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Neuros Review

An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net has just posted a lengthy review of the Neuros digital music portable. Just recently the company announced native Linux support for synchronizing the Neuros and we all know that Ogg Vorbis support is promised in the near future, so the unit is drawing a lot of interest. For the most part they liked the player, though they found the unit to be relatively big and heavy for a new generation portable. They also found the file transfer interface to be both impressive and glitchy."

11 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. promises promises. by Ishin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ogg support? I wouldn't buy one UNTIL they actually have the support up and running.

  2. Re:Submit Feedback! Get ogg support on iPods too! by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let them know your future business depends on it!

    Not to try and flame you, but isn't that a bit of an empty threat at the moment, considering ogg-vorbis mindshare in the general public?

    It'd be a nice "geek" feature, i'm sure, but I don't think it's really at the level where Apple will take lost business because of it very seriously.

  3. Just make it work by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I am willing to make some sacrifices to support a linux-friendly platform. I am willing to spend a bit more. I am willing to deal with some product design issues (size, etc).

    Just make it work. I want a 100% certainty that I will be able to migrate music from my linux box to the player. No message board lurking, no sifting through google groups.

    If this product cannot reliably transfer music without copious under the hood tweaking, I am not interested.

    USB 2.0 would be a nice addition too but even on that I will make accomodation.

  4. Re:Submit Feedback! Get ogg support on iPods too! by elmegil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    apple is already a niche player, what makes you think expanding to other niches isn't important to them?

    --
    7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
  5. Unix user marketshare IS important. by numbski · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Otherwise I wouldn't see full-page magazine ads touting 'the power unix', and giving details on power-user experiences converting from (insert your unix flavor here) to OSX.

    Don't underestimate yourself before you make an effort at asserting what you want. You just never know...

    --

    Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).

  6. Re:Submit Feedback! Get ogg support on iPods too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hmm. Let's see. If we want to support Ogg, we'll have to pay six guys for a year to add it to the iPod, QuickTime and iTunes. At which point, every nerd in the world will rush out and buy our stuff, right? Uh... wrong. Because they'll demand that it work with this "Leenux" thing they keep nagging us about. So then we'll port iTunes to "Leenux" and then they'll buy our stuff, right? Uh... wrong. Because they'll complain that our software isn't "free," even though we give it away on the web site. Yeah, I know, makes no sense.

    But even if we bend over backwards, fuck ourselves completely, and give these guys everything they want, how many iPods will we sell?

    Eleven.

    That's right, eleven.

    Fuck it. Let's stick to what we do best.

    --Steve

  7. lot of interest? by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Insightful
    we all know that Ogg Vorbis support is promised in the near future, so the unit is drawing a lot of interest

    "drawing a lot of interest"? From who? Most of the world hasn't even heard of Ogg Vorbis, people. Most who have heard of Ogg Vorbis realize it may sound better at lower bitrates, but nobody wants to re-encode all their CDs and stuff. So let's can the editorializing, okay?

    Oh, and to all the people who are rabidly trying to convince Apple via silly little petitions(I bet half a week's iPod sales are bigger than the # of people who have signed any such petition)- give it up. They've got AAC, they could give a crap about Ogg, and they've said as much. Stop trying to force your stuff on the world- if there's a genuine market for Ogg, companies will recognize the need to support it.

    1. Re:lot of interest? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Insightful
      "drawing a lot of interest"? From who?

      Me? I have a brand new 80gig disk and an urge to fill it. Unlike most, I didn't rip all my CDs ages ago, because I didn't have the room. Now I do. So I'm going to have lots of Oggs soon, because that is the default under Linux.

      Most of the world hasn't even heard of Ogg Vorbis, people.

      Most of the world don't buy MP3 players, natch. Considering the huge amount of support DI are getting from Xiph, it becomes a simple numbers game. How hard is it to support Linux and Ogg? How much will we get in return for it?

      There are quite a lot of Linux users around now, big enough that it can make a difference for a small company.

  8. Re:Submit Feedback! Get ogg support on iPods too! by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good point, I think Ogg-Vorbis support would be a niche-niche, if there is such a thing, though.

    Consider...It would be an area in which the consumer:

    A) Knows that portable music players besides CD players and Walkmans exist in the first place, and wants one.

    B) Is interested and knowledgeable enough to go after an (expensive) Apple product in the first place.

    C) Knows that Ogg-Vorbis even exists in the first place.

    D) Cares enough about format differences to have a need to play Ogg-Vorbis files.

    Again, that just doesn't seem like a big enough market for Apple to care. Please feel free to correct me with actual statistics if you have them, though.

  9. Re:Same price as 15gb iPod by Drakonian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think there are features other than capacity that equate to more value for your money. Size is definitely one.

    --
    Random is the New Order.
  10. Re:Submit Feedback! Get ogg support on iPods too! by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about the fact that two years ago, there was no Apple iPod, and now roughly 1 in 4 portable music players is an iPod?

    Or the fact that until two months ago WMA was second to MP3, in marketshare, but now (with something like 3 million tracks sold) AAC is #2, despite only 3% of the potential market?

    So far, far, more unlikely things have happened than Apple support Ogg; I mean, Apple supported MP3, right?