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Tid-bits
1/9 - Seagate has been named company of the year by Forbes Magazine. Forbes compared 1,000 companies and ranked Seagate—an efficient stand-alone hard drive manufacturer—as the best of the best. Net income in 2005 was three times its nearest two competitors. That's combined. According to the CEO, Seagate used to be the leader among hard drive companies. Now it's a leader among companies, period. And the story gets even better. In four or five years, Seagate should reach its true potential. Seagate hard drives are heading for cell phones and automobiles. "Seagate is riding the world's gadget boom".
Seagate hard drives shall be featured in the new digital audio player from Digitalway, the MPIO HD400. "The Seagate 8GB ST1 Series is the highest capacity 1-inch hard disc drive in the market".
Creative has four years in a row won a Best of CES award for a category. This time around, however, they also won the award for the best at the entire show. CES is the largest trade show in the United States. The Zen Vision:M is a portable MP3 and media player. Commented the CEO: "This is the most powerful endorsement one can have in our industry".
Owners of a Zen Vison or Zen Vision:M are entitled to a free beta the Creative ZenCast free of charge. ZenCast is an application for accessing audio and video content on the Internet. ZenCast Organizer "seamlessly integrates podcasts and video blogs with select Zen players or a PC".
A gaming mouse developed by Creative will be available early in 2006. What makes this mouse so special? It was developed in consultation with "the world's best first-person-shooter gamer".
Creative and Skype are at it again. This time Creative will release, come Spring, an Internet phone that works with Skype and directly connects a broadband router. This provides Skype users "an alternative to being connected to the PC".
Creative releases this month a wireless web cam, with a web server, that together enable remote monitoring from an Internet device. The software allows viewing of "up to four different cameras on a single screen".
Creative will release a 5.1 speaker system in March, with wireless rear speakers to obviate the need for messy wires. These are not the first wireless speakers. However, these are different in that they do not "require each of the rear speakers to be powered independently, which can be difficult for users who don't have a power outlet near each speaker".