Slashdot Mirror
Sony Cigar-Sized MP3 Player
Aaron Johns writes "The newest MP3 player on the market is from Sony, the VAIO Music Clip. It weighs less than two ounces, is a little over 4.5 inches long, and less than an inch in diameter. Only 64 Megs, but that's still two hours of music in a pen. " It's pretty cute. One thing ya gotta say about Sony, is that the guys designing the VAIO, AIBO, and this new music clip have a cool design sense... Despite how nifty this player looks I have to believe that with the onset of portable MP3 players with several hundred megs of storage, this one is probably too little too late.
This is not a troll, but although there is quite a hype around MP3 at the time, I find Minidiscs far more convenient.
The main disadvantage of MP3 devices is that you NEED to get back to your computer if you want to have more than 60 minutes or so of music and there are people who don't always have access to their computers. Not to mention that MD players are cheaper.
(Sorry, someone had to say it.)
You can copy digitally from a CD to a MD player. You have to use the optical link.
m .html) . I think its windoze only.
They also have a soundcard with an optical out from your computer (minidico sells them
http://www.minidisco.com/minispecs/xitelplatinu
I've used analog for some of my minidiscs and it works fine, almost unnoticably different from digital.
the musiclip isn't really an mp3 player; it plays atrac3 music files. if you have an mp3 file, it conerts it into an atrac3 file and plays it. not that atrac3 is that bad but that's one more level added on to degrade sound quality. it can change wav files directly to atrac3.. but this is sony, one of those big-wig corporate companies so they put in all this security junk on it to screw you over. read this.
No, the Memory Stick is used in the StickMan player. This is the Vaio Clip.
"You know you want me baby!" - Crow T Robot
Sorry, German only. It is basically something like a DiscMan which can read ISO9660 CDs and decode MPEG-I audio layer 3.
Quite expensive, though. I'd rather burn my custom collection on normal audio CDs and use a cheap portable CD player instead.
a) It's awfully expensive for a couple of hours worth of music.
b) It looks (God forgive me) like something you'd buy in a shop with a name like "Pure Pleasures" or "Sex World" and use for something other than a couple hours of music.
Seriously, the real problem with all of these sorts of devices, walkmans, personal CD players etc. is that whenever I bother to program out what I think I want to hear, I change my mind a song or two in. The difference between MP3 and the previous generations of personal music devices is that they have the potential to solve my problems (well, at least this specific problem).
What I'm really keen for is the day when I'll be able to stream music from my server at home directly to some sort of personal device -- maybe a Palm descendant of one kind or another. This probably isn't too far out; digital cellular of some sort coupled with your favorite PDA. This will let me decide what I want to hear when I'm out jogging or mowing the lawn or whatever. That would be a real nice paradigm shift.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Im excited about the USB interface...on Linux...
Take a look at the latest kernel, LOTS of USB devices are supported.
Will people STOP saying Linux does not have USB support! For the number of times I keep hearing it, I almost would start believing it, if I wasn't currently typing with my USB keyboard and using my USB HandSpring Visor docking station all the time...
Linux USB homepage
On a related note, some people just got the RIO MP3 player working with the Linux USB stack, take a look at http://rio500.sourceforge.net for more information on it.
First, 64MB is more something like 64 minutes of music. It's my average, on 30,000 songs collection. I prefer 112-128 kbps codecs.
Second, I can't remember anybody complaining about size factor of Discman. Also, with pair of Duracels I can listen my Discman some eight to ten hours. And with single disk with 72 minutes and average price for Discman's more like $100, it's simple to continue reasoning.
Third, 72 minutes off-the-shelf CD's are not so common, but with 8x CD-Writer in $200 price range, and blank media in $1 range... I can sacrifice $1 and 9 minutes for some throw-away collection for my listening pleasure. Or put that collection in some 24 pcs bag in car box and replace when I wish.
http://opencm3.net, http://www.nongnu.org/gm2/
Well, there's the TRGpro, a Palm III with a CF slot. It has .wav out, but it lacks a headphone jack. =(
Solid state devices really can't skip, unless maybe it's exposed to enough RF noise! Then you'd probably skip and stutter too as a result of that level of EMI.
Incidentally, my little MD player has 'only' 10 seconds of anti-skip protection, but it took me two months to figure out how to skip it. And try I did. It never, ever, ever skips unless I am really trying, as it takes a fairly solid 'thud' by hand. And of course, my player costs less than any good MP3 player out there, at a decently competitive size with many MP3 players, except of course this one.
Good thing this wasn't around a few years ago. There is no telling what would have been done with it or how they would explain it to Mr. Starr.
