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Latest Crop of MP3 Players
Anonymous Coward writes "A couple of interesting new MP3 portables were announced this week. The first one is Bantam's BA1000 that has near-identical size and weight dimensions to the iPod, but offers a number of features the older Apple doesn't like the ability to record from an internal FM radio. Choosing to offer the player in only 2GB and 5GB capacities, it looks like it is shooting to be the first sub $200 portable utilizing Toshiba's petite 1.8" drives. The other player announced was Samsung's Yepp YP-55, which claims to be the first Surround Sound MP3 flash portable. Using SRS Labs' surround sound simulator, the unit comes in 128MB and 258MB units. MP3newswire.net also offers an older, but nicely explained article on how this technology works using only two headphones to replace six speakers."
In short, there isn't any competition, and I'm wondering why. Did Apple have some exclusive agreement that says no one else can use the drives?
No, more likely that Apple is going around telling everybody they have a patent applied for and they will sue everybody who copies that device. I remember they did the same when they first came out with the laptop keyboard moved towards the back and the mousepad up front. Took everybody else more than a year to muster the courage to use the same design.