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Hugh Panero, July 10:
"This is the first step in a multi-staged XM launch preparedness effort," said XM President and CEO Hugh Panero. "We now have teams of people listening to XM content originating from our Broadcast Center distributed nationally by our two high-powered satellites and received on XM radios in 20 markets. The testers are providing feedback as we put our system through its paces in preparation for a commercial launch later this summer."
http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/press_release_2001_07_10.html
OLD--DataPlay-Sales of 500,000 OPUs by October 2001
Over the next five years, US-based DataPlay Inc will invest US$30 million (S$52 million) in Singapore to develop and make OPUs (optical pickup units - the read-write component of the disk drive) at its 50,000 sq ft Woodlands facility.
The company has developed a technology in which users may store up to 500MB of digital content (approximately 11 hours of music or 250 resolution pictures, or combination of different digital content). The disk, which is a mere size of a 50-cent coin, will be sold at a retail price of US$10 each.
The size of a match-box (52mm by 47mm by 11mm), the OPU surpasses that of the Flash Memory card as Flash cards are not always compatible across different digital devices. To date, DataPlay format can support up to 50 prototype devices. Companies such as Microsoft Corp and Toshiba Corp have already embraced this technology.
Set up in November 1998 with investments from Universal Music Group, Toshiba Corp, Samsung Electronics, S3 Inc and Imation Corp, volume operations will commence in July 2001. The company has plans to employ 120 engineers, managers and operators from the semi-conductor and optical engineering industry by year-end.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++DataPlay to open Singapore plant
By David Algeo, #################
Feb 21, 2001 12:25 PM ET
BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 21 (LocalBusiness.com) -- DataPlay Inc., which is developing computer disks the size of a quarter, plans to spend $30 million in the next five years to establish an operational headquarters in Singapore.
"While the company maintains its (corporate) headquarters in Boulder ... Singapore will evolve into DataPlay's operational headquarters to manage worldwide manufacturing and logistics activities, as well as Asian sales efforts," the company said in a statement released this morning.
DataPlay officials weren't immediately available for additional comment.
DataPlay's computer disks, each of which can store 11 hours of recorded music, are expected to reach the consumer market this fall, in time for the holiday shopping season. Simultaneously, matchbook-size devices that play the tiny disks also will hit the market.
The Singapore operation will develop and manufacture optical pick-up units, which read and write data.
Full-scale manufacturing in Singapore, where the company already has 15 employees, will get under way this July. Staffing in Singapore will reach 120 by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, DataPlay is in the midst of raising a major equity funding round, which is expected to close in March, company officials told ################# earlier this month.
The funding round will be similar to a $50 million strategic round DataPlay closed last spring. That round included investments from The Seagram Co., Toshiba Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., S3 Inc. and Imation Corp.
The $30 million being pumped into Singapore is the "only investment DataPlay has made in its own factory facility; all other manufacturing requirements to date have been filled by contractors," the company said.
DataPlay is developing partnerships with a number of companies, such as Toshiba Corp. and Samsung Electronics, which will manufacture portable devices that support the DataPlay format.
In addition, Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Rosetta Books are planning to record music and e-books on DataPlay disks.
The Singapore investment not only will help get the factory running at full volume, but also will cover the cost of establishing a laboratory in which next-generation optical pick-up units will be developed.
The optical pick-up device in a standard CD and DVD player that typically covers an area of about 2 inches by 2 inches. DataPlay has developed a way to squeeze the device into an area the size of a matchstick head.
Total staffing at DataPlay, which was incorporated in 1998, is about 175.
Online Music Companies Shun MusicNet's Restrictions
by Mark Lewis
Some Internet music companies are hesitant to negotiate deals with a major label-backed music subscription service called MusicNet because they say it has serious restrictions that will make the service unpalatable to consumers.
Major music companies owned by AOL Time Warner, EMI Group and Bertelsmann are trying to interest online music firms in distributing their jointly owned MusicNet service, which will allow consumers to "rent" streamed and downloaded tracks for a monthly subscription fee [see 06.21.01 MusicNet Demonstrates Bare-Bones Service]. But online music firms say the labels, along with RealNetworks, which owns 40% of MusicNet, are trying to control too many elements of the service instead of giving online music companies the highest quality product that will make money for everyone.
Los Angeles-based ARTISTdirect already offers free downloads and genre-based Internet radio, but recognizes that it could earn additional income by offering a subscription service. However, Marc Geiger, ARTISTdirect's vice chairman, said MusicNet will limit a consumer's monthly ration of streams to 300, transmitted at a maximum of 64 kilobits per second. Geiger claims the sound quality is worse than AM radio and the maximum number of plays won't give consumers enough listening time.
"You're going to pay for 300 songs a month and it sounds like shit? It's a joke," he said.
Richard Wolpert, a former Disney executive who is now a strategic consultant for RealNetworks, disputed Geiger's view. He said distributors will be able to offer more than 300 streams, whose quality will depend on a subscriber's Internet connection. He declined to state actual terms of the service or reveal technical information about sound quality. "The stream quality and the download quality are more than adequate for what people are going to want," he said.
Streaming music services use a variety of bit rates and compression technologies, which influence the fidelity. MP3.com, for instance, streams MP3s at 128 kbps to broadband users; Radio Free Virgin streams in Microsoft's Windows Media at 28, 56, and 96 kbps; and Live365.com streams MP3s at 56 kbps to broadband users.
MusicNet distributors will be able to create packages combining downloads and streams, paying for what consumers use. "There will be a finite number [of downloads and streams], because no one will offer what Napster offers, which is free, all-you-can-eat," Wolpert said, referring to the MP3 song swap service before it began filtering content, and then went dark last week. "The record industry can't make its money if it's free and unlimited."
A consumer who opts for a streaming subscription will have a "ticker" that will keep track of how many streams and downloads are left in a monthly allotment. Downloads will be "CD quality" and won't be counted by the ticker each time they are played, Wolpert said. For those reasons, distributors will pay more for them than if they want to offer an on-demand streaming service, he said.
But MusicNet's tiered and pro rata pricing structures will require complex accounting systems, which could lead to problems. "Far be it from me to suggest that the record industry has a history of exploiting such inaccuracies in their accounting processes," said Jeremy Silver, a former EMI new media executive who is now executive vice president at Uplister, a playlist sharing service. "It's an issue for artists and publishers, too," he added.
Uplister wants to introduce broader music services beyond its current song samples, but it hasn't engaged MusicNet in deeper discussions after receiving its initial offer.
MusicNet has contacted various online music companies, portals and Internet service providers with its offer. To date, MusicNet has only signed deals with America Online, RealNetworks and Napster, all of which are tied financially to the joint venture. RealNetworks and America Online's parent company AOL Time Warner are partners in MusicNet, while Napster is funded by a $60 million loan from Bertelsmann.
Another reason why Internet firms are pausing before engaging in serious negotiations with MusicNet is that the venture hasn't revealed precisely what music will be included in its service. Industry insiders note that firms that have licensed major-label music in the past have been given undesirable B-sides and lesser known works by artists who are past their prime.
Silver said subscription music consumers typically have "the kid in the candy store complex," in which they initially try to grab everything they can, then gradually accumulate less as they explore the limits of the virtual shelves. Some subscription models intentionally limit their libraries so consumers will download less, saving costs for the services, Silver said.
MP3.com Chairman and CEO Michael Robertson criticized MusicNet and its competitor Pressplay, a comparable forthcoming service backed by Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp., because they won't offer lower costs, more convenient access or broader availability of music than CDs. Downloads will "blow up" when consumers stop paying their subscriptions, and they won't be able to export them to portable devices or record them to CDs, Robertson said during his keynote address at yesterday's MP3 Summit in San Diego.
"Where's the value there? It's going to be a disaster," leading to the continued success of free file-swapping on "Napster-like clones."
He claimed MP3.com's new "Plus" subscription service is a better direction because it allows consumer to sample short segments from major label catalogs, buy mail-order CDs and store them online for on-demand streaming. The service also lets users store music produced by MP3.com's artists and record compilation CDs on a home CD burner.
Traditional music industry supporters, however, maintain that the major labels must enforce limits on their services because margins will be razor thin. Even critics such as Geiger point out that charging consumers an average of 12.5 cents per song doesn't leave much head room should publishers receive a traditional mechanical royalty of 7.55 cents. The music industry is negotiating with publishers to get a lower rate for subscription services, but publishers don't want to give up ground at such an early stage of online music distribution.
Additionally, Wolpert claimed that chaining downloads to PCs is necessary because there's currently no way for a portable device to import a secure track so it can't be removed from the device and illegally redistributed.
In fact, systems do exist that permit secure exports to devices. Japanese consumers are already able to purchase protected tracks and load them on Sony's Memory Stick devices and Panasonic and Toshiba devices with Secure Digital Flash memory cards [see 07.09.01 Japanese Take Co-operative Approach to Digital Music, Unlike Divisive U.S.]. That system uses IBM's rights management technology, but RealNetworks' security system, which will be used in MusicNet, isn't widely supported by devices. That suggests that RealNetworks' lack of device partners, not technological barriers, will compound MusicNet's problems
Bang & Olufsen Licenses E.Digital Platform
European consumer electronics manufacturer Bang & Olufsen has licensed E.Digital's digital music platform for products in development. E.Digital develops a reference design for portable digital audio players supporting multiple audio formats and rights management systems. Known for home stereos and TVs, Bang & Olufsen has not released details about the types of products that will include E.Digital's platform. E.Digital Senior Vice President Robert Putnam said Bang & Olufsen will likely release its new products in the late fall. Terms of the agreement call for the CE maker to pay E.Digital unspecified licensing and engineering fees. Other E.Digital licensees include Korea-based companies Maycom and Remote Solution
KDDI Mobile Handsets Hit by New Software Glitch
By Reed Stevenson
TOKYO (Reuters) - KDDI Corp, Japan's number two telecoms carrier, said on Friday it would replace handset software for 52,100 subscribers, underscoring the challenges in delivering faster and more sophisticated services.
The step, which will rewrite the mobile phone's basic software free of charge, is effectively a recall because ``au,'' (pronounced ay-you), KDDI's wireless unit, had told subscribers that the existing PacketOne 64 service would not be interrupted even if the network infrastructure were upgraded.
Au said the replacement would be needed to ensure subscribers would be able to continue using the high-speed PacketOne 64 service when the company launches even faster data connection services in September.
Japan's carriers, including dominant mobile operator NTT DoCoMo (news - web sites) Inc, have been plagued by a series of glitches of late as they struggle to provide increasingly sophisticated, Internet-enabled services.
But KDDI's latest setback pales in comparison to this year's biggest recall involving a battery flaw in 560,000 mobile phones built by Sony Corp (news - web sites) earlier this month.
DoCoMo has also had problems with phones built by Sony as well as a Panasonic brand phone built by Matsushita Communication Industrial Co Ltd (MCI)
KDDI's latest recall affects phones made by various manufacturers, including Casio Computer Co Ltd, Kyocera Corp, Sanyo Electric Co Ltd, Toshiba Corp and Sony.
STRING OF COSTLY SETBACKS
KDDI, which made the latest announcement in a statement, did not say how much the replacement would cost the company, although Sony said recalls of its phones to KDDI and DoCoMo would cost it 12 billion yen.
KDDI is planning to upgrade its network in September to a faster system than the 64 kilobit-per-second PacketOne service to compete with DoCoMo's third-generation high-speed wireless service, which was launched as a trial service in May and will be available commercially from October 1.
Only three days earlier, NTT DoCoMo said it would repair about 100,000 Internet-enabled Panasonic handsets because of a technical glitch for sending and receiving radio transmissions in limited geographical areas.
Shares in KDDI showed little reaction to the news, closing up 1.54 percent at 529,000 yen although it gave up earlier gains. The benchmark Nikkei average was down 0.43 percent.
Matsushita Communication's shares slipped to their lowest in 33 months the day after Tuesday's recall announcement, hit by broad weakness in the technology sector as well as the handset glitches. Sony's shares also fell to 22-month lows in the wake of last week's recall and the overall tech-sector weakness.
Reality Is Reality When It Comes to 3G
By Larry Swasey
July 13, 2001
At first, 3G cellular was going to dramatically change our lives - and quickly. This statement is still being bandied around, the most recent example being DoCoMo's limited 3G launch. Talking to operators, infrastructure and handset vendors, as well as component manufacturers over the past few years, everyone was sure that 3G would take the cellular world by storm and allow applications on the go that would make all of our lives easier.
At least that was what was being stated in public. The Internet would be in the palm of your hands. And all involved would make lots of money. This large amount of money to be made even drew in, for a brief while, those same types of developers that were sure their application on the Internet, which did not make money or prove useful to many, could be ported over to the wireless Internet, since more people would be accessing the Internet via the wireless devices than through the PC. But reality has set in, and all along Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) saw this reality as very apparent.
Here, then, is the reality concerning 3G.
3G will be rolled out, but like any other new technology, it will take time to roll it out and even more time to find out what will be the applications to make many desire to use it. This will not happen next year, but three to four years down the road. It is not a dog, it is not the technology advancement to end all technology advancements - it is a technology, and it is comprised of products and applications using technology still in development.