Here is a short survey.... of posible options
What wold Bill and Monica do with this technology?
insert it in an orifice rub it across the skin ensure watter damage Listen to it all of the above multitask
Your name:
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Good thing this wasn't around a few years ago. There is no telling what would have been done with it or how they would explain it to Mr. Starr.
Here is a short survey.... of posible options
What wold Bill and Monica do with this technology?
A: insert it in an orifice
B: rub it across the skin
C: ensure watter damage
D: Listen to it
E: all of the above
F: multitask
Your name:
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Non-SDMI players will go the way of the dinosaurs soon; once SDMI is finalised, making players which do not implement strict controls will be just asking to be sued into oblivion.
Buy your Rios now while they still play MP3s.
P.S. If you want a DVD-ROM that ignores zone protection, look around for secondhand ones, because all recently manufactured units are obliged to enforce the CCA's rules.
There will never be Linux support, on principle.
Everybody knows that Linux is a virtual Mos Eisley of pirates who have no appreciation of intellectual property, and who by supporting efforts such as DeCSS, have declared war on civilised commerce.
Besides, with Linux you can compile your own kernels, which makes hardware level security really difficult (unless such copware runs as root and preferably patches the kernel, which binary-only software cannot legally do). As such, companies aren't exactly hurrying to port their precious players/decryptors onto a platform where they may be easily reverse-engineered.
(Aside: Chances are that in a few years' time, a licence will be required to legally possess ICE debuggers, akin to locksmithing licences. The comments of the judge in the DeCSS case seem to suggest that in the New World Order, "encryption research" is legally only for approved parties.)
Which burners degrade sound? I want to know so that I may avoid them like the plague.
I compose music, and wish to make CDs. I have an old track-at-once CD-R writer, though would want to buy a disc-at-once unit at some stage. Since I intend to use it for recording music of my own composition (and on which I own the copyright, not the Big 4 or the RIAA, damnit), I will be royally pissed off if I am prevented from doing this by those thieving corporate dogfsckers who purport to own all digitally encoded sound.
Phase 1 SDMI is nothing, and I'm not planning to ever download an SDMI Phase 2 file to trigger Phase 2 protections,
Is anybody planning to download one? I don't think there'll be a nice "download trigger" option (like those "UPLOAD VIRUS" buttons in bad computer movies of yore). Chances are, the trigger will be encoded in commercial sound files you buy over the Net. (Removing it will, of course, not be an option.) If you make your own sound files, chances are the SDMI-compliant encoder software will be obliged to put in the trigger after a certain date.
If you use sound files made after a certain date, chances are you will download the trigger.
Well, I have a CDRW burner, so I'd like to stick with something along those lines - besides, it would be capable of functioning as a generic discman (why _wouldn't_ it?) and you could probably even evolve a standard for cds with mp3 and redbook tracks for extra fun.
;)
besides, i don't want to have to get an optical out card for my mac. But a usb is more commonplace. Not that firewire wouldn't be better, but it's not sufficiently common on your side of the fence yet
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
- USB interface
- Open CDROM format for storage
- 16MB RAM (copy the file from CD to RAM)
So maybe the best solution is a player which can operate either entirely on memory or with memory and a CD attached to it in some modular fashion.-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
they do. if you hit them with a hammer.
I wonder though what exactly the "non-skip technology" is. The damn player has no moving parts.
___
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
What I want:
A CD player that can also play mp3s off of a standard ISO CD and without bullshit like SDMI.
___
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
My roommate had a mini-disk player. As far as I can tell it's nothing more but a toy.
There is no way to copy a mp3 on a mini-disc, or encode a CD on it. You have to record the music on it by playing it through another device. This is *analog* recording, which degrades the quality severely. On the other hand, when you encode mp3s you rip the digital image of the track -- and that makes a huge difference.
Not to mention that mini-discs use Sony's proprietary format for storing music which Sony will not release the specs for.
I am not defending mp3 players though. In my opinion they also suck. In 64MB of memory you can fit about an hour of music. And since it's not stored in a removable media you're stuck until you delete them and copy some new mp3s there.
A portable player *must* have removable media. When oh when will these moronic companies pull their heads out of their asses and release something useful. I've been waiting for 2 years for a CD/mp3 player combo. Apparently some small companies did release it but the availability is scarse to say the least.
___
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
I think I'll take a pass on any player that reduces my convenience.
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
[ home ]
Seeing as there's no legal reason for those OS's to lack USB support, the proper answer here is to finish USB support for Linux and add it to those other OS's. Honestly, do you expect the entire hardware industry to wait for every OS to get in line? That's not the kind of computer industry I want. (Though, OTOH, I don't want the kind that patents everything, either...)
--
Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
[ home ]
And not only that, but if you actually get one of the newer MD recording decks out there, they include features like faster than realtime recording, so you can dump a cd to MD in 5 minutes.
