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Microsoft moves Windows Media codecs into digital radio
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
Apr 08, 2004
PARIS — Eager to move its proprietary audio/video codec into Europe's steadily growing digital radio market, Microsoft Corp. has gained membership in the World DAB Forum, an industry group developing digital audio broadcasting (DAB) technology.
"The Forum is moving forward with multiple new opportunities such as 5.1 surround sound and video-to-mobile implementations" using radio signals, said Gareth Sutcliffe, senior business manager of Windows Digital Media div. at Microsoft. "We want to be an active voice in the World DAB Forum."
Microsoft is targeting digital radio as the next battleground for its Windows Media Series 9 platform. Meanwhile, it continues to campaign for adoption of its Windows Media codec in the next generation HD DVD spec and emerging TV-on-mobile standard called DVB-Handheld (DVB-H).
The software giant hopes to convince radio broadcasters to embrace Windows Media Audio 9 Professional (WMA Pro) and Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9) and layer them on top of the current digital broadcast technology — based on the Eureka 147 standard — for next-generation multimedia data services.
Mike Wolf, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR's Consumer Media and Content Group, called Microsoft's latest move "a part of a larger domino effect Microsoft has been seeding for some time." The software giant, angling to move beyond the PC and finding digital entertainment a growth market, is "putting their technology into systems, into portable hard media and downloadable media," Wolf said.
Microsoft's participation in the World DAB Forum is viewed by some in the indsutry as a much needed boost for the digital radio standard. Steve Evans, vice president of sales at Frontier Silicon, a London-based fabless chip company, added, "Microsoft's bringing its codec into the market will broaden the appeal of DAB."
Although the Eureka 147 standard has been around since the mid-1990's, it has only recently taken off. DAB has been gaining momentum over the past two years, particularly in the U.K., a fact that has not escaped Microsoft's notice.
In contrast to the U.S. where terrestrial digital radio technology called HD Radio, developed and owned by iBiquity, is in its early stages, DAB digital radio is available in 35 countries in Europe and Asia along with Canada and Australia.
According to the World DAB Forum, 478,000 radios have been sold in the U.K. as of January. That number is expected to exceed 1 million by the end of the year.
Microsoft has been participating in a London trial of 5.1-channel surround sound over DAB. The demo is using Microsoft's WMA Pro audio compression technology.
Microsoft also demonstrated a full-motion live video broadcast over DAB at last year's International Broadcast Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. Windows Media Video 9 was also used in the demo.
The Eureka 147 System, on which the current DAB services are based, uses the follwing specs: Musicam audio coding, which employs a psycho-acoustical coding technique specified for MPEG-2 Audio Layer II encoding; transmission coding/multiplexing; and coded orthogonal frequency- division multiplex modulation.
Eureka 147 was initially developed as an audio spec. Nigel Oakley, vice president of marketing at RadioScape, said DAB nevertheless has enough bandwidth to be exploited "as a delivery mechanism for multimedia services in the mobile world." Oakley called Microsoft's membership in the DAB Forum "a recognition and endorsement on potential of DAB."
Microsoft's Sutcliffe said it will be an active participant in the World DAB Forum both on technology and business levels.
Wireless digital: coming to a theatre near you?
Rapidly evolving technology could soon change the way films are distributed, writes ALEXANDRA GILL
By ALEXANDRA GILL
Globe and Mail Update
VANCOUVER -- You didn't read about it in the newspapers or see it covered on Entertainment Tonight. But at the Sundance Film Festival in January, a small company from Vancouver helped present the wireless premiere of a high-definition feature film that will very likely be remembered as a groundbreaking moment in the rapidly evolving world of digital cinema.
The invitation-only event was held at the Sundance Institute's Digital Center in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 17. Actress Sally Field, film critic Roger Ebert, Motion Picture Association of America chairman Jack Valenti, and top executives from Microsoft, Intel and Hewlett-Packard were among the select, 40-odd techno-curious guests in attendance.
After getting their drinks from the bar, the group settled down into comfy sofas and plush chairs scattered around the conference room. Each guest was given a wireless Sony notebook computer. And whenever they were ready, the presenters invited everyone to put on their headphones, click on their computers and sit back -- or move around if they preferred -- for the world premiere screening of November, a low-budget independent thriller starring Courteney Cox from the TV series Friends.
Yes, the star of the film was still stuck on a small screen. And that was partly the point. As director Greg Harrison wandered around the room, he watched the actress's picture-perfect image on the various computers. On one monitor, Cox was sitting in an office, talking to a psychiatrist. At the very same moment, on another computer, she was climbing a dark stairwell. And over on one of two larger plasma screens, Cox's character was banging a broom on the ceiling of her apartment.
"Now I get it," said Harrison, turning to one of the Intel executives. This was not a satellite broadcast or download from the Internet. It was a brand new system of digital delivery. With a single click, the film was being distributed, on demand, directly to each computer from the Intel head office in Oregon.
And look ma, no cables. Each person in the room was free to move around with their laptops, turn the movie off and on again, rewind or fast-forward at will.
This was the first time Harrison had seen the final version of his digital film. And to his utter amazement, he said the images being beamed onto these little laptops looked exactly the same as they had at his post-production facility. In contrast to the jerky videos that are typically delivered via the Internet, the quality of this digital transmission was five times better than any available from a plugged-in connection at home.
"We don't have to make any excuses for the quality of video any longer," explains Tim Sweeney, technical marketing director for Intel, the company behind this latest generation of Centrino mobile technology (the Intel Pro/Wireless 2200BG network connection and microchip) that allows up to 54 million bits of data to be transferred per second. "This rivals the best in class."
For the past five years or so, it almost seems as if digital technology has been evolving at a similarly frenetic speed. Recent breakthroughs have already demonstrated the ability to make movies with the same clarity as 35-millimetre film using high-definition video cameras, and then project them digitally in theatres with no loss in image quality. In 1998, the number of digital video films presented at the film festival could have been counted on one hand.
This year, more than 40 per cent of the festival's 200-plus films were either shot on digital video or projected digitally. The audience has barely noticed the difference.
Ian Calderon has been watching it all unfold up close and personal. As a founder of the Sundance Institute, and now director of digital initiatives, it was he who helped spark the revolution by introducing the technical experts and their equipment to independent filmmakers, who have in turn, pushed the applications forward.
"This is the last link in the puzzle," Calderon says. "The feeling I got was that everyone in that room walked away knowing that something very important had just happened."
For now, Intel's new Centrino technology, which will be available worldwide later this year, is mainly being marketed at business travellers. With an extended battery life that lasts about six hours, the software allows consumers to download movies at superfast speeds and then view them on a plane.
But as wireless networks expand, the possibilities abound.
"It will be like having a Blockbuster video store in your laptop," Sweeney says. "You'll be able to download your personal movie to your personal handheld video player while waiting in line for a coffee, then go home and either watch it on the small screen in bed or plug the computer cable into a large display screen in your living room."
Which hardly means the collective theatre experience is about to disappear. In fact, wireless technology offers new possibilities for theatre owners as well. Right now, Internet connections through fibre-optic cable lines limit digital distribution to urban communities with high-powered networks. And despite initial high hopes, the rising cost of laying fibre-optic lines has held back the spread of broadband access, even more so in the United States than Canada (which is one of the most broadband-friendly countries in the world). With wireless distribution, a single-screen theatre house in Moose Jaw would be able to receive the latest Hollywood release at the same time as a megaplex in Montreal.
Satellite transmissions do already offer this option, but adoption rates have been slow. The major barrier to digital acceptance remains the cost of implementing the technology. Although the prices are going down, digital projectors are about five times more expensive than analog machines. As of this winter, according to the Motion Picture Theatre Association of Canada, there are only two commercial movie exhibitors in Vancouver that are digitally equipped to project features, and only two others elsewhere Canada, one in Toronto and one in Kitchener, Ont.
The potential savings for distributors are fairly obvious. It costs studios and distributors about $2,000 (U.S.) to produce, duplicate and ship a single celluloid print to theatres. If a typical big-budget release ships to 3,000 theatres, the distribution cost for a major film is about $6-million. Cut out the celluloid bulk and the costs drops dramatically.
But as it now stands, the major U.S. distributors are a small monopoly owned by the big Hollywood studios. And the Hollywood studios have their own reasons for stalling the transition from film to digital delivery.
Remember the recent court battle over screeners used to promote movies during Oscar season? Last fall, the major Hollywood movie studios tried to ban the distribution of advance videocassette or DVD copies of films to critics and other award-granting groups. The studios, led by the Motion Picture Association of America, claimed the ban was critical to preventing an explosion of piracy over the Internet. A consortium of independent filmmakers accused the studios of engaging in illegal anti-competitive behaviour. The smaller houses, which argued that the ban limited voter exposure to their movies, won a temporary restraining order from a U.S. district judge. And according to some, the independent filmmakers have even more to gain in this distribution divide.
"Of course it's prudent for Hollywood to take its time and assess the issues, but a lot of independents are grooving to the idea in a big way" says Patti-Jo Wiese, vice-president of Vancouver's Digital Film Group.
Founded in 1999, the company specializes in providing top-quality digital video-to-film transfers for the independent film community. Their work includes Zacharias Kunuk's groundbreaking Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), which was shot on the frozen tundra of the Canadian Arctic using Digital Betacam video, and went on to win the prestigious Camera d'or at the Cannes Film Festival.
"There's this unique window that has emerged as studio types try to figure out how to manage the content copyright and piracy issues," Wiese says. "The independents don't have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. And they're not afraid of the technology. They just want to get their movies out there."
Flash cards seek a slot in mobile expansion bid
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
April 05, 2004 (4:52 PM EDT)
PARIS — As the mobile industry gears up for multimedia applications on cell phones, service providers and handset makers are scrapping over the best format for handset memory expansion to accommodate the new apps.
The debate will influence the design of future handsets and determine who ultimately profits from extended, secure handset storage.
The crux of the argument is whether to add memory by squeezing more into the existing subscriber identity module (SIM) card — a common feature of GSM phones in Europe — or opting for a second handset slot to accommodate removable flash cards.
A third scenario, which sources last week called less likely, sees removable cards with bulked-up security features and expanded memory replacing SIM cards altogether.
For telecommunications operators, SIMs provide the benefit of a direct link to subscribers. Telecom service providers thus seek to control the evolution of SIM cards, leveraging the modules to strengthen relationships with content owners and customers.
However, mobile-handset leaders such as Nokia, impatient with the slow growth of mobile commerce and hoping to spur the development of multimedia markets, seek a second slot for removable cards that would allow content owners and handset users to skip the telecom middleman when providing and accessing content.
As chip vendors and card makers take sides in the fight, new approaches are being floated for adding crypto functions to handsets as well as expanding the units' memory capacity.
The MultiMediaCard Association, which promotes a removable flash memory card called MMC, is pitching its newly defined SecureMMC, which taps smart-card technology to jack up handset security features. The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based high-storage-capacity format, the specs for which are slated to be finalized this summer, will store private keys and integrate an encryption system in hardware in a tamper-resistant module, according to MMC Association chairman Yves Leonard.
Meanwhile, Emblaze Semiconductor (Kfar Saba, Israel) last week announced a partnership with M-Systems to develop embedded security for next-generation multimedia processors targeting the mobile market. Since the architecture is configured to store private keys and crypto features in a protected area of the silicon, the application processor could decrypt and decode multimedia content on the same hardware. That would prevent exposure of decrypted data to other handset components.