Voice Is Still King
All in all, the explosion of wireless occurred when there was much competition and when prices came down. World growth of wireless was due to the explosion of voice, the low price per minute of voice and cheap handsets. This was all due to competition among operators, which also mandated that national coverage be offered either through a standalone national network or through roaming agreements within a nation or a region and eventually, worldwide. That is why Iridium failed in its first incarnation (if you do not count the few places Iridium is now seeing success, such as oil platforms and wide open spaces). It wanted to offer worldwide voice coverage, but that already existed and it came pretty cheap and most handsets were subsidized.
People like to talk. And when it comes to cell phones, people like to talk even though there is little to say at times (I'm sure you've heard these same conversations). It's about being connected, and the cellular industry has done an excellent job of tying many to their handset. It's a simple application we all grew up with and it has been made even better since we can now be reached anywhere at anytime (almost anywhere at almost anytime); the voice quality and the dropped calls are the one caveat.
Wireless Internet Is just That, Wireless Internet
Wireless Internet is just that - a connection to the Internet via wireless. It's a simple proposition until you consider how the device that most people will use to connect to the wireless Internet and how the Internet has evolved. The device will be small, expensive (sometimes as expensive as that PC sitting on your desk as home) and will not be able to perform the functions you are used to at home or in your office.
For example, while writing this column, I am also watching (via Gamecast) and listening to the latest Boston Red Sox baseball game, watching some of my stocks in detail, monitoring sales of our company, reading and responding to e-mails and reading up on the latest tech news, as well as perusing my long list of publications I read daily - each element a click away. The wireless Internet will not come close to doing any of this in detail or in a desirable amount of time. That's reality.
When we at ABI hear that the Internet is going to have more hits from wireless devices than wireline devices, we have to laugh; yes that may be true but the length of these wireless hits and the amount of information gained through the wireless Internet sessions are minute when compared to the wireline Internet hits. Today alone, I have downloaded more information than I have in the entire life of my Palm handheld. Again, reality is reality.
Applications for wireless Net devices will be developed that will be worthwhile, but many are still built on dubious assumptions. Many of the real applications are on the enterprise side and will take advantage of the client/server architecture to allow intranet, as well as Internet connectivity.
Still A Money Maker
Still, 3G will play an important role in the marketplace. It just won't happen overnight. We are at the very earliest stages of 3G for most parties involved, and once infrastructure is shipped, applications are developed and handsets are completed, then we can make a judgment as applications are rolled out. Just like with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), it is too early to throw dirt on the grave. At ABI we think there will be some very robust numbers to judge, although these numbers would have been called conservative just one year ago.
All in all, we believe there will be over 500 million "wireless Internet" users in 2006 with an average of $21 billion spent yearly on infrastructure during the period, according to the latest ABI 2.5G and 3G report: "2.5G and 3G - The Evolution of the Wireless Network." And we see cellular integrated circuits sales for 2G, 2.5G and 3G handsets will rise from close to $14 billion in 2001 to almost $27 billion in 2006, according to ABI's newest Cellular IC report, "3G/Cellular Integrated Circuits."
Oracle in Telematics Pact
By allNetDevices Staff
July 13, 2001
Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Wincast said Thursday that they will work together to develop and market telematics services. Wingcast is a joint venture between Ford and Qualcomm.
Among the terms of the agreement, Wingcast and Oracle will jointly operate a development center in San Diego. Developments will be based on Oracle's platform software such as Oracle9i Application Server Wireless and the Oracle9i Database, the companies said.
The companies said in a joint statement that the wireless applications and services will be aimed at "consumers both inside and outside vehicles from a variety of devices and access methods, including voice." They said they would focus on communications, entertainment, mobile commerce and location-based services as well as safety applications.
They said the services will be launched in Ford and Nissan cars in mid-2002.
DoCoMo 3G Literally Sings the Blues
By allNetDevices Staff
July 13, 2001
NTT DoCoMo said Thursday that it will use a popular Japanese rhythm and blues singer in its campaign to convince users to adopt is third-generation (3G) wireless services.
The company said that Hikaru Utada, a popular Japanese R&B singer, has agreed to be in ads touting 3G service. The ad campaign will begin when the service, which DoCoMo has branded FOMA, begins in October.
FOMA stands for Fredom of Mobile Multimedia Access." The service initially had been expected to fully launch in May, but it was delayed until October. Instead, DoCoMo started a public beta test in May.
As part of the promotion, DoCoMo said it will distribute Utada's music via its wireless M-stage service.
Toshiba Squeezes Storage Down to Size
New Type II PC card can store up to 5 GB of data, and can still fit in a shirt pocket.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Friday, July 13, 2001
Toshiba has managed to squeeze a 5 GB hard disk drive into a Type II PC Card--a development that will be welcomed by road warriors and users of portable digital multimedia devices everywhere.
The new card, the PAMHD005, will go on sale in Japan on July 19 and is expected to retail for about $400. It has a single 1.8-inch platter, a two-head drive with rotational speed of 3,990 rpm (revolutions per minute), an average seek time of 15 milliseconds, and a data transfer rate of 5.2 MB per second.
Toshiba said it has plans to sell the hard disk drive outside Japan but has yet to decide when it will do so.
At 5 GB, the drive has greater capacity than a DVD-Video disc, which can hold 4.7 GB of data, and it can store five times as much data as IBM's 1 GB Microdrive. The Microdrive is less than half the size of Toshiba's new drive, fitting into a Compact Flash card, but either fits easily in a shirt pocket. Toshiba's PC Card weighs in at almost two ounces, while the Microdrive weighs just half an ounce.
Most other PC Card hard disk drives have required a Type III slot, so in most cases they occupy both Type II slots on a notebook. Toshiba's new drive takes up just one of those slots. Last year, Toshiba began selling a 2 GB hard disk drive for a Type II slot.
Navigation - The Infotainment PC allows drivers to select a destination and receive a colour map-based navigation system with turn-by-turn instructions.
http://www.arch.dibe.unige.it/mito/teleSys%5CCadillac.htm.
http://www.delphiautomotive.com/index.cfm?location=2573&chrome=print.
MP3 Summit 2001 - Part 1
by *Simon S. Foust on Jul 12, 2001
Angelo and I are at the summit right now. It's us, Michael Robertson, and the guy sitting next to me.. that's about it. I'm sort of in shock at how dead it is.. but should I be?
Perhaps not. Angelo said it best - the first summit was a bunch of idealistic guys eating pizza and sharing ideas; at the second one everyone was a little bit cocky and the party just got bigger; at the third, the company throwing the party was being sued; at the fourth, the company throwing the party is now 0wnd by the company that did the suing. It's pretty bad. Sorry Mike.
Not a whole lot of booths in the display room, the food was alright, haven't been in the conference room yet. Met Potential. So far, the most interesting thing about today was the conversation we had with Travis from Red Swoosh (Scour Founder) on the way down to San Diego.
Ah well. More updates soon. ;)
MP3 Types Call Telcos for Help
By Brad King
2:00 a.m. July 13, 2001 PDT
SAN DIEGO –- Phones are the future. Well, that's what the remaining battered and bruised digital music companies hope.
Those few companies that weathered the economic drought that sent scores of their ranks to the scrap heap -- many of them blistered by legal attacks from the recording industry -- are now looking toward telecommunications carriers to revitalize the MP3 revolution.
Wednesday’s legal action by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, which requires Napster to shut its doors until it develops a foolproof method for filtering copyrighted music from its system, solidified the sentiment that digital music companies need powerful partners in their ongoing struggles with the recording industry.
Those partners, it seems, will be communication companies that control the pipeline to cell phones, personal digital assistants and other mobile handhelds.
European telecoms paid in excess of $100 billion for access to the high-speed, 3G networks, which are set to launch in the coming years. To recoup that money, carriers will want to sell their customers upgraded services, such as music and movie delivery.
Digital music companies are hoping that these powerful telecommunications companies will become powerful allies in the ongoing battle with the recording industry to wrest control of music distribution out of the hands of the five major labels.
"Music is the killer application for all of these wireless services," said MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson, whose company is in the process of being acquired by French media conglomerate Vivendi.
He said that services such as music are addictive, since consumers are always looking for the newest songs and bands to add to their collections.
Fledgling businesses such as Musicphone have targeted telecommunications companies as their main customers with the hope of securing alliances that provide a safe haven from the recording industry.
"Telecommunications companies are a necessity for our business to be profitable," said Musicphone CEO Carter Nichols. "We fill up the spaces that they are lacking with music, which adds tremendous value to their service."
QWEST Communications, an Internet-based media company, recently conducted a beta test with content delivery. The service offered 500,000 users access to news, weather and traffic information.
When the test ended, nearly 200,000 users decided to continue using the service, paying a monthly access fee.
Nichols said that adding music to the service would make those numbers grow even more.
Maybe the most important figures for digital music companies are the revenues being generated by telecoms. While all five major labels brought in $40 billion last year, QWEST itself pulled down $19 billion.
In other words, the political and financial muscle that communications companies offer dot-coms is substantial.
Telecoms also have actual experience running subscription services. Instead of fighting border wars over digital rights management software such as RealNetworks and Microsoft have done, the wireless carriers are looking to create a simple, easy system for getting music.
"People don't care about the technology of a music file, they care about the service of getting their music," said Visteon executive John Slosar.
Of course, the telecoms haven't targeted RealNetworks or Microsoft -- or other technology companies -- as rivals. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
"We've learned a lot about technology and how to market subscriptions to our subscribers," said Verizon Wireless executive Peter Grubb. "But we are not experts in music, so (we) need partners that can deliver that music."
This should be music to the ears of struggling dot-coms.
Swedish Retailer Selling EMI Downloads
Swedish online retailer Buylando is selling downloadable music from EMI Recorded Music. Buylando is using a digital distribution developed by DX3; customers can purchase tracks from artists including David Bowie, Blur and the Spice Girls in Microsoft's Windows Media audio format. Each download includes a license that gives the purchaser the right to burn the track to CD twice. Buylando competes with Italy-based Vitaminic, which has deals in place to sell downloadable tracks from three of the five major label groups -- Universal Music Group, BMG Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment -- and is currently selling BMG music at sites targeting consumers in several countries, including Sweden.
Cell phone laws may drive cars to advanced technology
By Charles J. Murray
EE Times
(07/06/01, 4:15 p.m. EST)
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — The firestorm of controversy over the use of cell phones in cars is being welcomed as a potential windfall by automakers and their suppliers. As engineers struggle to defeat the problem of driver distraction, the industry is charging forward with plans to build advanced telematics systems.
The car phone controversy, which spiked last month after New York State passed a law banning the use of handheld phones in cars, has hit a nerve with consumers, who appear torn over whether to condemn car phones or embrace them. Many experts believe the legislation could fuel broad consumer demand for the quick fix of a hands-free phone, igniting sales of factory-installed units.
"It's going to be a boon for telematics makers," said Dan Garretson, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc. (Cambridge, Mass.). "It will be the biggest factor yet in driving people to adopt hands-free phones."
"This is great news for the telematics industry," said Thilo Koslowski, lead automotive analyst for Gartner Dataquest (San Jose, Calif.). "It means that the technologies they are working on today, such as speech recognition and text-to-speech, will have more support in the future."
The New York law — and proposed legislation in virtually every other state — is aimed at handheld cellular phones, leaving telephone-addicted drivers little choice but to move toward built-in car phones and especially toward hands-free, voice-operated units.
Hands-free units are said to offer the best solution now available to deal with the driver distraction problems that car phones pose. And if car phone legislation proliferates around the country, as most experts expect, the factory-installed systems may emerge as the best choice for consumers. "When they purchase a new car, options like OnStar will look a lot more attractive because they offer the hands-free capability built right into the vehicle," Garretson said.
Cognitive burden
Still, experts say that hands-free doesn't necessarily translate to risk-free. Many are calling for further research and embarking on alternative solutions.
"It's not really enough to say that a phone is hands-free," said Will Fitzgerald, chief technology officer of I/Net Inc. (Kalamazoo, Mich.), which is adding contextual intelligence to voice recognition systems. "The issue is really the cognitive burden on the driver, and that hasn't been completely resolved yet."
Ironically, many of the same individuals who have pressed for car phone legislation are themselves admitted car phone users. In a recent survey conducted by Microsoft's MSN Carpoint.com, a Web-based car ownership service, 47 percent of respondents said they thought operating a handheld cell phone should be illegal while driving. At the same time, in a survey conducted by Forrester Research, 63 percent of handheld cell phone owners said they had used their cell phones in their vehicles. A similar survey quoted by General Motors put the figure even higher, with as many as 75 percent of handheld cell phone owners' admitting they had operated their phones while driving.
The cell phone debate reached a boiling point two weeks ago, when the New York State Assembly passed a bill that prohibits drivers from using handheld cell phones. Passage of the bill, which takes effect on Nov. 1, brought swift and venomous responses from people on both sides of the issue.
Love the law or hate it, most observers believe more such legislation is inevitable. "New York is the catalyst that will start a cascade of new laws," said Scott Pyles, vice president of sales and marketing for Lernout & Hauspie's Automotive Group (Burlington, Mass.). "Within 18 months, you'll see a national presence of that law," at least in the states with the densest traffic, Pyles predicted.
Much of the debate about such laws centers on the issue of driver distraction. Automakers and telematics vendors believe the problem has already been largely resolved through the development of voice recognition systems, which let drivers dial the phone, answer it, converse and hang up — all without ever taking their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel.