Also, (and this is the kicker for me) the time it takes to reload your collection and get a fresh new mix of music: the time it takes to eject a disk and insert another. I just don't get the big push for solid-state only. The tech just ISNT good enough right now, and with SDMI looming in the background, I don't think its going to get better anytime now.
All current devices store something like an hour or two of audio, but why settle, because when you get tired of that list, you have to go back to a computer to reload the collection. That takes time! I just carry 4 or 5 disks (tiny) in my pocket while walking around on campus. Viola, all my moods can be satisfied while in transit, no going back to base. The 10 hour battery life doesn't hurt either...
And btw, you can get a nice unit (slightly larger than state-of-the-art) for about $200 at minidisco.com. Much cheaper.
Check my Go-related blog for beginners: DGD
Sony has a link on their Web site for feedback. Though the Music Clip is officially a "computing" product, I sent the feedback to their consumer electronics division. A copy of what I sent appears below.
____________________________
My attention was called to your new product, the Sony MC-P10 VAIO Music Clip, by an article on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/). It looks like a very nice device, one I would be interested in having.
However, upon reviewing the feature list, I found that the MC-P10 is "SDMI Compliant." As an informed and ethical computing professional of over 20 years experience, I will not allow SDMI anywhere inside my computer, my home, or in the homes of my friends and family. I know exactly what SDMI is and what it does. I neither need it nor want it and, frankly, would prefer to have the option of buying equipment that has not been handicapped in this way.
There is no law requiring you to install SDMI in your products. I therefore respectfully request that you offer versions of your products both with and without SDMI, and let the market decide which is superior. Until then, however, I and my colleagues will, sadly, have to forego what is otherwise a very fine product.
Thank you for your time.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Repeat after me:
I do not like SDMI.
I think they should stick it
in their eye.
If you want to make
us use SDMI
then you will not get
good demographics in the
MP3 Pie.
(Sorta rhymes. Sorta Suess-like. I tried :) )
...That I noticed is that it is SDMI-compliant. I know my mp3 player isn't, and I would spculate most others aren't. Ah well. I would hope this player would take the Memory Sticks Sony created ... that would make the 64meg ceiling a little less prohibitive.
i know this is really the obvious comment, but some people have got to realise that sometimes a cigar-shaped MP3 player is just a cigar-shaped MP3 player.
I submitted this to /. a while ago but...
Here's a watch from Casio that can play 32MB of MP3s. Not too practical, but pretty neat.
They also have a watch that is a digital camera.
See it here.
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
I think you've hit on something with the upload/download of non-mp3 files.
I love the idea of this stick/pen/cigar being a General Purpose Computer that happens to be able to playback music. This would make a convient floppy disk replacement.
If it had IrDA or some sort of radio link, it could also be used as a good door key or other security application!
Well, I don't have a URL for you, but a couple of the latest players can take the IBM micro harddrives in their CompactFlash slot. That gives you either 170MB or 340MB of storage (of course, they're not solid state, so you can presumably break them by dropping them on a hard surface or something.)
No. It means you'll get sued under the DMCA if you find some kludge to make it work.
-- Named Defendant #2, DVD CCA vs Most Of The Internet
it's value as an entertainment 'device' increases. Just wait until www.goodvibes.com cobrands a version. Or maybe the owner of the patent to force-sensitive, sound-pplaying condoms will integrate this technology into his next patent...
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
A while ago, I was reviewing a MPMan for mp3.com, and I had in my car with me. Since it came with crappy earbud headphones, I used my Aiwa headphones (with a 10-foot cord). Anyway, as I was getting out of the car, I accidentally caught the headphone cord unknowingly. Attached to the end of its 10-ft cable was the MPMan. As the cable tightened, I moved out of the car, and the MPMan flew along. It *skipped* across the parking lot and finally came to rest about 15 ft away. But it still played fine after that... :)
Photos of bits of the past hiding in the present: afiler.com
Yea, this thing has no *space* for memory clip. It's not expandable at all.
CompactFlash is good, why can't they stick with one standard, instead of 3 different storage types?
According to this article, it can't handle variable-bit rate encoding. And that's not the worst of its problems..
..is that an MP3 player in your pocket or are you just really happy to see me?
I have a Handspring Visor that I use on a daily basis and bought specifically because of the expansion module (and lower price). I'm hoping that someone will come out with a springboard module that doesn't extend beyond the edge of the Visor's case. The MiniJam from Innogear just seems to bulky and the small size of the Music Clip from Sony proves it. Remove the screen and usb connector (I'm guessing you can load songs into the modules via the springboard connector through the Visor at a decent rate) from the Music Clip and the circuitry must be quite small. The only issues would then be the buttons, headphone jack (put them on the top edge of the springboard) and battery life (use a rechargable battery pack in the module and dc power connector on the top or just use the visor batteries). One of the reasons PDA's are cool is because they're small and I'd like to keep mine that way.
