mos. later you begin to license and manufacture a foreign design LOL.
date on that last article is 3/28/00.eom
MP3 music to player manufacturers' ears
PLAYER PUZZLE: Though the music format is popular, industry officials say price and storage problems must be solved before MP3 players burn up the charts
By David Frazier
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER OF TAIPEI TIMES
Do a simple search on the Internet for "MP3" and it's easy to understand why the music format is so popular.
More than 2.46 million Web pages such as www.mp3.com.tw are devoted to MP3 -- and many of those offer songs or audio clips free of charge.
It's music to the ears of Taiwan's 50-odd MP3 player makers, which make the slim, handheld devices that store and playback MP3 files.
But while the rise of a new music format has created a new market for hardware manufacturers, industry players say several problems must be worked out before MP3 devices soar up the charts.
Most MP3 players can store just 40 minutes of music. In addition, while many MP3 files can be found cheaply on the Internet, MP3 gadgets don't go for a song. Players retail generally between US$160 and US$190.
Still, these problems are expected to be solved in the years ahead, and when they are, MP3 hardware manufacturers stand to benefit.
The advantages of MP3 over existing music formats are many. First, songs can be downloaded over the Internet and stored on home computers.
In addition, MP3 players are extremely small and lightweight; portable devices are often slightly smaller than the average beeper. The magnetic cards used to store music data are downright Lilliputian, with some as tiny as 2x1cm in size.
Perhaps the biggest advantage to MP3 is that it offers skip-free, digital quality music. Because portable MP3 players read music from either storage cards or flash memory, they don't skip like CD players.
The MP3 music format is also highly compressed, especially when files are saved on CDs.
One exhibitor at the recent Taitronics exhibition displayed a normal CD that had 650 MB of capacity -- or roughly 210 songs.
But MP3's major downsides at the moment remain cost and capacity. Most players come with roughly 32 MB of internal flash memory, allowing for about 40 minutes of high quality music.
The limited memory capacity in turn means higher costs, with some MP3 players fetching as much as US$190 on the retail market.
Data storage cards don't offer much value, either.
Coin-sized 16 MB multimedia cards that hold just three of four songs go for about US$50. Cards with 32 MB of capacity -- the equivalent of eight or nine tunes -- cost as much as US$100.
To date, South Korea has been the world leader in MP3 manufacturing, as the nation also produces many of the vital components used in the music players.
Recently, however, Taiwan manufacturers have also tuned into the music trend, and some say they plan to compete with Korean makers on price.
"There are at least 50 companies in Taiwan currently trying to develop MP3 players," said James Hwang, manager at S&T Hitech, a distributor of microcontrollers and decoders.
"Probably 20 to 25 five have products, and 10 are in mass production."
Hwang said components are the key parts in the tiny music players. He estimates Taiwan manufacturers produce about 100,000 MP3 players monthly, with his firm supplying components for about half of that amount.
Later this year, components are likely to drop, especially if Winbond (µØ¨¹¹q¤l) joins the fray, said one industry source.
Once chips become cheaper, the remaining problem will be the flash memory, which is used as both the internal memory in portable MP3 players and in the construction of data storage cards.
MacPower Peripherals, which recently began distributing South Korean-made MP3 players in Taiwan, is avoiding the flash problem by selling a device with no internal memory.
Instead, the device is accompanied by two 16 MB, US$12 multimedia cards. The player retails locally for NT$3,000.
Other companies are waiting for flash memory prices to drop.
"There are only two companies that make this kind of flash: Toshiba and Samsung," said Jessica Hsieh, of Singapore-based ATL Multimedia.
"They've been at maximum production since last November and it's going to stay that way for most of this year. But towards the end of this year, there should be a price drop in flash."
ATL Multimedia claims to be the only Taiwanese company to design its own portable MP3 player, saying other firms just manufacture foreign designs.
In addition, ATL said it had few problem obtaining flash memory because it holds a seat on the board of Toshiba's largest Taiwan distributor.{hadn't seen this before--nice to know}
Currently, ATL produces about 30,000 MP3 players per month. The company plans to pump up the volume to 90,000 units per month by mid-summer.
Hsieh said her company would eventually like to develop a variety of CD MP3 players.
One company that has already done that is Alpintex Industry Corp. Alpintex's third generation product, MPStar, could potentially replace CD players. The modem-sized device, which retails for between US$200 and US$230, can play laser discs in both MP3 and normal CD formats.
Like many of Taiwan's other new breed MP3 entrepreneurs, Alpintex has only been in the MP3 music business for about a year. The company plans to produce about 100,000 units this year.
Taiwan's DVD player manufacturers have also moved into MP3 territory.
MP3 compatibility is now standard on top of the line models from makers such as Esonic, Jeutech and Miracle Digitech.
Matsushita to cut SD Memory Card prices
By Reuters
June 8, 2001, 4:45 a.m. PT
OKYO--Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric said Friday it will cut prices for digital
memory cards by 90 percent in the next four years, marking a challenge to rival Sony's Memory
Sticks.
