SimpleDevices To Unveil SimpleAuto at Cable 2001

    CHICAGO--June 11, 2001--SimpleDevices, providers of a multi-device integrated platform for delivering rich content and applications beyond the PC, today announced the debut of a new wireless digital audio system designed for automobiles. The SimpleAuto(TM) prototype is a digital audio receiver for the car that wirelessly connects to SimpleDevices' platform, allowing users to synchronize music selections and other audio content located on a home PC or set-top box with the sound system in their car. This new product concept from SimpleDevices will be a featured demo at Cable 2001 (visit www.simpledevices.com for exhibit information) and will be available to consumers in 2002 through OEM partnerships, auto manufacturers, and as an after-market product.
    SimpleAuto delivers on-demand, personalized audio content to the car, including syndicated content, audio books, MP3 files, ad-supported online radio programming and more. The SimpleDevices platform, with SimpleServe middleware at its core, makes it easy for users to create playlists and manage hundreds of hours of music and other audio content from personal entertainment collections, audio books, the web, SimpleDevices' content partners and other digital content. For example, in addition to caching hundreds of hours of MP3 music files from the web and the user's personal CD collection, a user could set up a schedule to receive an audio daily journal like The Wall Street Journal, business updates, personal horoscopes, sports scores, and/or syndicated radio programs like National Public Radio's "Car Talk" to listen to during a morning commute. The customized content moves seamlessly from the home to the car via a broadband wireless home networking connection as specified by the user. Like all of SimpleDevices products, SimpleAuto is enabled with the unique TagIT!(TM) function, an interactive capability that allows users to bookmark content of interest within their digital media files and even live AM/FM radio programs, to later retrieve and further explore on the web.
    SimpleAuto is composed of two basic elements. The first is a trunk-mounted media storage transceiver that automatically wirelessly connects to SimpleDevices' SimpleServe software that resides on the user's PC or set-top box, then caches chosen content for access in the car. The second element is an in-dash interface and player that accesses SimpleAuto's database, which is capable of containing hundreds of hours of music and other audio content. The in-dash player decodes MP3 streams and features track, channel, and playlist displays, and is equipped with an FM radio that a user can listen to interactively with SimpleDevices' TagIT! function.
    "SimpleAuto is the latest innovation from SimpleDevices that shows off our multi-device integrated platform," said Lou Hughes, CEO, SimpleDevices. "This new product demonstrates the adaptability of the SimpleServe software in supporting a variety of different devices and is another example of the new ways in which users can access and easily synchronize their personal digital content away from the PC in the car, the home, and beyond."