I never use anything below 128kbps, as a matter of fact, 160kbps is sometimes even needed to really get it right.
Same here. I've been using the variable rate encoding with Xing with very good results. My question would be whether this thing could play back these files properly.
What would be really neat is if the download software could selctively reduce the bitrate from the original mp3. If I were just planning on listening on headphones, then I could get away with 64k.
How about an ethernet hookup instead of usb for downloading new tunes?
GRH
Moderate the parent message up. Everybody should read this link. It'll really make you think twice.
GRH
Thanks, I had a read of that article too. Boy this thing looks good in "marketing speak", but it sucks at a usability/hackability level.
GRH
"..too little too late"..? [groan] If the beanies weren't already over, I'd nominate CmdrTaco for "worst bad pun of the year." ;P
James
Well, here is the MPAA member Sony making a MP3 player. Now all we need is a free DVD player from RIAA..
Why is this marked "troll"? It's getting to be the truth these days!
Slashdot does indeed suck!
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
just a guess---
encoding maybe?
------- Oh damn.... the Sigfile escaped... -Great OM
The manual states that VBR encoding MP3s are not supported.
Uhm, there are many consumer sound cards with digital output. Aureal Vortex SuperQuad ($47 on pricewatch) has optical output for portable units, as well as the Xitel Storm Platinum, Turtle Beach Montego II+, VideoLogic Sonic Vortex 2, to name a few. The plain vanilla SBLive! Value revision 2 has coaxial digital output, and optical can be added with an inexpensive bracket.
It can convert into OpenMG MP3 format. Still not pretty, but you are incorrect in that matter.
I agree. They just aren't there yet.
I have a minidic player and its been great. I use it alot, cary about 5 to 10 of those little disc with me when I leave the apartment in the AM. And the discs are cheap enough so I have about 40 or so and don't have to worry about downloading the music I want.
The quality is fantastic (way better than 160 kbps mp3). 9 hours per rechargable battery charge too.
And the coolest thing is the little remote that hangs off the end of the headphone cable. (actually kinda in the middle of the cable with the headphones attached). You can change songs/volume while keeping the unit in your pocket.
I love my MD player... cheap, rerecordable, easy to manage... If someone would design a USB CD-ripper for my MD player, I'd bear their children.
Open Source. Closed Minds. We are Slashdot.
The pros:
The cons:
Sadly, I think the cons outweigh the pros. That "SDMI Compliant" part is the worst. SDMI sounds like a very unworkable solution to something that should be a non-problem. It's sad to see many good MP3 playsers ruined by this "security".
Here's what I want in an MP3 player:
Sadly I haven't found anything that meeds those requirements. USB is one because it's fast, it's much easier than a parallel port device, and it should be "plug 'n play". Upload and download of files is an important thing too. I want to be able to use this thing to move a file from one computer to another as well as to play MP3s. A 64 MB file transfer device sounds really useful. Of course if the thing is SDMI Compliant that would probably be impossible. And finally I want the thing to be at least as good a portable music device as my portable CD player. It should be rugged and still have good music functionality.
I'd love to hear of someone who has found a player that does all that, so if you know of one, speak up. Until I find one I'm going to stick with my CD player.
It's pretty weak of Slashdot to promote MPAA-member products while other sites are taking the legal heat for promoting open source code. Slashdot should keep its ads at the top of the page.
Sorry to wet your collective cirgar but this _thing_ is SMDI compliant, which, as we all know, requires a boycott.
buy someting else that is not SMDI compliant, and maybe drop Sony a line explaingin to them why exactly you chose the competitions' product.
Point and Grunt
Ha ha! Knew there had to be a good joke in there about Whitehouse interns and 'cigar-sized' objects! Good one, made me smile! Thanks
Could someone list what players are soon to appear that offer "several hunderd meg of storage"? I agree that 64 megs just isn't enough and have been waiting for something with more capacity.
Thanks
I would recommend that this item not be sold to the President, who knows where he'll try to stick it.
Hotnutz.com - Funny
Well, PS2 does have USB, so....
It is going to be one of many Memory Stick devices. Sony was big on them at Comdex. Expect to see them make a play to replace CompactFlash and SmartMedia with Memory Stick Technology in cameras, music devices, and other appliances.
I think it kicks ass, myself.
-- Speaking for myself.
Did anyone else go to the site and see the marketing-ese about "non-skip technology"? Who do they think they are trying to fool? What would you need to make an mp3 player skip? A hammer?
Ordered up this little sucker the day I saw it, being a collector of (still)early adopter portables.