Matsushita said it had already halved the price for 64-megabit SD (secure digital) Memory Cards to
about $95 from $183 this month.
By 2005, the company plans to lower the prices for SD Memory Cards with different memory sizes to
one-tenth of their current prices.
The company has been
promoting the postage-stamp
sized memory cards, which
offer high storage capacity, fast
data transfer rates and high
security, since hitting the
market in May last year.
"We have been focusing on
increasing the number of SD
card association members,"
said Fumio Ohtsubo,
Matsushita's managing
director, referring to the
company's efforts to boost the
number of manufacturers that
make SD Memory
Card-compatible products.
Fourteen Japanese electronics
manufactures including Sharp
and Casio Computer offer
digital products such as digital
cameras, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and cell phones, which have a slot for SD Memory
Cards.
Ohtsubo said the market for SD Memory Cards was still a fledgling one and its total output stood at
250,000 units. Sony's Memory Stick output was 10 million.
Still, he expects the total number of memory cards to grow to 160 million units globally in the
business year to March 2006, and Matsushita expects SD Memory Cards to have a 50 percent
market share by then.
Ohtsubo also said the company would boost the monthly output of SD Memory Cards to 700,000
units per month in October from 300,000 units.
Consumers Make the Case for New Music Services
The music industry is at a crossroads, forced to find solutions
to changes in the way consumers are acquiring and experiencing
music. As the latest report from Webnoize Research illustrates,
the music industry needs to develop digital services to recapture
the youth market that is increasingly turning its back on
traditional music formats, sales outlets and devices.
According to "The Digital Singles Bar: Demand-side Change and the
Case for Music Services," young consumers, who created their own
marketplace for digital music using peer-to-peer music sharing
systems and MP3 song files, have moved away from album-oriented
music to more personalized selections of songs. This shift serves
the growing trend in listening to playlists of MP3 files on PCs
and portable digital players.
Interestingly, traditional radio has suffered much less for the
Internet than has the recording industry. While college-age music
fans see promise in streaming services, actually preferring it
over downloads, minimal broadband availability and poor audio
quality are barriers to mass adoption.
Meanwhile, people over age 30 buy the most music these days,
accounting for 54% of the market, while buyers under age 30 are
leading a move away from typical sales sources. Nearly half of
the under-30 crowd's online purchases come from Internet-only
sales sites such as Amazon.com, signaling yet another fundamental
shift in music consumer attitudes and behavior.
RP replies about trademarks...
replied yesterday evening to my work email and I just got to it this evening.
Hi, David,
These are usual responses when filing for trademarks; we expect to have these marks accepted.
Best regards,
Robert Putnam
Senior Vice President
e.Digital Corporation
13114 Evening Creek Dr. S.
San Diego, CA 92128
http://www.edig.com
Phone: (858) 679-3168
Fax: (858) 486-3922
robert@edig.com
Thanks Bosox.eom
From the manual labor website,"We did a big project that took 2 years and was constantly changing. [Manual Labour] wrote our manual starting from scratch using engineering documents. They saved us time and money and relived us of the burden."
- Chet Phelps e.Digital Corporation
Cquence mobile I would guess.
Great find murgirl! Hmmm... wonder why e.Digital would need product manuals if they don't partake in making products? At least according to our resident sages on RB. Thanks for the dot.
cheers
So cksla are you trying to tell us you think EDIG will be involved in digital satellite radio? LOL
You da man! Keep it coming.
cheers
Microsoft Enhancing Messaging Tool
Updated: Tue, Jun 05 10:50 AM EDT
By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer
SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is enhancing and expanding the use of its
instant messaging software, a move the software maker believes could give it
dominance over rivals America Online and Yahoo! Messenger.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said Monday its Windows
Messenger will sport the ability to send audio and video across the Internet and
allow users to share documents and even give them access to other PCs.
"Today we require you to be an auto mechanic if you want to drive the car," said Greg Sullivan, the lead product manager.
"This is going to let everybody drive."
Windows Messenger will be included with the XP system scheduled for release in
October.
IBM Delivers End-to-End Capabilities for Location-based Services
Teams with SignalSoft, Webraska, and Kivera
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2001--IBM today announced end-to-end capabilities that allow service providers and content providers to offer location-based services.
The market for location-based services is expected to reach $20 billion by 2005, according to industry analyst Ovum. They predict that by then 80 percent of the more than one billion users of wireless data services will be using location-based services, and that location-based services will account for more than 10 percent of the total $1.8 trillion worth of mobile e-commerce transactions.
Location-based services blend information about a person's location with other useful content, providing relevant, timely and local information to consumers when and where they need it. For example, those trying to hail a cab in New York City can simply type ``taxi'' on their cell phone, sending a signal to a local cab company that can then dispatch a driver closest to that location. Another example of location-based services is requesting a map outlining the shortest route between two locations based on real-time traffic conditions.