"Coupling decrypting and decoding is the key" for tighter handset security, said Dror Gill, CTO at Emblaze Semiconductor. Working with M-Systems, the chip company promises to offer digital rights management (DRM), secure transactions for mobile commerce and VPN-like connections for network wireless access.
SIM card proponents are skeptical of alternative crypto solutions. "Security remains the domain of the SIM card; it's proven, and operators trust it," said Bettina Kuhrt, mobile-communications marketing manager for Philips Semiconductors' identification business.
Nicolas Chalvin, product manager at smart-card vendor Gemplus, said the company's "first objective is to help operators." He said telecom providers are already migrating to higher-capacity SIMs, citing Telecom Italia Mobile's recent adoption of the 1-Mbyte SuperSIM format, developed by Oberthur Card Systems and STMicroelectronics.
SIM is the logical place for capacity additions, added Gemplus technical manager Didier Tournier, because "today, SIM is the only standardized handset component that looks after personal secrets stored in memory."
Oberthur and ST claim their 1-Mbyte format can accommodate MMS, audio or video downloads as well as such basic SIM functions as storing subscriber authentication information and optional private data.
Allen Nogee, senior analyst for In-Stat/MDR, ceded the argument "that currently the SIM card already hosts security, and most removable flash cards don't." But he said he's "opposed to having the SIM card contain more than phone access security and maybe some contact numbers, because that is the purpose of the card. Files like multimedia shouldn't be stored on the SIM card, since the SIM is not meant to be easily removed." Indeed, on some handsets the card can't be removed at all.
Removable cards for media storage are designed with the assumption that consumers will use multiple cards. But "SIM cards are designed for one [card] per phone number; multiple cards per number would defeat the security of the card," Nogee said.
MMC proponents call SecureMMC a clear choice for higher-speed, higher-density applications. SIM cards typically pack 16 to 128 kbytes of flash or E2PROM; MMCs provide up to 256 Mbytes of flash.
"SIMs are 0.8 mm high, which makes it physically impossible to have much memory," said MMC's Leonard, who heads the mobile-business segment of Samsung Semiconductors Europe. Even the 1 Mbyte of the SuperSIM, he contended, is "not enough for data-intensive applications."
Another SIM limitation is slow bus speed, Leonard said. The current SIM interface maxes out at 100 kbits/second, compared with 416 Mbits/s for MMC, he said.
But Gemplus' Chalvin said that 2-Mbyte SIM cards are feasible in the current form factor and that 20-Mbyte SIM cards, while requiring a dual-component architecture (security processor and NAND flash), are a couple of years away.
SIM card vendors are also addressing the format's slow data bus rate, said Gemplus' Tournier. A card capable of 400 kbits/s is coming soon, he said, and acceleration to 5 Mbits/s is in the works.
Who benefits?
Perhaps more influential in the final outcome than the technical comparisons, Leonard said, are the discussions about who stands to gain from which technology. "For handset manufacturers, the removable flash card slot allows for flexible product offerings based on end users' requirements for data-intensive applications," he said. By leaving memory size up to the consumer, "a removable flash can offer a good solution both for end users and retailers, as handset vendors can keep the bill of material for the handset pretty low."
Users may also value the freedom to use the same content on different host systems — phones, computers, TVs and printers. "This can be done with a removable flash card without impacting the functionality of the mobile phone," said Leonard. "But if you remove your SIM, you can't use your phone."
"The SIM industry is at a crossroads," said Nicolas Prawitz, segment-marketing manager for the telecommunications and smart-card business unit of Renesas Technology Europe. Prawitz laid out three possible scenarios for the mobile industry: more secure flash memory is replicated in the SIM; SIMs remain a handset mainstay but consumers also adopt removable memory card storage; or "the SIM is removed, and a flash card with security features takes over."
The third scenario is unlikely, Prawitz said; he expects peaceful coexistence between SIMs and flash cards.
So does Rainer Spielberg, vice president and general manager for Infineon Flash GmbH & Co. KG, (Dresden, Germany), a joint venture of Infineon Technologies AG and Saifun Semiconductors. SIM cards and SecureMMC "address two different, decoupled markets," he said. Unlike SIMs, "SecureMMC is not owned by a network operator, so that it allows any content provider to offer additional services."
If next-generation handsets indeed have slots both for SIM and removable memory, will those formats likely operate independently or be securely linked?
"Our job," said Gemplus marketing manager Cecil Dupoint, "is to keep the operators present in that second [removable-memory] slot so they can generate revenue on the removable flash card." Gemplus thus advocates a secure authentication bridge between the cards.
Sources close to the MMC Association said its technical subcommittee will consider secure card links when it meets next week in Seoul, South Korea.
Dell Cuts Music Player Price 20 Percent to $199
Mon 5 April, 2004 21:36
NEW YORK (Reuters) - No. 2 personal computer maker Dell Inc. DELL.O on Monday cut the price on its digital music player 20 percent to $199 from $249 as it tries to compete with the industry leading iPod from Apple Computer Inc. AAPL.O .
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell introduced the Dell Digital Jukebox, or DJ, which plays digital music in the MP3 format, in October at $249 for the 15 gigabyte version. It has offered a 10 percent discount on the product and said it will continue to do so.
It also cut the price on the 20 gigabyte, or 20 billion byte, version to $279, down from its previous $299.
Both versions are less expensive than their equivalent-sized models from Apple, which cost $299 for the 15 gigabtye model and $399 for the 20 gigabyte model.
Apple has the largest part of the digital music player market, according to market research firm NPD Group, which tracks retail sales. The data does not include Dell because its products are sold only over the Internet.
Apple was top ranked with 32 percent of the music players shipped in February. RCA was ranked second with 13 percent of the market. About $35.6 million worth of digital music players were sold in February.
One analyst said that Dell's DJ has done well because of its price and battery life.
"My understanding is that they're selling pretty well they've taken a nice part of the market," said Avi Greengart, senior analyst with Jupiter Research. "This is not a fire sale."
Study: JetBlue No. 1 in Quality for U.S.
JetBlue Is No. 1 in Quality Among U.S. Airlines for 2003, According to an Annual Study
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON April 5 — JetBlue was No. 1 in quality among U.S. airlines in 2003, the first year that it carried enough passengers to be ranked, according to an annual study released Monday.
The budget carrier had the second-best on-time performance, arriving punctually 86 percent of the time. So few JetBlue passengers were bumped that they did not register in the statistics used by researchers. Also, JetBlue customers also filed fewer complaints 0.31 per 100,000 to the Transportation Department than all other airlines but Southwest.
Southwest, with 0.14 complaints per 100,000 customers, consistently generates the lowest complaint rate in the industry, was rated as the No. 3 carrier in the report.
Alaska Airlines came in second, America West fourth and US Airways, ranked No. 1 last year when it was still in bankruptcy, was fifth.
Northwest Airlines, which came in sixth, was the most improved airline in 2003. It ranked ninth in 2002.
The study's authors said the ratings showed that low-cost airlines are gaining market share because they perform well in ways that are important to their passengers.
It "adds further evidence to the emerging performance gap between the legacy carriers and the no-frills network carriers," said Brent Bowen, director of the University of Nebraska's aviation institute and a co-author of the study.
Dean Headley, the other co-author and an associate professor of marketing at Wichita State University, said most of the low-cost carriers were above the industry average on four performance indicators last year. Most of the traditional airlines were below the industry average, he said.
"The low-fare carriers are definitely solid in their ability to attract passengers, and it shows in the market share gains that they're making," Headley said.
He said low-cost airlines comprised 4 percent of the market when he began the study in 1991. Now they carry one-quarter of all passengers; Headley expects them to transport four in 10 by 2006.
The report rated the 14 U.S. airlines that carried at least 1 percent of the 587 million passengers who flew last year.
Four low-cost carriers AirTran, ATA, Atlantic Southeast and JetBlue met that threshold for the first time in 2003.
Alan Bender, an aviation professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., said the traditional airlines will still offer something that the low-cost carriers often do not: connecting flights to any commercial airport, first-class service and frequent flier miles.
"This doesn't mean the high-cost carriers are down and out," Bender said. "The survey seems to count out the fact that a large percentage of business people need ubiquitous service at any time of day."
He also said American travelers are addicted to frequent flier miles. "Business travelers will avoid low-cost carriers because they're not going to get miles that will take them to Hawaii," he said.
The report was based on Transportation Department statistics.
On the Net:
Transportation Department:
Copyright 2004 The Associated
Portable Game Players to Test Video Appeal
Sun Apr 4,12:44 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Franklin Paul
NEW YORK (Reuters) - For handheld video game makers like Nintendo (news - web sites), a popular TV character like SpongeBob SquarePants may be cute, but he's no moneymaking match for video game heavyweights such as Super Mario or Donkey Kong.
In coming months, handheld video game players like Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS) Game Boy plan to add video capabilities to show cartoons and, in time, movies, but industry analysts say video entertainment will always play second fiddle to the popularity of interactive games played on the portable devices.
"The track record of peripherals (for game handhelds) has been mixed," said RBC Capital Markets analyst Stewart Halpern. "Peripherals may make the platform more appealing, but I don't see video as critical to Game Boy. Ultimately, it is a games-playing machine."
Sales of video game hardware and software make up more than $10 billion annually. But the game industry is now in a lull awaiting new, faster game-playing devices.
During periods like these, companies typically try to extend the life of older game players by cranking out new software. This year, it is video programs of popular TV and movie characters like SpongeBob.
Starting in May, Edison, N.J.-based Majesco, a unit of ConnectivCorp. (OTC BB:CTTV.OB - news), will sell video cartridges that make the Game Boy Advance (GBA) like a mini-DVD player with the buttons controlling functions like advance and rewind.
Retail demand has been strong for the titles, which include Jimmy Neutron, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob SquarePants and Pokemon, thanks to licensing deals with 4Kids Entertainment (NYSE:KDE - news) and Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIAb - news) Nickelodeon.
Each $20 cartridge, made possible by Majesco's technology that compresses the video, will carry several episodes comprising some 45 minutes in all. Cartridges carrying 90 minutes will be available later this year, Majesco said.
21st CENTURY WALKMAN
The new line comes as Sony Corp (news - web sites). (6758.T), whose PlayStation 2 (news - web sites) dominates the video game console market, prepares to unveil Sony PSP. Sony executives have touted the device as "the Walkman of the 21st century" for its ability to play games, movies and music.
It would enter a handheld market ruled by Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, which has sold more than 20 million units, including seven million alone of the Game Boy Advance SP, a backlit version the size of a Post-It note pad, introduced a year ago.
Schelley O'Hara, an analyst at research firm IDC, said that while young children may enjoy SpongeBob episodes in the back seat of the car, few teens or adults would view "The Matrix," on a Game Boy or PSP, particularly when they can do the same at home or on a laptop computer.
"Just because the capabilities are there doesn't mean that they will be utilized," she said. "(Handheld) video is an interesting application, but it may be a drain on battery power, and the screens are too small" for watching anything beyond cartoons.
Busy adults also are drawn to passive pocket-sized devices, like portable music players, since they can be used while walking, exercising or driving. Video, however, typically requires a viewer to be still for long periods of time.