The technology prevents drivers from committing the most obvious safety errors, such as driving with one hand or looking down at a keypad while moving through traffic.
But many experts believe that voice recognition isn't a total answer. "Our studies indicate that a significant component of driver distraction is cognitive, not physical," said Phil Spelt, a senior research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is conducting a soon-to-be-released study on driver distraction for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "When you have a hands-free cell phone, you may have your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have your mind on driving."
Using a driving simulator at Oak Ridge, Spelt placed cognitive loads on drivers by asking them to solve a simple math problem while driving. At the same time, he gave them driving instructions. The vast majority of drivers failed to follow the instructions while mulling the math problem.
"Hands-off alone is not going to solve the entire problem," Spelt concluded. "Today, the best solution is to require that people pull over and stop while using a cell phone."
Many experts believe, however, that "pull-over-and-stop" legislation wouldn't be accepted in a society that's already reliant on mobile phones. "It's going to be difficult for those kinds of restrictions to gain any traction," analyst Garretson said.
Better than hands-free
One point on which the experts agree is that car phones should be less invasive. Software makers and telematics companies therefore spend much of their time developing improvements to today's hands-free systems.
Much of their effort is centered on reducing cognitive load. To do that, they're creating systems that know when — and when not — to communicate with the driver. Such systems look at context and understand what's happening around the vehicle, then use that information to "decide" whether or not to bother the driver. "If you're stopping hard, it's probably not a good time to be listening to gas prices over the Internet," said Fitzgerald of I/Net. "But once you're back to normal driving, it seems perfectly acceptable to do those kinds of tasks."
To deal with such aspects of the problem, I/Net is developing a software program that enables telematics makers to build dialog systems that examine the context of data within the car and then make intelligent decisions. Called the Conversational Interface for Vehicles, the system is an offshoot of robotics work that the company's principal officers conducted while working for NASA. "Knowing when to be quiet and when to speak is an important quality," Fitzgerald said. "And an intelligent system knows how to do that."
I/Net's Conversational Interface also offers the advantage of understanding natural language, thus eliminating the need for users to memorize word-for-word commands. Using such schemes, software makers believe they can alleviate one of the most maddening problems facing voice recognition: the need for users to repeat commands until they recall, verbatim, the command the system understands. Such repetition can cause huge cognitive burdens, say experts. In addition to I/Net, Lernout & Hauspie is among the companies working on that dilemma.
I/Net software engineers say their system can already understand such driver commands as "turn it down" and know whether the driver is referring to the radio volume or the heater controls. The trick, they say, is to keep recent commands in memory and use them as context when understanding language. The company claims that its program, which is less than 1 Mbyte in size, can fit within the memory confines of any telematics system that incorporates voice recognition.
Lernout & Hauspie engineers are working on similar systems and see them as part of a long-range plan. The first milestone, company executives say, involves breaking away from rote command menus, thus enabling drivers to use more natural language. The second is the ability to put such language in context, to understand commands that might be obvious to a person, but not to a machine. The company expects to reach both milestones by 2005 or 2006, Pyles said.
Lernout & Hauspie also has made a major move to bring voice recognition down from luxury vehicles to low-end cars. Its recently introduced Distributed Speech Recognition technology effectively cuts the costs of telematics hardware by eliminating the need for large on-board memories in the vehicle.
By moving much of the processing to an off-board server, L&H says its speech recognition systems can operate on just 128 kbytes of memory. Typical speech recognition programs usually have a footprint of 1.2 to 2 Mbytes and are expected to get larger as capabilities are added.
Automakers and telematics vendors expect hands-free phone operation to trickle down to all vehicle models within a few years. GM's OnStar Division has made inroads with 32 of GM's 54 North American models, and the company has said it expects to cover the entire line soon. At the same time, OnStar this past week said it will use the SpeechWorks Speechify text-to-speech engine on its Virtual Advisor.
In another vote of confidence for speech recognition, Visteon recently announced that the next generation of its Visteon Voice Technology had already been used on the Jaguar X-Type.
For vendors, the underlying theme is a conviction that car phones are here to stay. "Cell phones aren't just being used by the rich and affluent anymore," said Dataquest's Koslowski.
Delphi Automotive Systems Offers Hands-Free Mobile Multimedia Products To Help Minimize Distractions
TROY, Mich., July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Delphi Automotive Systems' Communiport(C) mobile multimedia product line is a selection of products for original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket that feature hands-free, two-way communications. Delphi offers telematics, smart radios, and cellular phone/personal hand-held computer technologies all with voice recognition systems to help limit driver distraction.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001019/DELPHIAS )
"With consumers spending 26 billion hours a year commuting, their vehicles become an extension of work and home where they are electronically connected," said Dave Wohleen, executive vice president of Delphi Automotive Systems. "Americans want the same communications connections in their vehicles and they want to spend their commute time productively. We are designing our mobile multimedia products to help them achieve that objective with their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel."
Delphi has offered voice recognition systems since 1996 beginning with the hands-free telephone for Cadillac and in 1997 with its telematics units. The telematics units include a cellular phone module and a GPS system that provides two-way voice and data communications exchanges between the vehicle and a service center. Services include crash notification, voice navigation, remote lock or unlock, emergency calling, roadside assistance and concierge services. Delphi is currently the market leader in supplying telematics hardware.
Delphi's smart radios systems have innovative features that bring new communication capability and information into the vehicle. The radio system offers a full-map turn-by-turn navigation system, e-mail, Internet access, voice memo an integrated hands-free telephone and address book. All of the features are available through voice recognition and features text-to-speech technologies to read messages. In addition, the system uses voice recognition to dial numbers in the address book. Displays on the system are designed to be inactive when the vehicle is in gear to prevent drivers from trying to read information on the screen while driving.
Delphi MPCpro (Mobile Productivity Center) is one of the first mobile systems on the market to use a continuous voice recognition engine that recognizes a series of alphanumeric digits as opposed to single digits. This new electronic device is designed to keep busy people connected in their vehicles by docking a cellular telephone with a Palm personal hand-held computer. This allows users to access the information in the personal computer via voice recognition and text-to-speech. Through its text-to-speech capabilities, the MPCpro can read information from the Palm's "To Do" list, "Memo Pad" and "Date Book." The MPC can also retrieve telephone numbers from the Palm's address book and dial them automatically by voice commands. The unit features one-button activation with all other functions performed hands- free. As a safety precaution, the Palm display is inactive while driving.
"Our human machine interface team and designers are working hard to improve product interfaces so that drivers perform their primary task of driving the vehicle," Wohleen said. "Voice recognition, steering wheel controls, head-up displays and easily read displays contribute to improving driver focus."
For additional information about Delphi Automotive Systems visit our virtual pressroom at www.delphiauto.com/vpr.
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Hot Topics - Summertime Cool
10 high-tech portables let the good times roll
By Jeffrey Spaulding
Cool began with jazz - be-bop in particular, which still is cool. In the '60s, it meant stuff like bell-bottoms - which aren't cool anymore, unless a girl's wearing them. A guy wearing them as a joke could be cool, I guess, but the lines are kind of fuzzy there. Afros definitely aren't cool anymore, at least not on white guys - or at least not at the moment. (But hey, you never know.) Pat Sajak never was cool - never will be.
Here are ten high-tech portables, all making serious claims to cool. They run the gamut from a wristwatch camera to a music-playing cell phone to a digital camcorder to a backpack boombox. All of them run on batteries, in one form or another - although some make heavier demands on the Energizer bunny than others - and all but the smallest ones come with AC adapters.
Six of the ten do MP3 playback, six have USB ports or facilities for some kind of computer connection, and four use tiny memory cards. One major bummer: of the seven devices that can use or require software, only one - the Nomad Jukebox - bothers to include a Mac version. Somebody should tell the software nerds at these companies that Apple is by far the biggest trendsetter in the computer world, and showing such a strong PC bias is way, way uncool.
There's no denying that all of these portables do neat things - some of them do a lot of neat things - but which ones have that elusive it-ness going for them? I gave all of them a thorough workout to determine which are merely functional and which are truly inspired, but my judgments are just general guidelines for cool. The only way to really know is to check the best ones out for yourself.
RCA
Kazoo MP3 Player
Cool Factor 7
I've saved the smallest for first. At 2 inches wide, a little under 2 inches high, and just over 1 inch deep, the Kazoo RD1000 ($150) is one of the smallest MP3 players yet. You can let it nestle in the palm of your hand like a newborn chick, strap it to your wrist (the player, not the chick), or attach it to your belt in a clear plastic pouch.
Also included is a CD-ROM, with software for ripping, downloading, and managing files, and backphones. (Backphones, for the uninitiated, are the same as headphones except you wear them across the back of your neck.) With a tiny player, you'd expect to get tiny earbuds, but the backphones are generously sized and produced decent sound - not the best in this bunch, but not the worst, either. There was some midrange, and even a hint of bass, while the treble wasn't as harsh as it can be on low-quality phones.
For such a small player, the Kazoo's LCD is big and easy to read. But there's a tradeoff: ensuring readability means there's room for the track number and bit rate but not the album and artist information you get on the readouts of other MP3 players.
To show it's not just a novelty, the Kazoo does provide some serious storage options, augmenting its 32 megabytes (MB) of resident flash memory with a slot that can hold MultiMediaCards up to 96 MB in capacity. The embedded memory can give you about 45 minutes of music at a low-fi 96 kilobits per second (kbps) or about 30 minutes at the higher-quality 160-kpbs rate. Add a 96-MB card, and you get up to 2 hours of playback at the common 128-kbps rate.
Four tracks are preloaded on the player. Given the Kazoo's limited memory, though, you'll probably want to delete those, fire up your PC (Mac users need not apply), load the software, and transfer some new MP3 files to the player. The Kazoo gives you limited control over the sound via four preset EQ curves - Bass, Pop, Rock, and Jazz - but chances are you'll just pick the one you like and leave it there.
- RCA, Thomson Consumer Electronics / www.rca.com / 800-336-1900
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Aiwa
MP3 CD Player
Cool Factor 4
The Aiwa XP-MP3C ($240) is pretty much a standard-issue portable CD player, except that it plays both CD-Rs and CD-RWs as well as MP3 files burned to CD. It took an uncommonly long time to read both these discs and regular CDs, however. And you'll want to get a better set of headphones than the supplied pair - especially if you're going to be listening to lower-bit-rate MP3 files, which can get screechy.
Unlike many flash-memory and hard-disk devices, which give you a playlist on the readout, with the Aiwa you have no choice but to wade through the tracks if a friend sends you an unlabeled CD filled with MP3 songs. This is one area where portable CD players are starting to show their age. The readout will scroll the album and track titles, provided they're part of the MP3 file, but not automatically - you've got to hit the display button to bring it up.
The Aiwa player has a couple of neat extras going for it. It comes with a kit that includes a power line you can plug into your car's cigarette lighter and a cassette adapter that feeds the signal to its sound system. Cassette adapters aren't as useful today as they once were, though, since many new cars come with CD players instead of cassette decks. And you can use the player's AC adapter to juice up its rechargeable batteries.
- Aiwa America / www.aiwa.com / 800-289-2492
Casio
Wrist Camera
Cool Factor 8
Casio's WQV1-1CR camera wristwatch ($200) gets six points on the cool scale just for existing. Anybody who can't get a kick out of playing with this thing is too jaded to live. Just aim the tiny lens on the front, press the shutter button, and you've captured a 120 x 120-pixel black-and-white image on the 1-MB storage chip. (Well - the images aren't so much black and white as gray and shades of khaki, but why quibble with coolness?) Since the camera's operation is absolutely unobtrusive and silent, you'll have no trouble using it to take pictures when you really shouldn't. (You get the feeling with a lot of these portables that the designers watched way too many spy movies when they were kids.)
You're not going to get bright, razor-sharp, high-res photos from this thing - that would be like expecting the Wright brothers to fly you to India - but it's pretty much a dead cinch that the quality of the displays will improve. The lens needs lots of light for good images, so don't even think about doing any dead-of-night stealth photography. (For that use the Sharp camcorder reviewed on page 73.) But it can be hard to make out the display in direct sunlight. You can adjust the brightness of the image before you take the shot, but that doesn't give you tremendous latitude - the range goes pretty quickly from hopelessly murky to completely washed out. You can adjust for outdoor or indoor lighting, though.
The wrist camera's considerable coolness doesn't stop with its picture-taking ability, though. Every time you go to take a shot, the readout lets you know how many images you have room for. You can input up to 24 text characters for each image and use these tags to sort any images you've got stored. (The watch's memory chip holds 100 pictures.) For more way cool spy stuff, just point the front of your watch at the front of another Casio wrist camera, and you can transmit or receive images through an infrared (IR) beam just by selecting Send or Receive on the readout. But that's not all! Buy the PC link kit ($50), and you get a neat little IR adapter for your computer that looks like a black-plastic cobra. Point the wristwatch at the cobra's head, press Send, and your pictures are transferred to your hard drive, where you can convert them to BMP or JPEG format. You can also send photos from your computer to the watch.
The Casio watch is full of other surprises, too - like it actually tells time. And has an alarm, and you can use it as a stopwatch. It does get one demerit, though, for including only Windows software.