IBM is delivering new Location Services for its WebSphere Everyplace Server (WES) 2.1 software and is working with SignalSoft, a leading provider of location management infrastructure, to obtain location information from carrier networks. This information will be made available to application developers. Service providers and their subscribers will be able to control when and where location information is disclosed, providing a high degree of privacy and security. Webraska and Kivera, leading providers of navigation application technology, are using the WES Location Service to obtain location information. Navigation, which includes mapping and routing functions, makes location-based content meaningful to consumers.
IBM is also enhancing its WES System Development Kit to support the creation of location aware applications. These applications can run on top of the WebSphere Portal Server (WPS) or standalone. The WebSphere Portal Server is software that enables companies to build next generation portals, offering users a personalized, secure, single point of access for content, applications, processes, and people - - anywhere, anytime and from any device, wired or wireless. Webraska and Kivera are developing location-aware portlets, or portal applications, that run on WPS.
``Location-based services do not stand alone but need to be integrated with other mobile middleware capabilities, such as security, privacy, transcoding, and scalability, all of which are included in IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Server 2.1,'' said Jon Prial, Director of Marketing and Strategy, IBM Pervasive Computing. ``IBM looks forward to working with SignalSoft, Webraska, and Kivera, to offer a highly robust, secure and scalable infrastructure to deliver location-based services. We'll continue to work with additional business partners as the market unfolds.''
``SignalSoft is pleased to bring our expertise in location-based software products to location-enable IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Server,'' said David Hose, president and CEO of SignalSoft. ``IBM has been behind thousands of successful enterprises, providing superior technology tools to help maximize efficiency and productivity. The addition of location services will empower businesses even further, equipping their employees with the convenience of mobility.''
``Webraska is the navigation infrastructure supplier of choice for major telecom and service providers around the world, such as Telecom Italia Mobile. Webraska's Wireless Navigation Platform is the clear choice for major players seeking to develop location-based and telematics applications that bring interactive services to end-users. IBM and Webraska are already working together on a number of projects concerning wireless operators in the US and Europe. We are delighted about this announcement which further strengthens our alliance with IBM,'' stated Jamie Macdonald, Chief Operating Officer of Webraska.
``Kivera's Java-based component architecture is ideally suited for integration with WebSphere, said Rajiv Synghal, Chief Technology Officer of Kivera. The Kivera Location Server is the most technologically advanced, and, coupled with Kivera's ability to absorb new content sources quickly, provides developers the tools they need to build powerful location offerings and applications for their customers.''
About IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Server 2.1
IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Server (WES) v2.1, which will be available end of July, is highly scalable server software for connecting wireless and other Internet-ready devices to the Web. WES set a new industry benchmark by supporting 20 million wireless data subscribers, or 353,000 active users, exceeding the wireless data load carriers experience today in the world's largest cities. This is more than six times the scalability of competitors' products and is twice the industry average rate of concurrency. The ability to scale to millions of users is increasingly important as companies adapt their infrastructures for the wireless Web.
IBM's WebSphere Everyplace Server 2.1 also has new features that dramatically change the way people and applications communicate, delivering pertinent information in a timely manner. Specifically, the software includes intelligent notification based on contextual information, tools for building voice-enabled applications, and end-to-end capabilities for location-based services.
About IBM
IBM is the world's leading e-business company offering a wide range of services, solutions, software and technologies that allow businesses to take full advantage of the exploding wireless market. IBM's pervasive computing and wireless solutions extend new and existing e-business applications to the emerging class of connected devices and appliances. IBM has pioneered mobile e-business across many industries, geographic locations, and the three key business segments: business-to-enterprise; business-to-business; and business-to-consumer. Together with our partners, we have developed mobile solutions in the health care, financial services, retail, travel and telecommunications industries. More information about IBM can be found on the web at www.ibm.com.
About SignalSoft
SignalSoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: SGSF - news) Wireless Location Services® software suite allows wireless network operators to provide location-based services to their subscribers. Its software products transform raw location data into new revenue sources that help to differentiate wireless operators and build subscriber loyalty. Some of the largest U.S. wireless operators, including AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and Sprint PCS, and wireless operators in Europe, such as Libertel-Vodafone, Orange Switzerland and Sunrise, use SignalSoft's products. SignalSoft has established industry partnerships with many location determination technology providers and wireless network platform and infrastructure providers, and with a broad range of application, content and service providers through its local.info(tm) Alliance program. Founded in 1995, SignalSoft is headquartered in Boulder, Colo., USA, with offices in Canada, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom and its mobilePosition offices in Kista, Sweden. For more information about SignalSoft and its products, please call 303-381-3000, email info@signalsoftcorp.com, or visit the company's Web site at www.signalsoftcorp.com.
About Webraska
Webraska is the worldwide provider of wireless navigation, spatial searching, mapping and traffic information services and technologies for telecom operators and car manufacturers.