George Harrison, vice president of marketing at Nintendo of America, said the company sees "GBA Video" as an add-on product, one that does not detract from its bread-and-butter gaming business.
"It is an incremental opportunity for us to sell software. We do not (add functions) if it takes away from the core benefit of the machine and game play," he said.
Harrison declined to discuss many details of Nintendo's new handheld game device, which is so far is being called "DS." He said it has two screens, would likely cost more than $99 and would be unveiled in May at the E3 gaming industry conference in Los Angeles.
Compression schemes take screen test for digital cinema
By Rick Merritt
EE Times
March 31, 2004 (12:34 PM EST)
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — As many as eight compression schemes will face screen tests in April as they vie for inclusion in the final U.S. specification for digital cinema. The Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI), an effort of seven top U.S. studios, expects to choose one technology by the end of April.
Selecting a compression spec marks one of the last few hurdles before the DCI spec is finalized, probably in September. If studios and theater owners conclude negotiations on how to pay for the digital upgrade in a reasonable timeframe, the upgrades of an estimated 35,000 U.S. theaters could start before the end of the year or early in 2005. Driving the shift is the promise of dramatically lowered costs for studios to distribute films. Studios could save as much as $800 million a year distributing movies over satellite or terrestrial nets, said Julian Levin, an executive vice president for Twentieth Century Fox, speaking at the Digital Hollywood conference here Tuesday (Match 30).
"The theater is the very last part of the entertainment sector to go digital," said Levin. "Each 35-mm print costs us about $1,500, compared to less than $300 to distribute a digital film," he said.
Digital distribution also will open the door to wrapping advertising content around feature films more easily and cheaply. And unlike 35-mm prints, digital copies will not be subject to scratches after two or three weeks of viewing, he added.
DCI won't reveal any of the compression contenders to be tested at a proof-of-concept system set up at the Pacific Theater in Hollywood, but suggests it includes many open standards such as MPEG, motion JPEG, wavelet and others. One not on the list is Windows Media Video that Microsoft Corp. has elected not to submit for consideration in the standard.
Submissions are still open for companies who want their compression schemes considered. Submissions need to include complete details regarding royalties and intellectual property rights associated with the technology. About 50 theaters in the U.S. have already switched to digital using a mix of MPEG-2, wavelet and a proprietary compression scheme from Qualcomm Inc. Several theaters in Asia have also gone digital including 54 theaters in China which will add another 50 digital theaters this year, said Doug Darrow, business manager for Texas Instrument's Digital Light Projection (DLP) products which have become the de factor projection standard for DCI. Beyond fixing on compression scheme, DCI still needs to sort out some business issues that will dictate the security configuration of servers used in the spec. Studios and theater owners also need to define a financing scheme under which studios will reimburse theaters for the costs of the new gear.
Some digital cinema backers hope the technology helps curb piracy of first-run movies. Levin said 70 percent of known piracy stems from copies made using camcorders in theaters, and 70 percent of those copies have been traced to theaters in a six block area of Manhattan.
Darrow said TI is exploring with unnamed third parties technology that could be added to its DLP system to effectively scramble the DLP image when viewed on a camcorder.
Kurt Hall, president and chief executive of Regal CineMedia Corp., said theater owners and moviegoers won't see substantial benefits from the shift. "Most people we tested didn't notice the difference or didn't care, so we won't be able to increase the number of viewers or the ticket costs. There isn't a lot of evidence there will be much benefit to us," Hall said.
The biggest benefit of the shift may be pouring the expected savings back in the pockets of studios in hopes it will lead to more movies and marketing, he added.
There are an estimated 135,000 movie screens worldwide. Digital gear will cost as much as $70,000 per screen mainly for the projectors, Levin estimated. Darrow said some 210 theaters worldwide now use its DLP projectors.
It took us less than 15 minutes to sell out all 68 players we had available to rent," said Bill Boyer, Chairman and Founder of APS.
5 times 68 would be 340 players..a good start.eom
Net music piracy 'does not harm record sales'
18:28 30 March 04
NewScientist.com news service
Internet music piracy is not responsible for declining CD sales, claim the researchers behind a major new statistical study.
Felix Oberholzer-Gee at Harvard Business School in Massachusetts and Koleman Strumpf at the University of North Carolina tracked millions of music files downloaded through the OpenNap file-trading network and compared them with CD sales of the same music.
The music industry frequently claims that illegal file-trading is responsible for reducing legitimate music sales. The industry says this argument is the reason for their legal campaign of suing individual file traders over the past year.
However, the researchers conclude: "At most, file sharing can explain a tiny fraction of this decline."
Automatic monitoring
Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf monitored 680 albums, chosen from a range of musical genres, downloaded over 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. They used computer programs to automatically monitor downloads and compared this data to changes in album sales over the same period to see if a link could be established.
The most heavily downloaded songs showed no decrease in CD sales as a result of increasing downloads. In fact, albums that sold more than 600,000 copies during this period appeared to sell better when downloaded more heavily.
For these albums each increase of 150 downloads corresponded to another legitimate album sale. The study showed only a slight decline in sales as a result of online trading for the least popular music.
"From a statistical point of view, what this means is that there is no effect between downloading and sales," say Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf.
Adverse impact
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the world's largest record companies, point to a number of studies suggesting a between declining record sales and the growth of illegal file-trading.
For example, a series of surveys conducted by Houston-based company Voter Consumer Research have indicated that those who download more songs illegally are less likely to buy music from legitimate retailers.
"Countless well respected groups and analysts have all determined that illegal file sharing has adversely impacted the sales of CDs," says RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss.
But at least one other survey has already suggested precisely the opposite. And the new UNC study differs from previous work in its focus on individual album sales and its large scale. During the data gathering stage, the researchers tracked a total of 1.75 million downloads, or 10 per minute on average.
Dramatic tactic
Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Harvard Business School
Koleman Strumpf, University of North Carolina
The RIAA has led recent efforts to crack down on illegal online music trading. The association's most dramatic tactic has been to track down hundreds of individual file sharers and sue them for copyright infringement.
The approach was adopted after a US court ruled that the companies providing file-trading networks could not be held responsible for the actions of their users.
Opponents of these legal tactics, including some consumer groups, musicians and academics, have accused music industry of failing recognise the potential of file-trading as a legitimate music distribution method.
In their paper, Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf suggest that falling record sales may be partly explained by a weak US economy as well as increasing CD prices.
New Hard Drives May Turn Handhelds Into Tiny TiVos
Mike Langberg, 03.26.04, 4:59 PM ET
Apple Computer can't keep up with demand for its iPod mini digital music player, built around a 4-gigabyte hard drive that's just one inch in diameter.
So imagine the waiting list in six years, when the iPod mini's hard drive will hold 55 gigabytes of songs -- enough to play for 39 days non-stop without repeating a single track.
This isn't speculation. The humble hard drive, invented in 1956 by IBM engineers working in downtown San Jose, has a clear technology road map that shows continuing massive increases in capacity.
At a meeting of the American Physical Society in Montreal on Thursday, industry and university researchers discussed "Ultimate Limits to Data Storage."
Those limits aren't what they used to be. Ten years ago, researchers were worried hard drives for desktop PCs would top out at about 20 gigabytes. Now, new technology just about to enter production will boost desktop drives to about 2 terabytes -- or 2,000 gigabytes -- around 2010.
And even more advanced technologies, which don't have all the kinks worked out yet, could boost the iPod mini to 3 terabytes in 2020 and give the typical desktop PC an awesome 86-terabyte drive.
Better yet, the cost of hard drives is expected to stay constant as capacity soars.
To understand how this is happening, I spoke this week with three insiders: Mark Kryder, chief technology officer of Seagate Technology in Scotts Valley; Currie Munce, vice president of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in San Jose; and Mark Geenen, president of the International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association in Sunnyvale.
The first important technology transition, they explained, is about two years away.
Hard disks are built around spinning platters coated with very fine magnetic particles. A recording head on a pivot swings over the particles, changing their magnetic field to represent the ones and zeroes of digital data. Most of the increase in hard-disk capacity comes from crowding those particles closer and closer together.
Think of crowded rush-hour subways in Tokyo, where harried conductors shove reluctant commuters into tightly packed cars. At a certain point, there's a physical limit to how many bodies can squeeze together.
Today's hard drives use a system called longitudinal recording where the particles are, in effect, laid down sideways. It's as if the subway commuters were lying down on the floor.
The new technology is called perpendicular recording and, as the name implies, stacks the particles vertically so they can be packed much closer together.
Longitudinal recording can't go beyond a factor of two or three in additional density, so today's biggest desktop hard drive at 400 gigabytes would top out at about 1 terabyte in about two years.
Perpendicular recording, on the other hand, should be able to deliver 10 to 15 times more density, so the 120 gigabyte drive grows to almost 2 terabytes when perpendicular production methods are fully developed around 2010.
But that's not the end of the road. Hitachi (nyse: HIT - news - people ), which acquired IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people )'s disk-drive business last year, and Seagate (nyse: STX - news - people ) are working on a next-generation technology using lasers. Thermally assisted magnetic recording, as it's called, relies on a microscopic laser in the hard disk's head to briefly heat particles when writing data.
This overcomes a basic problem: As particles are packed ever closer, their magnetic fields can interfere with each other and make it impossible to accurately read or write data. The laser's heat allows the head to switch the setting on particles with very low magnetic fields -- so more particles can cram onto a platter.
At the Montreal meeting, a Seagate scientist said thermally assisted magnetic recording could go beyond perpendicular recording by another factor of 10.
Kryder, Munce and Geenen cautioned that, so far, thermally assisted magnetic recording only works on research lab test benches.
"You don't have all the issues solved," said Seagate's Kryder. "But my confidence level is pretty high."
There are more ideas now being tested, including reducing the size of a hard disk's particles all the way down to individual molecules. This is still somewhat in the realm of science fiction, but could someday yield hard drives with 3,500 times more capacity than today's models.
"Disk drive makers are almost pinching themselves with glee because the demand curve has never looked better," said Geenen of IDEMA.
What's exciting isn't the opportunity to store several million Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Word documents on a computer's hard drive. Instead, it's the whole new categories of consumer electronics that high-capacity hard drives will create.
Almost every device we use for electronic communication, information or entertainment could soon have a hard drive. Your cell phone will become a tiny TiVo (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people ), storing many hours of low-resolution video; hand-held digital music players may come pre-loaded with thousands of hours of music, which you would pay to unlock; camcorders could hold hundreds of hours of DVD-quality video, eliminating forever the worry about running out of tapes.
The business of making hard drives is so brutally competitive that analysts estimate the industry as a whole has lost money during the past 30 years. It's not certain the new technologies will change that. I'm just grateful so many people have been willing to work so long for so little reward, while giving the rest of us such wonderful tools for building the future.
Copyright ©2004 San Jose Mercury News. All Rights Reserved
Thanks fred. Very insightful.eom
Microsoft seeks an infotainment platform for cars
By Christoph Hammerschmidt
EE Times
March 24, 2004 (10:13 AM EST)
HANNOVER, Germany — Microsoft Corp. is pursuing a standard platform for infotainment that targets automobile electronics. The goal is to bring all infotainment and telematics applications together.
Microsoft disclosed the first details of its in-car infotainment drive at the CeBit consumer electronics exhibition here.
