Gadget gaffest

Sound Bite

By VARIETY STAFF

In the portable music player market, Apple last week hit a glitch and Dell logged off entirely.

Apple is paying $100 million to settle a series of patent-infringement suits with Korean tech company Creative. Creative will continue making its Zen music player and beging selling iPod accessories.

Meanwhile, another of the iPod's would-be rivals, Dell, has killed its DJ Ditty music player. Dell plans to focus on its core biz in PCs, printers and flat-screen TVs.