Turning mobile devices into worldwide personal navigation systems, Webraska's revolutionary IbDN® (Internet-based Distributed Navigation) patented technology and its Personal Navigation Suite(tm) of valued-added services are solving mobile users needs everyday, increasing revenues, customer loyalty and brand recognition for leading service providers around the world, including SFR, TIM, Vizzavi, KPN, Belgacom, Airtel, Orange, ADAC, VoiceStream and M1.
Webraska also offers the Personal Navigation API(tm) that allows application developers to launch, in a matter of hours, anywhere in most of Europe, North America and increasingly in the Asia-Pacific region, 'location & navigation-enabled' wireless applications (location-based services, m-commerce, games, city guides, fleet management, mobile Extranet, etc.). It is available directly to all developers via Webraska's ASP Centres, and via licensees of the Global Navigation Server(tm) platform and Global Navigation Database(tm).
Webraska's technology has already been chosen by industry leaders, including IBM, Nortel, Oracle, Openwave, Alcatel, Sagem, Schlumberger, SignalSoft, Wireless Car, PSA, Cellpoint, CT Motion, CPS, Acunia and Borg. The company is headquartered in Poissy, France and has offices in London, Brussels, Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan, Stockholm, Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne, Montreal and Detroit. For more information visit: www.webraska.com
About Kivera
Kivera is a leading expert in the field of spatial data manipulation. The Kivera Location Server (KLS) provides enterprise portal developers with highly scalable and reliable data, accurate and powerful geo-coding and fast calculations of routes and locations. The superior quality of the KLS database compiler and routing algorithms ensures its end users will get the best driving directions available. Because KLS uses digital map data from both of the two leading suppliers ? GDT and NavTech ? KLS provides end users with more precise address locations, and efficient routes that take into account turn restrictions. And, because Kivera will continually provide compiled database updates, portal end users will have the most current information available, adding new freeways and the restructuring of on/off ramps and interchanges.
Founded in 1997 and based in downtown Oakland, CA, Kivera provides private-label location server software to leading consumer voice portals, in-vehicle applications, and web-based travel services. Kivera is one of a small group of companies that offer location services, including AOL/MapQuest (NYSE:AOL - news), Vicinity (Nasdaq: VCNT - news), and MapInfo (Nasdaq: MAPS - news). Kivera's web site is http://www.kivera.com. Kivera's strategic partners include DENSO, AAA, Auto Club of Southern California, BeVocal and HeyAnita.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
IBM, White Plains
My Luu, 914/766-3055
myluu@us.ibm.com
MuchMusic USA Rolls Out Interactive Programming
Monday, June 04, 2001
03:33 PM ET
Cable TV network MuchMusic USA this month is
rolling out interactive programs that let viewers go
online to create their own videos, vote for their
favorite videos and submit opinions on various
topics. The four programs encourage viewers to
participate in programming decisions through
online components; for example, "Tastemaker"
lets viewers upload personal video clips providing
opinions about the music videos they want to see.
Owned by Rainbow Media, MuchMusic USA in
March signed carriage agreements with Time
Warner Cable and Adelphia Communications,
which will make the network available to 40 million
U.S. homes by the end of this year. Originally
launched in Canada, MuchMusic competes with
music network MTV, which in March introduced a
new Internet strategy that incorporates paid music
downloads and instant messaging into its
multimedia offerings.
Microsoft aims at couch potatoes with TV software launch
BY IAN SIMPSON
LISBON (Reuters) - U.S. software powerhouse Microsoft Corp. takes aim at the couch potato market this week with the high-stakes launch of its top interactive TV product on a Portuguese cable network.
The much-delayed commercial rollout of Microsoft's software on Thursday is part of a multibillion-dollar bet that the world's 1.5 billion television sets could be a new focus for the Redmond, Washington, company.
Underscoring its importance, Microsoft's billionaire chief executive, Steve Ballmer, will be in Lisbon for the kickoff.
``It's a very important launch for us indeed,'' Mark Le Goy, Microsoft TV's marketing chief in Europe, told Reuters. ''Interactive TV is core to Microsoft's strategy and direction.''
The rollout over Portugal's TV Cabo system marks part of a shift by Microsoft, the world's biggest maker of personal computer software, away from the relatively slow-growing PC market. Besides interactive TV, Microsoft is also investing in gadgets like handheld devices, video games and mobile phones.
Interactive TV lets viewers do such things as place bets, shop, get e-mail, play games and bank through a set-top box.
However, features of Microsoft's TV Advanced digital system include recording live programs, displaying live programming frame by frame and personalized viewing.
It also includes high-speed Internet access. Video on demand is scheduled for the near future.
TV Cabo, a unit of Internet and cable TV company PT Multimedia, will be the first cable network in the world to have the Microsoft digital product available on a broadband, or high-speed digital, system. TV Cabo has about a million subscribers and Microsoft holds a 1.87 percent stake in PT Multimedia.
