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Latest Crop of MP3 Players

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-very-cool dept.

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."

9 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. the register has an article on the samsung too by spiny · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/30315.html

    it's about time the flash memory players got some extra storage, i'm not prepared to splash out on a neat mp3 player that can only hold one album at a decent bit rate. according to the article, they won't be getting to the UK for a while yet though ...

    --

    Fry: heh, Yakov Smirnoff said it
    Leela: No he didn't.
  2. What about Frontier Labs? by zonix · · Score: 5, Informative
    ... Surround Sound MP3 flash portable

    Come on, geeez!!! :-)

    On a more interesting note, Frontier Labs recently released their new MP3 player, the NEX IA. From the site:

    Supports multiple formats (MP3 and WMATM) and emerging formats such as Ogg Vorbis through firmware upgrades.

    It's almost official then, go OGG! Can't wait!

    z
    --
    What would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
    1. Re:What about Frontier Labs? by ahaning · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'd just like to point out, since I was confused about this once, as well, that OGG is just a containter format and Vorbis is the audio codec. You could just as well have an ogg file with mp3 data inside.

      AVI is also a container format. Thus, you'll see lots of different codecs inside. These days, some incarnation of Divx is what people put in AVIs.

      --
      Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
  3. 2 Gig 2 Small by malia8888 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is amazing how fast I filled up my own iPod with 5 Gigs of sound. Go for the player with the largest capacity one can afford. In this case size really matters.

    --
    Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
  4. Neuros Player Soon... by SWroclawski · · Score: 5, Informative

    All I know is tha the Neuros upgrade will be out soon that will let me use it in GNU/Linux *and* be the first portable hardware player that can do Ogg Vorbis, and in the future, Ogg Speex and FLAC.

    I've waited years for these features, and soon my wait will be over.

    If there were another player with the same features out now, I'd buy that.

    Oh, and the Neuros will also let you record from FM and has a low-range FM broadcast so you can use it in your car.

    - Serge Wroclawski

  5. Exciting! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Latest Crop of MP3 Players
    Im gonna plant my Rio right now and see what I get!

  6. Lies! Death to the infidels! by Tuxinatorium · · Score: 5, Funny

    There is no such thing as MP3s. I triple guarantee you, nobody is violating any copyrights on KaZaA, never! The RIAA are a gang of international criminals and mercenaries! They will be welcomed with DDoS attacks and shoes! The all of the lying RIAA infidels will be slaughtered, most of them!

    --
    Repeal the DMCA!
  7. Re:blah by PhoenixK7 · · Score: 5, Informative

    While walking, I've never had it skip once. In fact I use it to listen to music while walking between classes, work, home, etc.. Running it does OK, though you may need to pause every 20 mins or so (length of skip protection) for it to buffer up more tracks. I haven't had it skip on me while jogging though.

    So far battery life has been good (especially with the latest firmware), transfers are speedy, the interface is simple and elegant. I really haven't had any trouble with it :)

    This is with a 10 GB iPod I purchased in January.

  8. Roll your own... by c_oflynn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its also possible to make your own if you want support for any format.

    If you just want MP3, well thats easy. There are lots of sites on the web, here is one.

    For Ogg there is an entire decoder-on-a-chip thingy, see this project. Or you could probably just use a software version if you got some sort of RISC chip or whatnot (need to be fairly fast)