Is it cool? Yeah, the form factor and controls are the usual Sony high standard. It sounds excellent, with less amplification than the Lyra but with three pretty crappy EQ presets only. The included headphones are garbage, but have a cool 6 inch cord and a tiny plug to complete the "tiny" effect.
As for the SDMI thing, who the hell cares? Phase 1 SDMI is nothing, and I'm not planning to ever download an SDMI Phase 2 file to trigger Phase 2 protections, which aren't even finalized yet anyway. So for now, me and my gigs of music are free to use the Music Clip. But it's memory limit is a bummer, though it's hard to hang my 680mb i2go from a thin strap around my neck like the Clip.
I agree with someone's comment that the Sony designers are rocking. AIBO, the little VAIO laptops, their DV videocameras, and that really cool F505 Cybershot camera all have the same really well thought out usability.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
If they claim it's an "MP3 Player" but it doesn't really play mp3's, isn't that false advertising?
my solution: buy a portable minidisc player/recorder.
the media is pretty cheap (2 bucks per disc). you can record over the discs a seemingly infinite number of times. mine can play for upto 40 hours without a charge. you can record digitly using a fiberoptic cable and a sound card with optical out. hoontech makes one that is supported underlinux with alsa and oss.
john
-- john
But now, stop and think for a minute. This is Sony. Owner of one of the BIGGEST record labels in the country, and they're best buddies with the RIAA. What did you expect?
I think I'll wait for the new Creative Labs one coming out, or that Pine Music CD/MP3 player. I would stay away from this one until the SDMI stuff sorts out, personally.
--bdj
What's the quadruple-shift-click combo that disables the SDMI stuff? We know it exists.
Ryan
Now we just need a pipe-shaped mp3 player, so the MPAA can put 'em in it's pipe and smoke it =D
"SDMI Compliant"
:)
:)
...Great. "This unit will self-destruct upon playing a pirated mp3". Hehe, I bet the RIAA wishes
Anyway, back on topic, the only thing I really don't like about this is that there doesn't appear to be any way to upgrade the unit. The codec is expandible (mp4 anyone?), but not the memory. 64 megs is okay, but I'm gonna need to order 110 of these things to fit all of my music collection onto (at the mere cost of $33,000). Most of the other memory-based portable mp3 players have flash cards available -- which is great, store 2-3 CD's (or mixes) on one, and have 1 or 2 extra around.
And before anyone argues that I have too many mp3s, about 99% of my mp3s are legal, so don't go into issues about me having too many. I was raised in the CD generation, remember
_____________________
Everybody's upset about it being SDMI-compliant". (Does that really mean it won't play "normal" MP3's I've ripped from my own CD's with AudioCatalyst? If so, how do they expect to sell any?)
SDMI devices *may* include a watermark detection system so that you will not be able to play any mp3s which come from newer watermarked CDs. This will force you to use the ripping software which comes with the player and only runs under windows (thus forcing you to pay the microsoft tax). It could also mean that if you lose your player and buy a new one you will need to rerip all your CDs (since the songs were only encoded for the old player). There may be all sorts of other nast preasents from the RIAA inside like sound degradation "features." They have managed to get sound degradation features included in some new CD burnners.
Regardless, there will be all sorts of nasty attempts to leverage the RIAA's control over SDMI into additional control over the music industry and additional restrictions on independant bands (The RIAA has been hostile to bands which refuse to get ripped off by the industry and sell their stuff directly; witness the Negitiveland fiasco where they attempted to leverage IP restrictions to keep independant or smaller labal bands from compeating).
The bottom line is we need to kill SDMI. Making an example of this thing would have a very positive influence on future mp3 players. The people who buy protable mp3 players are geeks anyway, so we can spread the word and start an effective boycott.
There is a link at the bottom of the page which helps you find dealer locations. I think we should all find the dealers in our area, print up a bunch of informative stickers about this product (mentioning that it may not play CDs you pay for in the future, the general nastiness of SDMI, etc.), and go stick them on the packages to warn customers about this.
I supose it cold say something like this:
WARNING: This is an SDMI compliant device. This means that this device will contin unessicary restrictions on your ability to play music. These restrictions may include limits on the kinds of downloadable music which is playable, restrictions on your ability to move digital music to another device (i.e. if you lose this one you may not be able to play the same digital music in a replacment device). The device may also contin additional restrictions which will only be activated at a later date such as preventing you from lissening to mp3s made from yeat to be released CDs. We highly recommend that you research the diffrences between this product and other protable mp3 player solutions before you spend any money.
Jeff
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Hey, CmdrTaco please add an update to the article mentioning the fact that this thing is SDMI compliant. I don't think any of us really want to be giving the SDMI people any money. Dose anyone know if SDMI compliant means it will not play mp3s from a water marked CD?