MICROSOFT MIGHT HAVE TO ``FOLD TENTS''
``If Microsoft can be successful in Portugal, they can be successful in many other places,'' said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
``If they can't be, they are going to have to fold up their tents and move away from the television market.''
Analysts forecast explosive growth in the nascent interactive TV market. Fifteen million European households have the service and a million in the United States, according to David Mercer, an analyst with Strategy Analytics, a London research consultancy.
He estimated that by 2005, 70 million homes in Europe would have it, along with 58 million in the United States.
Microsoft has invested widely in U.S. and European cable TV systems. Microsoft's competitors have charged that Microsoft is trying to buy its way into the interactive TV software market, while Microsoft says it wants to help develop broadband.
Besides the PT Multimedia stake, Microsoft's holdings include pieces of the Netherlands' United Pan-Europe Communication (UPC), the biggest cable TV company in Europe, and part of NTL Inc, Britain's number one cable firm. It also has a $5 billion stake in AT&T Corp, the biggest U.S. long-distance phone and cable TV company.
The software used by TV Cabo was set to debut on UPC last year, but Microsoft could not deliver it in time.
UPC is testing the software, along with a rival system from Liberate Technologies Inc. AT&T also announced a trial of the Liberate software last year and is still working with Microsoft.
TV Cabo will initially use set-top boxes from Octal TV, a unit of Portugal's Novabase SGPS. It later will use gear from Britain's Pace Micro Technology Plc.
TV Cabo plans to charge roughly the same for its interactive service as it does for its premium cable package, or between the equivalent of about $8.50 to $13 a month, President Jose Graca Blau said.
He declined to provide details on pricing ahead of the launch. Analysts have estimated the price tag to be at least $500 for the set-top box and software.
``Our perspective is that the service, with these features, is one for mass use,'' Graca Blau said.
Stewart Collingwood, head of European operations for rival Liberate, said Microsoft faced a ``moment of truth,'' especially as its system begins to be installed in more and more homes.
``I'm sure Microsoft will get there in the end,'' he said. ''I'm just going to be fairly skeptical at this point.''
Digital music outlets pop up as major labels fight on
Industry tries to buy its way into online trade
BY DAWN C. CHMIELEWSKI
Mercury News
The recording industry's war on the illicit digital music trade has begun to resemble the war on drugs: Stamp out one drug lord, and suddenly a new cartel emerges from under the coca leaves.
The two-year battle against online music pioneer Napster slashed songs available by 90 percent, cutting the number of average daily downloads in half and reducing the number of users by a third. But it by no means ended the public's appetite for a quick music fix.
A number of underground services emerged to fill the void. While no single site has emerged as the dominant alternative, MusicCity, iMesh and the Gnutella file sharing network attract an estimated 400,000 daily users.
The recording industry finds itself still trying to stamp out unlicensed distribution, even as it tries to buy its way into the online trade.
Insiders interpret a spate of recent multi-million-dollar deals as testament to the record industry's eagerness to capitalize on consumers' desire for digital music. Witness Vivendi Universal's $372 million acquisition of online music pioneer MP3.com, followed last week by Bertelsmann AG's announcement that it would acquire MyPlay of Redwood City for a reported $30 million.
Expect more announcements this week from at least one major record label and Seattle-based RealNetworks. RealNetworks formed the ground-breaking MusicNet alliance in April with AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group, to act as central clearinghouse for online services, providing licenses and the technology to distribute music for download or in a continuous stream.
MusicNet says services powered by its technology will launch by late August or early September. It has already encoded 75,000 songs for digital distribution, and it plans to deliver an early version of the back-end software to its customers -- America Online and RealNetworks -- within the next two weeks.
``We are, without a doubt, hands down, on track for getting the partners the code that they need so that they stick to the dates that we continually sing to the public,'' said MusicNet spokesman Michael Collins.
The technology may prove to be the easy work.
Finding a music experience that's compelling enough for people to pay for -- that's the challenge that has absorbed AOL's new head of music, Kevin Conroy, since his arrival from BMG Entertainment four months ago. His goal is to provide music in as many ways as the consumer wants to experience it -- whether passively listening, ala radio, actively downloading and arranging it into mixes, or discussing hot new bands in a community forum.
Conroy's watchword is ``holistic.'' And he talks about finding a way to harness all of AOL's digital assets -- its free Internet radio channel, Spinner; its WinAmp MP3 music player, its Netscape browser and ICQ instant messaging software (not to mention its 28 million AOL subscribers) -- to become a gravitational force in online music.
``The possibilities are quite extraordinary,'' said Conroy.
He hopes to start rolling out AOL's music services by late summer or early fall. Does that mean Conroy is spending time looking over his shoulder at the growth of underground services?
In a word: hardly.
``What's happening in the meantime is really an extension of what's been going on over the last several years,'' said Conroy. ``People are interested and passionate about music -- and they want to have access. Where I would be nervous is when people stop expressing an interest around music.''
