Microsoft's challenge to Apple's reigning iPod MP3 players will be built by Toshiba and allow people to "DJ" by wirelessly sharing music, US regulatory agency filings showed on Friday.
Plans submitted to the US Federal Communications Commission by Japanese electronics giant Toshiba provided a glimpse at the workings of an MP3 player designed by Microsoft Corp, based in Redmond, Washington.
The device was referred to in the filing by the code name "Pyxis."
Microsoft has vowed to release a "Zune" MP3 player and matching online music and video store in time for the year-end holiday shopping season.
"I can confirm that Toshiba is manufacturing the device and that the FCC report is legitimate, but no further details," a Microsoft spokeswoman said.
The Microsoft MP3 player would tune in to FM radio as well as enable users to transfer video, pictures and music files between personal computers and the handheld devices.
The MP3 players would also be able to link wirelessly, according to an instruction manual included in the FCC paperwork.
"You will be able to send and receive photos and promotional copies of songs, albums and playlists from other Pyxis users," the manual indicated.
Music could be selectively streamed live to as many as four other MP3 players by using a feature labeled "DJ," according to the manual.
"Once your DJ setting is on, you don't need to do anything else in order for others to listen to your stream," the manual explained. "If someone tunes in, you will see an onscreen notification that you have a listener."
Pictures and sketches included with the FCC filing by Toshiba depicted a device the size of a notepad and with a track-wheel control akin to the iPod look.
Nearly two-thirds of the face was devoted to screen and specifications indicated it would have a hard drive with 30 gigabytes of memory.
Cupertino, California, based Apple makes iPod models with 30 and 60 gigabytes of hard drive memory.
Microsoft planned to go head-to-head with Apple's iPod player and iTunes online music store, according to analysts who were briefed on the Zune project.
"Under the Zune brand we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year," the software giant's marketing manager Chris Stephenson said in a July statement.
"We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow customers to explore and discover music together."
The Microsoft device, dubbed "iPod killer" by the media, would do what the iPod can't: allow users to wirelessly download music.
However, customers don't all value wireless connectivity because it gobbles battery power, costs more, and isn't an easy way to search for music, according to industry research.
Apple has parlayed the iPod popularity into sales for its Macintosh computer line, whose operating system has long been portrayed by devotees as a David standing against a global Goliath -- Microsoft's dominant Windows.
Apple touted rising Macintosh laptop computer sales in its latest quarterly earnings report.
Analysts expected the initial market for Zune would likely be people who would have bought other iPod competitors anyway.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last