Ogg Vorbis offers first handheld player

The Ogg Vorbis project, which aims to create a fully open, license-free alternative to the MP3 audio format, has released the first Ogg player for a handheld device. TheKompany, which makes Linux desktop tools and developer applications, released tkcPlayer for Sharp's Linux-based Zaurus handheld computer, which began shipping in the United States last week. TkcPlayer also handles MP3 files and includes features such as filtering by song attributes and playlist management.

TheKompany says the Ogg files compress to 10 percent smaller than MP3 files, with 50 percent better quality on average, and consume a third less power on the Zaurus during playback. Ogg Vorbis is an open-source project aimed at creating an audio compression-decompression format free of patents and license fees. MP3 has become the de facto standard for trading audio files over the Internet because of the small size and high quality of its files, but the format is controlled by the Fraunhofer Group and other members of the MPEG Consortium. Software and makers must pay Fraunhofer royalties for each encoder distributed.

Matthew Broersma reported from London.

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