Press Release:

] HANDHELD ENTERTAINMENT'S $99 ZVUE! PERSONAL VIDEO PLAYER NOW AVAILABLE FOR ONLINE PURCHASE AT WWW.ZVUE.COM
]
] ZVUE! being sold online for $99 USD in time for the
] Holiday Shopping Season
]
]
] SAN FRANCISCO - December 1, 2003 - HandHeld Entertainment
] today announced that its long-anticipated ZVUE! personal video
] player (PVP) is now available for purchase at www.zvue.com for $99 (US).

] ZVUE! orders placed before December 15 will be shipped for delivery prior to Christmas Day within the United States.
]
] About the size of a deck of playing cards, the ZVUE! is
] the world's first and only full-color PVP priced under $100. The
] ZVUE! has garnered widespread attention because of its ability to play full-color videos,
]
] MP3s and display JPEG images and slideshows, all at a $99
] mass-market price point.
]
] HandHeld Entertainment also announced today that it will
] ship a software upgrade beginning in 2004 that will make all ZVUE! players sold this holiday season "backward-compatible" with videos encoded in MPEG-4.

ZVUEZINE.com
An inactive consumer multimedia magazine

zvuezine: ZVUE Available For Sale Online; MPEG4 Upgrade Available In January

By Janet Pak
The Associated Press

CHARLIE RIEDEL / AP
Sean Canady has kept a journal since he was in middle school, but the Kansas database assistant switched to an online version two years ago. He said writing online allowed him to overcome personal insecurities.

NEW YORK — Sean Canady used to record his frustrations, desires and other deep, personal thoughts in a black, spiral-bound notebook. Two years ago, he gave that up for something far less intimate — the Internet.

Canady is one of a growing number of people who are using online journals to share their triumphs and pains in hopes that other people will read them and respond. The largest such site, LiveJournal.com, has more than 1 million members.

While the sites are somewhat similar to online bulletin boards or chat rooms, Web journals aren't limited to a specific topic or discussions.

And unlike blogs, which are dated musings on certain subjects and often carry links to similar blogs, online journals are designed to be more like a coffeehouse, where a community regularly gathers, building friendships and connections as they share personal details.

Daily journals find a new home online

In July, San Francisco based Hand Held Entertainment (www.hheld.com) announced the
ZVUE!, a sub $100 portable video and MP3 player. Industry analysts and seasoned tech journalists were skeptical that a small start-up company could live up to their mid-summer PR hype.

An article in Gizmodo stated: Unfortunately, it looks like they're using their own proprietary video codec called HHE, which means the ZVUE! won't play MPEGs or DivX files, and that the only videos you'll be able to watch on it are probably ones you'll have to buy from them.
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/007531.php

A report on CNET.com declared: If that's true, the device will turn the portable-entertainment industry on its ear.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/4520-6450_7-5021424-1.html

On Thursday August 28, I became the first journalist to hold a battery powered (4 AA) fully functional, pre-production rubber mold ZVUE! prototype in my hand and watch videos on the 2.5” TFT color screen. Photos, audio interviews (wav, wma), product info and an interactive discussion regarding the technology and the pre-Christmas launch are available through the New Digital Reporter.

ZVUE: $99 Handheld Video Player On Track For Fall Release

] Bands come and go from record labels in a revolving door
] of euphoria and dejection, so when the news came out that
] Pearl Jam had fulfilled its contract and was leaving Epic
] after 12 years, many in the industry shrugged and went
] back to their Mocha Malt Frappucinos. But this is more
] than just another band leaving just another label.

The music biz in a Pearl Jam

] My son Peter Seebach, who goes by "Seebs" online, started
] a Web log last week.
]
] Oh, I know, him and about 30,000 other people. The online
] diaries called Web logs, blogs for short, are a thriving
] hobby and are rapidly self-organizing into a complex
] ecosystem. What made it interesting was that it took the
] Web search engine Google less than 48 hours to find his
] new blog.
]
] His first post to what he was then calling "Brain of
] Seebs" went up on May 22, a Thursday. When we talked on
] Sunday, he was no-end pleased that asking Google for
] "seebs blog" already went directly to this brand-new
] site.
]
] I stopped by the office on Memorial Day to pick up some
] papers, so naturally I tried it out. And I was reading
] "Brain of Seebs" when the phone rang.

