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• January 14, 2003 •
During his keynote address at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this week, Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp., unveiled the first prototype of a portable media player (PMP), based on the device platform code-named "Media2Go." "Media2Go" devices are handheld personal media players that enable entertainment on the go by providing you with an easy and complete solution to download, store and play back your favorite digital media content including video, music and photos. Microsoft also announced that it is working with Intel Corp., whose early pioneering work on the personal video player (PVP) led to jointly delivering the first "Media2Go" hardware reference design developed on the Intel XScale-based processors. In addition, Microsoft announced that leading consumer electronics companies, including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., ViewSonic Corp., SANYO Electric Co. Ltd, and iRiver are planning to deliver a variety of PMP devices based on "Media2Go" for the 2003 holiday season.
"Consumers around the world are discovering, downloading, managing and playing back digital photos, music and movies on their Windows-based PCs," said Jim Allchin, group vice president of Platforms at Microsoft. "It's time for the next big step. 'Media2Go' is the catalyst for a new generation of smart portable media players that will make all your favorite content from your PC available to you, wherever you are, whenever you want."
With a single "Media2Go" device, you can enjoy your digital music, video, and photos any time and anywhere. "Media2Go" combines the playback and management functionality of an MP3 jukebox, the viewing capabilities of a portable DVD player, the ability to view authorized content from a personal video recorder as well as the capability to share digital photos. "Media2Go" devices enable you to watch and listen to their digital media content wherever and whenever you want. For example:
"Media2Go" provides complete support for a broad range of media formats, including Windows Media® Audio, Windows Media Video and MP3. The high quality and small size of Windows Media Audio and Video files mean that consumers will be able to store lots of high-quality content on their "Media2Go" devices: up to 8,000 songs, up to 175 hours of VHS-quality video and up to 30,000 digital images on 20GB of hard disk storage.
Moreover, "Media2Go" will allow consumers to transfer their media content from their Windows XP-based PCs to a "Media2Go" device easily and quickly using technology called Sync & Go developed for the Microsoft® Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP. Sync & Go will quickly download consumers' favorite digital content from their PCs to a "Media2Go" device using fast connections such as USB and IEEE-1394, giving them the freedom to experience the digital media they edit and organize anywhere, any time.
"Media2Go" is based on the next version of the Windows CE .NET operating system, currently code-named McKendric. "Media2Go" uses the Windows CE .NET operating system and its unique synchronization, user interface, and media experience software technologies to provide the easiest way for people to enjoy the video, music and pictures stored on Windows-based personal computer, anywhere.
