Short Take: Appliance version of Be includes MP3 support

Alternative operating system maker Be said it has licensed MP3 encoding and decoding technology from consumer firm Thomson Multimedia to include in its BeIA platform for information appliances. "The ability to create, play and manipulate audio is important for general-purpose Internet appliances and critical for entertainment-focused devices," said Steve Sakoman, Be's chief operating officer, in a statement. "Some software platforms offer the ability to decode audio, but BeIA is the first fully featured software platform for Internet appliances to offer both industry-standard MP3 encoding and decoding."