News Archive for 06/05/02

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French law rewritten

05/02, 4:50pm

French law rewritten, strike called

The highly-debated French draft law that has continuously threatened to open Apple's FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) or render the iTunes Music Store an illegal entity has been rewritten in committee. The legislation originally contained provisions that would force companies to make their DRM schemes interoperable, but has since seen the removal or rewriting of most of those provisions, according to Ars Technica. Voting is to take place on the changes in the near future, and some French consumer groups are already up in arms. Apple recently said the law would support "state-sponsored piracy," and the U.S. government stood behind Apple in support of the company's move to maintain its closed iTunes ecosystem. Meanwhile, the French Minister of culture yesterday backed the law, saying all music videos purchased from iTunes that currently play exclusively on Apple's iTunes software must be playable by other devices and software programs. Stopdrm.info is calling for a strike in the Place de la Bastille on May 7th, according to the report.

Sidewinder iPod case ships

05/02, 9:55am

Sidewinder iPod case ships

Dr. Bott has begun shipping Marware's Sidewinder case in white for iPod video and iPod nano. The hard case features a retractable kickstand, headphone cord wrap, and flip-open Dock connector cover. Sidewinder includes a spacer to accommodate the 30GB or 60GB iPod with video, and users can store the case with the headphones neatly wrapped to the side via the "slide-and-hide" headphone cord wrap. The protective cover includes Marware's Multidapt system belt clip, and is compatible with all Multiadapt interchangeable clip system options. Marware's Sidewinder for iPod video is priced at $30 (shown at right), while the Sidewinder for iPod nano ships for $25.

Creative faces tough road

05/02, 2:50am

iPod rival Creative faces tough future

Apple's rival Creative is expected to post a quarterly loss of nearly $90 million for its March quarter due to cut-throat competition and falling flash prices. After warning investors earlier this month, the company faces a tough road ahead as analysts see a bleak future for a market dominated by Apple and its iPod: "We expect the business environment for Creative to remain tough at least for the next two quarters. Demand is only expected to pick up for the year-end Christmas sales," said CIMB-GK Securities analyst Jonathan Ng told Reuters. "We remain negative on its prospects given the harsh competition in the market and a lack of new winning products in the foreseeable future," he added. The Singapore-based company offers Nomad and Zen MP3 players that compete with Apple's iPod as well as Samsung's Yepp and Reigncom's iRiver.