GLOOLAB'S
NEW GLOO TECHNOLOGY LIBERATES
CONSUMERS' DIGITAL MEDIA FROM THE COMPUTER DESKTOP
MP3
Music Files Are First Digital Media to Leave the Desktop
San
Francisco CA, January 7, 2003 -- Attendees at MacWorld Expo
today got a preview of the future of wireless digital convergence --
and its name is GLOO. Developed by GLOOLABS, a company that develops
and licenses open platform, digital convergence technologies, the new
GLOO technology links consumer devices located throughout the home or
office to digital media stored on the computer hard disc. Digital files
-- most immediately, MP3 and other music files -- can be transferred
over a wireless network to any device containing the GLOO technology.
Eventually,
GLOO technology will power servers, services, playback devices, remote
Ccontrols and a number of other products. As a result, any device with
GLOO embedded in it can talk with any other GLOO device. Consumers are
no longer locked in to one vendor or system when GLOO is in place.
GLOO should
also result in a storm of new applications for digital media. Cost,
the need for hardware, and the propensity of large companies to rely
on closed, proprietary systems have stifled application development
for digital media. With its open systems approach, GLOO busts the field
wide open, enabling thousands of application developers to test ideas
on the GLOO platform, and see what sticks. Consumers can only benefit.
"GLOO
technology gives developers the tools they need to go crazy with creative
applications that unchain consumers from their desktop computers,"
said Dan Lovy, president of GLOOLABS. "We believe the really interesting
applications will come out of an army of thousands of developers that
can jump into the game with little cost and no hardware experience needed.
The result is a deluge of new capabilities for consumers."
First
Implementation: Hear Your Music Where You Want It
The first implementation of GLOO is Macsense's new HomePod device, also
announced at MacWorld. HomePod enables music lovers to hear their music
throughout the home or office, within a range of 300 feet.
"Consumers
spend many hours downloading and organizing MP3 files," said Lovy.
"Until now, they could only listen to their music at the computer.
GLOO technology, as used in HomePod, lets the music lover access music
throughout the house -- in the kitchen, garden, workout room -- wherever."
HomePod
will be available for shipping in March, 2003, at a cost of approximately
$199.
The Digital
Future: Videos, Photos, Anything Digital
While HomePod is the first commercial application of GLOO, possibilities
for the technology are myriad. According to Lovy, photographs, videos,
and all sorts of remote devices are likely targets for developers.
"With
GLOO, any type of digital data can be made available any time, anywhere,"
said Lovy. "The applications that can be developed are limited
only by the imaginations of developers -- and developers are notoriously
inventive and creative."
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