- Casio USA / www.casio.com / 800-962-2746
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Panasonic
DVD-Audio/Video Player
Cool Factor 10
"Consumer Electronics" is a pretty stuffy phrase, but the companies in the CE biz can turn out some awfully sexy gear - and the Top 2 drool inducers have to be wall-hanging plasma TVs and portable DVD players. Slim and light, these players fit easily into your briefcase or backpack, or even a really big pocket. Bored on the road, you can whip out the player and watch a flick without having to endure the airline's *******ized version or having a hefty fee tacked onto your hotel bill.
Panasonic's DVD-LA85 PalmTheater ($1,400) isn't just another portable movie player, though. It holds a 7-inch (diagonal) color widescreen LCD, a Dolby Digital/DTS surround sound decoder, built-in stereo speakers, and a 24-bit/192-kHz digital-to-analog converter for DVD-Audio playback in its ultra-compact 7 1/4 x 5 1/2 x 1-inch shell. Run a cable from the minijack optical output for surround sound and an S-video cable for video output, and you can use the PalmTheater as the DVD-Video player in your home theater system.
Hooking it up to your system to play the multichannel mix on DVD-Audio discs is more of a challenge. You'll need three cables with a miniplug at one end and two regular RCA connectors at the other to run to the six-channel analog input on your preamp/processor or receiver. You can also use an optical digital connection for the front left/right channels and keep the analog connections for the other four channels, but since the music industry has decreed that pristine digital output is a no-no, the digital signal is cut off at 48 kHz.
While the screen is small, I had no problem making out the details of any image in any movie - including widescreen epics. As with any LCD, the viewability falls off rapidly as you move away from the sweet spot, but at that spot the PalmTheater puts out a clean, bright, and reasonably accurate picture. The speakers produce decent enough sound for two tiny drivers built into a plastic case. But you'll probably want to either use the two small stand-alone speakers and 20-watt amp Panasonic includes with the player (not shown in the photo on page 69), or invest in a decent set of headphones (excuse me, backphones) for both better sound quality and privacy.
Also included are a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack and an ultra-thin, lightweight plastic remote with raised-bump buttons. Forget about backlighting or being able to distinguish the different buttons in the dark, but for use on the road, this remote will do fine. (Besides, you could always program your universal remote to control the player.) The battery pack displayed impressive longevity. Said to be able to hang in there for 5 hours if you keep the screen dim, I was able to get through Lawrence of Arabia - overture, intermissions, and all (that is, just under 4 hours) - at normal brightness before the battery finally petered out.
- Panasonic Consumer Electronics / www.panasonic.com / 800-222-4213
IRock
MP3 Player
Cool Factor 6
MP3 players are a dime a dozen these days (actually, they're usually $200 or more a pop, but that's an argument for another time). How many, though, go out of their way to help you sing along with your tunes? Ignoring for the moment whether this is a good thing, if it's something you feel you have to do, the iRock 680 ($230) will help you get it done. Aside from standard MP3 features like a memory-card slot (two 32-MB MultiMediaCards are included), a USB port (cable included), earbuds, and a built-in belt clip, the iRock has features that take karaoke places it's never gone before. For instance, you can use the built-in microphone to record yourself singing along with a tune. Once you've made the recording, it stays wedded to the song unless you transfer the file to a PC, go into Windows Explorer, locate the .fid file, and delete it. (Chances are you'll be doing posterity a favor.) When you use files encoded in the MP3K format (yes, the K is for karaoke), the lyrics are displayed on the readout, with each word highlighted as it's sung on the track. (You'll find a decent number of MP3K files at the MP3Karaoke.com site.) Plug another set of phones or buds into the second jack atop the player, and a friend can croon along, too.
You can also use the voice-recorder feature for plain, old, boring stuff like note-taking. The sound quality through the microphone was pretty good - and, unfortunately, encourages you to sing along louder than you really should. The playback sound wasn't great, though, even after I swapped out the buds for better phones.
The iRock also has an FM tuner. Indoors, I was able to bring in just enough stations to fill the player's five presets (only two stations were locked in strongly). Outside, I did a little better, but this is not a crackerjack tuner. Careful, though - you can doom even this minimal reception if you plug the buds into the lefthand jack atop the player instead of the right one. The readout gives nice, big numbers for radio stations but uses pretty small characters for other stuff, which can be tough to read in bright light.
- First International Digital / www.myirock.com / 847-202-1900
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Samsung
Uproar MP3 Cell Phone
Cool Factor 7
The Uproar SPH-M100 ($400) is first and foremost a cell phone, and it comes with all of the usual cell-phone goodies, like a digital phone book, a personal information manager, and voice recording. But transfer some files into its 64-MB memory chip via the USB port, and it becomes one of the first phones that can also play MP3 files.
Nobody's going to buy this just for the MP3 player (at least you'd hope not - and anyone who'd pay $400 for a fixed-memory MP3 player deserves to be taken at every opportunity), but as an accessory to the latest cultural plague, it's not such a bad deal. You can operate the player with the buttons on the phone (although that gets inconvenient) or with a wired remote, about the size of a silver dollar, that clips to your belt or pocket. The earbuds are attached to the remote. The player's sound through the buds was surprisingly good - better than the two dedicated MP3 players here.
Since the Uproar doesn't have a memory-card slot, there's nowhere to go once you've used up the embedded memory. But you'll be able to store a decent amount of music - about 65 minutes at 128 kbps - before it fills up, and you can always swap those files out for more using the supplied (PC only) MusicMatch Jukebox Plus software.
- Samsung Electronics America / www.samsung.com / 201-229-4000
Creative Labs
Nomad Jukebox digital Audio Player
Cool Factor 10
No point in pulling punches: the Nomad Jukebox C and the Panasonic DVD player are by far the coolest things here, which is why they both rate a big 10. The Jukebox is a class act all the way around. It looks good, feels good, sounds good, and is a real blast to just goof around with. At $270, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and in the overpriced world of convergence toys, it's a steal. (Creative Labs expects to have a smaller, higher- capacity version of the Jukebox available by this fall.)
The design is a real eyecatcher - nice, trendy curves, but nothing ridiculously bulbous. And the curves are functional, too, letting the Nomad rest securely in your hand. The buttons are nicely laid out and feel reassuringly firm. The backlit LCD crams a lot of information into its 21/8 x 11/8-inch space - which means it can sometimes be tough to make out the small characters in direct sunlight. The impressively solid construction lets you know that the 6-gigabyte (GB) hard drive is well protected, but the player still weighs in at less than a pound.
That hard drive is the Nomad's biggest selling point. Preloaded with 20 hours of music, it can hold up to 150 CDs. Patch it into your PC or Mac via the USB port (cable included), and you can download files or rip CDs to the hard drive to your heart's content. (Using the line-in jack, you can also record from analog sources like your cassette deck or a microphone.) You'd have a tough time finding another portable better suited for party play since the Nomad lets you take a good chunk of your music collection with you - no hunting for and swapping out CDs or cassettes, or taking potluck off the radio. Sure, a full-blown rig offers the advantage of bigger sound, but that's about it. (Plug the Nomad into that rig and you've got the best of both worlds.) The hard drive does have one downside: it can be noisy, making it sound like you've got crickets - but that's not a problem if you're outside and you do have crickets, or are standing more than a few feet away.
Wed the Jukebox to the equally solid and well-designed Cambridge SoundWorks PlayDock PD200 portable powered speaker ($200), and you've got pretty much the perfect party system. Hook up the PlayDock to the Nomad, place the player in the cradle on top, and you've got three drivers and 30 watts of power in a compact, 11 x 11-inch tabletop package. The PlayDock has a full, open sound, with nice stereo separation and ready-to-boogie-down bass. The sound is a little exaggerated, but it's been tweaked to hold its own at a party or picnic, not to feed your critical-listening jones.
The Nomad has two line-out jacks so you can hook it up to other audio systems and includes a USB cable and a CD-ROM with Creative Labs' PlayCenter 2 for PCs and SoundJam MP for Macs (I told you these guys know what they're doing) along with a useful Jukebox tutorial. For $50 you can get an accessory pack that includes decent backphones, a carrying case, a cassette adapter, and four rechargeable AA batteries.
- Creative Labs / www.creative.com / 800-998-1000
- Cambridge SoundWorks / www.hifi.com / 800-367-4434
JVC
Backpack Boombox
Cool Factor 4
And now - from the sublime to the kind of ridiculous. The JVC RS-WP1 backpack boombox ($220) is so outrageously dorky that it's almost sort of kind of cool. Looking like an atomic-powered Batman gizmo, a prehistoric bug, or some kind of anime escutcheon, it's actually a pretty traditional boombox all done up in a contemporary shell.
A footstand pulls out from the bottom of the back, letting you rest the pack on a table, where you can admire it as an objet d'kitsch. This is the only way that the owner/carrier/victim can really hear what this thing sounds like. When you're hauling it on your back, most of the sound gets projected behind you, forcing others to eat your sonic dust - which is the whole point, I guess. (The sound actually isn't too bad, by the way. Hardly high fidelity, but better than your average boombox.)
And man, is this thing heavy - not as in '70s funkspeak, but as in, a ton to lug around. Adding the eight D-cell batteries necessary for true portability gives you a load that's not for the physically unfit.
The CD player and tape deck performed their jobs well. And the first-rate AM/FM tuner pulled in a decent number of stations with a nice, clean signal - but that means extending the collapsible antenna, which, when you have the pack on, makes you look more like Maxwell Smart than James Bond.
- JVC of America / www.jvc.com / 800-252-5722
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Nakamichi
SoundSpace 2 Music System
Cool Factor 9
Bose made boring old table radios sexy. By including a portable digital audio player with its SoundSpace 2 ($750), Nakamichi makes them cutting-edge as well. Lightweight but still substantial, the system uses aqua and sienna accents to relieve the case's gray and silver tones. The main unit has got the curve thing going for it, like the Nomad Jukebox, and at 9 x 7 x 11/2 inches, it's nicely compact, too. The top flips open to reveal stereo speakers, a digital readout, and two rows of small but easy-to-work controls.
The digital audio player, which sits cradled in a charger attached to the main unit, resembles an old-fashioned electric razor or a laser gun from a '60s sci-fi movie - in other words, cool in a very retro way. The player's display swivels up to match the angle of the main-unit readout, which makes it easy to check both readouts while you're lying in bed. You get all the information you'll need about the files you've downloaded to the player's 64-MB SmartMedia card, including playing time, track number, track name, encoding format, and bit rate.
The SoundSpace 2 also comes with an AC adapter and a small, podlike remote control that rests nicely in the palm of your hand. A CD-ROM includes Siren Jukebox PC software for creating Windows Media Audio (WMA) files and utility software for formatting the SmartMedia card and downloading and managing files, which you then transfer to the player via the supplied USB cable.
This is a table radio, so don't expect to rock out to it. That said, the sound was pretty open and detailed for such tiny speakers. Bass? Forget about it. But the 3-inch driver on the bottom of the main unit produced a solid lower midrange that will give you a bassy enough effect for late-night listening.
There's a collapsible FM antenna completely concealed within the case. Pull it out by the tip, swivel it up in the air, and you're ready to call your double agent in Moscow. The tuner pulled in about as many stations as the one in my much more expensive preamp, but it wasn't always able to lock them in.
The digital audio player plays both MP3 and WMA files, and its sound, whether through the main speakers or the supplied earbuds, was very good. And, like the iRock, you can use it as a voice recorder by talking into the tiny microphone in the base.
- Nakamichi America / www.nakamichi.com / 310-631-2122
Sharp
MiniDV Camcorder
Cool Factor 7
You wouldn't think it would be possible to cram professional-quality video recording and a wealth of high-tech features into a 71/4 x 43/4 x 33/4-inch case weighing less than 2 pounds, but it is. Sharp's VL-WD650U ViewCam ($1,050) lets you record in the digital MiniDV format - and thanks to the digital connection, you can hook it up to a computer or another camera for editing with as well. Its Zoom microphone works in coordination with the lens to pick up the sounds of whatever you're zooming in on. Slip in the supplied 8-MB SmartMedia card, and you can record stills, which you can then manipulate on your PC using the supplied PixLab software. Flip the LCD viewscreen 180º, and you can stand in front of the camera and see your own mug while taping. Closing the viewscreen brings the more traditional viewfinder atop the camera to life.
Along with the high-tech stuff, the ViewCam has pretty much all the standard camcorder features, like a rechargeable battery pack, VCR playback functions, effects like fades and dissolves, and digital image stabilization. There are also digital zoom settings to augment the optical zoom.
It might not be the most useful thing in the world, but I had a lot of fun with the Super Cat's Eye night-photography feature, which lets you shoot video footage or stills in no light at all. The possibilities are endless - and dangerous. If the images are murky, you can switch on an IR light that illuminates everything for 10 feet around, but with no one the wiser, giving your footage a whacked-out, Wolfen kind of look.
This camera doesn't have the best build quality I've come across, and the unnecessarily complicated loading drawer takes a while to open, receive the tape, and then close. It takes four steps to access on-the-fly features like manual focus, shutter speed, and exposure, but with many camcorders, you only have to hit a button to toggle one of these features on and off. And the various warning sounds jingle and ding like a Vegas slot machine, so when you really screw up it sounds like you've hit the jackpot.
That said, this is still a pretty complete little package that produces both first-rate video and first-rate sound.