"We have defined the design," said J¼rgen Za, marketing manager for Europe within Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit. The software giant is seeking a platform that would unite many, if not all, applications for in-car entertainment, navigation and control of car phones. In terms of hardware, the "telematics box" would be linked to a network via a controller-area network (CAN) bus and dashboard display.
The platform will be available in several versions. Initially, a distinction between standard and high-end design is being considered, Za said. The former will meet the demands of telematics: communication via GSM and GPRS, and perhaps also via GPS for navigation. Meanwhile, Microsoft plans to use existing software technologies such as Web services, XML and .net in order, for example, to exchange status reports between a vehicle and a repair shop.
Previously, Microsoft argued that telematics could help integrate vehicles into the supply and service chains of car makers. At the same time, a high-end version of a telematics box could provide infotainment applications. Speech recognition could be a key component, but Za did not specify the extent to which it would be a component of the box.
Auto electronics has suffered from fragmentation of the market and platforms, Za said. "In the last 18 months we have conducted intense discussions with car manufacturers. We noticed a great interest in standard solutions for infotainment."
Market fragmentation has also slowed the reuse of deployed technologies. Hence, technologies have not matured and they have remained expensive. "Manufacturers have huge maintenance problems, and the servicing is very staff-intensive," says Za.
That's where Microsoft sees an opportunity: The company is currently developing a platform that will be available in a small number of variants. At the same time, the company said its platform with be flexible and, therefore, easy to use.
Microsoft Unveils New Mobile, Speech Software
Wed Mar 24, 1:50 PM ET Add Technology - Reuters to My Yahoo!
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chairman Bill Gates (news - web sites) unveiled on Wednesday Microsoft Corp.'s latest foray into business computing with Speech Server 2004 and an updated version of its software for mobile phones.
The world's largest software maker has been expanding its product offerings as it targets a wider base of business customers, but its efforts so far have been overshadowed by the wide reach of its Windows, Office and server software for networked computers.
"There's a huge range of scenarios that this new speech capability will be used for," Gates told an audience of developers at a conference in San Francisco.
Gates made no reference to Wednesday's decision by the European Commission (news - web sites) to pay a record 497 million euro ($606 million) fine for violating EU antitrust law and to give competitors in audio-visual software and servers a fairer chance to compete "because the illegal behavior is still going on."
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's new Speech Server, based on natural language recognition technology developed over the past several years, is a software platform for networked computers that allows other software developers to create programs tailored to their needs.
The No. 1 use of speech server technology is expected to be for companies setting up call centers with automated voice and touch-tone menus to provide customers service, Microsoft said.
Information technology departments are also expected to use the speech server to provide internal support functions, such as password resetting and help for computer users.
In addition, Microsoft unveiled an updated version of its cell phone software, called Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, which adds features such as better screen management and resolution, as well as support for phones with built-in keyboards.
Gates also unveiled new software releases of Microsoft's tools for other software developers to create programs that run on top of its Windows and server software products.
"We don't' see ourselves backing off in terms of large research and development investments in these areas," Gates said.
Microsoft has also been trying to get more wireless carriers and mobile phone manufacturers to use its cell phone software. Although it says 37 handset maker are developing phones with Microsoft software, only Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. offer phones in the United States featuring Windows Mobile.
"We are certainly at the early stage of the market and an industry that is beginning to accept us more and more," said Ed Suwanjindar, lead product manager for Microsoft's mobile and embedded software group.
LG, Samsung to clash in MP3 player market
LG Electronics Inc. is moving to strengthen its presence in the local MP3 player market in an apparent countermove against industry leader Samsung Electronics.
LG Electronics, the country's second-largest electronics maker, plans to launch its own production line of MP3 players by the end of June. This is a notable change in strategy for the company, which is currently supplying its line of MP3 players from other manufacturers.
Earlier this year, Samsung announced that it would enhance investment into the MP3 player business this year to claim back the No. 1 position from ReignCom Ltd. in the global MP3 player market.
Samsung, which sold around 1 million MP3 players internationally last year, aims to double its global sales while gaining more than 40 percent of the Korean market to unseat ReignCom.
ReignCom, which owns 50 percent of the domestic market, is the international leader in sales of flash-memory chip MP3 players, selling more than 1.2 million units last year for a 25 percent global market share. ReignCom revenues nearly tripled in 2003, while its profit rose fivefold to $36 million.
"The MP3 player is expected to evolve into a versatile entertainment device that could be used for digital broadcasting and other multimedia functions," said an analyst from Daewoo Securities.
"The competition between Korean manufacturers, which lead the international industry in flash-memory MP3 players, is expected to heat up during this year," he said.
The domestic market for MP3 players increased by 49 percent last year and expects for a 29 percent expansion for this year. Analysts predict that the market will increase by an annual rate around 30 percent through 2007.
Korea's MP3 player exports rose significantly last year. The Electronic Industries Association of Korea attributed the increase to enhanced product quality. By October, exports of MP3 players stood at $128 million, compared to $89 million in the same period in 2002.
(thkim@heraldm.com)
By Kim Tong-hyung
2004.03.23
Reasons for F10 pause?..MERA Talks Tough In Effort To Rescue Car Audio's Future
By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 3/22/2004
LOUISVILLE, KY.— Following one of the worst years in car audio history, the Mobile Enhancement Retailers Association (MERA) is calling for action in the form of a grassroots campaign to educate members, and later consumers, about their rights and options to alter their vehicles.
CEA estimated aftermarket car audio sales fell as much as 13.9 percent last year, marking the steepest decline in many years. It forecasts another 1.2 percent decline this year.
Chris Cook, CEA staff director for mobile electronics, and Alpine marketing VP Stephen Witt, presented reasons for the industry decline at the MERA Knowledgefest held here this week.
According to Cook, design changes in cars will "lock out" the ability for the aftermarket to replace radios in 22.4 percent of the top 60 vehicles, or over 15 million vehicles, by 2008. The radios will no longer fit due to size changes in the radio opening. In other vehicles, replacing the radio causes loss of functions, such as door chimes or seat belt chimes. Cook said this is now true in 13 percent of total new vehicles and 22 percent of the top selling vehicles.
MERA, said Witt, claims the decline in aftermarket sales is due not only to physical design changes in cars but also to several factors, such as the products becoming commodities. Other negative factors include: maturity of the industry, shifting demand, the economy, transshipping, the Internet, manufacturer practices and the lack of emotional engagement on the part of consumers.
The OEM Task Force committee of MERA is starting a campaign to tackle some of the problems occurring at the new-car level.
The initiative, called REV IT UP, is a campaign to teach industry members, and eventually consumers, about current car-company policies that do not allow consumers to repair their cars, including their car stereos, at aftermarket shops. "Consumers are completely unaware that this is about to happen to them," said MERA president Vicky Scrivner. "If you buy an '01 vehicle and then in '05 or '06 have a problem with it, you can't get it repaired in any aftermarket repair or entertainment shop, so you have to pay more."
Added MERA board trustee, Joe Cavanaugh, "People are not aware of the repercussions of these closed-end and proprietary complex systems now in cars. If five years later, you need to spend all this money to repair your car, you are getting five-year-old technology. The infrastructure of cars is not being designed with an upgrade approach. But if you don't educate consumers, they won't think it's a big deal." He noted that, in some cases, if a radio is broken, the consumer must repair it through the car dealer or void the car warranty. Some high-end radios can cost over $1,000 to replace because of a small malfunction.
MERA is currently asking members to finance the campaign. "Right now, we're not thinking legislatively, but we want to create a consumer groundswell through education. If every dealer talks to every customer ... if he has literature he can hand out, then these consumers can communicate this to the car dealers," Cavanaugh said.
MERA is also calling on all retailers to document every time a customer cannot get the stereo he wanted because of design-out or other OEM issues. MERA will then assemble a database.
MERA executive director Rick Mathies explained that MERA is not attacking the car companies. "We're not saying the auto manufacturers are doing this intentionally. But the consumer doesn't realize this is going on."
Cavanaugh noted that the only areas of growth in car audio last year were in products that do not require in-dash integration, including add-on changers, mobile multimedia and satellite-radio tuners. He claimed consumer awareness through REV IT UP should benefit all parties, including the car makers who will have unhappy customers four years down the line when their cars are out of warranty.
Scrivner said that the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer's Association is interested in getting involved in the REV IT UP campaign.
Another design-out issue revolves around MOST technology — a new fiberoptic data bus now being employed in upscale cars that affects the radio. The aftermarket is looking for car makers to include an open portal in MOST systems so that aftermarket companies can build products to plug into the system. As MOST migrates to more cars, the issue will become more critical to the aftermarket.
Copy protection plan squeezes home users
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
March 22, 2004 (12:31 PM EST)
DUBLIN, Ireland — The "Authorized Domain," a potentially troubling concept defining what a consumer can and cannot do with copyrighted content on the user's own electronic equipment, is quietly taking shape in a subgroup of the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) Project. The scenario has equal and opposite potential for liberating the legal use of copyrighted material and for exerting an unprecedented level of prior restraint on personal property.
Under the DVB's Copy Protection/Copy Management (CPCM) scheme, the group plans to tightly embed "authorized usage" metadata in content and to transmit "usage state information" specifying, for example, whether the content can be copied, stored, displayed or redistributed to other CPCM-compliant devices within a household and, if so, how many.
The scheme would give Hollywood the technical means to extend its control deeper into the home, by sending invisible electronic signals to consumers' personal electronics equipment to restrict the use of content.
A lingering issue, still under discussion, is how to make networks, interfaces and varied consumer boxes understand and execute the usage state information (USI). The concept affects the processing power, software and user interfaces required in a system design.
In theory, USI can be handled in a system via smart cards, software, hardware or the Windows operating system, DVB participants say. Moreover, "Consumers won't pay extra" for making their devices DVB CPCM-compliant, said Paul Szucs, manager of the standards and engineering department at Sony International (Europe) GmbH's European Technology Center. "Consumers' experience with DVB CPCM devices must be just as good as, or even better than, [with] noncompliant devices," he said.
Although the work is far from complete, the cross-industry group that has been crafting DVB CPCM reported its progress on the Authorized Domain at the DVB World 2004 Conference here earlier this month. Content owners such as movie studios, in collaboration with broadcasters, consumer electronics companies and PC vendors, are developing the standard for storage and distribution of content within a home.
By defining the Authorized Domain as a set of CPCM-compliant devices that "are owned, rented or otherwise controlled by members of a single household," DVB CPCM provides controls to "copy" and "move" content within and across domain boundaries, according to the group.
Subgroup members insisted that the spec — the result of four years of arduous efforts toward consensus on a definition of the Authorized Domain — is designed to "enable, rather than prevent" the distribution of content based on the broadest range of business models. Almost 30 companies are participating in the DVB copy protection subgroup, including the BBC, BskyB, Disney, Intel, Micronas, Microsoft, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Warner Bros.
Mapping the technical spec to fit consumers' social and private behavior at home, however, is a tricky business. The issue could prove controversial, depending on how the spec is implemented and how the rules are enforced.
"Our goal is to keep it simple, keep it cheap and keep it easy to implement," said subgroup chairman Chris Hibbert, vice president of media technology and standards at Walt Disney Television International. According to Hibbert, DVB CPCM is intended to be self-managing, with little or no intervention required by the user and no return path. "There is no requirement for owners of CPCM-compliant devices to register their devices. Quite the opposite; there is a requirement to preserve consumer privacy." He added, "We want to do this without depending on Big Brother."
