e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Sentinel]

Napster/Samsung

The cat is finally out of the bag: Napster 2.0 is coming out in time for the holidays, and it has big plans. First, the service will offer 500,000 songs at launch, which is roughly double what its competitors, Apple iTunes and BuyMusic, launched with. Second and more importantly, Napster will partner with Samsung on a cobranded music player that will carry the Napster logo and a sticker labeled "Napster compatible." What this means for the PC-using digital music fan is that you're finally going to get a Windows alternative to the Apple iTunes/iPod combo. We realize that some of you iPod users will hold out for the iTunes Music Store for PCs, which is expected later this year (just in time for a holiday showdown, perhaps), but the rest of us are intrigued. According to our MP3 Insider, Senior Editor Eliot Van Buskirk, "the new player will not be officially unveiled until mid-October, but we suspect that it will closely resemble the Yepp YP-900," a 10GB hard drive player. And with that compatible sticker, we non-Mac users can likely expect more players to join the Napster fray down the line.


http://www.cnet.com/4520-6022-5080812.html