- Sharp Electronics / www.sharp-usa.com / 800-237-4277
I came out of this little roundup feeling seriously converged. It's mind-boggling what they can get into smaller and smaller packages these days. All of this gear (well, with one obvious exception) is more portable than you would have thought possible a few years ago. And almost all of it will keep you amazed as well as amused. I don't think you could ask for a more able or entertaining bunch of companions for your summertime fun.
Fasttrack Making Gains Amid Napster Shutdown
by Dave Brigham
While Napster was ordered yesterday to stay off-line, Netherlands-based Fasttrack claims its peer-to-peer software was downloaded 1 million times last week, something the U.S. and European music industries are monitoring.
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled yesterday that Napster must remain off-line until it improves its song blocking technology beyond the service's claimed success rate of 99.4% [see 07.11.01 Judge Rules Napster Must Stay Dark].
Under Judge Patel's March 5 injunction, Napster must prohibit the transfer of all recordings that major labels and certain publishers identify as having been available on the service. Napster is also required to police its service actively to ensure that the tracks do not appear [see 03.06.01 Napster Judge Issues Injunction, Rules File Blocking a Shared Burden].
Meanwhile, Fasttrack this week officially released the latest version of its P2P Stack software, which lets users on file-sharing networks swap content with users on other networks, according to the company. P2P Stack was downloaded 1 million times last week, adding to the 7 million copies downloaded between April and June, according to Fasttrack.
The first two companies to license Fasttrack's P2P technology, Kazaa and MusicCity, offer file-sharing services that include copyrighted material that Napster has been ordered to block.
Since debuting Fasttrack's technology earlier this year, both Kazaa and MusicCity have seen rapid user growth. During June, an average of 225,000 simultaneous users downloaded 370 million files using Fasttrack's technology, according to a Webnoize study [see Fasttrack: The New Napster]. A third company, Grokster, recently launched a Fasttrack-based service.
Launched in April 2000, Fasttrack is a business-to-business company selling P2P infrastructure. The company uses peers on a network, rather than a central server, to manage users' search requests and downloads for music, movies and software. The network is scalable because it limits redundant search requests that can clog networks like Gnutella.
Because Fasttrack is based outside the U.S., it's a more difficult target than Napster for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The RIAA is aware of Fasttrack and other P2P services located outside the U.S. The trade group and the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have "been reaching out to companies like Fasttrack to address these issues constructively, in the hope that we can work through them informally and avoid litigation," Cary Sherman, RIAA senior executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
"Clearly, the rules of the Internet road as set down in the Napster case will have to be established worldwide," Sherman said. IFPI representatives were unavailable at press time to comment on Fasttrack.
Fasttrack is eluding copyright owners that seek to shut down its networks. The company's server has changed locations at least once. Even if authorities shut down the server, Fasttrack's network is designed to work without one, making it difficult for music trade groups to stop sharing of copyrighted files.
Sherman claims that Fasttrack's CEO, Niklas Zennstrom, has publicly stated that he "wishes to pursue a legitimate business model and negotiate licenses with copyright holders."
Zennstrom was unavailable at press time to comment on the company's business model, or its relationship with the RIAA and the IFPI.
Yahoo Places Emphasis on Premium Music Service
by Jay Kumar
Yahoo plans to expand its music offerings to include a premium personalized service that relies on technology developed by Launch Media, which Yahoo recently agreed to acquire, Yahoo's CEO told analysts yesterday.
Through its $12 million Launch acquisition, Yahoo plans to use the online music company's streaming music service, called Launchcast, to develop a personalized streaming jukebox service that will let users access "the music they truly want, not the music we want," said new Yahoo CEO Terry Semel.
"We clearly believe that is our future and we are definitely working hard in that area," Semel said [see 6.28.01 Yahoo Deal for Launch Media Could Boost Streaming Music Service].
Launch, however, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by four of the five major label groups, which claim that Launchcast provides a degree of interactivity not allowed under terms of current licensing agreements [see 05.25.01 Launch Lawsuit Advances RIAA Webcast Rate-Setting Agenda]. Introduced in 1999, Launchcast lets users rate songs so they hear preferred songs more frequently, others less frequently and some not at all
Universal Music Group settled with Launch last month, and licensed music for Launchcast. BMG Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music and Sony Music Entertainment are the remaining plaintiffs; Warner Music Group is not involved in the case because its licensing deal with Launch allows for certain interactivity. Warner, EMI and Sony hold equity stakes in Launch.
It's unclear whether Yahoo is acting at all on Launch's behalf in the lawsuit. It would be in Yahoo's best interest if Launch settled the suit, so that Launchcast could include more content from the major labels.
Semel did not provide further details on Yahoo's premium music service or how it will be integrated into Yahoo Music's existing offerings. The Launch deal is expected to close sometime in the third quarter.
Yahoo also will promote Pressplay, a subscription music service backed by Universal Music and Sony Music [see 4.05.01 Yahoo to Market Duet Music Service, Music Strategy Still Unclear].
While few details are available, Yahoo could roll out a premium music service by the end of September, said Rob Martin, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. "They generally perceive there is a demand for music product," he said.
Martin expects Yahoo to introduce a service quickly to compete with offerings from major label-backed Pressplay, MusicNet and Napster. "They're all going to experiment with streaming first," he said. "They'll have limited success until they go to downloads."
To generate new, non-advertising revenue, Yahoo plans to also roll out premium services for its finance and sports verticals, Semel said. Advertising will make up about 80% of the company's revenue for 2001. Premium services could generate 5% of Yahoo's revenue by mid-2002 and could grow to 50% eventually, said Martin. "Over the long term, to get to that greater growth rate, they have to have premium services," Martin noted.
Yahoo reported a second-quarter net loss of $48.5 million ($.09 per diluted share), compared to net income of $53.3 million ($.09 per diluted share) in the same quarter a year ago; the revenue figures included restructuring charges. Pro forma net income for the quarter ended June 30 was $8.7 million ($.01 per share), compared to pro forma net income of $69.1 million ($.11 per share) for the year-ago quarter. Net revenues for the second quarter dropped 33% to $182.1 million, compared to net revenues of $272.95 million for same period in 2000.
Yahoo expects pro forma earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization for the third quarter to range from a $5 million loss to a $10 million profit. In April, the company cut 422 employees in a cost-cutting effort.
Semel, who worked as head of Warner Bros. before taking the Yahoo position in April, said he hoped to tap the potential of Yahoo's global user base. "I think of our challenge as an evolution rather than a revolution," he said. "My intention is not to radically change the company."
Semel said the company expects the online advertising market to rebound in mid-2002. Yahoo is encouraged by the increasing number of traditional businesses that are advertising with Yahoo; 74% of the company's ad revenue is from non-Internet companies, said Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker.
Liquid Audio Cutting Ties with Liquid Audio Japan
Liquid Audio will cut ties with Liquid Audio Japan (LAJ) under terms of a mutual agreement. LAJ has 30 days to change its name, stop using Liquid Audio's trademarks and return to Liquid Audio all products, technology and licenses. Liquid Audio owns less than 10% in LAJ, which was established in 1998 when Liquid Audio licensed its name and technology to investors including Japanese telecommunications company Super Stage. A Liquid Audio spokeswoman said the company is in the process of selling its stake in the Japanese venture. Redwood City, Calif.-based Liquid Audio, which two months ago cut 40% of its staff and jettisoned a number of "non-core" businesses, plans to establish a new office in Tokyo in the third quarter to manage existing customer relationships, and establish new ties with record labels, retailers and consumer electronics companies, according to a company statement. Liquid Audio is in discussions with Japanese digital music co-operative Label Gate for Liquid's music distribution platform to be added to the system, which is backed by Sony Corp.'s Internet division.
Bang & Olufsen to integrate Philips' Bluetooth modules
Bang & Olufsen to integrate Philips' Bluetooth modules into digital multi-room wireless speaker system
Sunnyvale, Calif., February 21, 2001 -- Philips Components today announced that Bang & Olufsen (B&O), a leading provider of high-end audio/video (A/V) products, will utilize Philips' plug-and-play wireless solutions in the development of Bluetooth-based digital wireless speakers. Under the terms of the agreement, Philips Components a division of Royal Philips Electronics and a leading provider of wireless solutions will closely collaborate with B&O to produce a Bluetooth module that will enable the commercialization of these multi-room wireless speaker products. The joint development project is expected to be completed by December 2001.
The first B&O speaker products to utilize the Bluetooth module are expected to be available on the market by early 2002. These initial applications will be patterned after the forthcoming A/V profile, which defines the wireless specifications for Bluetooth-based hi-fi audio and video applications to seamlessly connect with each other. Today's announcement marks the first customer win for Philips Components in the field of A/V. Furthermore, it reflects Philips Components' strategy to accelerate wireless connectivity and convergence by serving as a "one-stop" wireless shopping hub for OEMs looking to bring wireless products to market.
According to Philips Components' Connectivity Group General Manager Engelbert van Pelt, (We have quoted Lauri Klomp in our release. Please clarify if we should quote her or Mr. van Pelt) the new A/V profile is expected to be completed by mid-summer 2001 and is critical for OEMs needing to develop wireless A/V products quickly and cost-effectively without any interoperability issues. "By choosing to incorporate our smart modules into their wireless multi-room speakers, B&O has validated Bluetooth as a standard and validated our system solutions as a driving and enabling technology behind this standard," he said. "In turn, teaming with a high-end audio pioneer such as B&O, we can further ensure that our OEM customers get the best digital expertise available in order to develop high-end wireless products based on our Bluetooth technology."
"The massive industrial momentum behind this new global standard made Philips Components' comprehensive set of Bluetooth building blocks a perfect choice for us," said Peter Petersen, director of technology at Bang & Olufsen. "We pioneered the multi-room A/V field when we introduced our BeoLink system in 1981. With 20 years of experience in cabled systems, it is natural for us to lead the development of wireless multi-room systems. We're excited to be working on this project with Philips Components, another technology pioneer that not only delivers the complete hardware and software solutions that best meet our needs, but is also positioned at the forefront of the A/V profile."
Bluetooth is a de facto standard and specification for small-form factor, low-cost, short-range radio links between mobile PCs, mobile phones and other electronic devices such as speaker systems. In fact, Cahners In-Stat Group predicts that 1.4 billion Bluetooth-based devices will be shipping annually by 2005. Philips Components and B&O will help facilitate this growth by using their respective strengths and expertise to bring high-end wireless audio applications to market through the integration of Philips' Bluetooth modules.
Today's news follows closely on the heels of Philips Components' announcement in early January that it had formed alliances with several leading technology companies, while further building upon its strong relationship with Philips Semiconductors, to ultimately augment its position in the connectivity arena. Specifically, through these strategic alliances, Philips Components will deliver to OEMs, such as B&O, complete hardware and software solutions, incorporating partners' products, that best address their respective needs while helping to create new classes of Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless products.
Bang & Olufsen a/s of Struer, Denmark is world renowned for its distinctive range of consumer electronic products. A total of six fully owned subsidiaries produce a unique range of televisions, music systems, loudspeakers, telephones, medico and multimedia products. Bang & Olufsen products are sold in over 40 different countries worldwide. For the financial year 1999/2000, Bang & Olufsen had a turnover of EUR 499 million. Nearly all of Bang & Olufsen's research and development work, production of products, and company administration is still carried out in Struer, the town where it all began in 1925, and it is here that the vast majority of Bang & Olufsen's 2,783 employees are employed. Further information on Bang & Olufsen is available at www.bang-olufsen.com
*The Bluetooth trademarks are owned by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericcson, Sweden. All other product, service and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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About Philips Components
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s largest, with sales of EUR 31.5 billion in 1999. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, electric shavers, colour picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 239,370 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, medical systems, and IT services. Philips is quoted on the NYSE (symbol: PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com
sge- re edig mention- how about the fact that Vivendi-Universal is buying MP3 and since Universal is a big backer of DataPlay and edig is the primary integrator for the music players- Universal wants to help get edig's name exposed. The real answer is probably much more straight forward and simpler than this however.
Latest Tech Topics Tackled By Industry Giants at MP3 Summit 2001
SAN DIEGO, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- MP3 Summit(TM) 2001: Mobilizing Your Music is less than two days away and companies such as Microsoft Windows Digital Media Division, Qualcomm, Dolby Laboratories, Texas Instruments, Thomson Multimedia, Visteon, Verizon Wireless and other high-profile businesses have secured their place in this year's much anticipated technical event. For a complete look at MP3 Summit 2001 and to register, visit www.mp3.com/summit.
MP3 Summit 2001 is scheduled for July 12 and 13 in San Diego. It is expected that the expo will highlight the latest technologies in the wireless delivery of digital music, coupled with debates and discussions on the industry's hottest issues. Cutting-edge digital-music products are scheduled to be displayed in the Summit's exhibit hall at the University of California, San Diego.
Thursday at the MP3 Summit 2001, MP3, Inc. (Nasdaq: MPPP - news) offers digital aficionados an educated forecast on the wave of change expected to hit the digital landscape in the coming years. Non-PC devices, music distribution of the future and wireless entertainment are a few of the topics slated for discussion on the changing nature of music acquisition. To see a more complete schedule, visit the MP3 Summit 2001 agenda for Thursday at www.mp3.com/thursdaysummit.
