Neuros - Portable MP3 player, FM radio, Digital Recorder

KenMaier writes "Interesting new product in the portable MP3 player space -- this portable 'Neuros' from Digital Innovations comes with either 128MB or 20GB storage, built-in FM radio and a built-in digital recorder. Two interesting features -- you can record 30 seconds of music you hear and it will 'fingerprint' the song and tell you the title and artist. Also, a built-in wireless feature lets you beam music from one Neuros to another. Not really clear on the speed, but transferring 20 GB sounds like it might take a while. If anyone owns one of these care to post a review?"

Comments

Fingerprints

[jukal]

you can record 30 seconds of music you hear and it will 'fingerprint' the song and tell you the title and artist

It seems that they are either using freedb or something similar. Here's a clip about what the freedb.org's database is:

What is CDDB? The original CDDB is a database to look up CD information using the internet. This is done by a client which calulates a (nearly) unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client displays the artist, CD-title, tracklist and some additional infos.

Take a look at this DVD artist/title programmer submitted to Openchallenge to see how else you can utilize freedb.org.

Re:Fingerprints

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, no. CDDB is a database of track lengths. If can only recognise CDs, but the CDDB database also holds the name and artist of each track on the recognised CD. CDDB has nothing to do with the audio itself.

Re:Fingerprints

[pwarf]

Similar in functionality, but the key here is that they claim they can do it for an arbitrary 30 second clip from radio or an unlabeled MP3 rather than a static arrangement of data on a CD.

This sounds much harder, but also more useful. I'd be very (pleasantly) surprised if it works well for anything other than Billboard hits and very popular oldies. Still, it could be nice.

Just for the record, the player can also record longer clips by pressing the record button twice.

Also, someone said something earlier about not knowing how long the wireless transfer would take. Well, from the site it seemed that it was transfer via FM radio at the speed you'd normally play it at. So, neat for wireless playing on a car audio system or the boombox at home/work, but not a major file-transfer tool. (You could still broadcast to another unit and record the FM broadcast on the other unit.)

The site said recording was to MP3, but didn't specify bit-rate. Anyone know? Other MP3 players that recorded have done so in such low rates that they would only be useful for recording speech.

Also, they have a survey about what other audio formats you'd like to see supported. It wouldn't hurt for all you Ogg Vorbis devotees to go skew the results of the poll. ;)

Re:Fingerprints

[Anonymous Coward]

You really should shut up. MD5 is designed to produce very different checksums even in case of single bit differences in the checksummed data, which makes MD5 and similar algorithms completely useless for pattern recognition purposes.

Re:Fingerprints

[balbord]

[snip]
The site said recording was to MP3, but didn't specify bit-rate. Anyone know? Other MP3 players that recorded have done so in such low rates that they would only be useful for recording speech.
[/snip]

From the site:
"
Recording
64-160 kbps
MP3 format
"

http://www.neurosaudio.com/store/prod_20gbspec.asp

FM radio is a *transmitter*

[Mwongozi]

That's possibly the coolest feature. It will broadcast the music on low-power FM, so that any FM radio in your house can pick it up.

Beats wires...

Re:FM radio is a *transmitter*

[pwarf]

"Corrections" of things that are not wrong are one of my pet peeves. The poster you claim is mistaken is not. You correctly note that the MyFi feature is essentially "a normal FM broadcast [low-power, of course] broadcast."

However, that's consistent with what he said. Note that he said "only as an analogue [spelling? - analog?] FM broadcast" not "only other Neuros can tune into." The previous poster is noting the limitation on the desired ability to transfer songs between units. As mentioned in the site

You can also transmit songs from your Neuros to your friend's using MyFi. Find an open frequency and tell your friend to tune their's to the same. When you press play, the music on your Neuros will play through your friend's. If they like what they hear, they can use Neuros' integrated recording feature to capture a sample and identify it using the HiSi feature.

The text on the site that was more confusing was probably, "You can beam music to another Neuros tuned to the same frequency. This and lots more Neuros features here."

I don't mean to be harsh about it, but don't claim people are wrong unless you are sure they are. It's rude.

Also note that while they are plugging the 30-second sample capability, they claim you can record songs from the radio, and not just clips. The emphasis on clips is probably to avoid the wrath of the RIAA.

Re:FM radio is a *transmitter*

[pwarf]

Rereading my post, I realized I overreacted. Sorry, semaj.

Re:FM radio is a *transmitter*

[mithras the prophet]

External FM transmitter adaptors are widely available from Radio Shack and the like.

A survey of reviews will inform you that most people are quite disappointed in their sound quality:

• Dr Botts
• Comments on several models
• another one

Basically, the impression I get from comments I've seen about these it that they work OK if you have no other option, but if you can at all manage a miniplug-to-RCA, or even a cassette adaptor, they'll sound better.