I think we should try to make an example of this thing by hurting their sales. It would have a very positive influence on future mp3 players. The people who buy protable mp3 players are geeks anyway, so we can spread the word and start an effective boycott.
There is a link at the bottom of the page which helps you find dealer locations. I think we should all find the dealers in our area, print up a bunch of informative stickers about this product (mentioning that it may not play CDs you pay for in the future, the general nastiness of SDMI, etc.), and go stick them on the packages to warn customers about this. I guess I need to come up with a concise list of problems with the product.
Jeff
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Now lets see:
~4 megs per MP3
650 megs per CD
650/4 = Thats about 162 songs per CD.
Now there's about 15 tracks on the average CD.
162/15 = Thats about 11 albums per CD.
11 albums per CD!
How can this 64 meg device even compete?
Even by recompressing your mp3s at lower bitrates (bleh), you're fitting about 1 album on this device. Do you want to be able to listen to 11 albums or 1?
The only legitimate arguement I can think of for buying Sony's device is it's small size. I personally don't find portable CD players too big. The P300 is even $100 cheaper.
This sony device sounds nice, but I think solid state audio devices are still a while off.
Bitchslapped? Give Rob a bitchslap from bitchslapped.com.
This device embodies everything that you just outlined. And they're taking pre-orders today!
Bitchslapped? Give Rob a bitchslap from bitchslapped.com.
Hey, if you follow the link through and read the description you will notice that one of the "features" is that it is an SDMI device.
Don't buy SDMI devices unless you want to pay the same amount of money for your music, but have less flexibility in how you listen to it.
eeh... you can encode mp3's with a 4.77 Mhz 8088 just fine, it takes a bit of time, but it can be done, so requiring a P233 is BS. I know lots of people encoding with less than a P233.
---
sony releses this mp3 player while they are hunting mp3 pirates in denmark
This was released at Comdex of 1998. It's been out for a LONG time. It's been on VAIOdirect for over 9 months now. I wonder how long THIS story has been in the queue...
Because you can add 74 minutes of music to your player for $2 instead of the $100+ it'll cost in flash RAM for an mp3 player. Minidisc players are very popular almost everywhere in the world except the US. Both minidisc and mp3 players have their pros and cons, but a major pro for portable minidisc (for me anyways) is the ability to inexpensively add capacity that I can carry along with me. And with an optical cable to connect it to my sound card, I can easily record from either my CD collection or mp3 collection. Sharp even has a new portable that includes all the necessary items to record mp3s to the device. By the way, don't count on Sony supporting an open mp3 discman device anytime soon. They're solidly behind ATRAC3 and apparently SDMI.
Everybody's upset about it being SDMI-compliant". (Does that really mean it won't play "normal" MP3's I've ripped from my own CD's with AudioCatalyst? If so, how do they expect to sell any?)
What shoots it down for me is the same thing as the Rio: Win98 *only*. I only have WinNT and Linux and BSD at home, and NT at the office. The thing might as well say "TRS-80 ONLY" when it comes to getting my business.
As soon as I read the link provided in the above comment, the idea of buying this damn thing evaporated. I will not support ANYTHING SDMI. Period.
good. fast. cheap. (pick any two, you can't have all three)
What I like about this new player is the fact it isn't box shaped. Somebody finally discovered that mp3 files aren't flat and square and that you can make a MP3 player any shape you want.
I just wanted to comment that for me at least, having an mp3 player with 64 megs of memory would be just fine.
I currently have a 32 meg RIO and am a little frustrated at the lack of space but with 64 I think I could load up a lot of different options of what to listen to and be happy for a while before reloading.
I understand that having a gb or more of memory is feasible and sought after but I think for most people 64 megs is adequate for occasional usage...
Josh
Hullo.
I recently bought myself Panasonic's very very amazing Shockwave Metal RQ-SW99V Stereo Radio Cassette Player and it is a very amazing piece of technology. It runs off of ONE AA BATTERY for 30 HOURS and has Panasonic's amazing VMSS technology (aka Brainshaker) that MOVES to the music. Also, no skipping (!) with a 120 minute cassette for $1.50. Some people may not like this, but it suits me perfectly as I can record episodes of Off the Hook and listen to them over and over, and just set up a 2-hour MP3 playlist for ambient listening during travel.
Another feature some may like (I do) called TPS, where you press the + button to go to the next "track" on the tape. it looks for the next period of silence and resumes playing. Also, it has a remote control on the headphones, complimenting it's lightweight and perfect size for a pocket. I really like this player and think it was an incredibly excellent value for only $100. If you don't mind using cassettes again, I would very much recommend this player.
Thank you.
3 hours, really???
wow... I do get 30 hours out of mine, but that's with the VMSS off. I can get probably 20 with it on. I usually replace my battery every 2 weeks.