Hibbert compared the Authorized Domain to "a modular personal video recorder." Typical PVR functions, such as "acquisition, storage, processing and viewing," are implemented in logically separate units in the Authorized Domain, he said.
With the threat of movie "Napsterization" no longer theoretical but real, the industries have every incentive to agree upon a technical guideline — and fast. "If we don't get this done before the end of 2004, de facto systems will take over," cautioned Sony's Szucs.
Still, some consumers may find the Authorized Domain a disturbing encroachment. Even Szucs acknowledged the concept cold be "potentially contentious."
Yet, "I'd estimate that 75 percent of consumers would never have a problem with it," said Mike Paxton, senior analyst for converging markets and technologies at In-Stat/MDR, who termed the scheme "fairly benign." The remaining 25 percent, he said, "might be inconvenienced if they're trying to burn a CD or copy a DVD."
But failing to reach a solution on copy protection issues could be even more damaging, Szucs and Hibbert of Disney Television argued. If incompatible systems were to proliferate, said Hibbert, content owners would start "cherry-picking their own 'trusted' system. Both manufactures and broadcasters [would then] need to deal with multiple incompatible [copy protection] systems — and lawyers will make a fortune."
Under that scenario, said Szucs, "it would become very difficult for consumers to get a variety of high-quality content legally, without having to buy all the proprietary solutions."
That is exactly Microsoft Corp.'s concern, said Mark Jeffrey, the company's program manager for European media standards and policy, based in Geneva. If de facto systems rule the market, "we'd have to start writing so many different interfaces for proprietary solutions — such as one for a Panasonic device, another for a Sony device, etc.," Jeffrey said.
Not the only one
The DVB Project is not the only place copy protection debates are taking place, nor is DVB CPCM the only spec necessary for protecting content (see table, page 1). An end-to-end copy protection scheme often requires various technology pieces, ranging from conditional access and digital rights management (DRM) to broadcast flags, scrambling, encryption and watermarking.
DVB CPCM does not touch those matters. It is "not conditional access, and it is not digital rights management," said Giles Godart-Brown, R&D program manager for British Sky Broadcasting and a chairman of the DVB Commercial Module responsible for copy protection.
Rather, according to the DVB, CPCM offers "a connection point" for various DRM and conditional-access schemes. DRM, Godart-Brown said, involves "the prevention of illegal distribution of content via the Web, and not directly its storage and distribution at home." Conditional access, meanwhile, controls access to content, not necessarily its storage and distribution. CPCM will communicate with both types of systems, where necessary, to enable additional controls, Godart-Brown said.
Within the DVB Copy Protection Technologies subgroup, participants are defining five abstract functional blocks, said Sony's Szucs. They are acquisition, the point where content enters a CPCM Authorized Domain; storage; processing; consumption; and redistribution, where content leaves the Authorized Domain, if allowed. The group is defining firm terminology and a concrete meaning for each block, he said, in order to establish a reference model.
"Work is ongoing on how these abstract functions can be mapped to logical and physical entities like devices, interfaces and networks," Szucs said.
Once the reference model is in place, the group must devise a system specification, including a scrambling method. Disney TV's Hibbert listed as big technical challenges "the security of communication between devices; the method of securing the content; and the means of securely binding the usage state information to the content."
In-Stat's Paxton described "the actual copy protection/copy management software" as "the toughest piece of technology" to create. Consumer electronics vendors, he said, have tried before to "place these unbreakable shells of software around digital content on CDs and DVDs" and have never really succeeded. The key challenge has been to keep the software from being hacked. "Once the copy protection systems have been undermined, it's simple for pirates to make unlimited copies of the music, videos or software," Paxton said.
One wrinkle in the Authorized Domain concept would occur when equipment changes hands. Hibbert acknowledged that divorce is a case when one or more devices could move from one Authorized Domain to another. The owners "will need to decide to which Authorized Domain that content — which is labeled as restricted to one [domain] only — will be assigned." Not all content, he added, "will be signaled as restricted to only one Authorized Domain; it depends on the associated distribution rights."
Yeah, look at these..Mobile Viewer from Toshiba - The Archos killer?
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/337/C2625/
Friday March 19, 2004 1:16 PM EST
By: Fabrizio Pilato
Source: engadget
Toshiba also released two very cool handheld devices for consumers at the CeBIT 2004 show today. The Mobile Viewer is a multimedia player with a 3.5-inch LCD and 1.8-inch 20GB HDD that can store up to 80 hours of video. With an optional one megapixel camera module, the device turns into a still picture and video recorder. You can also dock this thing into a cradle with stereo sound speakers transforming the Mobile Viewer into your mini entertainment unit.
The Mobile Viewer is very similar to the Archos AV300 series devices, with a detachable camera module but lacking a much needed docking station.
The SD Card Viewer consists of a 3.45-inch Organic LED (OLED) display, this next-generation flat panel screen will give users a brighter, sharper more vivid picture then today's LCD's. The Organic LED has an incredibly fast refresh rate, unfortunately it is still a concept but may be seen in units as soon as 2006.
Archos reveals the AV500 at CeBIT 2004
Monday March 22, 2004 8:43 AM EST
By: Fabrizio Pilato
Source: Charbox
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/337/C2626/
If this will indeed be called the AV500, Archos has done a nice job on the successor of its AV300 series. With a slimmer sleeker more ergonomic look, the AV500 makes the AV320 look like a clunky has-been. The new PVP and PDA combo device with docking station will be released before the end of 2004, and is around the same size as a Jornada Pocket PC. No exact dimensions were released, although Archos assures us that it's amazingly small.
The 20 and 40GB devices use a 704x480 30fps maximum resolution screen, aside from standard DivX and MPEG4 playback, it will even play games and just about anything else you can imagine. Archos hasn't forgot about the big boss either, they have added Microsoft DRM support for WMA and WMV9 video format, and synchronization with Microsoft Windows Media Player. It also has an external speaker and microphone.
This will be the first PVP/PDA device on the market (unless someone beats them to it) supporting standard PIM applications (Email, Calendar, Notepad, Calculator etc.) plus an internet browser. The unknown connection method will support Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM and other add-on cards.
For the gadget guru always needing to back-up some data, this will feature dual USB 2.0 ports for direct camera to device transfers of your image files, it will also be a fully functioning multi-media reader. Archos also added EPG (Electronic Progamming Guide) technology, to allow you to control the AV500 with a remote control as a video player/recorder.
Microsoft unveils online song shop
March 22 2004
by Jim Hu
With a release date to boot
Microsoft said on Friday that the second half of the year will see the launch of its online music store, a long-expected entry into an increasingly crowded business dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes.
The software giant this week began offering sneak peaks of the service to independent record labels at the South by Southwest trade show in Austin, Texas. Though Microsoft remains mum about specific details, this week's show signals the company's heightened ambitions to enter the world of online music sales with a bang.
Microsoft will promote its music store primarily through its MSN.com web portal, according to company spokeswoman Lisa Gurry. Visitors will be able to sign up via MSN and browse a catalogue of songs and albums to purchase and download onto their computers. Gurry declined to comment on pricing or on the number of songs Microsoft plans to initially release on the service.
"We are absolutely going to be striving for a large catalogue of music, but we have no specific numbers to confirm," Gurry said in an interview.
The store will also let buyers transfer their music onto portable playback devices. About 60 per cent of portables currently support Microsoft's Windows Media audio format, Gurry said. She added that Microsoft has not decided whether to extend its song portability to non-Windows Media devices.
Currently Apple's popular iPod player is compatible with Microsoft's Windows operating system, as is its iTunes music store. Gurry also declined to say whether Microsoft's music store would be bundled into Windows or featured on its Windows Media playback software.
Online song sales have started to catch on, and many companies are trying to elbow their way into the market. Apple recently said it has sold 50 million songs through iTunes, while smaller players, such as Roxio's Napster, have sold as many as 5 million. Still, the business is difficult because margins are low. Still other companies, such as Yahoo!, have publicly expressed doubt about the business but have nonetheless noted that the trend is becoming too powerful to ignore.
Jim Hu writes for CNET News.com
MP3 surround sound system debuts
Last Updated: Monday, 22 March, 2004, 08:58 GMT
It's not just about loud anymore
Soon your MP3 files could be sounding even better.
The Fraunhofer Institute has found a way to reproduce surround sound in a way that works with small MP3 files.
Using a small amount of additional information added to an MP3 encoding stream the technology catches information about where sounds are supposed to be coming from.
Fraunhofer said that the system it developed would work with existing MP3 software and music players.
Extra data
Surround sound is usually produced by recording audio on different channels so it appears to come from three or more directions.
But more channels means more data making it a poor candidate for converting into small files that can easily be swapped online or put on a portable player.
However, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have come up with a way to preserve this information without resorting to recording huge amounts of data.
Fraunhofer reproduces surround sound by adding to MP3 encoding extra information that describes the spatial characteristics of the main audio track.
Using this extra information helps MP3 players recreate the surround sound effect.
Music encoded with the new system will work with older hardware and software MP3 players but the extras will only the surround sound when piped through a player that can do something with the extra information.
Surround sound MP3 files played on devices or by software that does not work with the system will just sound like ordinary MP3 files.
Small size
The MP3 way of encoding music works by removing those parts that the human ear cannot hear.
They can reduce the amount of space needed to store music on a CD by a factor of 12 without losing much sound quality.
Fraunhofer said that the first products using the surround sound technology should be available by July 2004.
The surround sound MP3 technology arose out of a project that the Fraunhofer Institute conducted with Agere Systems and was showcased at the Cebit technology fair in Hanover, Germany.
Updated I believe..DigEplayer Portable VOD Big Hit With Alaska Air Passengers
Alaska Airlines 737-700
AIRFAX.com recently visited Dave Palmer, Alaska Marketing Director, and the man in charge of the DigEplayer development at Alaska Airlines. As an airline objective, Alaska Airlines (like many other US carriers) has been analyzing the cost and value of their airline service product. In the past, Mr. Palmer has had product brand responsibility but now has taken on an evaluation of the whole customer experience from a marketing perspective – the process and procedures - evaluating if they are in line with the corporation’s goals and objectives. “We are looking at things like the meal service, ours and our competitors, to see if we can get our costs down like many of the low-cost carriers because that is where the growth in the industry is today. We have watched the major carriers who have not changed…or who have not changed fast enough, and like them, we are trying to take cost out of the equation in an effort to be more competitive.” Alaska has determined that the passenger expectation has changed so much in the last 2 years that most airlines must re-evaluate their offerings. This is probably a reasonable proposition for most airlines today.
Alaska has been known as a high quality airline, but high quality, in many cases, can equate to high cost. In-flight entertainment equipment systems have no problem falling into that category and Alaska has looked at the installed hardware and come away from the experience looking for another solution. “We are placing an emphasis on the ‘value’ of our service offering, not just the cost,” said Palmer. “What is the fair proposition between the prices paid for a ticket versus the value received for the flight experience?” Alaska is using almost every form of passenger feedback and research group to evaluate the needs and wants of passengers and how Alaska stacks up.
