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Technology Stocks : e.Digital Corporation(EDIG) - Embedded Digital Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Swanson who wrote (6424)	7/10/1999 5:48:00 AM
From: Savant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18366

More press..nothing earthshaking.. Digital Music Will Rule The World Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk Blank Go to Page 2 > The Best MP3 Players and Web Sites An avocado seedling will grow leaves its first year, but it won't bear fruit for 10 to 15 years. MP3 is in the same boat. This wildly popular compression format lets you shrink audio files to about a tenth of their original size while maintaining near CD-quality sound. MP3 appears lush and green now, but consider the turmoil surrounding it: Jupiter Communications predicts only 3% of consumers will purchase downloaded digital music by 2003. Click for more. The anti-piracy standard known as the Secure Digital Music Initiative is out to squeeze MP3. Click for more. However, MP3 powerhouse EMusic calls SDMI the next Divx. Click for more. Other formats such as Liquid Audio and AT&T's a2b Music are gunning for MP3's limelight. MP3 has experienced meteoric growth, but now it's going to slow down as we wait for these issues to shake out. However, we shouldn't let that keep us from enjoying digital music now -- which means MP3. Here's a rundown of the best portables, players and download sites. PRODUCTS Diamond Rio 500: Slated for an August release, the new Rio doubles its memory to 64 MB, which translates to about two hours of playing time. It also features a slicker design (colors even), Mac compatibility, USB connection and support for MP3, MPEG2.5, G.723 (Audible's format) and ADPMC ($269). Click for more. Creative Labs Nomads: These come in 64 MB ($249) and 32 MB ($169) options and weigh only 2.5 ounces. Along with basic player functions, the Nomads work as voice recorders, feature a FM tuner and include a handy docking station. Click for more. raveMP: Sensory Science's player ships its pocket-sized player later this month ($299). It packs 64 MB of memory and offers 16 MB or 32 MB expansion cards. But wait, there's more. RaveMP also acts as voice recorder and has PIM capabilities. Click for more. Thomson/RCA Lyra: Teaming up with Real Networks, Thomson's 32 MB player features the RealJukebox (see PLAYERS) and support for RealAudio G2. It's expected to ship in early September for around $200 and features a software programmable chip for decoding music files, allowing the Lyra to support whichever file format prevails -- MP3, MS Audio or the Advanced Audio Coding standard. Click for more. PLAYERS RealJukebox: This player had 250,000 downloads in its first 48 hours of release in May. AnchorDesk's gadget ace Nicci Noteboom refers to it as the MP3 7-Eleven. Along with playing MP3s, it also lets you download music, rip CDs, buy music, transfer songs to a portable player, organize collections within its database and more. Click for more. MusicMatch JukeBox 4.0: PC Magazine says hardcore MP3 fanatics will favor JukeBox over RealJukebox. Citing its significant database and playlist flexibility, a graphic equalizer and the ability to record from analog sources. The basic player is still free, but a $29.99 upgrade lets you encode at 128 Kbps and 160 Kbps for better playback. Click for more. Winamp: This old favorite was recently updated and now includes: Nitrane 1.60 MPEG audio decoder with MMX and 3DNow!, self-destructing streaming dialog boxes, equalizer presets, SHOUTcast support and Audiosoft secure ASFS support. Click for more. SITES MP3 download sites are a dime a dozen, but all you really need are these three: MP3.com Lycos MP3 Search Emusic.com In the end, MP3 may not be the prevailing standard. Maybe one of its competitors will become the way we buy and play music. But the transition is going to take awhile. Once an avocado tree matures it can produce up to 400 avocados in a year. I'd say that's worth the wait. And I think we'll all be glad when the digital music wait is over too.