Monday, August 7, 2000		Latest in IT world

6-GB MP3 player launched

Creative Technologies has launched Nomad Jukebox, an MP3 player with a storage capacity of 6 gigabytes. As of now this is the largest storage capacity MP3 player, which can store multiple audio files like WAV, MP3 etc. In terms of capacity, Nomad Jukebox can store contents worth 150 CDs and in terms of normal MP3 players, it can store 149 CDs more than the average MP3 players available in the market. This player has a host of other features also, like the "Creative's PlayCentre2" software, which can convert audio CDs into MP3 file format and store them in the Jukebox. Currently it is available for $ 499 off the shelf. Online buyers can have it for $ 399.

Aptech Ltd., has priced its Global Depository Receipts (GDR) at $ 7.175 each. Out of the total GDR issue, 12,020,906 GDRs, including a 15 per cent greenshoe option, has already been placed by the company for $ 86.25 million. The London Stock Exchange has accepted the GDRs of the company. Trading in them will commence shortly.

CISCO, a telecom and networking giant, is interested in long distance telephony in India. The company, which has an expertise in the Internet Protocol telephony and multi-protocol label switching, can play a lead role in voice-over Internet telephony in India.

Napster — a popular MP3 swapping website — heaved a sigh of relief after the court stayed the injunction on the website, barely 9 hours before its closure, as per the previous ruling by a Federal judge. The website was in the dock for violation of Copyrights after Bertelsmann's BMG Entertainment, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group and more than a dozen other record companies sued the Internet start-up in December for Copyright infringement. Based on these lawsuits, the court had ordered the closure of the site.

Microsoft Corporation has released its first collection of bug fixes for Windows 2000. The company has launched the Service pack 1, which takes cares of the bug. This pack was awaited eagerly by the industry-watchers, as the growing influence of Linux in the server operating system was being perceived as a threat to Windows 2000 server operating system. Linux, which is next to Windows NT in server installations, has been growing rapidly as it has overtaken Novell's Netware. With the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000, the order book of Windows 2000 is likely to grow in the future.