Alaska Airlines' Dave Palmer shows off the DigEplayer portable VOD unit
And that is where Bill Boyer and DigEplayer come in for Alaska Airlines. Life in the West involves a lot of air travel. This is one of the factors that have helped the growth of Alaska. Their single-aisle, long haul boom began, in part, with their service from Seattle to Washington DC in 2001. With the advent of the longer haul B737-700’s and 900’s, they quickly saw the need for entertainment. As these longer segments grew with the addition of more East coast and Mexico destinations, Alaska knew the time had come for more IFE.
“Portable DVD players were the first answer,” said Palmer, “and they will be with us for some time to come.” But, the problems associated with the handling and updating of media are continually a headache he told us. As a result, Alaska put a notice in their company newspaper asking for ideas and solutions to the IFE problem…and Bill Boyer had a better one. “Bill brought us a simple concept, but one we thought, might be difficult in execution.” Given a cautionary go-ahead, APS built a mockup and after agreement, took the concept to eDigital for the initial design of a development unit.
Meanwhile, Boyer took the idea to Harvey Applebaum at 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. “It was his guidance and help that got the content part of the equation solved early on,” said Mr. Palmer. With the high level of encryption that APS designed in to the little unit, the DigEplayer portable video-on-demand unit stands alone in IFE offerings…from any new or well established IFE vendor. At less than 2 pounds per unit (with battery,) Alaska has opted to pass out the units as the flight prepares to depart (no charge for First Class) and rents players to Economy as well. Mr. Palmer told AIRFAX.com that they are providing 41 units on flights from East to West but since the eastbound flights are early and passengers are less interested in entertainment because of sleep or work, fewer units are sent. “This is one of the beauties of a revenue-shared, portable product,” said Palmer, “We can allocate our assets on an as-required basis.” We asked if Alaska or APS was responsible for handling the units during the flight turns – meeting and greeting the plane, cleaning the units and charging batteries and storing them for the next day. “Rockwell Collins is performing that duty for us and APS,” he said.
DigEplayer portable VOD player
We asked about the passenger popularity because the unit differs from many of the installed systems and we were not surprised to find out that there was not one negative input from customers. The positive, overwhelming acceptance should make most IFE vendors sit up and take notice of this product. “With the acceptance of this feature, we have not “lost” one unit yet, but we have had to pry a few out of the hands of some employees…our flight crews love them.” There are a few lessons here: 1. Portable IFE is here and IFE vendors better be prepared to compete in this universe. 2. Passengers love the “choice” offered by the device and we predict that this product will be passenger differentiable – they know Alaska has them and will come back for the experience. 3. Busy crews see the value in an IFE product that keeps their passengers entertained, in their seats, and happy. Win-win-win!
The DigEplayer story is another chronicle of IFE success and may define a new paradigm in the industry. As we mentioned, portable VOD players are a far cry from cargo loaders and you are probably asking yourself how a sophisticated electronic entertainment device came from a cargo loading equipment maker, not an IFE vendor or equipment maker. There are numerous answers to this question but we liked Dave Palmer’s best; “Bill probably didn’t know he could not develop one, so he did.”
There is quite a success story brewing at APS and Alaska. Customers love the product – they line up while boarding with $10 dollar bills on outstretched hands, vying for one of them. The underlying message is that customers will pay for choice. Airline customers do not need installed entertainment systems with complicated and expensive entertainment solutions. Not only will they pay for them on the plane, they will sign up for entertainment options on the Internet before they leave on a flight. Portable equipment and the inherent battery issues can be made to work as well as the issues surrounding fulfillment. Alaska and the DigEplayer unit have broken so many stereotypes about IFE; most people in this business should be humbled by this incredible IFE experiment. Hats off to Dave Palmer, because he is living up to the grand old Alaskan tradition of self reliance and inventiveness. He and Bill Boyer should get some kind of an award from the WAEA – these guys are the Wright Brothers of our industry!
The Alaskan Airlines DigEplayer entertainment offering:
4 New Release Movies
6 Seasonal Favorites Movies
15 Other Movie Titles
4 TV Shows…and more
Music selections from: alternative, Broadway, childrens, classic rock, classical, country, jazz, pop, R&B, and “Alaska FM”
Buy one, get none free: market heating up for (legal) music downloads
Fri Mar 19, 6:30 AM ET Add Technology - AFP to My Yahoo!
HANOVER, Germany (AFP) - The recording industry is fighting back against the wild popularity of illegal music downloading with a rush of online services, but it must answer why customers would pay for something they have long gotten free.
The relative anonymity users enjoy online and the mass availability of download sites have long allowed consumers to "rip" copyrighted songs from the Internet with abandon, costing the music industry billions of dollars a year.
But at the giant CeBIT high-tech fair in Hanover, Germany, major entertainment and high-tech firms announced alliances to put offenders on the straight and narrow with alternatives they say are faster, easier to use, safer and priced affordably.
Following the popularity of Apple's iTunes Music Store and Napster (news - web sites)'s now legal service, what were once lone pioneers are now gaining some fierce competition in reclaiming market share robbed by free music-swapping sites such as Kazaa.
Sony Europe unveiled at the CeBIT "Connect," which will launch in June in France, Britain and Germany and allow users to choose from 300,000 titles from major and independent labels, priced at 99 euro cents (1.1 dollars) each.
Meanwhile Deutsche Telekom launched its new PhonoLine platform and won some free publicity when German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder popped by its CeBIT stand to download his first song -- "Only if I" by Belgian pop singer Kate Ryan.
The "business-to-business" service developed by the telecoms giant's T-Com unit provides the technical infrastructure for new music websites by the major recording labels: BMG, Universal, Sony, Warner und EMI.
Each of the new services allows users to download the music onto home computers and burn a limited number of copies to CDs.
And with artists' CD sales down 10 percent 2003, in large part due to illegal copying, the industry says the long-delayed launch of such sites couldn't be more welcome.
T-Com product developer Carsten Scholz said the threat of viruses on swap sites, technical supremacy and a simple sense of decency among users would turn the tide toward legitimate sites.
"It may not work with all the technically savvy teenagers but older, more affluent users will come to us," he told AFP.
Apple started the iTunes Music Store in the United States in April 2003 offering 500,000 songs at 99 US cents a piece and has already sold more than 30 million songs.
And now legitimate Napster, which had previously been shut down by a federal judge for illegal swapping, has tallied five million downloads.
But those figures still pale in comparison to the eight billion tunes the music industry believes are copied illegally each year.
"We have a clear dual strategy on the Internet," said the chairman of the German phonographic association, Gerd Gebhard. "On the one hand, backing legal and safe music and on the other, cracking down hard on illegal offers."
As if timed for the services' launch at the CeBIT, German police said Thursday they had conducted their biggest ever crackdown on Internet piracy, launching a criminal probe against 126 members of an online hackers' forum thought to be part of a wider network of nearly 500 people in 33 countries.
The suspects hacked into Internet service providers to gain access to film, music, computer software and games, then offered pirated versions for downloading.
An analyst at Forrester Research, Rebecca Jennings, said these type of raids and the emergence of better alternatives would help the industry recover lost ground.
"Attempts to stop illicit downloading in Europe have failed so far," Jennings said.
"But commercial sites just need to be patient as the market gradually changes. In 2004, a combination of legal action by the music industry and expansion of legitimate services will cause a watershed in the download market."
emit you heretic you.eom
50 millionth song marks a milestone for iTunes
41 minutes ago
By Jon Fortt, Mercury News
Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store has notched its 50 millionth song that customers paid to download from the Internet, opening distance between the company and its online music competitors.
Monday's announcement underscores a truth about today's paid music download market: Apple still rules. But the company said its iPod audio player is still the real moneymaker in its music strategy.
That's because, while Apple makes a thin profit percentage from 99-cent song sales, it gets a healthier boost selling iPods, which start at $249.
In the online music marketplace, iTunes store's closest competitor, Napster (news - web sites), has sold only about 5 million downloads -- though that does not include Napster's streaming music subscription service. And Apple's 50 million-song tally does not include songs Pepsi and Apple are giving away in their promotion together. Customers are now downloading at a rate of 2.5 million songs a week, or about 130 million a year.
Apple has about 70 percent of the market in paid song downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Rob Schoeben, Apple vice president of applications marketing, said he thinks Apple is doing even better at album downloads. "We actually think that we're around 90 percent market share on albums," he said.
The numbers are big for online downloads, but they're peanuts for the recording industry at large. These days the recording industry sells about 750 million CDs each year according to the latest industry numbers, with multiple songs on each CD.
Even considering its early success in convincing people that an online download store can work, Apple faces challenges.
That's because for Apple, digital music downloads aren't an end in themselves -- they are a means to selling more iPods. Schoeben characterized the company's approach as "iTunes plus iPod." The idea, Schoeben said, is that once people download songs from iTunes, they'll crave an iPod to carry the tunes around, because "you can burn CDs, but who wants to use a CD player these days?"
In the coming months, Apple will begin to unfurl its strategy of making a little less profit on the average iPod, but selling a lot more of them. A Hewlett-Packard branded version of the iPod is due in a few weeks, and HP will pocket some of the profit from that version. The new iPod mini will bring Apple less profit per sale than previous iPod models, because its parts make up a larger portion of its $249 price tag.
Success for Apple will mean selling so many of the music players that the slimmer profits don't matter, and paying lower prices for the iPod's building blocks. Apple will begin to show success or failure in the spring.
So far, Apple has struggled to make enough iPod minis to meet demand, though that is common for a new product. And as for wrangling lower prices out of its parts suppliers -- Richard Doherty, director of research for Envisioneering Group, doesn't think that will be a problem for Apple's chief executive.
"There's the laws of economics and there's the laws of Steve Jobs (news - web sites) negotiation," Doherty said. "He has been known to get components at cost, or sometimes below cost."
Contact Jon Fortt at jfortt@mercurynews.com or (408) 278-3489.
Pop: Rated G for grown up
Fri Mar 12, 6:10 AM ET Add Entertainment - USATODAY.com to My Yahoo!
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
For nearly five decades, since the birth of rock 'n' roll, it has been a given that pop music is fundamentally of, by and for young people. Record companies, radio programmers and other music media have catered to fans in their teens and early 20s, while older artists have gone to great, sometimes comical lengths to project and attract youth. (Related story: Charting the evolution of pop music)
But a funny thing happened on the way to the new millennium. In the late '90s, while the industry's attention was focused on the biggest generation of teenage pop fans since the baby boomers, older listeners were sneaking into record stores in steadily increasing numbers. In 2002 (the latest date for which figures have been compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites)), people ages 30 and older bought 56% of the recorded music sold in this country, up nearly 14 points from a decade earlier. "There are a lot of people pursuing the over-30 consumer now, so that trend is continuing and building," says Ed Christman, a senior writer covering retail at Billboard.
What might be even more surprising are some of the artists fueling this phenomenon. Less than a month ago, the music business, beset for years by plunging sales and growing concerns about piracy, was buoyed by the biggest single week of album sales ever outside the November/December holiday season. It was the week that last year's Grammy darling, Norah Jones (news), unveiled her second CD, Feels Like Home. The album sold 1.02 million copies, the highest number for a new entry since 'N Sync (news - web sites) released Celebrity back in 2001. Home remains at No. 1, having sold 1.9 million copies since its debut Feb. 10.
Jones is only 24, but her music has appealed to a wide demographic, including many thirty-, forty- and fiftysomethings. "I've always had older people in my audience," the singer/songwriter told USA TODAY. "I listen mostly to older music myself."
