"...Oak Technology today announced its new SimpliCD Compact Disc recording software, designed to significantly improve ease of use for CD-RW users by enabling them to burn CDs from the Windows desktop, from a media player, or to drag and drop files to a CD through Windows Explorer. Tight integration with the Microsoft Windows operating system provides a convenient user interface embedded in Windows. Initially, Oak's SimpliCD software will be marketed to PC and CD-RW drive manufacturers to be bundled with systems and peripherals targeted for both business and consumer users.

SimpliCD is the first CD-RW software to provide drag'n'drop access to WAV files, with no audio ripping application required, along with simple play list conversion from Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) format to WAV, MP3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats to save time for users. Windows displays an audio CD as a directory containing .WAV files for each track, without need for add-on programs or modules. In addition, SimpliCD includes full MP3 support, with the ability to decode and play .MP3 files, and burn MP3 files to CD in CD-DA or .MP3 format.

SimpliCD-Recorder - This module allows playback and recording of audio, video and image files to audio and video CDs. SimpliCD-Recorder has two modes: Player and Recorder. The Disc Player mode is used for playback of audio and video CDs or capturing CD Digital Audio to hard disk. Recorder mode is used for creating and arranging a play list of digital media files (.WAV, .MP3, .WMA, .BMP, .JPG and .MPG) and recording the play list to a CD.

SimpliCD-Copy - This simple yet sophisticated program copies any type of CD with the click of a single button. Place the source disk in a CD drive, right click on that drive in Windows Explorer, and select "Copy CD." SimpliCD-Copy takes it from there, and prompts the user to insert a blank disc. It supports multiple media formats and types, including CD-R or CD-RW disks, 74 - and 80-minute discs, and over-burning beyond normal disc capacity. Previously recorded CD-RW discs can be erased automatically during the Copy process. -more- SimpliCD-Copy also supports copying of audio; data modes 1, 2, and mixed; CD+G, CD-extra, VideoCD and PhotoCD formats.

SimpliCD-ROM - This disc mastering utility for creating Data discs is as easy to use as Windows Explorer. Drag and drop the files you want into the folder, and your compilation is ready to go. To burn the disc, just right click on the folder, select burn, enter disc volume label if desired, and select OK. Additional options are available under "Advanced."

SimpliCD-ReWrite - This module includes a Universal Disk Format (UDF) read/write device driver with defect management to allow CD-RW discs to be used like floppy disks, with random and incremental writing and erasing. Read and Write functions can be accessed from the drive letter in Windows Explorer, and SimpliCD-ReWrite supports background formatting and erasing, and high speed CD-RW CAV writing. Support for the recently proposed Mt. Rainier industry initiative to allow operating system support of CD-RW drives is in development.

SimpliCD-Recover - For backup and disaster recovery, SimpliCD-Recover allows any operating system or hard disk drive to be backed up across one or more CD-R/RW discs. Users can take a snapshot of their entire hard disk drive, including the registry and other hidden files. The backup can be written to disc as a bootable ISO image to enable users to boot directly from the CD and plug in an unformatted HDD during recovery.

The basic OEM bundle includes the Copy, Recorder and CD-ROM components, while the UDF and Recover modules are optional modules. Oak provides a complete, cost-effective solution from one source that can be modified for PC manufacturers to provide custom looks and features.

Oak's SimpliCD CD-RW recording software, Version 1.0, is sampling now to OEMs for beta testing and will be available for production release in first quarter, 2001..." NULL