Key digital video architect MPEG LA has filed a lawsuit against Haier America for allegedly infringing on patents it holds for technology used in digital TVs. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and maintains Haier's TVs in the US are sold without the needed patent licenses for the country.
Chinese electronics maker on Wednesday Haier announced at the CommunicAsia 2009 expo in Singapore that its first cellphone using the Android operating system will ship this fall. The full touchscreen H7 will use at least version 1.5 of the open-source OS, but Haier does indicate if version 2.0 is out by the time the handset ships, it will be preloaded.
Haier tonight added two more players to the Rhapsody ibiza line that both share direct parallels to Apple players. The ibiza Touch (pictured above) appears a higher-end counterpart to the ibiza Theatre that adds a sharper, 2.8-inch 400x240 touchscreen and Wi-Fi, which lets it browse the web, download podcasts and Real Rhapsody subscriptions, and tune Internet radio. It shares the Theatre's Bluetooth for pairing wireless headphones. Battery life drops accordingly and sees the Touch run for just 15 hours of AAC, Audible, MP3, Rhapsody or WMA audio but a relatively long 6 hours of DivX, H.264, MPEG-4, VC-1 or WMA video.
Haier in a low-key introduction has revealed its second and third major players in the ibiza line. The ibiza Theatre is the company's first real touchscreen player and serves as a lower-cost alternative to players from Apple and Samsung; while it has a 2.4-inch, 320x240 screen and doesn't appear to include Wi-Fi, the device includes Bluetooth for wireless headphones, an FM radio tuner and a microSD slot to add more space. It also supports Real's Rhapsody to Go for loading the device with music from the unlimited subscription service.
Haier on Thursday has quietly released the second generation of its Internet-capable portable media players. The ibiza Rhapsody Sport is ruggedized compared to the original player and has both a more easily gripped, rounded body as well as a weather-resistant covering that partly protects against rain or snow. The player continues to center on an 802.11g Wi-Fi link that lets it download podcasts, download unlimited songs over Real's Rhapsody to Go service, stream videos from AOL and check specific news feeds.
SanDisk today said it has bought out MusicGremlin for an undisclosed amount. The deal is meant to give the Sansa player manufacturer access to the smaller company's still rare direct-download subscription service, which allows members to download an unlimited number of songs each month to the player itself via Wi-Fi rather than first transferring them to a PC. The features will have a "key role" in future Sansa devices, according to SanDisk's Sansa Senior VP Daniel Schreiber.
Creative will finally join companies such as Apple and Microsoft in offering a wireless music player, say some reported insiders privy to the details. Purportedly named the ZEN Share, the device will use Wi-Fi for its network connection. Most details are unavailable, though the name directly points to a sharing ability likely based on that of the Zune. The Microsoft player allows users of similar players to share tracks over a peer-to-peer wireless network and wraps songs in a temporary copy protection system to prevent trading of copyrighted tracks.
