e.Digital Corp. to Support QDesign Music Playback in Portable Internet Music Player Design

Business Wire, Nov 2, 1999

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1999--

QDesign Music Codec is the Audio Compression Solution for Users of

QuickTime by Apple Computers

e.Digital Corp. (OTCBB:EDIG) announced today that it will support QDesign Music playback in e.Digital's portable Internet music player design.

The QDesign Music technology is the award-winning audio compression solution for QuickTime 4, Apple Computer's cross-platform (Mac OS and Windows) architecture for digital media creation and delivery.

The QDesign Music Codec is a new generation audio coding technology that was designed to deliver the highest quality audio at the lowest possible data rates. Encoded in the QDesign Music format, consumers can include up to 2.5 hours of music on portable audio players equipped with 32MB storage.

To enable consumers with the ability to encode in the QDesign Music format, QDesign announced last week the release of MVP(TM), the company's new digital music software that allows music libraries to be created in both MP3 and QDesign Music formats. As the first cross-platform digital music system, MVP will enable both Mac and Windows users the ability to playback all popular digital audio formats (CD Audio, AIFF, WAV, and others), as well as, most digital music videos available on the Web and enhanced CDs.

"There is natural synergy between e.Digital's portable music player design and our support of the QDesign Music playback," said Fred Falk, president and chief executive officer of e.Digital. "Adding QDesign Music support and the MVP software to our music player design opens up the market for Mac users as well as Windows-based PC users. e.Digital is taking the lead in incorporating the best possible technology in portable Internet music players, and will continue to offer the most valuable options to its OEM customers."

According to Mandy Chan, vice president of business development at QDesign, "Portable Internet music players are instrumental in advancing digital music because they bring a new level of flexibility to how and where music can be enjoyed. With audio encoded in the QDesign Music format, we enable consumers to store the most amount of audio on their players at the highest possible audio quality. We are very excited to be working with e.Digital to bring QDesign Music playback to next generation portable audio players."

e.Digital's portable Internet music player reference design is available for license by consumer electronics manufacturers and other private labelers. Full-featured options, multiple music codec support (including Lucent Technologies' EPAC), security software support (including Liquid Audio's SP3 secure portable player platform), and custom product design are available.

The company also offers complete industrial design, engineering services, and manufacturing services.

QDesign Corp. has been delivering state-of-the art audio solutions to the broadcast and new media industries since 1995. The company introduced the world's first MPEG-2 stereo compression software in October 1996, making available for the first time, high-quality, high-performance MPEG sound to all broadcast and studio professionals. In January 1998, QDesign launched the QDesign Music Codec as the Internet audio solution for QuickTime 3, bringing to audio and multimedia professionals "Audio Product of the Year" for 1999 according to New Media Magazine. This past summer, the company announced its own implementation of MP3, the most popular format for on-line music download. QDesign's codec technologies appear in hardware processors, digital audio production, automation and distribution systems as well as professional and consumer multimedia software.

e.Digital Corp. offers an engineering partnership for the world's leading electronics companies to link portable digital devices to PCs and the Internet. Engineering services range from the licensing of e.Digital's patented MicroOS(TM) file management system to custom software and hardware development, design and manufacturing services. For more information on the company, visit www.edig.com.

Safe Harbor statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, technology and product development that may impact on future results and the future viability of the company. Actual results could be affected or differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors such as: future products and results; technological shifts; potential technical difficulties that could delay new products; competition; general economic conditions in the markets in which the company operates; the ability of the company, its customers, and suppliers to become Year 2000 compliant; pricing pressures; and the uncertainty of market acceptance of new products by OEM's and end-user customers.

Note to Editors: e.Digital and MicroOS are trademarks of e.Digital Corp. QDesign and MVP are trademarks of QDesign. All other product, company, or service names are the property of their respective owners.