It's harder to assess the progress of Universal Music's joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment, code-named Duet. Neither record company has divulged details about the service it announced with fanfare a year ago. But it's reportedly on track to launch late this summer.
However, other industry observers interpret Vivendi Universal's acquisition of MP3.com as a sign that Duet is not making the progress, beyond press releases and headlines over its partnership with Yahoo.
``Everybody raced to do a press release,'' said one recording industry executive. ``My grandpa has been working on antigravity boots for 50 years. He hasn't done a press release, yet.''
The recording industry's one-time nemesis, Napster, is struggling to go straight. Chief Executive Hank Barry said the new pay version of the popular file-swapping service will launch this summer -- in all likelihood without music licensed from the major record labels that sued the Redwood City company for copyright infringement. Napster will try to survive on as an eclectic ``world music'' exchange.
``A lot of user surveys suggest that people are satisfied and would pay for non-label content. It's still a satisfying experience,'' said Barry. ``People love it. They don't want it taken away from them.''
Napster will re-launch with enhanced features, such as an improved file transfer mechanism that will guarantee a song completely downloads, a better search function, a new, better-looking interface that's easier to navigate and dedicated customer support.
Some analysts say the recording industry's seemingly plodding pace leaves them vulnerable to Napster II -- an underground, unlicensed music site that captures the attention of the mainstream.
``What we've seen and continue to see is that they're unwilling to have the first attempt fail. . . . That's a guarantee that nothing will succeed,'' said Eric Scheirer, media and entertainment analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. ``The threat continues to grow from the Gnutellas of the world. They're not going away.''
Indeed, Phil Leigh, digital media analyst for the investment bank Raymond James & Assoc., says the most popular file-sharing sites -- MusicCity, iMesh and Gnutella -- now attract about 400,000 simultaneous users -- or about a third of Napster's traffic at its peak.
And that doesn't factor in AIMster, an embattled file-sharing service that piggybacks on AOL's instant messaging service.
``At its peak, Napster had 1 million simultaneous users -- These alternative sources appear to be ramping toward that number pretty quickly,'' said Leigh.
While about 500,000 users have abandoned Napster since February, the alternative file-swapping services have yet to pick up the slack.
The most popular, MusicCity, boasts about 100,000 simultaneous users, said Matt Bailey, a senior analyst for Webnoize, a digital media research firm in Cambridge, Mass. And the 1 million or so dedicated Napster users who remain with the service appear to be using it as a music player -- nothing else. They no longer download files.
All these factors bode well for pay services, once they launch this summer, Bailey said.
``Because of the pent-up demand from Napster, there is a strong demand for getting PC-based music,'' Bailey said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Dawn C. Chmielewski at dchmielewski@sjmercury.com or (800) 643-1902.
Microsoft and AOL back in talks
By Martin Cej, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 6:29 PM ET June 3, 2001
SEATTLE (CBS.MW) - Microsoft and AOL Time Warner resumed talks Sunday over whether AOL's software will be bundled into Microsoft's new Windows XP operating system, according to Reuters.
An agreement between the two that saw AOL included on the Windows desktop for about five years expired on Jan. 1 of this year. The relationship made Microsoft's Internet Explorer the primary browser on America Online's service.
Talks between the two broke down Friday.
The companies are now "back at the table," Reuters reported, citing Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan. Cullinan was not immediately available to comment, nor was a spokesman for AOL Time Warner.
Citing other unnamed sources, Reuters reported that the two companies are still "far apart" on unspecified key issues.
Microsoft (MSFT: news, msgs, alerts) is slated to ship its Windows XP system in October. On its long list of new features, Microsoft will include for the first time Internet-firewall software to keep out computer hackers. Additionally, it will come with CD-burning and DVD-playback options. Windows XP includes photo-editing tools and Internet messaging software.
As with the company's most recent consumer operating software, Windows Me, Microsoft also plans to put Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Outlook Express e-mail software and the Microsoft Net Meeting conferencing software package in Windows XP.
The new software isn't arriving quietly. Already, Microsoft is working with computer makers to help market the software, which is expected to give a boost to sagging personal-computer sales. The new XP operating system is larger, and it requires more computer memory than past software versions. See related story on Windows XP.
Microsoft shares rose $1.16, or 1.7 percent, to $70.34 Friday and AOL Time Warner (AOL: news, msgs, alerts) advanced 56 cents to $52.75.
Martin Cej is global markets editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco
Mark (words only): SMART SOLUTIONS FOR A DIGITAL WORLD
Current Status: An office action suspending further action on the application has been mailed.
Date of Status: 2001-04-13
Filing Date: 2000-12-19
This I don't like and will seek clarification from RP.
Mark (words only): SMART SONG SELECTION
Current Status: A non-final action has been mailed. This is a letter from the examining attorney requesting additional information and/or making an initial refusal. However, no final determination as to the registrability of the mark has been made.