Friday's agenda, equally full of compelling topics, is designed to pique the interest of those who want a heads-up on the supercharged MP3 formats and how they will fair in the real world. Digital demonstrations are scheduled from Microsoft's Windows Digital Media Division and the Best of Show Awards may offer patrons a glimpse of what's next on the digital horizon. For a more complete view of Friday's events at MP3 Summit 2001, visit www.mp3.com/fridaysummit.
Record labels, technologists, hardware and software developers interested in attending, sponsoring or exhibiting at MP3 Summit 2001 can still register at summit.mp3.com.
In addition to MP3 Summit 2001, MP3.com offers a variety of innovative business-related offerings explained in greater detail at www.mp3.com/b2b. Among these offerings is Radio Services (www.mp3.com/mp3radio), a multitiered program designed to bring the power of digital music to traditional radio outlets. The company's Music Licensing Program (www.mp3.com/musicsupervisor) is comprised of various services intended to allow music supervisors to shop for talent from the vast pool of MP3.com's artist community.
MP3.com's Mobile initiative (www.mp3.com/mp3mobile) continues to help shape the future of music distribution via wireless devices. And Audio Hosting (www.mp3.com/audiohosting) is designed to empower companies that want to add the magic of music to their offerings with access to the same high-quality technology that MP3.com relies on to deliver more than 1 million songs a day to music fans. Businesses also can take advantage of Business Music Services (www.mp3.com/bmscentral), which provides the music backdrop for retail environments.
To register for the MP3 Summit 2001
Visteon Showcases Digital Audio Capabilities at MP3 Summit
SAN DIEGO, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Visteon Corporation (NYSE: VC - news), a leading automotive supplier, is showcasing two of its MACH® MP3 technologies -- both designed to offer consumers numerous hours of personalized music in the vehicle -- at the MP3 Summit in San Diego, Calif., July 12-13. Visteon's booth is inside the Price Center at the University of California, San Diego.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001201/DEF008LOGO )
``Visteon's multimedia products, like the MACH® MP3 System and Jukebox, provide consumers convenient access to their entire digital music collection while on the road,'' said John Slosar, Visteon Corporation's Director of North American/Asian Telematics/Multimedia Systems Product Development. ``Both products demonstrate Visteon's commitment to providing consumers new, leading- edge products that have user-friendly features.''
The MACH® MP3 System combines compressed file playback technology and efficient memory storage to create truly flexible audio, capable of integrating all sources of audio use for the home and in the vehicle. The system's 650-megabyte memory capacity allows consumers the convenience of 10 hours of personalized music on one CD.
The system features anti-shock, fast-forward and full-disc shuffle modes and a ``Fast Track,'' which enables listeners to more quickly scan the 10 hours of music. The system, which also can play regular music CDs, comes in five different colors to provide consumers with a personalized, unique look. It is easy to install, and can be done in a matter of minutes.
The MACH® MP3 Jukebox, powered by PhatNoise(TM), stores up to 500 hours of personalized music, enabling consumers to bring their entire music collection into the vehicle. MACH® MP3 Music Manager, powered by PhatNoise(TM), software organizes and uploads music files from the computer and into a palm-sized, removable storage cartridge. A docking station allows the cartridge to interface with the computer. The portable cartridge is then connected to the existing vehicle stereo, which can be conveniently installed in the trunk, glove box or under a seat and uses the same cable connections as a CD changer.
For more information, visit www.visteon.com/machmp3
Visteon Corporation is a leading full-service supplier that delivers consumer-driven technology solutions to automotive manufacturers worldwide and through multiple channels within the global automotive aftermarket. Visteon has 82,000 employees and a global delivery system of more than 130 technical, manufacturing, sales, and service facilities located in 25 countries.
SOURCE: Visteon Corporation
2,500 Songs on MP3.Com to be Offered by First International Digital in the Rich-Media MP3i Format
SAN DIEGO, July 12 /PRNewswire/ -- In conjunction with the MP3 Summit 2001 in San Diego this week, First International Digital, Inc. (FID), a Motorola spin-off, known for their innovative irock! line of mp3 players, announces that it has signed an agreement with MP3.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: MPPP - news) for MP3i content. MP3i, a patent-pending technology developed by FID and partner Songdog Network, Inc., gives music service providers - artists, labels, and digital music companies - the power to bundle rich media with mp3 files, thereby enhancing the customer experience and adding value to streaming and downloadable products and services. MP3i enables the combination of music and synchronized lyrics, artist info, liner notes, promotions, and purchase opportunities, while remaining backward compatible with the mp3 format.
As part of the agreement, MP3.com is providing FID with more than 2,500 of its most popular content for encoding in the MP3i format, fusing synchronized lyrics with the music. MP3.com will provide hosting services for the music on FID's website, www.myirock.com, where users will be able to download the content for free. Consumers may view the rich media content on a PC or on the road. For PC applications, the company offers a simple proprietary jukebox player or a Winamp plug-in - both available for free download from the website. Alternatively, users can download MP3i files from the PC to their irock! 600 series players for lyric display on a mobile device. irock! 600 series players were recently introduced and are available on the company's website or through several popular online retailers.
``This partnership creates critical mass for the MP3i format and provides our customers with free premium content. We continue to have success with the proliferation of the MP3i standard through content partnerships as well as OEM decoder licensing agreements. Our first generation MP3i Encoder Pro package is now available to content providers who prefer to create their own interactive mp3's,'' said Randy Cavaiani, vice president of marketing and sales at FID.
``We are excited to utilize technologies such as those created by First International Digital that enhance user experiences and enjoyment,'' said Steve Sheiner, executive vice president of sales and marketing at MP3.com. ``This agreement brings added functionality to music fans and extends it beyond the confines of the desktop.''
ABOUT MP3.COM
MP3.com, Inc. has created a unique and robust technology infrastructure designed to facilitate the storage, management, promotion and delivery of digital music. As the industry's premier Music Service Provider (MSP), the company is dedicated to providing consumers with access to music when they want it, where they want it, using any web-enabled device. The company's website hosts what MP3.com believes is the largest collection of digital music available on the Internet, with more than 1 million songs and audio files posted from over 150,000 digital artists and record labels. Dedicated to growing the digital music space, the company's products and services include on-demand Subscription Music Channels, an innovative Business Music Services program, a Syndicated Radio Program and others. Additionally, through the company's MP3 technology initiative and its music InterOperating System, MP3.com is partnering with a variety of forward-looking businesses to expand its digital music strategy. MP3.com's common stock is listed for trading on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker symbol MPPP. MP3.com is a trademark or service marks of MP3.com, Inc. Other trademarks or service marks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners. The company is based in San Diego, California. For more information on MP3.com, visit www.mp3.com.
ABOUT FIRST INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL
First International Digital, Inc. (www.myirock.com), a Motorola spin-off headquartered near Chicago, is a global multimedia company with nearly 100 software patents in audio, video, speech and communications technology. FID recently announced the patent-pending MP3i technology, with intuitive products and tools to allow the publishing and decoding of MP3i rich media files. Products include the MP3i Encoder Pro package for content providers, the MP3i OEM Decoder SDK for OEM developers, and the innovative irock! 600 series digital audio player with synchronized lyrics for consumers. First International Digital is privately financed by a number of institutional investors including Motorola, Via Technologies, and First International Computer. The company completed its second round of financing in October 2000.
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements may include references to activities and events expected to occur in connection with MP3.com's proposed MP3 Summit 2001, as well as any products, anticipated events or services described in connection therewith, herein, or any benefits expected therefrom. These statements involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty, are only predictions, and actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to differences include risks related to: MP3.com's litigation proceedings, including without limitation the inability to reach settlement with all parties to such proceedings; risks related to activities or events expected to occur in connection with MP3.com's proposed MP3 Summit 2001, as well as the products and services described in connection therewith or herein; the consummation of the contemplated business combination with Vivendi Universal, including the risk that the required regulatory clearances or other closing conditions might not be timely obtained, or satisfied; MP3.com's new and uncertain business model; acceptance of MP3.com's products and services; MP3.com's limited operating history; and MP3.com's rapid growth, as well as other risks detailed from time to time in MP3.com's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and its most recent report on Form 10-Q.
For more information contact:
Marc Mombourquette
Brodeur Worldwide for First International Digital, Inc.
617.587.2037
mmombo@brodeur.com
Greg Wilfahrt
MP3.com
858.623.7280
pr@mp3.com
SOURCE: First International Digital, Inc.
will we be seeing a B&O qdesign MP2000 player soon?
re B&O---
Q2 2001
Encoding of audio CD's to the PC's hard drive
Automatic on-line recognition of CD name, artist, genre, etc., through Gracenote CDDB
and much more
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QDesign MVP
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MVP is the industry's first cross platform (for Mac OS and Windows) all-in-one entertainment software application. Use the MVP player for recording from CD to QDesign Music, mp3 and mp2 files, converting one file format to another, playback of digital music and videos, and playlist management and more.
Our Review:
MVP from QDesign is simply beautiful. This is one of the few audio/video players you need ever download - MVP will play all common formats including MP3, WAV, AIFF sound files and MOV, AVI movie files. What sets MVP apart is that not only will it play these formats but it will also convert between them! MVP will also handle CD track listings using its CDDB ability and has its own unique compression format called QDesign Music which offers up to 60:1 compression whilst retaining a 44.1kHz sampling rate! A complete multimedia interface which bridges the gap between PC and Mac formats.
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http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=133222
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http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=133223
OG--Visteon Announces Agreement With XM™ For Satellite Radio Delivery In The U.S.
DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 3, 2001 – In keeping its promise to deliver innovative technology that helps keep consumers linked to the world around them, Visteon Corporation (NYSE: VC) today announced that it has signed an agreement with XM™ Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) to help bring the next generation of audio entertainment to both drivers and passengers alike.
By combining Visteon's vehicle systems and multimedia expertise with XM's 100-channel audio entertainment service, the two companies anticipate providing consumers with the ability to listen to as many as 100 new radio channels from coast-to-coast, covering such formats as music, news, talks, sports, entertainment and children's programming, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Under terms of the agreement, Visteon and XM™ will partner to design, develop, manufacture, market and license XM™ satellite radio technology receivers.
"We're excited about the possibilities that this new relationship will bring both Visteon and XM™," said John Slosar, North American and Asian Strategic Business Unit Director of Visteon's Telematics/Multimedia Business System. "This agreement is just one more example of our dedication to provide consumers with what they say they want and need. In this case, we look forward to providing them with radios that are capable of accepting XM's satellite transmissions."
In addition to excellent sound and reception quality, the satellite radio product will display additional information for listeners, including the channel name and number, artist and song title.
"We look forward to working with Visteon, a world renowned supplier of automotive technology and presenting the XM™ sound experience to their automotive customers," said XM's Vice President of Retail, Marketing & Distribution, Dan Murphy.
Visteon Corporation is a leading full-service supplier that delivers consumer-driven technology solutions to automotive manufacturers worldwide and through multiple channels within the global automotive aftermarket. Visteon has a global delivery system of more than 130 technical, manufacturing, sales, and service facilities located in 23 countries. It has 81,000 employees working in three business segments: Dynamics and Energy Conversion; Comfort, Communication and Safety; and Glass.
XM™ Satellite Radio will create and package up to 100 national channels of digital sound. Using two high-powered satellites, the first of which is scheduled to launch on Jan. 8, 2001, XM™ will provide seamless coast-to-coast coverage of music, news, sports, talk, comedy and children's programming. Through its partnerships with leading auto manufacturers including General Motors corp., American Honda Motor Corp., Freightliner and Chevy Trucks, XM™will transform radio, an industry that hasn't seen a technological change since FM, almost 40 years ago. XM™-ready radios will be manufactured by such household names as Sony, Alpine and Pioneer Electronics Corporation and sold by automotive and retail outlets such as Best Buy and Circuit City. For more information, please visit www.xmradio.com
For some time, Bang & Olufsen has been in contact with
selected European auto manufacturers, and contracts are
expected to be entered within 2001.
Bang & Olufsen in-car entertainment products are specifically
created for each individual make and model of vehicle, in
order to optimise the user's experience.
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New audio partnership promises sweet sounds and unique design for discerning customers
DEARBORN, Mich., June 11, 1999 – Automotive audiophiles, listen up! What you are about to hear – and see – is a new generation of premier vehicle sound systems, a generation characterized by unmatched quality and stellar design.
Visteon has paired its world-class audio and electronic capabilities with prestigious Danish audio-video manufacturer Bang & Olufsen to develop a new level of automotive audio sophistication. The partnership enables Visteon to offer exclusive audio systems to high-end vehicle manufacturers and their consumers. It also represents Bang & Olufsen's first venture into the automotive audio arena.
Bang & Olufsen, a premier home audio system manufacturer, is known for its superior mechanical movements, its acoustics excellence, and remarkable product design – design which includes vertical CD stacks and brushed aluminum cylindrical speakers.
"We are extremely happy with this agreement," said Stephen W. Delaney, vice president, interiors and exteriors, Visteon. "We wanted to partner with a premier audio company to push our design and engineering capabilities to new heights. At the same time, Bang & Olufsen was seeking a world-class organization that had the proven ability to integrate technology in vehicles on a global basis."
The agreement marries Visteon's expertise in areas such as acoustics, system equalization, market research, and manufacturing with Bang & Olufsen's unique ability to produce top quality, uniquely designed audio systems that appeal to select consumers. Visteon is a world leader in the production and integration of automotive electronics and audio components; collaboration with Bang & Olufsen allows it to develop systems with capabilities unseen in today's conventional automotive audio units.