An mp3 encoded at a rate necessary to fit two hours of music into 64 mbs would sound like crap compared to a cd.
Check out AbiWord.
- =anagrams>
Re: Product Announcement- Damnations, geek up this opportunity.
Re: RIAA suit- Pirate punishments not OK to paid guy.
Re: Cigar, Clinton, 'nuff said[
I suppose all the Linux, BeOS, and NT4 users are especially excited about the USB interface too, eh?
--
E2 IN2 IE?
If they could double the memory and make it waterproof, this is about the right size for a nice sports music player. It would have to be TRULY waterproof though, not merely splash resistant or something. Clip it to your swimsuit while working out in the pool, etc...
FWIW, I don't give a crap about copy protection as long as it's unobtrusive. If it prevents me from making copies for my own use or makes me jump through hoops to use my own stuff, then it is BAD. But if it's all background and I never notice it, who cares? IMHO of course.
Well, I actually got to play around with an AIBO. Still I felt that my Furby was a lot more fun and cute.
;-)))
...
;-)
But the kicker is that you get to stick the "Memory Sticks" up Aibo's butt for reprogramming it
Good boy, come here with that SoundClip (tm) so I can replace that MemoryStick (tm)
AIBO: (runs away with music-laden memory stick in his...
I saw this mp3 player last October on their website. I thought it was selling at that time, or did it just get put on the market?
The clip's SDMI compliance renders the music clip utterly useless for most people. The software that comes with the music clip forces you to convert your mp3s to atrac3. If you want to have easy access to your songs on both your computer and your music clip, you'll need to have two copies -- one mp3 and one atrac3. For people with large collections of music, the amount of hard disk space used by this would be a big deterrent. Because of the way the SDMI "copy protection" works, you can't store the atrac3 files on read-only media such as CD-Rs. When you want to transfer music to the music clip, it "checks out" the song, and until it is checked back in fromthe music clip, you can't play it off your hard drive. Nothing prevents you from having multiple copies of your music, but it shouldn't be necessary, especially from a player that claims (falsely) to play mp3s.
The RIAA is probably blocking this at every turn, if not yet they will be...
icq:=22921393;
Yep you heard me. I'm going on my Minidisc rant again. Go buy a minidisc recorder for $279, and 10 discs for $20, and you now have 20 hours of re-recordable music for the same price. The only thing that MP3 has over minidisc is the transfer times (takes an hour to record an hour's worth of music).
And you don't have to worry about that SDMI thing.
-- Ever notice that fast-burning fuse looks exactly the same as slow-burning fuse? I didn't... (Edgar Montrose)
Heh... try one of those new (and really, really small) MiniDisc players. You have no excuse now ;-). You can run, but you can't hide.
I can see it now... AIBO + VAIO = Fun for the whole family.
Human: Here AIBO... Come here... Ready?
AIBO: Arf!
Human: (Fling) Go get it! Fetch!
AIBO: (Runs back with MP3-stick in mouth)
Human: Good AIBO! Good Boy!
I'm not sure I'd consider that a "feature." In fact, if I was in the market for buying an MP3 player, I'd look for one that wasn't SDMI compliant and buy that one on principle.
--------
-------
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief."
Second thoughts at 4:54am??? Sounds more like a late hour reconsideration of laying potential flame-bait. As for '/.Sucks'... you don't have to check in 3-5 times a day if it sucks so much either. You are piloting your own destiny-mobile, so be careful where you turn, or at least don't punish others for your poor/good taste in content. p.s. good nick, for certain
I was reading their web site and I found...
"SDMI Compliant" in the flash presentation. Oh my.
As we all know, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (Their site is at http://www.sdmi.org) can't do anything; anyone heard "bit-by-bit" before? And there's always those nice dummy wave-output audio devices....
<sigh>
Silly RIAA.
I'm guessing though that Sony's player (due **Winter** 2000) won't be restricted to just SDMI; their web site seemed to make that reasonably clear.
|/usr/games/fortune
Cigar sized - - Is it deemed "Clinton" safe ?
I wouldn't want anyone to be...electrocuted.
If you're gonna market it anywhere, market it to the fitness crowd. I know that if I could have reliable, small, shock-proof audio, I might actually get my butt over to the health club...
I recokon Sony missed an obvious marketing opportunity with this one. Now if only the PS2 could make MP3s to put on this thing. Encode MP3s whilst playing Tekken - just think of it...
And just why do you need a Pentium 233MHZ and 64MB RAM?
