S3 SHIFTS ITS FOCUS TO HANDHELD INTERNET APPLIANCES.S3 Inc. said that it was shifting its focus from making chips to making handheld Internet appliances Also called "information appliance," "smart appliance," and "Web appliance," it is a device specialized for accessing the Web and/or e-mail. Designed for ease of use, it plugs into a telephone jack or LAN connection for Internet hookup. . As a first step, S3 agreed to sell its majority stake in its graphic chip joint venture to the Taiwanese chip maker VIA Technologies Inc.,k the other partner in the venture, for $323 million in cash and stock. S3 will keep a minority stake in the venture, which was formed in November. S3, based in Santa Clara Santa Clara, city, Cuba Santa Clara (sän`tä klä`rä), city (1994 est. pop. 217,000), capital of Villa Clara prov., central Cuba. , Calif., has been involved in making graphic chips since 1989. It will now concentrate on making noncomputer devices that have Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the connections. The company already sells Rio, a digital music player Hardware or software that plays audio files encoded in MP3, AAC, WMA or other audio formats. There are several software-based music players that play audio files in a desktop or laptop computer, including iTunes, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. , and HomeFree, a portable device that allows multiple computers in a home to share an Internet connection. |
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