PortalPlayer and Pixo Align to Bring Solution to MP3 Device Manufacturers
SAN JOSE, Calif., December 17, 2001 - Pixo, Inc. (www.pixo.com), a leading provider of platforms and applications for mobile devices, today announced the availability of the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator application to navigate thousands of MP3 songs quickly and easily on small screen, mobile MP3 players. The Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator features a graphical user interface built on the Pixo OS Platform, a small code size operating system designed for mobile consumer electronics products. As mobile MP3 player capabilities advance to make downloading and playing thousands of songs a reality, Pixo provides device manufacturers with the software needed to make a compelling user experience, so consumers can quickly sort through their music with an easy-to-use, graphical interface. A PC evaluation of the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator is available for download today at http://developer.pixo.com/downloads/mp3_download.htm. In addition, Pixo has aligned itself with PortalPlayer, Inc., a leading provider of platform solutions for digital audio entertainment products. The two companies will work together to provide consumer electronics and computer manufacturers with the tools to build more intuitive MP3 products. "Managing thousands of tracks on a small display and without a keyboard is a challenge for the consumer. Even more difficult is the system designer's task of creating the interactive experience for these new types of devices. The release of the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator gives manufacturers a tool to easily implement a user-friendly GUI," said Michael Maia, vice president of marketing at PortalPlayer. "Together, the PortalPlayer digital media platform and the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator provide manufacturers a complete solution to create feature-rich, user-friendly entertainment products." Pixo also recently announced its plans to work with HP to demonstrate and market a mobile download platform solution leveraging the new Pixo Mobile Download Server and HP products in the Asia Pacific region. The most recent decision to become a member of the HP Mobile e-Services Bazaar demonstrates Pixo's commitment to helping operators respond to existing wireless application demand, while meeting future subscriber multiple device and application requirements. According to IDC, worldwide portable digital music player unit shipments will grow from 3.3 million in 2000 to over 25 million in 2005. "As the market grows, there will be greater pressure on manufacturers to add capabilities which will increase device complexity," said Rich Rifredi, vice president, corporate development, Pixo. "Consumers demand easy-to-use devices and the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator makes it easy to navigate thousands of songs sorted by song, album, and artist." The Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator provides maximum flexibility in product design as the user interface can work on 2-way, 4-way, and dial/wheel input designs and can run on nearly any small screen resolution from single line text displays to 240 X 320 and larger high resolution displays. This provides manufacturers with the ability to have a common user interface across various hardware designs in their product offering. For manufacturers who want to differentiate within a product line, the Pixo User Interface (UI) Builder provides a tool to quickly change the look and feel of the user interface for unique branding and navigation across products. The Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator is a Pixo OS Platform application and leverages more than five years of OS Platform development. In addition to the MP3 application, the Pixo MP3 Mobile Navigator supports telephony, games, personal information management, Pixo M-Script applications, and web browsing for manufacturers creating convergent devices such as mobile phones with MP3 player capabilities, smart phones with telephony, PIM and MP3 player capabilities, handheld game devices with MP3 player capabilities. Key features include: - A graphical user interface to navigate thousands of songs fast and easy with search options by artist, song, and album
- Personalized playlists that can be created by the end user
- PixoInvasion and Snake graphical games that can be played simultaneously with MP3 playback
- Flexible user interface design provides manufacturers with a choice of input devices including 2-way and 4-way navigation buttons, wheel/dial, and touchscreen
- Application framework and reference applications to reduce development time
- Pixo UI Builder tool to develop customer user interfaces for unique product branding
- A flexible software platform that can support a variety of displays from single line text displays to high resolution bit map displays and porting APIs for various hardware designs including ARM, PowerPC, X86, and Dragonball, providing manufacturers with greater product design choices
- Advanced graphical capabilities including 32-bit color and animation for a compelling user experience
- Small code size for cost effective manufacturing
More information and screen shots of the Pixo Mobile Navigator are available at www.pixo.com/products/products005.htm. About the Pixo OS Platform
The Pixo OS Platform is a small code size software application platform for manufacturers of mobile devices. The platform has been in development for over five years and consists of a C/C++ application framework, hardware abstraction layers, and a script-based user interface design, which allows user interface customization without changes to the C/C++ code. The Pixo UI Builder tool and Pixo OS Platform for PCs provide a PC-based development environment for rapid prototyping and product development significantly reducing time-to-market and development costs. About PortalPlayer
PortalPlayer, Inc. develops and markets advanced systems for digital audio recording and playback, using MP3 and other popular digital compression technologies. The company was the first to introduce a platform for the encoding of digital audio files without the use of a PC. Founded in May 1999, PortalPlayer is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has major offices in Seattle, Washington; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Hyderabad, India; and has more than 200 employees worldwide. More information on PortalPlayer is available at www.portalplayer.com. About Pixo
Pixo, Inc., is a global leader in wireless application delivery. It develops and markets server, browser and application technology to enable operators and enterprises to deliver a compelling experience to subscribers and mobile workers. Its products, including the Pixo Mobile Download Server, M-Script Applications™, Pixo Internet Microbrowser and the Pixo OS Platform, support open standards, eliminating barriers to development while opening up device options. With offices in the U.S., Hong Kong and Europe, the company is committed to speeding the development and deployment of profitable mobile applications. For more information, visit its Website at http://www.pixo.com, or call (408) 414-1700. |