Same for your UK mobile

[semaj]

What you want is Shazam - assuming you're in the UK that is! :-)

You dial a number, play a bit of music down the phone and you get an SMS message back identifying the artist and title, pretty nifty. It costs about 50p though. They add the "tagged" tracks to a personalised list on their site where you can buy them online and other neat stuff.

Make sure to vote!

[10Ghz]

They have a survey with one question being "What music format would you like Neuros to support besides mp3?". One choice is Ogg Vorbis.

Shipping Date

[kaptkudzoo]

Its not availiable until January 2003

Design and size...

[httpamphibio.us]

The 128mb version is still a little too big, and the 20gb version is obscenely big... despite the size issues it actually appears to have been made by a professional designer with a moderate amount of taste. Something most of the millions of mp3 players don't have the fortune of having.

Operating temperature

[uncle_ben]

Otherwise this baby sounds like a cool gadget, but the operating temperature on the 20gb version is limited: Operating temperature: -4 to 125 degrees F It's way colder than -4 outside at the moment. Not really ideal for northern people.

Re:Linux?

[z)bandito(_X]

specs

the slashdot insanity filter makes it hard to properly format this data so use the link above

Display 2-inch (diagonal) liquid crystal display with orange LED backlight 128 by 128 pixel resolution .21/.28 dot pitch 4 level gray scale Size and Weight Height: 5.3" Width: 3.1" Depth: 1.3" Weight: 9.4oz. Environmental Requirements Operating temperature: -4 to 125 degrees F Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet Audio Up to 30 minutes of skip protection Maximum output power: 60mW rms (30 mW per channel) Frequency response: 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz MP3 format (up to 320 kbps), MP3 Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Upgradeable firmware enables support for future audio formats Recording 64-160 kbps MP3 format Input and Output Full speed USB 1.1 3.5mm stereo headphone jack 3.5mm stereo line-in jack 2.5mm stereo RF jack (for external antenna) MyFi FM Broadcasting 33 channel selection Mono and stereo modes Maximum range: 20 feet Frequency response: 15Hz-20kHz Transmission strength: 250 microV/M-2 at 3m Earphones Earbud type earphones using Neodymium transducer magnets Frequency response: 20 to 20,000Hz Impedance: 32 ohms Wall Power Adapter AC input: 100V to 125V at 0.4 Frequency: 50 to 60Hz DC output: 9V at .8 amp Power and Battery Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery Playtime: 10 hours when fully charged Full charge time: 8 hours Car Power Adapter DC output: 9V at 1.0 amp Full charge time: 8 hours

pixo os?

[pcp_ip]

It looks like this thing is running a pixo OS - almost identical to the one the iPod uses.

Trademark adjective

[yerricde]

It's like moose The plural is Neuros.

Correct. Trademarks don't pluralize because they're adjectives. The plural of "Xerox copier" is "Xerox copiers", and the plural of "Neuros player" is "Neuros players".

Re:System requirements

[IamTheRealMike]

This really annoys the h#!! out of me... Most mp3-player manufacturers do this. What is the problem with just making a player that acts as an USB hard drive? Why do we need Windows to transfer files through USB?

Relax! Then go read this. The Neuros is based on (in their words) "an open platform". Unlike the iPod, their database and menu systems are open and based on XML (schemas coming in a few weeks apparently), so even though their synchro software is currently Windows only, making a Linux version should be a snap.

This is a pretty cool MP3 player. It looks good, has some nify features, and is open. Sounds like a serious contender to the iPod to me (at least for anybody semi-geeky).

Re:Fingerprinting

[tlianza]

I mean it looks to me that these guys have some copy (or interface to it) of a database containing every existing record published by the music industry. Can this be true?

It's possible that the "fingerprint" includes the radio station and time the recording was taken, and what they actually look at is a database populated by radio stations about what songs they aired during the course of the day.

There have been other products that tried to do this type of thing. Checkout this keychain-type product that people could use to identify songs they heard on the radio when they later hooked up the device to their computer. There is a more complete story at wired here.

Re:FCC part 15: Don't always need a license

[RAMMS EIN]

That's good for USAmericans but note that the original poster wrote ``in several countries.'' These countries likely have different regulations, possibly banning this device. BTW, those polls are cool! Vote on them all!

Re:usb

[jubajuba]

Yeah. USB 1.1 "at full speed" ... Gonna wait a few hours on that one.. No'siree..

Re:Radically OPEN!

[JoeBorn]

As one of the architects of this product, I feel obliged to clarify the open point. It is definately the vision for this product to support MODs, and much of that will be available day one. However the XML portion of the database is only supported by the application, which translates it into the database format used by the device. While we'll be publishing the documentation on the device's database, that database is a semi-proprietary format, simply due to the constraints of the device. In any case, we'll be working to support easy coding at both levels, but be patient, this is a work in process. Joe Born CTO Digital Innovations, LLC jborn@neurosaudio.com