portable media players

Microsoft showed off new Windows 7 innovations at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference this week. The focus was how the upcoming version of Microsoft's flagship product will make it easier for hardware partners to create new experiences for Windows PC customers.

Windows senior vice presidents Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan rallied hardware partners, encouraging them to begin testing their current products and building new products on the application programming interface (API).

SanDisk is keeping good on its promise to bring music to its consumers. On Wednesday, the Milpitas, Calif.-based company, along with four music giants, said consumers this week can begin buying its SlotMusic microSD cards to be used in slot-enabled mobile phones, portable media players, computers and car stereos.

SanDisk's digital-rights management-free SlotMusic cards are preloaded with MP3 music from artists from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI.

Will a small microSD card save the album/CD music format? That's the provocative question raised by SanDisk, which announced Monday that it has struck deals with music-industry leaders to release DRM-free MP3 music on slotMusic cards.

Will a small microSD card save the album/CD music format? That's the provocative question raised by SanDisk, which announced Monday that it has struck deals with music-industry leaders to release DRM-free MP3 music on slotMusic cards.

Six cable-TV operators that serve more than 82 percent of U.S. cable households have inked an agreement with Sony Electronics that will soon make it possible for cable subscribers to forego the use of stand-alone set-top boxes. The enabling Tru2way technology, based on Sun Microsystems' Java runtime environment, enables interactive capabilities in TV sets, gaming consoles, portable media players, and even mobile phones.

Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what's playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces.

"Pico projectors" that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.

Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what's playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces.

"Pico projectors" that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.