LINDA SEEBACH: The vast new world of blogs

] The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association
] counted 140 million cellphone subscribers in this country
] in 2002 %u2014 a number that is sure to keep rising as
] cellphones become smaller, lighter and more versatile.
]
] One of the most popular new configurations is the
] cellphone with a built-in personal digital assistant. But
] that combination represents only a small fraction of what
] telecommunications or computer companies and independent
] inventors say cellphones can do.

New Functions for Cellphones

] For the first time ever, consumers and game enthusiasts
] will get a first-hand virtual look inside the Electronic
] Entertainment Expo (E3Expo), the world's preeminent
] interactive entertainment trade show, the Interactive
] Digital Software Association (IDSA) announced today. The
] Web site, E3Insider (www.e3insider.com), will launch on
] May 14th at 10am when E3Expo's doors open to thousands of
] industry professionals at the Los Angeles Convention
] Center.
]
] "With the launch of E3Insider, we've opened E3Expo's
] `virtual doors' so that consumers and game enthusiasts
] from around the globe can experience the excitement of
] E3Expo," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the IDSA,
] the trade association that represents U.S. computer and
] video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. "E3Expo is
] a trade-only event, established specifically as a venue
] for the worldwide interactive entertainment community to
] showcase new products and take care of business. With
] that said, we felt it was important to be able to offer
] the millions of gamers out there who support this
] industry a way to see what's going on at the show, and
] E3Insider will do just that."

The new site will capture the show's action and excitement through interactive coverage, news from exhibitor booths, interviews with industry professionals, video clips, photo galleries and stories about the show.
---------------

Hmmmmm. With over 3,000 international journalists at E3 2002, I'm surprised that show mgt started E3insider because consumers were being under servered. Comdex, CES and NAB have published content rich websites during their huge trade shows. Last year, Comdex even had an online forum that only a few people used. I was one of them. It will be interesting to see if E3insider captures the coolness of the big three day event.

E3Expo Launches Web Site for Consumers

] COMMENTARY--Microsoft this week showed off a new "TV
] client" for Windows XP Media Center Edition, which allows
] content stored on a Media Center PC to be shown on, and
] remotely controlled by, a television set. The problem is
] that the demonstration raised more questions than it
] answers.
]
] The show-and-tell took place at the Windows Hardware
] Engineering Conference (aka WinHEC) in New Orleans.
] WinHEC is where Microsoft tries to woo, cajole, and/or
] arm-twist vendors into building hardware to its liking.
] For the most part, I think this is a good thing--everyone
] benefits from the standardisation that results. (Unless,
] of course, you have a standard Microsoft doesn't care
] for.)
]
] The idea behind the TV client is that, while one person
] is using it to watch a TV program or play music stored on
] a Media Center PC, someone else can be simultaneously
] running a PC app. (This will depend on the concurrent
] session technology also disclosed at WinHEC.)
]
] Microsoft hopes hardware companies, especially those on
] the consumer electronics side of the aisle, will adopt
] its TV client and begin building hardware for it by the
] end of next year; it's possible the first units could be
] out as early as next spring.

How MS will turn your PC into a TV station

] by John Hiler
]
] Ever since I started Microcontent News, I've gotten many
] emails asking which blogging software is the "best".
]
] I'm hardly an unbiased party - as the CEO of WebCrimson,
] I make my own blog publishing software. But no one
] blogging tool is always best: if you're running a
] community blog, you're probably best off running Scoop or
] Slash, the software that powers Kuro5hin and Slashdot.
] Or if you're a Perl hacker who loves open-source
] software, you probably want Movable Type or Blosxom.

The Microcontent News Blogging Software Roundup

] It seems this morning that bloggers have taken over the
] world.
]
] Or at least the 2004 presidential campaign.
]
] Or at least the not-so-invisible primary leading up to
] the campaign.
]
] The pundits are blogging. The journalists are blogging.
] And now the candidates are blogging.
]
] Who needs television? Let's just eliminate the middleman.

Modem Madness (washingtonpost.com)