"Building on a common and solid base of technological know-how and by combining the market forces of Visteon with the design forces of Bang & Olufsen, we are convinced that this new partnership will be successful," said Poul Svjberg, director of new business development for Bang & Olufsen. "Bang & Olufsen is characterized by courageous design, simplicity and high quality standards and this Danish/American partnership will provide outstanding automotive multimedia systems for exclusive customers."
"The Bang & Olufsen/Visteon audio system will be marketed to a particular customer – the customer who expects nothing less than excellence in performance, quality and design," concurred Jim Mazurek, manager, electronic marketing and business analysis, Visteon. "We have jointly identified and agreed upon the audio characteristics that must be present in a Bang & Olufsen/Visteon audio system. They are the characteristics a consumer would expect in the very best automotive audio system that is globally available."
These systems will offer enhanced components such as unique speakers and improved woofers and superior audio clarity. They will also offer additional options to maintain audio system excellence as sound technology continues to mature.
Significant design changes will differentiate these units from a standard audio system. They will exhibit sophisticated designs that take their cues from the understated elegance of premier vehicle models. Visteon and Bang & Olufsen will explore the application of premier materials such as brushed aluminum to speaker grills and radio bezels.
"I think it is fair to say that purchasing a Bang & Olufsen/Visteon system will differentiate the true automotive audiophile from the typical consumer," Mazurek said. " Visteon can now provide the entire range of outstanding audio systems for automotive manufacturers and their consumers. The system from Bang & Olufsen and Visteon will be at the very top of the range."
With a global delivery system of more than 125 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 21 countries, Visteon Automotive Systems is leveraging the talents of its 77,000 employees to deliver innovative, consumer-driven solutions to its customers.
Posted by: cksla
In reply to: Tinroad who wrote msg# 3846 Date: 7/2/2001 11:21:45 AM (ET)
Post # of 4164
tin--Beolink--due out this quarter
Freedom of movement.
You sleep in one room of your home, eat in another, and sit in front of the computer in a third. And if you wanted to hear music, or catch the latest news on TV in any of them, it used to be that you had the choice of turning up the volume on your living room system, or buying separate equipment for each room.
But now there's another option open to you; BeoLink. It recognises the fact that life never stands still - even in your home - and offers you the opportunity to take both the options and the sound and picture quality of your Bang & Olufsen equipment with you as you move from room to room throughout the house.
The idea behind BeoLink is a simple one; move the experience instead of the equipment and get even more pleasure out of the Bang & Olufsen products you already have in your home
Intel looks at leap in handheld memory
By John G. Spooner
Special to CNET News.com
July 11, 2001, 5:20 p.m. PT
Intel is betting that consumers want handheld computers stuffed with 500MB of memory.
On Wednesday, the chipmaker described the search for what it calls the "Holy Grail" of mobile memory, with a new technology that will pack hundreds of megabytes of storage into mobile devices at a low cost. A typical handheld, for example, now has 2MB to 64MB of flash memory.
In Intel's vision, the next-generation memory should combine high density--which translates into greater storage capacity--with high performance and the ability to be easily integrated with other types of memory. The new memory must also be non-volatile like a PC hard drive, meaning that data stored inside is not erased once the power on the device is turned off.
So far, Intel has identified three promising technologies: "plastic" memory, or polymer ferroelectric RAM (PFRAM); Ovonics Unified Memory (OUM), which uses the same materials as rewriteable CDs; and magnetic RAM, or MRAM.
Developing new memory technology is vital to the mobile device industry, which seeks to boost the functionality of mobile devices, including cell phones and handhelds, by adding new applications such as video streaming. These applications, however, require larger amounts of memory.
Research efforts are also important to Intel's bottom line. Although revenue from flash memory has been hit hard by the slow economy--especially due to lagging cell phone sales--it represents a large chunk of Intel's revenue. Finding a hit in the next round of memory technologies would ensure that the company would continue to create new sources of revenue.
"The industry has really been searching for what would be considered the Holy Grail" of memory for mobile devices, Stefan Lai, vice president of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group, told reporters Wednesday.
SRAM, DRAM and flash
Intel is specifically looking for technology that will combine higher density with the fast read/write speeds of synchronous RAM, the lower cost of dynamic RAM and the non-volatility of flash memory, which can store data when a device is turned off.
DRAM and flash memory are among the main types of storage now used in mobile devices.
Of the three new technologies Intel is researching, OUM is likely the most promising for its combination of low cost and ease of integration with other memory technologies. MRAM and PFRAM each offer faster performance in terms of read/write speeds, though they do so at a higher cost.
Analysts say that handheld makers are definitely interested in a new type of memory that is cheaper than flash.
Intel is "closing in on a real solution" to the issues of price and performance, said Richard Doherty, director of research at The Envisioneering Group.
Doherty sees OUM as the most promising of the possibilities for next-generation memory.
Intel would not place timelines on its next-generation memory. But Doherty said the company could have next-generation products based on OUM in as soon as 30 months or at the end of 2003. "It could be cheaper than flash within a couple of years," he added.
However, PFRAM also has a good chance of becoming popular, even though it can stand up to only a finite number of writes.
"Someone else might find the trick to it," he said. "OUM progress might trigger some new interest in (PFRAM) just to have something to be competitive with Intel."
Simultaneous research
Intel is running simultaneous research programs designed to investigate the three technologies more thoroughly, but it would not disclose plans for producing any of them. Company executives said Intel will offer an update on its memory research efforts later in the year.
According to Intel, OUM could offer good enough performance in terms of price and read/write performance to take over the majority of storage duties for devices such as handhelds.
OUM uses chalcogenide, the same material used for rewriteable CDs. OUM is "really complementary to SRAM," Lai said. "You can use (OUM) as main memory, and it does not require special software. We believe that for portable applications this is a really good application."
Intel could also "conceive of a system where an integrated chip has some SRAM and some OUM," Lai said.
Intel has a working OUM design, which it has used to build test chips. The company is testing their performance, ease of manufacturing, and other parameters that can measure the technology's real-world viability.
"This is something we are looking at developing further...to make it a lower-cost data-storage memory," Lai said.
Still a horse race
Meanwhile, MRAM offers faster read/write speeds--below 10 nanoseconds--and can endure almost unlimited write cycles. However, its cell size, the size of the smallest unit of a memory chip, is larger than OUM, "making it three to four times more expensive than OUM," Lai said.
Smaller cell sizes make for higher densities, which translate into greater storage capacity per chip.
"MRAM is like an SRAM. It has high function but is more expensive. OUM is like DRAM--slower but cheap," Lai said.
Intel is also exploring PFRAM, which uses layers of polymers attached to a base built using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), which is standard chip material.
PFRAM is expected to create dense memory chips that will be fairly easy to manufacture, requiring only minor changes in Intel's existing chip plants. These characteristics will make PFRAM relatively inexpensive.
Using PFRAM, Lai said, "we can make a memory that is about one-eighth the cost of what you would have in a basic CMOS type of memory."
However, the technology has a finite number of write cycles. Because of this, it is likely that PFRAM will be used less often, performing jobs such as storing applications, much like ROM, or read-only memory, is used today.
For its part, Intel says there is promise in all three types of memory.
"At this time, we are looking at all the memories," Lai said. "It's a horse race at this point. Anything can happen. There's still a lot of learning we need to do."
Semel's coming-out party
Wednesday marked the first appearance by Semel since he took over as CEO. During a conference call with Wall Street analysts, he outlined his view of how Yahoo will position itself.
First on his list will be to develop more premium services, which will be featured in Yahoo's existing "vertical businesses" such as finance, sports and music. Each of these verticals will have revenue tied to paid, advertising and commerce-related areas. Meanwhile, Semel hopes to continue growing Yahoo's business services as seen in the company's Corporate Yahoo division.
July 11, Motorola Reports Second-Quarter Results
During the quarter, the Automotive and Industrial Electronics Group was combined with the Telematics Communications Group to form the new Automotive Communications and Electronic Systems (ACES) Group. This reorganization is expected to enable Motorola to offer a broader automotive communications solutions portfolio. ACES sales and orders decreased. Sales and orders of automotive electronics and communications systems were down due to lower production in the automotive industry. Sales of telematics systems were up very significantly and orders were higher.
July 11, 2001 Final stretch Satellite radio service nears commercial launch
The satellite-radio race continues, with the two proponents, XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, both claiming steady progress toward their goal of rolling out services this year. Both companies plan to provide dozens of channels of CD-quality programming to consumers via a subscription model.
At the moment, it seems that XM Satellite Radio has taken the lead. With commercial service set to begin late this summer, XM this week began a nationwide "soft launch" program, deploying teams of testers equipped with XM radios to more than 20 markets across the country.
According to Hugh Panero, XM's president and CEO, the test program is the first step in a multi-stage XM launch-preparedness effort. The testing teams are listening to XM content that originates from the company's broadcast center and is distributed nationally by two high-powered satellites. Last week, XM's second satellite, "Roll," was formally handed over to XM by Boeing Satellite Systems, joining its twin "Rock." The presence of two identical satellites, each with the same nationwide coverage, ensures maximum signal and system reliability, Panero says.
XM-ready radios are being manufactured by such household names as Sony, Alpine, Pioneer, Clarion, Blaupunkt, Delphi-Delco, Visteon, Panasonic, and Sanyo and are available through retailers including Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, Sears, and Crutchfield. XM tuner modules will be available before service launch. XM has a distribution agreement with General Motors to integrate XM radios into its vehicles.
Meanwhile, Sirius says it has also begun broadcasting and is now conducting a comprehensive quality-assurance program. Following the completion of this program, Sirius also plans to begin commercial service later this year.
Sirius-ready radios, tuner modules and adapters that allow any car radio to receive Sirius broadcasts, as well as home and portable products, will be manufactured by Clarion, Kenwood, Jensen, and Panasonic, and made available to consumers at retailers such as Circuit City, Best Buy, Good Guys, Tweeter and Crutchfield. Sirius also has alliances to install AM/FM/SAT radios in Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo vehicles, as well as in Freightliner and Sterling heavy trucks.
Unsurprisingly, building a satellite-radio system has been a capital-heavy process for both firms. In fact, Sirius recently raised its planned monthly subscription price to $12.95 from $9.95. XM still quotes the lower price. Last week, Sirius also announced that it filed a $500 million shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company will use the proceeds of future sales of the securities for general corporate purposes, including working capital. According to Sirius chief financial officer John Scelfo, the company has enough cash to get through the third quarter of 2002, but filed the shelf registration statement to allow itself the flexibility to access more capital in the future.
korea comdex 2001--end of august
exhibitors last year included samsung electronics and trigem
http://comdex.chosun.com/2001_a/comdex_info/comp_en.html
i am advised that an eastech oem will be on the shelves at Circuit City this august
Posted by: cksla
Date: 6/25/2001 8:09:06 PM (ET)
Post # of 4134
Impactra is a specialized company in mobile multimedia contents player devices. Recently Impactra developed ‘MPEG4 player’ which is a motion picture player. It supports digital audio such as MP3 as well as MPEG4 motion pictures and WMT(windows meida technology). Impactra and ISOFT aligned on Feb. 2001 to co-develop the motion picture and game devices for CDMA2000/IMT2000
===============================================
http://www.impactra.com/edataplayversion.htm
===============================================
packers-- i would note that in a 10/20/00 interview w/ FF and RP following e.digital's dataplay announcement that FF seemed to specifically go out of his way to mention mpeg4 video capability. the interview is still available from edig's website.
Bertelsmann works on new Napster venture
By Reuters
July 11, 2001, 10:15 a.m. PT
LONDON--BeMusic, the music services group owned by Germany's Bertelsmann, unveiled a new structure and management team on Tuesday that will oversee the group's joint venture with Napster.
Bertelsmann's e-commerce arm, which agreed to an alliance last year to help build a legitimate version of online rebel Napster, said its chief executive officer, Andreas Schmidt, would take the top post at BeMusic, home to the world's largest music club and online CD retailer.
Bertelsmann is developing BeMusic as a one-stop music shop, bringing together its online music store CDNow, music club division BMG Direct, recently acquired online song-storage company Myplay and its alliance with Napster.
Napster plans to launch a subscription service this summer with the backing of Bertelsmann funds and technical know-how. Its original free music-sharing site has steadily ground to a halt as it complies with a court order to protect copyrighted material.
Formed earlier this month to bring 23 million subscribers and customers under the umbrella of Bertelsmann's E-commerce Group, BeMusic will be split into three divisions: BeMusic Direct, BeMusic Services and BeMusic Digital.
"It's important we get this right as music is key in digital delivery and will lay the ground for other digital models," Schmidt said.
The chief executive of Bertelsmann's online retail arm Bol.com, Stuart Goldfarb, will head up BeMusic Direct, while Tom Hoekzema, senior vice president of operations for BMG Direct, will lead the BeMusic Services division.
Schmidt, who maintains his role as head of Bertelsmann's E-commerce Group, will run BeMusic Digital until a chief executive can be found.
In the shake-up, George McMillan, the current CEO of BMG Direct, is leaving the company to become chief financial officer of U.S. Internet operator CMGI.
