The first serious challenger to Apple Computer's market-dominating iTunes Music Store hit the runway last week.
But the competition between iTunes and the new Sony Connect service is less a battle of the bands than a gear war that pits Apple's sizzling iPod against Sony's MiniDisc, the struggling 13-year-old device that never caught on in the United States.
"It's the devices that are driving online music stores, not the other way around," said Michael Gartenberg, of Jupiter Research in New York.
The company that revolutionized music-on-the-go with its Sony Walkman 25 years ago remains the leader in digital music players, representing one of every four portable players sold in the United States as recently as February, according to the NPD Group, a market researcher in Port Washington, N.Y.
But Apple sees more of consumers' play dough: It collected 54 percent of the money spent on digital music players in March, NPD said.
Even Sony, while touting the new Hi-MD Walkman digital music player it announced with the Connect launch, admits it will be making its own hard-disc player, although it hasn't said when.
Apple's introduction of the iPod in October 2001, with its 5-gigabyte hard drive capable of holding 1,000 songs, undercut the MiniDisc's claim to fame: its storage space.
The new version of the MiniDisc, the Hi-MD Walkman player, can hold up to 45 hours of music on a single disc, and boasts battery life of up to 30 hours. Each disc costs $7.
Sony's sustained commitment to the MiniDisc has shaped its online music service as well. The new Sony Connect service supports the 2.5-million ATRAC devices consumers own, offering songs in its proprietary format. Consumers need to take the extra step to burn a CD to play the songs on other devices. As with many other services, Connect's prices start at 99 cents a single or $9.95 an album.
Gizmondo is latest to take on Game Boy
Every challenger to Nintendo's reign over the lucrative market for handheld game consoles has been handily zapped by the Game Boy. Some 168-million Game Boys have been sold since Nintendo introduced the device in 1989.
Even as Nintendo prepares to announce a new Game Boy model, competitors are lining up to issue fresh challenges to the Game Boy's dominance. The first to enter the fray this year is Tiger Telematics with its Gizmondo.
At first glance, the horizontal profile of this one-piece console resembles that of the Game Boy Advance. A closer look, however, reveals a machine packed with high-performance gaming capabilities, including a powerful 400-megahertz microprocessor, 64-bit graphics accelerator and Bluetooth wireless connectivity. Its 2.8-inch high-resolution color screen is comparable with the Game Boy Advance SP's screen but is not nearly as large as the screen of the Tapwave Zodiac, a handheld console that has sputtered on the market.
Tiger Telematics also is gambling that gamers want to do more than play games. The Gizmondo, which is expected to cost $200 to $300, also can be used as an MP3 player, digital movie player, camera and mobile messaging system; and it can be used with the Global Positioning System.
Gizmondo spokesmen said the device would reach a limited number of stores this month but would be widely available by the holiday season.
An alternative to PCs' beige or black plastic
Computer users tired of black or beige plastic now have a more natural choice.
Swedx, a maker of computer peripherals, sells custom-designed monitors, keyboards and mice encased in timber culled from Chinese forests.
The company is appealing to buyers who want something distinguished from the plastic boxes sold in stores and online and may be concerned about the environmental dangers that tossed-out computer casings cause.
With ash, mahogany or beech, that flat-panel LCD stands out on any desk more than it would were it a solid black, Swedx general manager Jan Salloum says. He says the devices are more human because they combine technology with an old-world feel.
The wood isn't glued onto a plastic frame. Rather, the frame is custom-made in a deal Swedx has with Samsung.
Swedx produces circuit boards for the keyboard and mice, while Samsung supplies it with the circuitry and LCD panel to fit the monitor's wooden housings.
Swedx monitors range in size from 17 inches ($675) to 19 inches ($1,175). Keyboards retail for about $60. Optical, USB and wireless mice, made from a single block of wood, go for about $40.
Not for sale yet, however, are cases for CPUs.
Folding USB drive is among tiniest
USB drives seem to get ever smaller, but now a new model from Pretec claims to be the tiniest. Less than 2 inches long and weighing less than a quarter of an ounce, the folding iDisk Tiny 2.0 has a surface area slightly smaller than that of a quarter. Compatible with machines running the newer Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, this diminutive flash drive requires no external power source and can pack away up to 1-gigabyte of data.
The new model, which was unveiled last month at CEBit, the big consumer technology trade show in Hanover, Germany, comes in three colors: black, steel and pearl white. It will have a list price of $399 and is scheduled to reach electronics stores in June. It also will be available at www.pretec.com
Tapping out a "Dear John" or love letter
Dear John. We're thru :-(
Nine percent of Britons admit to dumping a partner by sending an SMS, or Short Message Service, text message - possibly signalling the beginning of the end for the "Dear John" letter, according to a new survey.
Among those ages 15-24 the figure rises to 20 percent.
The mobile phone also has become a magnet of infidelity testing.
Forty-five percent of women owned up to secretly checking the text messages on their partner's phone compared with 31 percent of men.
The MORI poll for Sicap, a messaging services provider in Bern, Switzerland, also found that 44 percent had used text messages to flirt; among the 14- to 24-year-olds, the figure rose to 75 percent.
Some 31 percent of adults said they had sent a love letter by text - even among the over-65s, 9 percent had done so - and 30 percent said they had argued via SMS.
Two percent say they have used text messages to quit a job.
In March alone, according to Britain's Mobile Data Association, Britons sent 2.1-billion text messages, a 25 percent increase over the same month last year.
Talkback about viruses, worms
Viruses and worms are in the news. Readers with questions or comments about it and other tech news and issues of the day can post items for Times personal technology editor Dave Gussow at the Times Talkback site (www.sptimes.com/talkback)
