Can a 2-inch trapeziform plastic tool with a tiny razor blade hidden between two rounded wings find its way into the pantheon of indispensable everyday objects? Brian McCracken thinks it has a shot, at least in households where extracting a compact disc from its packaging results in broken fingernails and unprintable epithets.

McCracken, 35, a computer scientist and music enthusiast, hit upon the idea of the opener about a year ago, designed it and got it patented in January. He started a little company in the spare bedroom of his San Fernando Valley, Calif., home to distribute the product.The reaction has been an instant "Why didn't I think of that?" McCracken said by phone, adding that he used to open his CDs with a steak knife or an Exacto blade.

Place the EZ-CD at one end of the top of the hermetically sealed package, popularly known as a jewel box, and in one stroke the opener slices through the shrink wrap, the gummy store label with the bar code and the annoyingly tenacious little metallic strip known in the packaging business as the dog bone. Blood pressure stays low, jewel box doesn't crack.

Music stores in the New York City area, including Coconuts, Tower Records and HMV, sell the openers for prices ranging from 99 cents to $1.99.

More than a million have been sold in colors that include hot pink, royal blue, black, gray and white, McCracken said.

He still has one foot in the commercial real-estate software company he was running before he had the idea for the CD opener, but he has moved his company, Mactec Products, out of the house. It is now an operation employing five, and it also creates and markets other CD and video accessories.

Several record labels have ordered custom-designed versions of the EZ-CD as a promotional item. The international market beckons, with CD-ROMs, games and movies.

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