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. 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, Calif., has been involved in making graphic chips since 1989. It will now concentrate on making noncomputer devices that have Internet connections. The company already sells Rio, a digital music player Other Formats MP3 is the universal audio format that all digital music players support, and many early players could only play MP3 songs. Today, portable players support MP3 along with one or more additional formats such as WMA and AAC. For better quality, they may allow playback of uncompressed AIFF and WAV files. Apple's iPod supports MP3, AIFF, WAV and AAC, the latter being Apple's featured music format that is tied to its FairPlay digital rights management (DRM)., and HomeFree, a portable device that allows multiple computers in a home to share an Internet connection. |
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