Like warm apple pie...
regardless of implementation. Ok, I share the concerns over SMDI but we all know it's doomed to fail, and SONY is a SMART company. They won't canabalize their media properties but as an owner of both a Z505 superslim notebook and the PC-100 (an EXCELLENT digital video cam -- DV) I can say that I would gladly trade my RIO 500 for a memory stick compatible device. Would I put up with a proprietary security measure? Possibly. After all, we bitch and moan but face it; the people who make this music deserve some kind of recompense and right now that only happens through the labels. Don't get me wrong; I strongly advocate the preservation of open and free standards, but we need to meet the megacorps halfway sometimes and this is one of those times...remember technology is only as effective as the impact it has on those who use it. pen
Not that that has to be a bad thing. I just think it's a bad idea to put marketing-blah in a /. submission :)
CNet had an article about a company called Pine that is comming out with a portable cd player that can play the mp3s from a CD. The CNET article is here:t ag=st.cn.1.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-114511.html?
The only problem with the Pine SM-200C is that it's still not out. You can check out the company web site at:
http://www.pineusa.com/mp3-cd.htm
/ drool The best thing of all is that it can even read CDR. / drool >
- - -
Well, not really miniturization, but I'm thinking that if they can have a pen size memory stick hold 64 megs, I'd rather have a stick the size of 5 pens holding 320 megs of music. Just cuz we can make it smaller doesn't mean we have to...
.sigs
-$lacker
Too lazy to write
This post is brought to you by the letters T and A, and the number 69
Tried out all the formats. Checked out that Personal Jukebox mentioned a while back on /.- $800 - NOT! Question: did anyone notice whether you can use Sony memory sticks with this? Not to mention the price of the sticks any way. About £50(UK) for 16mb vs. £1(UK) for a blank minidisk which holds same as a CD(80min). As soon as the states discovers MD for real, MP3 will be way out. Particularly with the overshadowing gloom of corporate control on the whole idea. PS: My minidisk needs a continuous 40 second shake before it skips. And NO I didn't test it 'THAT' way! (I waved it around my head.- bounce from jogging isn't enough)
Sony 'MP3 player' cannot play MP3 files in its native format. The only format Sony player understands is their proprietory ATRAC3. Software which comes with Sony player allows conversion from MP3to ATRAC3, however there were some postings claiming that after the conversion the quality of sound noticably degrades. In addition, SDMI is a real pain-in-the-butt feature. I would rather go with a player capable of playing MP3, no SDMI, and may be Liquid Audio (*.lqt) format as an option.
people have lives you know. they don't have time to sit around all day long and check on the latest bits of news. i may admitt that it's a bit old, but they're doing YOU a service. if you don't like it, don't read.
for (i = 0; i < ALL_CHICKS_I_KNOW; i++) { ask_out(); if (get_laid) break; }
Will i still be able to load regular mp3's onto this device?
I dont really know what SDMI covers but, I'm taking a wild guess with SDMI music discs, ripping them in Linux probably wont work anymore.. How do I make backups of sdmi discs ?
Bigger question, Will there ever be a DeSDMI (ie. SDMI Hack ? ) is it plausible in the foreseeable future ?
Giving them limited monopolies under balanced copyright laws was "meeting them halfway". Giving them SCMS and royalty taxes in the late 1980s was meeting them more than halfway.
Accepting SCMS, DVD-Audio copy protection, Super Audio CD copy protection, and discs designed to mess up digital audio extraction -- especially in the context of the DMCA -- will be the virtual equivalent of signing away your rights, and making them dependent on industry whims rather than the laws passed by a democratic government.
I don't feel like doing that.
Sorry, 64MB just isn't going to cut it. Portable MP3 players hold no interest for me until I can choose from several hours worth of music while running.
Uh... most portable CD players have at least 10 second skip protection anyway. Just slap in 8MB of RAM, and you've got several minutes worth of skip protection.
The site says that 800x600 is required, as well as Windows 98. This implies that you need their program to send the music to the player. So does that mean that us linux users are again forced to find some kludge to make it work?
The page says it has non-skip technology. Do other portable mp3 players skip?!?
(I'm assuming that it's just some marketing person's way of saying "hey, mp3s don't skip like CDs")
I do not buy any USB device that only has windows drivers! Shure i have Win boxes but I also have a iMac and use BeOS, FreeBSD and Linux! If there is no support for at least two platforms it is a nogo for me... I have things like a Wacom tablet, QuickCam VC and a Diamond modem (when on the road) and they all have drivers for the mac. A few (too few) companies are supporting BeOS (mostly usb to midi and multi channel audio hardware).
If I had a cool sig, it would go here...
IMHO: Sony has no plans to support any other OS. If you look at their other products and the way they support them it is Windoze all the way!
BTW: i have a close friend who works for sony, and get a little inside info now and them...
If I had a cool sig, it would go here...
What I'd really like to see is a cd walkman that could also play MP3 files off a standard iso9660 cd-rom. It ought to be pretty easy to design since there already are portable cd-rom drives.