Analyst claims MP3 sales may be recession proof
Technology: What's hot, what's not in consumer electronics
By STEVE ALEXANDER , Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
(July 9, 2001 1:15 p.m. EDT) - These are nervous times in consumer electronics. In fact, even the Palms are sweating.
Sales of the venerable desktop computer are in deep trouble because of market saturation and the economic downturn. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the Palm and Handspring, all the rage a year ago, could be on the verge of sales declines.
An oversupply of wireless phones suggests that their sales could be flat this year, after several years of solid growth.
Despite the sour economy, the news isn't all bad for consumer electronics peddlers. Industry watchers say they expect gadgets that are sufficiently new, novel or relatively inexpensive to continue selling well this year.
Those include digital still cameras, MP3 players, CD burners and video games - products that either work with existing computers or have relatively low pricetags. But, analysts say, even some hot products might cool off quickly if the economy doesn't recover by early next year.
And then there are the gadgets that are neither hot nor cold. They include DVD players (unit sales are up while per-unit prices are down) and camcorders (sales have been flat recently).
It all adds up to a digital divide of another sort.
By a wide margin, personal computers and laptops have been received the chilliest by consumers. A first-ever decline in the U.S. PC market has brought sharp sales declines and lower prices. Retail unit sales of desktop PCs dropped 33 percent in April from a year earlier, and the price per PC dropped 8 percent, according to NPD Intellect Market Tracking in Port Washington, N.Y. Unit sales of notebook computers dropped 25 percent in the same period, and the price dropped 15 percent, NPD reported.
The result, predicts industry consultant International Data Corp. (IDC), will be a 6.3 percent drop in total PC unit shipments in the United States this year - that's business and consumer - and a 17.3 percent decline in the consumer PC market.
Cold PC sales have led to a hot price war. That benefits shoppers who do their homework. There are predictions, though hesitant ones, that PC sales may pick up in the fall with Microsoft's introduction of its latest Windows operating system Windows XP.
Digital still cameras, however, are hot now because declining prices and improved picture quality have stimulated consumer demand, said George Meier, NPD Intelect director of marketing. Digital-camera picture quality is measured by the millions of individual dots, or pixels, that make up one photo. These days, a camera that takes 1.3 million pixel photos now sells for about $200, while one that takes 3.3 million pixel shots costs about $600, A year ago prices for such cameras were about $500 and $900, respectively.
"It's a new niche product and there's low market penetration, so sales are not sensitive to the economy," Meier said.
InfoTrends Research Group in Boston predicts that unit sales of digital still cameras will rise 55 percent to 9.4 million this year, and that nearly 20 percent of U.S. households will have a digital camera by year's end, up from 12 percent last November.
And sales of MP3 portable-music players have benefited from the publicity surrounding Napster.com, the free music-sharing Web site. MP3 players can download music from a PC that gets music from a purchased CD or downloads it from a music Web site. While use of Napster dropped after adverse court rulings, that hasn't really hurt sales of MP3 players, said Mike Paxton, an analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group.
"The MP3 player is new, small and cool. I think there could be a full-blown recession in the second half of the year and it would not affect sales of small price-point devices like MP3 players," Paxton said.
By the end of 2000, 2.45 million MP3 players had been sold worldwide, triple the amount in 1999, Paxton said. He predicts another tripling this year.
CD burners, also known as CD-RW drives for PCs, became popular largely for the same reason MP3 players did: Napster. Consumers could download free music from the Internet, then record it on disks that would play in any standard CD player.
"Napster was a great thing for the CD-burning market. People got used to burning CDs and became comfortable with the technology," said Peter Brown, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass. "Now the burners are being used for new things, such as recording digital photography."
In the first quarter of 2001, CD burner sales rose 136 percent from a year earlier, NPD said. CD burner prices now range from about $130 to $480, but the low end is well below last year's price, which was in the $200 range.
Video games, which are played on dedicated game machines such as Nintendo 64, continue to sell, fueled partly by publicity surrounding the introduction of Sony's PlayStation 2 last fall. Industry watchers expect video game sales to increase in November when two new game machines hit the market. Nintendo will debut its GameCube and Microsoft will introduce its Xbox.
Handspring and Palm have warned that the economy will hurt future sales of their PDAs. NPD Intelect said PDA unit sales rose 23 percent in April, but dollar sales went up only 7 percent, and the average PDA price fell 13 percent.
"Both companies have seen their stock prices drop, leading them to cut retail prices to try to get market share," said Brian O'Rourke, a senior analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Probably the majority of people who want PDAs already have one."
Wireless phone sales could be in trouble this year. While the economy might be partly to blame for a slowdown in wireless phone sales, consumers also have been less interested than expected in wireless Web access, whose use well below expectations.
PocketPyro--TI dsp/SD memory ++ Voice R./TTS coming soon!
02 July, 2001
Source: Excite.com
By JIM KRANE, AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - As computers shrink from the size of an outhouse to the dimensions of a pack of cigarettes, inventors are hatching scads of uses for them.
New gadgets are converting handheld computers into telephones, voice recorders and cameras. Handhelds are storing electronic books, driving directions and maps and serving them up with voice commands.
Most new handheld add-ons are being built for Palm Inc.'s dominant Palms and the rival Handspring Visor line, which run the Palm operating system......
Singapore's Shinei International has developed a pair of Palm peripherals, including a $60 voice recorder for the new Palm 500 series. The recorder, called the i-Vox, is mounted in a smoky gray snap-on shield that also protects the screen from scratches.
Shinei also builds a $150 MP3 player that snaps onto the Palm computer and holds 32 megabytes of music. On display at the PC Expo in New York this week, both devices hit stores in July......
=========================================Shinei Porteson MP3 Player
The MP3 Player for Your Palm m100
With the Palm m100 series handheld driving the Porteson, you can easily customize your song play list, adjust the equalizer, edit song filenames, access the shuffle/repeat playback option, customize user interface "skins" and control button functions quickly and easily. No stand-alone MP3 player has this editing flexibility. What's more, the Porteson can also be use as stand-alone, detached from the m100 series.
32 MB of non volatile flash memory (internal)
SD/MMC flash card expansion port
Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor running at 100 MIPS
24 bit stereo digital to analog / analog to digital converter
High power stereo headphone output, standard 3.5 mm jack
Runs on two Duracell Ultra AAA batteries.
==================================================
Coming Soon: Portéson for Palm m100 series
manufactured by Singapore Shinei Sangyo Pte Ltd.
Bringing multimedia, mass storage,
and extended memory to Palm handhelds.
http://www.pocketpyro.com/
------------------------------------------
Our multimedia device known as the Pyro for Palm revolutionizes the Palm Platform by offering unprecedented processing power and storage capacity. The Pyro has the ability to store and play several hours of high-fidelity, near-CD quality MP3 files.
In the near future, software will be available for the Pyro platform that will offer speech recognition, enhanced file storage, voice recording, text-to-speech, and much more.
The heart of the Pyro is it's multimedia engine, DragonThunder. The DragonThunder engine contains a powerful Digital Signaling Processor (or DSP) that can easily handle the most demanding multimedia tasks. When combined with Pyro's solid state hard disk and virtually unlimited memory expansion capabilities, the potential applications for DragonThunder are endless.
We will soon provide an open API that enables the Palm OS to exploit these exciting multimedia capabilities. This API will let over 70,000 Palm developers utilize the power of the Pyro in their applications.
E.DIGITAL INTERNET MUSIC PLAYER DESIGN TO BE FEATURED
IN SD CARD ASSOCIATION PAVILION AT CES 2001
(SAN DIEGO, CA - January 4, 2001) - e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG), a global provider of comprehensive digital product development and designs, today announced that one of its Internet music player designs incorporating the Secure Digital Memory Card (SD Card) will be featured in the SD Card Association Pavilion at the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 6-9, 2001. Over two dozen members of the Association, formed in January 2000 by SanDisk, Toshiba, and Matsushita, best known by its Panasonic brand name, will display product designs using the extremely compact and durable SD Card.
Fred Falk, President and CEO of e.Digital, said, "We are pleased to offer our OEM customers a flexible Internet music player design that is one of the first to feature the Secure Digital Memory Card. This design can be adapted to portable systems, or built into automobile- or home-based digital music systems including set-top boxes. As the Internet music marketplace strives to establish itself, security issues are at the forefront. The SD Card helps address the concerns of manufacturers and the music industry, providing improved protection for copyrighted content."
Raymond Creech, President of the SD Association, stated, "We are very proud of the progress of the SD Association and our members, and we are happy to have e.Digital take part in this opportunity. This Pavilion gives us a chance to collectively show off the SD Card and highlight some of our members' offerings to the consumer electronics industry. Visitors, customers, and the press will be able to see these products up close and watch a short presentation featuring e.Digital and others incorporating the SD Card in their designs."
The 3,250 square-foot SD Card Association Pavilion is located in the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, Booth #L5158.
e.Digital's MicroOS™-based multi-codec Internet music player design is available for licensing by consumer electronics manufacturers and other OEM partners. The flexible design can be adapted to portable, home-based, automotive, or other stereo format according to customer specifications. It includes multiple music codec support, removable memory, and security features. The design is SDMI compatible.
About the SD Memory Card
The SD (Secure Digital) Memory Card is a highly-sophisticated memory device about the size of a postage stamp. SD Memory Cards stand to revolutionize information, entertainment and communications by putting advanced digital storage technology quite literally at your fingertips.
SD Memory Cards are non-volatile, which means they do not require power to retain the information stored on them. They are solid-state devices, so they have no moving parts to skip or break down. They will offer an incredible combination of high storage capacity (32 MB, 64 MB, or 128 MB, with the promise of up to 256 MB in 2001), fast data transfer, great flexibility and excellent security. And of course, incredibly small size.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ARCSTAR TO EDIGITAL
As posted earlier, NTT Communications is testing an online music distribution service called 'Arcstar MUSIC' using this system with Victor Entertainment (a subsidiary of Matsushita) and plans full commercial launch in August. The importance of this to e.digital is that the market will begin to see a plethora of SD compatible digital audio players--
Music distribution service to start for SD Memory Card appliances
Feb 9, 2001
On March 1, NTT Communications will launch a music distribution system for music players that are compliant with SD Memory Card. It is anticipated that several record companies will use this system to start distributing music via the Internet on the same day. The names of the record companies and details of the available content are undecided at the moment, and will be announced at a later date.
This will be the first time for a music distribution service to start for SD Memory Card appliances. Users visit the websites of record companies and record stores and download music onto their PCs via the system of NTT Communications. In order to use the downloaded data, users have only to check it out on an SD Memory Card. In order to replay downloaded music on a PC, either Matsushita Electric Industrial's SD Juke Box (attached to SD Memory Card music players) or ED Juke Box (downloadable for free from the Internet) is needed.
The new system of NTT Communications was developed as part of the company's "Arcstar MUSIC" music distribution service that was commercialized in December of last year. This will be the first time for Arcstar MUSIC to comply with a portable music player. Arcstar MUSIC is a service of providing the system needed for music distribution, copyright protection system and customer service function. Presently, there are twelve record companies, six record stores and four other companies including broadcasting stations using the service. The new system was developed jointly among NTT Communications, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Convera that spun off from Intel, and Preview. It uses the "EMDLB method" that Matsushita developed jointly with Universal Music Group, Bertelsmann Music Group and AT&T. Encoding of music data uses AAC, digital rights management relies on Convera's technology and distribution system employs Preview's ZipLock DDM system.
Presently, the markets are very limited for both music distribution service via the Internet and music players using Memory Card. Leveraging on the new service, NTT Communications hopes to expand the market for the former and Matsushita for the latter. From the whole of Arcstar MUSIC service, NTT Communications is anticipating commission revenue of approximately 300 million yen between April 2001 and March 2002. The company forecasts that sales of music will probably be about five times the amount. Matsushita, on the other hand, says it hopes to increase the mass production scale of SD Memory Card music players from the current 3,000 units per month to 10,000 units per month.
OG- just a reference to my ecletic taste in music--SPARKS
KIMONO MY HOUSE
"I was brought up with all these hippies. Ten of them
and one of me. At the age of seven, I'd really had
enough of all those hippy records, that psychedelic crap,
so I became like a kid who has to listen to different
stuff to her parents. My dad was a bit on the case, and
probably bought this Sparks album, but didn't really like
it, but I played little else for a year, and drove them
all mad. It's really for kids as well, you know, "This
town ain't big enough for the both of us, and it ain't me
who's gonna leave which was a pretty cool statement. They
were a bit theatrical, I guess, more expressive than your
average pop album, and not just about I-love-you-and-you-
love-me. I loved the way Russell Mael sung like a geisha,
and that they were into wearing geisha clothes, as I was
really into Japanese people."
"What kids get into is very picturesque music that
is really easy to imagine what's going on. At that
point, I'd got really bored of guitars and rock'n'roll,
and Sparks were more interesting, more like a fairy
tale. I was really into them until I read an interview
with the singer a year later, when he said that the
only two things in the world he didn't like was kids
and animals. That broke my heart.
"I left home first, actually, at 14. I got the feeling
that time was running out, and there were all these
exciting things happening out there, and you're
missing them. You wanted to rent a flat and cook
really bad meals, that sort of thing. I came back a
year later when I was broke."
the song was actually "Turning Japanese"
http://www.sparksofficialwebsite.com/.