Yet Jones' acoustic songs, with their folk, country and jazz nuances, aren't the kind typically relied on to attract mass audiences, even grown-up ones. Glossy ballads and familiar hits by established mainstream acts have traditionally been the bread and butter of adult-contemporary radio, with subtler and grittier fare often relegated to public and independent stations. Jones herself has credited such non-commercial outlets for giving her crucial early exposure.
Gradually, though, sleeper success stories such as Jones' are making media executives re-evaluate their notions of what defines saleable adult pop, and encouraging them to court more mature and sophisticated listeners.
"Quiet as it's kept, commercial radio has gotten a little more adventurous overall," says Sean Ross, vice president of Edison Media Research. He cites the rising profile of jazz-based chanteuse Diana Krall (news) and the relatively obscure folk and bluegrass musicians featured on the multi-platinum O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, a surprise Grammy champ the year before Jones' victory.
Such artists may not get as much airplay as Celine Dion (news), Rod Stewart (news) or other adult-contemporary stalwarts, but the momentum they have built in spite of restrictive formats and limited marketing has not gone unnoticed. "Out of the box is better for me, anyway," says Krall, whose new CD, The Girl in the Other Room, due April 27, mixes covers of Tom Waits (news), Joni Mitchell (news) and Mose Allison with original songs co-written with her new husband, Elvis Costello (news). "There's too much music to be influenced by, you know?"
The contemporary connection
Radio also has begun warming up to more progressive and offbeat pop stars whose earlier forum, an "adult alternative" format created in the '90s, fizzled. "(Adult contemporary) radio has become the new destination for artists like Annie Lennox (news), who have gotten more eclectic with time and aren't going to be heard anywhere else," says Ross.
Recent Oscar winner Lennox, whose introspective, sonically ambitious 2003 album, Bare, earned rave reviews and entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 3, says, "The powers of media can be hugely influential. But if you can get exposure without that kind of hype, what you do will filter through on a more grass-roots level. People approach me now who have connected very deeply with what I'm doing, and that really pleases me, because it gives me a sense of purpose."
Another long-admired troubadour, Mary Chapin Carpenter (news), whose CD Between Here and Gone also arrives April 27, adds: "Not only as an artist, but as a lover and consumer of music, I want to hear things that speak to me, that I can connect with. Younger is where it's at in the entertainment world, but they shouldn't forget about us."
Ross observes that new media has presented older and more independent-minded artists opportunities outside radio. "There are certainly more places to hear new music," he says. "There are online services like AOL First Listen and Launch, online recommendations at Amazon.com and like portals, and satellite radio. And they're not all just for teenagers."
In fact, though Jones says that "some people have said the only reason I'm doing so well is that adults don't know how to download," the evidence contradicts that theory. The first single from Home, Sunrise, set a one-day record at iTunes and opened at No. 2 on Soundscan's Digital Tracks chart, right behind Outkast's massive hit Hey Ya.
"The point is not that the people listening to this music are technically unsophisticated, so they're stuck buying CDs," says Alan Light, editor of Tracks, a new magazine geared toward adult music fans that interviewed Jones for its current cover story. "I think labels have been too slow to attempt to speak to this audience, in part because it's harder to reach. There isn't a shortcut to get in front of them, the way you can break a pop act through top 40 radio and MTV. It's an audience that isn't served by the music media, so it has to be cultivated from different directions."
Industry wake-up call
Bruce Lundvall, head of Blue Note Records, Jones' label, agrees that his ailing industry has failed to tap into a potentially rich adult market. "It's very clear to me that there's an audience out there that has been ignored," says Lundvall, whose roster also includes such lauded jazz, rock and R&B veterans as Cassandra Wilson (news), Wynton Marsalis, Van Morrison (news) and Al Green (news). "But things are changing. I have a feeling that Norah has been a catalyst, a sort of wake-up call."
Noted producer T Bone Burnett, whose recent credits include the O Brother and Cold Mountain soundtracks, isn't surprised that Jones' music has resonated so powerfully.
"For several years, I've been delving back into the music of the last couple of centuries, and you realize that it all comes from the same place, really," he says. "The more technological we become, the more we need to be in touch with who we are and where we come from.
"So someone like Norah is very attractive to people, because she's a girl who sits at a piano and plays and sings with other musicians. She's not groomed and labored over and pitch-corrected."
Dido, another young singer/songwriter who has won over critics and commercial audiences with spare, graceful pop (most recently on last year's Rent), says, "I think we don't give people enough credit. They're force-fed music that's formulaic and doesn't really move them. And essentially, I think people want to be moved."
Like Jones, Dido has been both criticized and praised for the relatively subdued quality of her recordings, despite the latter's techno-savvy arrangements. "If I get called 'dinner party music' one more time ... But whenever people call it that, my answer is simply, 'Turn it up.' Because what I do is different, just like what Norah does. It's not meant to just be put on in the background."
If the radio suits who ignored Jones at first continue to shun artists whom they consider too subtle or quirky, it will be to their detriment, says critically acclaimed singer/songwriter Sam Phillips (news), an adult alternative favorite.
"It just seems that radio is not at the forefront of new music anymore," says Phillips, whose new album, A Boot and a Shoe, is due April 27.
Phillips' early hero Randy Newman (news) concurs. "Radio can still sell singles, and to some degree albums, but it's not making careers," he says. Both Newman and Phillips are currently signed to Nonesuch Records, a label that, like Blue Note, has built a reputation for nurturing respected career artists - among them Emmylou Harris (news), Joni Mitchell and David Byrne (news) - as some other labels have suffered for their pursuit of instant pop stars.
"There has been a complete meltdown of the music business, and it can look horrible in ways," says Phillips. "But I think it can end up being for the best, because it's making people look at things. A lot of marketing and advertising experts are having to scratch their heads and say, 'Well, maybe we don't really know what's popular. It's not as scientific as we thought.' Things need to be torn down in order to be built back up again."
Adds Burnett, Phillips' longtime producer, "Artists are excited because the industry has less control than it did, so there's more freedom to try different things. There was a time when if you made a record, it had to be a certain length, to fit into a certain slot, to sound a certain way. Everything was dictated; it was sanctioned art. Now anything can happen, and it will. Anything that can go right just might."
Does owd know about this? He should get over on the HP board and rip them a new one for squandering their technology lead.
Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said: "Your typical barista may be great at making espresso but is not in a position to fix the broken CD burner. And how do you find what you are looking for when faced with 250,000 tracks?''
Ahhh..we haven't had any problems with Napster now have we and I haven't even played with Itunes yet. Wow...a research analyst without any vision..so sad
That said..Microsoft mobilizes on wireless video
Last modified: March 11, 2004, 8:31 AM PST
By Matt Hines
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Software giant Microsoft said Thursday it is launching a wireless video delivery system for mobile devices, in partnership with a pair of digital media content and applications makers.
The software, called MobileVision, is meant to provide a complete streaming-video services framework for wireless network operators and digital media and applications providers. Microsoft worked with wireless media software makers Vidiator Technology and TWI Interactive to create the system. The package will be marketed through TWI, which specializes in content creation and management applications. It will also be sold as a hosted service.
Microsoft said MobileVision offers wireless operators and content providers all the tools necessary to build and support new mobile video services, including content management and streaming media applications. The package also includes billing and customer-care systems.
MobileVision is designed to run on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 software and was built around the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) industry standard for mobile communications. Vidiator, whose software helps deliver mobile services to handsets that use Microsoft Windows operating systems, developed the 3GPP portion of the system.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft retooled its wireless software division last month, bringing onboard a new marketing chief and an executive in charge of development for mobile and embedded devices. The unit has traditionally been unprofitable, but sales have been growing lately as Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC-based devices have gained ground in the handheld market.
One of the major thrusts of MobileVision is its promise to help wireless operators launch new mobile video services in a relatively short time. The companies estimate that MobileVision will allow service providers to create and introduce content delivery services in as little as four weeks. The wireless system can also acquire video from multiple sources, present content in customizable "video portals," report return on investment figures, and support multiple video formats, mobile handsets and network technologies.
In addition to providing Windows and .Net software expertise for the package, Microsoft said its telecommunications team will help market and deliver MobileVision to wireless operators. TWI will offer service infrastructure, integration capabilities, and content management and billing software. Vidiator is providing the media delivery technology that serves as the core of the package.
emit, I guess what's taking them so long comes to mind but then I remember that they are using a Windows platform and my wonder ceases. I am betting that going with DivX just may turn out to be our ace-in-the-hole. Those poor bastards who are gonna marry themselves to WMA9 may be in for a long bumpy ride if history is any guide LOL.
Unless patented technology makes our integration of MPEG-4 tech in this setting something that may need to be licensed. Anything less than smooth reproduction of video and sound in this device while maintaining ample battery life just will not do. Hey if Sony/Aiwa could not integrate FM into their MP3 players what does this tell you....not every schmo can do this work and those who get there first usually win. Boyer is on record saying they are talking to 13 airlines...we've got two on the line now.
cheers
But you missed the point seed, where are our competitors? Are they all sleeping? I hope you would acknowledge that we/APS got the jump on many and are well positioned to lead this market. We are "in" with the right folks at WAEA. Please let me know if you are aware of any other competitor's entries in this space....
where else would you look? Simple idea, COTS, just what could be the barrier (could it be mOS?)...where are all our competitors? Have we found our niche? Inquiring minds want to know...
Competitors??..where are they? Can you direct us to their websites so we can get a look at their models? No?...didn't think so.
A bad thing this ain't...'nuf said.eom
Napster, IBM unveil new music delivery system
Wednesday March 10, 12:01 am ET
LOS ANGELES, Mar 10 (Reuters) - Online music service Napster on Wednesday unveiled an application using IBM technology to help universities and other customers save computing bandwidth and money.
Napster, owned by digital media company Roxio Inc. (NasdaqNM:ROXI - News), said its new "Super Peer" application uses International Business Machine Corp.'s (NYSE:IBM - News) eServer BladeCenter systems to store popular songs from Napster in on-site servers rather than from the Internet.
The most popular tracks in the Napster system are stored locally, enabling customers like The University of Rochester and Penn State University, to reduce their computing infrastructure's vulnerability to overuse.
"When we embarked on our industry-leading university program, we set out to alleviate the technical and business strains that illegal file-sharing puts on Universities and ISPs," said Bill Pence, Napster's chief technology officer.
Pence said Napster daily usage at Penn State for instance totals about 100,000 downloads and 100,000 streams.
With the new application, about 90 percent of these downloads and streams would not result in traffic across the open Internet, saving the university an estimated $50,000 in bandwidth fees in the first year.
"Helping customers securely and easily access authorized digital content is paramount to the future of the media and entertainment industry," said Steve Canepa, vice president, IBM Global Media and Entertainment Industry.
Warren Hart, vice president of digital media solutions for IBM, said that IBM was focusing largely on digital media.
"We're working with a number of leaders globally in this space. This whole area of how to take rich media and use it for real business value is very critical for us," he said.
Pocket PCs Masquerade as IPods
By Leander Kahney / Also by this reporter Page 1 of 2 next »
02:00 AM Mar. 08, 2004 PT
Creative Technologies' diminutive Muvo2 digital music player has been hailed by some as the "iPod killer." With 4 GB of storage and priced at just $200, Creative's player has the same capacity as Apple's new iPod mini, but costs $50 less.
