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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?"
Until I can buy it, it is vaporware.
Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
Not really clear on the speed, but transferring 20 GB sounds like it might take a while...
Why does this really matter? So it might take a while to transfer the music, but it'll take significantly longer to listen to it. Your average user will probably transer music as necessary -- no need to shoot the entire collection over in one shot.
OS: Microsoft® Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
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?
"I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
"Do something man. Right now."
too bad that this feature(very nifty feature though) can limit it's availability in several countries.
why? because it's a transmitter capable of transmitting on fm frequencies you need a license for.. how unused frequencies or not they may be. and just being capable of doing this might be enough for getting ban on sale..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Seems like any new device coming out should be either firewire or usb 2.0. 20GB over USB 1.1 just seems unacceptable.
My question (that's actually related to this topic) is, "What should I use the portable mp3-player for?".
Since all record companies are doing their best to prevent me from transfering my legally purchased music to this player, what is it good for?
Won't the mp3-players be as useless as a betamax-player for the general public, as the copy-controlled cd's becomes more and more common?
That raises another interesting question. How long will Sony or any other large company that makes mp3-players stand for this? If people can't use the players then they won't buy it, which would hurt Sony's sales.
I'm sure someone can write some insightful comments about this.
Oh, and I returned the CD. I'm not buying broken products. And I made sure that the store understood that the failed sale was due to the record companies bad customer policy.
I play Hattrick
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
I hate how every time I go in to EB, they try to push a "game doctor" on me. Like I'm going to Pay $30 for a device to clean CD's when I can do it myself for little or no cost.
One of the main features of the iPod is that you can mount it like a regular disk and just drop whatever you want on it. On the 20GB model this is a major feature, because really, do you *need* 20GB of music in your pocket (~340 hours at 128k!)? But you might need 10GB and an offsite backup of some data, or something.
Looks like this doesn't do that. Also looks like they totally stole the UI of the iPod (okay, it's a good UI, now come up with another good one). It's also damn ugly.
And why do I want to take my high-quality digital MP3s and send them over the comparatively crappy-sounding FM band to listen to them? If they really wanted to make this a home stereo component, there would be a digital out. For the car, just use a tape adapter or a line-in.
Plus the whole Windows-only thing is silly. Why do I want "synchronization software," especially from a company I've never heard of? Keep it simple.
This thing *almost* sounds really good. Almost.
This thing has great potential, but it has a couple flaws in my mind. The rechargeable battery inside is non-removeable, why? And if you buy the 20 gig model and later want to buy or use a 128MB attachment, you can't. For some reason, as read in the FAQ section, the 128MB model is compatible with the 20GB attachment, but the 20GB model is NOT compatible with the 128MB attachment. Why, again? These things should be completely swappable. Without having USB2.0 or Firewire, it will be a hassle to deal with the 20GB model. The recording feature is great, but you can get this on other models. I am intrigued by the 30 second music identification feature, but I don't know how much I would use it; while it is very appealing to geeks out there to play around with, it doesn't exactly strike me as a must-have feature. As said by another /.er, there are many alteratives to the FM radio transmission feature. Also, the unit is comparatively large for this type of player. I DO really like the idea of the interchangeability between the 128MB solid state model and the higher capacity hard drive. That is a must-have feature, that is, if the price difference between buying this and the other attachment is made advantageous to buying two separate players of each type. One will just have to see if it is convenient to exercize or run with the unit within its size parameters. I also am intrigued by but sceptical of the transfer feature between these players: is it a lossless digital transfer, or is the transfer made by the action of simply re-recording the FM broadcast of one of the players to the other, thereby TRANSCODING the recording within the mp3 format? If it is the latter, THAT would be ridiculous.