 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Creative Technology Gets Us Patent For Key MP3 Player Interface
Singapore (AFP) Aug 31, 2005 Creative Technology has secured a US patent for a key interface used in portable MP3 players including arch rival Apple's iPod, the Singapore digital entertainment products maker said Wednesday. Local media said the US patent would give the Singaporean outfit a boost in its efforts to challenge Apple in the booming MP3 market, where it has been struggling to overtake the iPod, an icon of modern consumer technology. Singapore's Today newspaper said the US patent may enable Creative to collect millions of dollars in royalties from Apple for the patented technology, but this could not be immediately confirmed. In a statement, Creative chairman and chief executive Sim Wong Hoo said that "we developed a way for a user to efficiently and intuitively navigate and select tracks from a significant number of tracks stored on a player." "Before this invention, there was no intuitive and efficient way to deal with the large number of tracks that could be stored on a high capacity player," he said. The Singapore company applied for the Zen patent in January 2001 and received the nod from US authorities this month, while Apple's patent application, also for a user interface in an MP3 player, was filed in 2002. It has been an uphill struggle for Creative in its attempt to dislodge Apple as the number one MP3 brand in the world, with the US firm accounting for more than half of all such players sold. Creative went into the red for the first time in three years with a 31.9 million US dollar loss in the fourth quarter to June, compared with profits of 6.63 million dollars a year ago Technology and branding analysts believe that despite sometimes superior features on its gadgets, Creative loses out to Apple in the "coolness" category because of the American brand's fashionable reputation. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Cyberwar - Internet Security News - Systems and Policy Issues
US Military Mounts International Psyops Campaign
Washington (AFP) Dec 14, 2005The US military is mounting a 300 million dollar psychological operations campaign to sway international opinion of the US war on terrorism through messages placed in foreign media, officials said Wednesday. |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