Well, a British software firm can beat that. StarBrite has created another "iPod killer" that in most respects is identical to the iPod -- and costs only $20.
StarBrite is selling a pPod, a virtual iPod for Pocket PCs, that -- given Apple's past tolerance for knockoffs -- may not be available for very long.
On the market just two weeks, the product is a software iPod that runs on Pocket PCs, Microsoft's Palm-like operating system for handhelds.
The virtual iPod is, well, virtually identical to a real iPod.
The application fills the Pocket PC's entire screen with a faithful facsimile of the iPod, including the player's distinctive scroll wheel and four buttons for playing, pausing and so on.
Like the iPod, the pPod is controlled by its virtual scroll wheel. Most Pocket PCs have touch-sensitive screens, which allow users to navigate the pPod's menus with their fingers -- just like the iPod.
Naturally, the pPod's interface is also just like the iPod's. Songs are arranged by a series of nested menus, which can be browsed by artist, album, genre, etc.
"It works exactly the same way, except it's software and it costs $20," said a spokesman for the company, who wished to remain anonymous.
The price is not the only difference between the real and virtual iPod.
The pPod software plays only songs encoded as MP3 files. It does not support WMA, nor songs downloaded from Apple's popular iTunes Music Store, which are encoded as copy-protected AAC files.
The lack of AAC support appears to be a big disappointment to potential users, who are keen to turn their Pocket PCs into mobile players of iTunes songs.
"I was so excited when I saw this because I thought since it's an iPod player for PPC (Pocket PC), it would play all my iTunes music," wrote Brandon Gomez in a forum discussing the software. "Bummer that it doesn't, 'cause I've been looking everywhere for a PPC player that will play acc (AAC) files."
Neither does the pPod software magically enhance the limited storage capacity of most Pocket PCs, which typically have up to 64 MB of internal memory, enough for about a dozen songs. However, the pPod does support memory cards, which can be swapped in and out, offering potentially unlimited storage.
A demo that functions for three days is available from the company's website.
The pPod was developed because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the anonymous spokesman said.
"I personally use an iPod," he said. "It's a good interface to use. It's easy to browse and select songs. It's an interface that's popular. People know it. It's very simple to pick up and use."
The spokesman flatly declined to comment on potential legal issues. "We'll deal with that at the time," he said.
Phillip Torrone, director of product development at advertising agency Fallon Worldwide and a Pocket PC nut, tried the software and liked it.
"I liked it a lot," he said. "Once you've used it, you don't want to use a Pocket PC any other way."
Torrone said the iPod's interface is so natural, it will be copied relentlessly.
"I think iPod interface is going to be the new Linux," he said. "People are going to try and put an iPod interface on just about everything."
The software was released a couple of weeks ago and has proven very popular, the company spokesman said. "People like it," he said. "We've sold it in Japan, the U.S., U.K. and lots of other places."
An Apple spokesman declined to comment.
To some Mac fans, the idea of an iPod knockoff running on Microsoft software is deeply offensive.
"To whip out an iPaq with iPod-like UI is like wearing a fake Fendi," wrote someone called Stonk on the MacSlash discussion forum. "Everyone can tell it's a fake, and you end up looking like a bigger, trashier idiot."
However, another poster called SlashRaid countered, "Spin it how you like, it's an innovative idea.... One could almost view it as advertising your closed platform on other peoples' dimes."
Brian Ferguson, an intellectual property lawyer with McDermott, Will & Emery in Washington, D.C., said he wasn't familiar with Apple's patent portfolio, but if the iPod is patent-protected -- and it likely is -- the software may well infringe on the patent.
"I'm just speculating, but I'd be surprised if Apple didn't patent-protect some of the ideas in the iPod," he said. "If it does infringe on the patents, end of story."
Like Torrone, Ferguson said Apple will likely face more knockoffs in the future. "I think Apple is going to be facing a lot more of these over the next five years given the success of the iPod," he said.
In the late '90s, Apple successfully prevented a couple of PC manufacturers from selling translucent all-in-one PCs that bore striking resemblances to the popular iMac.
Satellite radio looks to take-off
Last Updated: Sunday, 7 March, 2004, 00:48 GMT
By Ian Hardy
BBC ClickOnline North America technology correspondent
Despite crystal clear sound, crackle-free delivery and nationwide coverage, American radio listeners have been slow to take up many satellite radio offerings.
Sirius keeps an eye on the network from its control room
But, after years of indifference, consumers are now starting to take an interest in a new era of radio.
One of the key differences from traditional radio is the wealth of choice.
Operators like Sirius satellite radio offer channels covering everything from bluegrass music to professional hockey.
It says its output is far more diverse than traditional US radio, which has become corporate and homogenous.
A sophisticated space control centre monitors three satellites 24 hours a day, as they beam down programming all over the US.
"It is a digital signal, which allows us to get 100 channels down," said Christopher Croom, director of orbital operations at Sirius Satellite Radio.
"There's no static, it's not like you're going to go out of contact and lose the station, or another station starts to interfere. It's digital quality and it's crystal clear to whoever's listening to it."
Music to go
At its launch in 2001, satellite radio was targeted only towards motorists. It was the first time long-distance drivers in America were able to enjoy the same uninterrupted radio station for days at a time.
We expect that, by the end of this decade, we will have more than 25 million customers
Chancellor Patterson, XM
Often in rural areas the only choices were country music, religious output or crackle. Since journeys can be long and laborious, across varying landscapes, the US was an ideal testing ground for the concept.
"We love our cars, we're very particular about our cars, they're a personal extension of ourselves, so we're involved in what goes on in the car," said Mary Pat Ryan, executive vice-president of marketing at Sirius.
"That's why satellite radio, which provides all the choices inside the car, is perfect for the American marketplace."
The other major player is XM satellite radio, which has two satellites in space which also beam down more than 100 channels of content.
But the technology offered from both companies comes at a price. Subscribers first pay for a radio receiver, then have to fork out $9.99 or $12.95 per month to receive content.
Perhaps this is one reason why consumer uptake was slow to begin with.
"No-one thought that people would pay for television, no-one thought that people would pay for water," said Chancellor Patterson of XM.
"Our experience has been that people are more than willing to pay if you give them high quality content and a high level of service, where you literally never lose the signal driving from coast to coast, and in your home.
"We expect that, by the end of this decade, we will have more than 25 million customers."
Both companies recently overcame a major obstacle to subscriber growth with the introduction of portable receivers that can be taken from the car and into the home.
Satellite video
Consumer interest has certainly increased in the past few months. Sirius now has more than 250,000 people listening, and XM has about 1.5 million.
Enjoy music on the radio without the ad breaks
Both have commercial-free music output, another advantage over traditional radio which now squeezes up to 25 minutes of commercials into every hour of programming.
Just in the past few months it has become obvious that satellite radio networks see the delivery of music and speech audio as just the beginning.
They are now rolling out new services which, once again, are being targeted initially at motorists.
"One thing that we have announced is actually putting video into the car," said Ms Ryan of Sirius.
"We believe we'll be able to put four channels of video into the back seat, so you don't have to schlep your videos or DVDs and set up some gizmo for your kids to enjoy that long ride."
XM is currently launching a new service of real-time data downloads called Instant Traffic and Weather.
The satellite radio networks hope that, after a slow start, subscribers will find these new offerings not just useful but indispensable.
The Future of Digital Music Players
By Elizabeth Millard
www.EcommerceTimes.com,
Part of the ECT News Network
February 14, 2004
Rio vice president Kevin Brangan told the E-Commerce Times that the current marketplace is about 80 percent flash players and 20 percent hard drive players -- and he does not expect that ratio to change in the near future. Instead he expects evolution to occur in both market segments.
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Although technology moves at a fast clip, the leaps and bounds in the evolution of digital music players to date have been especially speedy.
Only a few years ago, a digital music aficionado's choices consisted mainly of 128-MB flash players that held only a handful of songs. Now, 40-GB devices double as portable hard drives and hold up to 10,000 songs. Not surprisingly, this move toward more technological power has been embraced by consumers, and adoption of digital music devices is growing steadily.
With the music-player revolution moving ahead at full speed, what's next for this technology?
One aspect of digital music players that likely will keep changing is their technological components. Hyder Rabbani, president and COO of music-player manufacturer Archos, told the E-Commerce Times that the near future will bring better versions of everything that is on the market today.
"In the same way that hard drive technology keeps advancing, digital player technology will continue to be more refined," Rabbani said. "Don't expect any dramatic changes, but rather, steady changes for the better that are done at a fairly fast pace."
In particular, the trend toward miniaturization should make for an interesting next couple of years. Apple has just unveiled the iPod mini, which holds 1,000 songs and is about the size of a business card. Rabbani noted that competitors are likely to move in the "smaller is better" direction as well.
One benefit of making smaller devices is that battery life can be extended, according to Rabbani.
"If you go from a 1.8-inch drive to a 1-inch drive," he said, "you could save 60 to 70 percent of your power consumption based on form factor alone."
Music Plus
In addition to their shrinking form factors and increasing capacity, digital music players have evolved to include more features, memory and music-format options. Jonathan Sasse, president of iRiver, told the E-Commerce Times that consumers, not developers, will continue to drive this type of innovation.
In this vein, one trend that could develop is further consolidation, making music players capable of doing more than delivering tunes.
"We see portable entertainment being a category that will emerge throughout 2004 and increase to include multiple music formats [and] multiple video formats, along with integrating photos," Sasse noted.
The reason why tomorrow's devices will have such power is that players have more and more storage capacity. With such a luxurious amount of space, consumers likely will seek to fill it with more than Britney and Outkast.
potential addition to digital players is an increase in the kind of content such players have excelled with already: music.
"What you're going to see soon are players that come with preloaded content," Rick Grienzewic, Gateway's director of digital audio, told the E-Commerce Times. Music and other audio files, such as audiobooks, can be preloaded onto a device via a subscription service. He added, "New digital rights management will allow you to do that, and I think it's going to be big."
Grienzewic said he thinks offering preloaded content with few restrictions, as with the iTunes model, would be cost prohibitive. However, Rabbani noted that it could be done as long as usage provisions were put in place. For example, content loaded onto a player could be prohibited from being downloaded to another device, preventing the music from hitting illegal file-swapping sites.
Already, the kinks are being worked out for this evolution, Rabbani said. Archos is looking into developing a way to include preloaded content that can be selected by a consumer from a Web site .
"There are many ways to use this kind of content and develop it," he said. "We're seeing it as the advent of a new business model for the industry."
Pick and Choose
Although music players seem to have a bright future, with more storage capacity -- and probably higher price tags -- Sasse noted that the range of devices now available indicates companies still are working to serve consumers who seek lower-end, cheaper alternatives.
The next few years should see a profusion of music players at all cost levels and capacities, he said.
"Digital music players have evolved to fit different lifestyles," Sasse added. "128-MB music players are still very popular and serve a specific market need."
Indeed, Rio vice president Kevin Brangan noted that the current marketplace is about 80 percent flash players and 20 percent hard drive players -- and he does not expect that ratio to change in the near future. Within both the flash and hard drive realms, there will be many more options in coming years as more developers enter the industry.
"Having so much choice is ideal for the consumer," Brangan told the E-Commerce Times. "There will be more players being launched, and that will lead to even more choices. It's going to become pretty exciting from here."
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