Date of Status: 2001-05-22
let's hope things are decided in our favor!
Danl, that is truly classic. Brings back some fond memories.
thanks
The Box Music Network
Completes National Roll-Out of "Box Fusion," First Fully-Programmed
Interactive TV/Web Convergence Service
Business, Technology & Entertainment Editors
NEW YORK & MIAMI BEACH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April
4, 2000--
Powered by ACTV's HyperTV(R) Software, The Box
Becomes First TV
Network to Offer Enhanced Interactive Programming
24/7/365
The Box Music Network, an MTV Networks company, and
ACTV's HyperTV Networks (NASDAQ: IATV), today
announced the complete national roll-out of BOX FUSION.
Powered by ACTV's HyperTV(R) software, BOX FUSION is
the first and only fully-programmed interactive TV/Web
convergence service available nationwide, 24-hours-a-day,
7-days-a-week, 365-days-per-year.
Beginning April 10, The Box's viewers in New York,
Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Miami,
Phoenix, Baltimore, St. Louis and Seattle, among other
cities, will be able to experience this revolutionary
integration of music television and the Internet. Nationwide,
twelve million viewers will have access to BOX FUSION,
which expands on The Box's existing interactive technology that currently allows viewers to access a
local playlist and order a video for play on their TV.
To be part of BOX FUSION, consumers need a television set with access to The Box Music Network,
and a computer with an Internet connection (minimum 28.8 Kbps) located in the same room. Viewers
simply need to register and download the free HyperTV plug-in from The Box (www.thebox.com) or
HyperTV (www.hypertv.com) websites. Once downloaded, viewers can log-on to BOX FUSION at
www.thebox.com to automatically receive and interact, free of charge, with Web content whose delivery
is synchronized to enhance music videos and other programming airing on The Box. Viewers can also
chat, in real-time, with other music fans that are part of BOX FUSION.
Alan McGlade, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Box Music Network, said: "This is a
significant advancement for The Box, because BOX FUSION is a true enhancement of our existing
capabilities, further capitalizing on our unique ability to deliver the only customizable music service in
the country. What we've done here is very complex, because we are tailoring the synchronized Web
content to the requests of our viewers through their local servers, rather than over a single national
feed. Our programming always reflects the needs and musical tastes of our diverse subscriber base,
and BOX FUSION reinforces our commitment to provide viewers with the most complete music
experience."
BOX FUSION content includes artist bios, liner notes and song credits, discography, concert
information, interactive trivia questions and games, and record and music video reviews written by
members of the BOX FUSION community.
Bruce Crowley, president of ACTV's HyperTV Networks, said: "BOX FUSION is the most compelling
and technically-advanced undertaking in the brief, yet exciting history of TV/Web convergence. Based
on our experience in the three months since we introduced BOX FUSION in select cities, and from the
success of others, we know that music fans want to interact more closely with what's on TV. Any time of
day, The Box's viewers can log-on to BOX FUSION to be part of a cutting-edge cyber-community of
music fans seeking richer content, greater context and the ability to interact with other fans locally and
nationwide."
Coming soon, BOX FUSION users will have the ability to make online purchases of music,
merchandise and tickets, among other products, that relate to the artist, music video or concert they're
watching on The Box. Viewers will also receive enhanced Web content from The Box's advertisers and
sponsors, and be able to download coupons, request information and brochures, and "bookmark" a
website for further exploration at another time. Since its inception, viewer commerce has been a core
component of The Box's business, accounting for almost half the company's revenue. BOX FUSION
builds upon this important revenue stream.
Today, HyperTV offers a "two-screen" solution for TV/Web convergence, serving the growing number
of TV viewers who simultaneously use the Internet to complement and enhance their TV viewing
experiences. According to Media Metrix, more than half of all personal computers, or approximately
22.6 million, are in the same room as a television, and of those households, nearly all, or about 21.8
million, use the television and personal computer simultaneously at least some of the time. As more
sophisticated and powerful digital set-top box technology proliferates, and as more cable operators
offer high-speed Internet access, ACTV anticipates that viewers will enjoy a HyperTV experience with
both video and synchronized Internet content and functionality delivered simultaneously to their TV or
their computer.
About The Box Music Network
The Box Music Network is television's only interactive 24-hour all music network. The Box
(www.thebox.com) presents the newest and most diverse selection of music on television through the
use of 150 digital file servers throughout the U.S. The network originates programming uniquely
tailored to each market it serves and provides viewers with an option to call in or go online to request a
video from a current menu of up to 200 selections. Viewers can also simply watch the videos on The
Box free of charge.
About ACTV, Inc.
ACTV, Inc. (NASDAQ: IATV) has pioneered TV/Web convergence programming with its patented
HyperTV(R) software solution. The company also created interactive one-to-one digital television with
its proprietary "Individualized TV" software and programming capabilities. ACTV offers superior,
practical solutions for television programmers, advertisers, cable operators, educators and consumers
looking to leverage the emergence of digital television and the broadband delivery infrastructure.
