Simon Perry

SanDisk Forced to Remove MP3 Players From IFA:Exclusive
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Societa Italiana per lo Sviluppo Dell’ Elettronica, S.p.A., (Sisvel), a Turin, Italy-based patent management company filed a complaint with German public prosecutor in Berlin last week over SanDisk not paying Sisvel a license fee for using their ‘essential’ MP3 patent. Prices for stereo equipment start at 60c US per player, reducing with volume.
The German public prosecutor was convinced by the argument and issued an injunction to remove all of the MP3 players from the Sandisk stand. Those visiting the stand will only be able to look at its pictures of the MP3 players.
The outcome
Clearly this will hit Sandisk pretty hard, not only in the embarrassment of the story getting out, but they will not be able to show any of their MP3 players to the German retailers who visit them at IFA – don’t forget IFA is a trade as well as a consumer show.
During an interview with Digital-Lifestyles [MP3 of Interview], Roberto Dini, consultant to sisvel, in his flamboyant style, made the self-proclaimed extreme comparison of the injunction being like cutting off a supplier at the port, so the goods doesn’t get distributed.
We asked SanDisk to comment, but they said they didn’t currently have anything to say beyond this official statement.
In a litigation currently pending in the Mannheim District Court, SanDisk is showing that its MP3 player operates a technology which is completely different from a certain audio data transmission and reception techniques that has been patented for Philips and others many years ago. An expert opinion from on os the founders of MP digital audio compression substantiates SanDisk’s position. SanDisk is not infringing any patent in the pending litigation
This has history
This isn’t the first time these two have had legal clashes. The battle between the two parties has been well documented, SanDisk even detailed the various legal actions in their latest stock market 10-Q filing last month.
Sisvel have taken action against them in four countries, US, Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
SanDisk have filed its own suit in the English Patents Court back in March, 2006 against Sisvel and owners of the patents Sisvel has tried to assert; Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, France Telecom SA, Telediffusion de France SA, Institut für Rundfunktechnik GmbH.
Sisvel’s Dini’s response to the action? “It means that the 600 companies, the biggest ones, who have taken a license, they are stupid, because all of the other have paid.”
This one looks like it’s going to run and run.
Listen to the Interview with Roberto Dini, Sisvel
SanDisk
sisvel
4 September, 2006
IFA 2006
IFA is… … the world’s largest Consumer Electronics trade fair with over 1,000 exhibitors and 273,800 visitors (2003) … the industry’s No. 1 place for orders, with a volume of 2.4 billion Euros … a trade fair for both experts and the public, featuring special services for trade visitors and a varied program with special events for consumers … an incomparable media event: 6,800 accredited journalists from 78 countries, and 95 hours of TV reports in Germany alone http://www.ifa-berlin.de/
1 September, 2006
Toshiba HD DVD: European Dates Announced (Photos):IFA
The first HD-DVD players for Europe have just been announced by Toshiba at their press conference at IFA in Berlin.
There will be two models available initially, both before the end of the year. This follows the US release earlier this year. Toshiba were at pains to point out that the European machines are a second generation of player.
HD-E1
The first to be introduced will be the Toshiba HD-E1, coming out in November this year. Capable of playing both at 1080i and 720p. An HDMI 1.2a port will be included. Audio playback will be Dobly 2.1. Expected price €599-€699.

HD-XE1 (pictured below)
The following month (December) will see the release of the higher quality player, the HD-EX1.
It will add playback at 1080p to the 1080i and 720p of the HD-E1. HDMI support will be the latest release HDMI 1.3. Dolby 5.1 will also be supported.

The price will be €899-€999, depending on the country bought in.
Both machines will feature Ethernet ports, enabling Internet connections for interactivity and to access additional content.
Current DVD’s will also playback, but will be up-scalled to the highest resolution available to each machine.
The units will be released in three regional batches, with the UK, France and Germany (amoung others) leading the pack; the rest of Europe will follow; brought up by the previous Eastern Europe and Iceland.
Toshiba
1 September, 2006
IFA Berlin 2006
The second largest CE show in the world and the largest in Europe. Boy this is a big show with every company that you could imagine being there. From this year it changes to be yearly, from its twice yearly previous. IFA is… … the world’s largest Consumer Electronics trade fair with over 1,000 exhibitors and 273,800 visitors (2003) … the industry’s No. 1 place for orders, with a volume of 2.4 billion Euros … a trade fair for both experts and the public, featuring special services for trade visitors and a varied program with special events for consumers … an incomparable media event: 6,800 accredited journalists from 78 countries, and 95 hours of TV reports in Germany alone Berlin, Germany http://www.ifa-berlin.de/
1 September, 2006
DorkCamp06
1-4 September 2006If you’ve never been to a dorkbot meeting, you’ve missed out. Events with distinctly and purposely rough edged, you’ll learn about strange applications of technology, probably be inspired to start your own project, and quite possibly find people who will join you on your journey.With a extended-weekend long event, you’ll be able to completely immerse yourself.The workshops are as diverse and unusual as you’d expect
- self-sufficient electric animals’ workshop
- fire making workshop
- building a radio telescope
- wifi antenna diy
Only £15 for the weekendBentley Copse, between Dorking and Guildford (short train journey from London) Map link http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotlondon/camp06/
1 September, 2006
YP-K5: Samsung MP3 and Speaker Combo (Video):IFA
During his keynote, Gee Sung Choi, President and CEO of Samsung announced the launch of the YP-5K, a very slick MP3 player with built-in pivoting speaker, letting you ‘entertain’ your friends or fellow train passengers.
The hinge mechanism is very neat. As it slides the silver grill of the stereo speakers is exposed. When fully expanded the front pivots, enabling the unit to be placed on a table, with the speaker angled towards the listener. Ideal for listening to. (Watch the video).

They’ve also gone to town on the visual interface, with celestial collection of glowing blue pixel, rearranging themselves to form the different icons. (Watch the video).
Make no mistake, this is a slick bit of kit, with photo display and 30 hours of playback time.
It’s going to be available in 1Gb/2Gb/4Gb capacity using solid-state Flash memory.
US pricing – $210 for 2 GB and $260 for 4 GB.
1 September, 2006
Sun To Join Blu-ray Board: IFA News Blip
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has just announced that Sun Microsystems will join their board.
Why Sun? The interactivity of Blu-ray is powered by Sun’s Java, so in someways it’s pretty surprising that they weren’t there already.
Here at IFA, there’s a pretty strong feeling that the battle for the Next Generation of video disc has been won, with stronger and stronger support for Blu-ray being shown over it’s rival HD-DVD.
Mike Dunn, President of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment announced a roster of 8 films that will be released on Blu-ray, with the first being Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s cut). This title has extensive use of Java-driven interactivity, including a video game that uses scenes from the film.
The BDA board already contains some of the largest names in consumer electronics; computing and film companies.
31 August, 2006
GoGear SA9200: Philips’ Nano Competitor: IFA
As we’ve all witnessed, Apple’s Nano is a beauty to both behold and hold. The whole industry has been gunning for Apple, ever since they realised that Apple had shifted the market. We’ve seen many attempts to put out devices to match or catch them, only to watch them fall by the wayside..
Today we saw the Philips GoGear Flash player and very sweet the thing is too. The same thickness of the Nano, it’s just 9cm long and weighs in at a nearly unnoticeable 48g.
What’s it like?
It looks like they’ve done a great job on the interface, which displays rich icons. Controlling it uses their touch sensitive SuperScoll, so tapping, dragging or swiping a finger on the smooth surface is possible.
The ‘buttons’ themselves glow an attractive blue, complementing, rather than distracting the eye away from the 1.7″(4cm) colour screen, that is also able to display photos.
They reckon there’s up to 14 hours of continuous play in the battery. Unclear if that’s playing mp3s or the Windows Media DRM10 files which we suspect will need additional power to service the DRM fucntion. PlayForSure is supported, which we’re not sure is the biggest selling point.
There’s going to be an optional docking station that works with the newly-upgraded Streamium, WiFi HiFi. Once the GoGear (a nifty name, the more you say it) is docked, its track list appears on the streamium and tunes can be played through it.
There will be two versions available; 1Gb (SA9100) and the 2Gb (SA9200), ‘at the end of summer’ (when ever that is) and will sell for €149 and €199.
Year on year, Philips really do look like they’re pulling themselves out of the old rut they had – great R&D, but terrible looking products.
Philips
31 August, 2006
O2 Germany Goes DSL, UK Actively Considering: IFA
O2 Germany have just confirmed that they are spreading their communications wings beyond mobile phones, by moving into DSL, and fixed line voice provision.
The move had been discussed for some time following their take-over by Telefonica, but until today, the date of 27 October hadn’t been confirmed.
There are three levels of offerings – €35/month for a 4Mb/s service; €50 including a flat-rate phone service; or €55 for 16Mb/s and flat-rate. Current O2 mobile subscribers will pay €5 less/month.
What about O2 UK
The obvious question for a UK-based publication was if O2 UK was planning the same.
An O2 spokesperson said that she understood that O2 UK was in discussion with broadband providers in the UK, although no dates were expected.
It is absolutely no surprise that a mobile operator is moving in to providing fixed line services too – If they don’t, they’ll be left hanging in the wind, as all of the other companies offer a single bill for all their communication services.
Package
O2 Germany have identified two reasons for people not taking up a DSL service at home. While early adopters and singles have embarrassed DSL, strangely families have not been signing up, as they’ve been worried about the complexity of installing and configuring the service.
To tackle the installation, O2 have come up with a completely automated install DSL modem/router. Simply by plugging the unit into the telephone line, the unit will self-configure. In the few cases that this doesn’t work, they will offer to send someone to the house. This shows their level of confidence in the self-install – sending out engineers is very expensive, especially at the low monthly prices they’re offering.
O2 Germany said they weren’t frantic about gaining subscribers and hoped to gain 100k-150k DSL customers within the first 6 months. They currently have 10.2m mobile subscribers.
31 August, 2006
Sony Suffer Over Batteries
Apple have announced that they’re recalling 1.8 million laptop batteries including 1.1m in the US. This follows a similar action by Dell, which saw them recalling 4 million batteries ten days ago.
The manufacturer of both of these batteries was the same company – Sony Corp, who are the world’s second-largest maker of rechargeable batteries.
Sony explained that the batteries, made in China by Sony workers, can, very occasionally, have loose metal particles in them, causing a short circuit. They say this is what’s caused them to catch fire.
The combined 6m battery recall is thought to be the largest in the consumer-electronics industry and it’s anticipated that it will cost Sony as much as $257m (30 million yen).
It’s cost their Japanese stock holders a lot more than that with 2.4% of their stock price being lost when the announcement arrived. They also lost value in the US as you can see from the Yahoo Chart plotting Sony against the NASDAQ.

Late last year, other parts of Sony, SonyBMG, suffered bad publicity over their use of EULA of their audio CDs.
There is an upside for most Apple laptop owners – they get a fresh battery when the likelihood is that they’re current one is starting to lose the capacity to hold charge. That includes us – yippee!
Apple Battery Exchange
25 August, 2006