ACTV has relationships with many of the dominant players in the Internet, television and digital
technology fields, including key strategic investments from Liberty Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ: LDIG) and
Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) Broadband Communications Sector (formerly General Instrument Corporation
(NYSE: GIC)). For more information, visit ACTV's Web site at http://www.actv.com.
Disclaimer: This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning
plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and
other statements which are other than statements of historical facts. These statements are subject to
uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, product and service demand and acceptance,
changes in technology, economic conditions, the impact of competition and pricing, government
regulation, and other risks defined in this document and in statements filed from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. All such forward-looking statements, whether written or oral,
and whether made by or on behalf of the Company, are expressly qualified by the cautionary
statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements.
In addition, the company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect
events or circumstances after the date hereof.
--30--et/ny*
CONTACT: Kelli Stich
(for The Box Music Network)
Feren Communications
212-983-9898
-or-
Mike Rosen/Lauren Kuschner
(for ACTV, Inc.)
Bratskeir & Company
212-679-2233
How Amazon Is Beating the High Costs of Shipping
By Miguel Helft
Saturday June 2, 12:16 am Eastern Time
TheStandard.com
Dave Tainer may be 37, but he still digs the Sex Pistols classic, "God Save the Queen." "This song is life," he wrote in an online review after discovering a new cover of the punk-rock anthem by the group Motorhead. Tainer wasn't knocking around on Napster or Gnutella when he downloaded this anti-establishment screed for free. He was on Amazon.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
While the spotlight has lately focused on the travails of Napster and the major labels' struggle to develop a profitable way to distribute music online, Amazon quietly launched its Worldwide Digital Group in March. It offers free music downloads as well as paid downloads of 4,300 e-books and hundreds of software titles.
In the world of digital books and music, Amazon will face off with such giants as AOL Time Warner, Barnes & Noble and Bertelsmann. But the Internet's biggest store already has an edge: its 30 million shoppers. "They are consistently one of the top download sites," says Matt Smith, a VP at Liquid Audio, which powers downloads at sites such as Yahoo and Tower Records. (Amazon would not disclose how many downloads it gets.) Smith adds that Amazon has surpassed the competition in integrating its downloads into its store, with reviews and top 10 lists. Those features certainly helped make the Dalai Lama's otherwise obscure religious chant "Green Tara Mantra" Amazon's No. 1 "indie" download in May.
"Our role is to help people discover music," says Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO.
While the debate rages about the best models for music and e-book sales, Amazon is forging ahead with its hybrid approach: free music, and books and software for a fee. Jeff Blackburn, head of Amazon's digital division, brushes aside any discussion of whether and how music customers will pay for downloads as largely irrelevant to the task he faces. In his quest to build the ultimate digital mall, he's ready to use any platform - whether Adobe or Microsoft's e-book format, for example - and business model that will work. "We have a pretty pragmatic view of it," he says.
The digital unit will not pull Amazon out of its financial hole. But it is already helping in small ways. Free music downloads, notes Blackburn, have proved a powerful marketing tool, boosting sales of certain CDs by as much as 100 percent. "When we've done promotions with Amazon, the results have been spectacular," echoes Jay Samit, a senior VP at EMI.
Finding the right balance between the digital and physical may prove key to making downloads profitable. Amazon could bundle special digital offerings with the purchase of a CD, Blackburn suggests. Customers might pay extra, for instance, for a version of Madonna's latest album that's accompanied by four immediately downloadable tracks, he adds.As an online retailer, Amazon is well-positioned to do this, while its publishing rivals are not.
In the meantime, Amazon is already drawing music-download customers who are reluctant to go elsewhere. Tainer never felt secure trying Napster, but he says he's sure he'll return to Amazon. There are a lot more punk-rock memories he's looking to bring back to life.
(magazine)
Launch, Webcasters File Suit Seeking Clarification
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Several Webcasters, including Launch Media Inc.
(NasdaqNM:LAUN - news), MTVi, MusicMatch Inc. and Listen.com on Friday
sued the recording industry in a San Francisco federal court seeking
clarification over licensing for online music services.
The suit was filed in response to a request by the Recording Industry
Association of America (news - web sites) (RIAA) which asked the U.S.
Copyright Office to disqualify several companies, which offer
consumer-influenced Internet radio services, from a royalty arbitration, said Jonathon Potter, executive director,
Digital Media Association (DiMA), a trade group for Webcasters and one of the plaintiffs in Friday's suit.
Potter said while the Copyright Office previously ruled that offering consumer-influence features does not render a
webcasting service ``interactive'' and thus ineligible for statutory licenses, it has failed to clearly define what types
of Webcaster services are eligible for statutory licenses.
``Our only remaining option is to ask a court to interpret the Digital Millenium Copyright Act so that media
companies, technology developers and investors can gain needed clarification of the statute,'' Potter said.