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Gateway Portable MP3 Player
dcsmith writes "Gateway has announced the Gateway Digital Audio Player, a 1.5-ounce USB device that also provides portable storage and voice recording. The device is curently available in a 128MB model priced at $129.99, with a 256MB model priced at $169.99 scheduled to debut on 14 August." The Gateway store has a picture. No mention of DRM.
A decent MP3 player, 128MB with FM/AM tuner, tends to run between $100-130 USD: iRock 830
So basically, this Gateway offering is no more impressive then your run-of-the-mill 128MB MP3 player. All it adds is voice recording and the ability to use it for portable storage (which is handy, but at only 128-256MB doesn't impress me enough to buy it). However, you could buy a 20GB portable USB HDD and any other 128MB MP3 player for about $250 USD all together, which is only $80 more then their 256MB model.
Verdict:
A. For $170 you can get a 256MB MP3 player with a voice recorder.
B. For $250 you can get a 128MB MP3 player and a 20GB external drive.
C. You could just buy a 20GB MP3 player for $240 USD: Archos Jukebox Recorder 20
...until the blurb includes "ogg vorbis."
What Product Manager OK'd this?
Imagine, People at Gateway actually sat around a table with a white board in a conference room someone that probably smelled like day old coffee and stale garlic bagels, and thought that this functionality, at these prices (!) would launch Gateway competitively into the MP3 player market.
It makes the mind hurl...
"oohhh... I didn't know Schopenhauer was a philosopher!"
Why spent $170 for 256 megs of space? I can spent less than double and get a faster transfer (firewire compared with USB 1.1) and 10 gigs of space with an iPod. That just doesn't make cents. An iPod is a much better deal.
Im not even a mac fan and ide rather buy an ipod.
Honestly, what good is 128 meg? This is barely a CD or 2 at high quality MP3.
Compare this to the original iPod with 5 Gig of storage.
Seems like it's only good for short trips to the gym but not much else.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I have one of the original 5GB iPods and still enjoy it very much. I could not imagine having anything less than 5GB in an mp3 player because I don't want to deal with changing out tunes every other day. As far as size is concerned, smaller size is better to a point. Like the palm OS watch, smaller can be bad. The size of the iPod fits nicely in my hand, it's easy to access everything and the weight is substantial - giving a sense of quality. I always thought the palmV was about the best form factor for the same reasons.<br><br>Don't even get me started on my disdain for Gateway in general... 3 family members have been disappointed to various degrees with their quality and service. Just my .02!
Can you do impact sports with one? Even running isn't recommended. For me, and many others, one of the biggest uses of a portal player is for running. While there isn't anything fantastic about the Gateway player it is in a different class than the ipod. Hard disk based players and flash based players shouldn't be compared on storage...
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Are people still hung up about ogg format? Give it up. It didn't make it.
This might sound as a flamebait, but sometimes people have to come in terms with reality and understand that ogg came too late to the party. OGG is a great format for xvid audio and other video codecs, it's excellent for streaming, and lastly, game developers love it because of the unrestricted non-royalty based license, unlike with MP3s and other formats.
But, it failed to capture the attention of consumer hardware developers, as well as the mainstream public. Still to this day, average Joe Blow doesn't know what Ogg vorbis is. I love non-proprietary open standards, but iPod, Zen, iRiver product lineup, and few other common portable makers drove a nail in the coffin of Ogg Vorbis in the market where people couldn't care less about few dBs of difference in quality or the license. Over 53% of the mp3 portable market is dominated by iPod. Being an owner of one, I rip my audio CDs in MP3 format, because otherwise I'd be shooting myself in the leg.
It's really tiring when I see people on slashdot and elsewhere repeat the same thing over and over, in regards to ogg making headway into the consumer market. It's over. Neuros's support for ogg is just symbolic, and will eventually prove that vorbis feature doesn't really sell portables.
Did you read the pages you linked to? They all say Gateway 2000 (the computer maker) lost, and Gateway.com (The "little guy") won. I couldn't find anything online about Gateway 2000 "stealing" the domain. I couldn't find anything about how they ended up getting it, either. Anyone know what happened? I would suspect they may have bought it from him, but your guess is as good as mine.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
I don't understand why so many people are comparing this to hard drive or CDr based mp3 players. It's like comparing SATA Hard drives to DDR Memory. Sure, the hard drive based players are a "better deal", but only if you're willing to cart around the extra weight, and aren't the clumsy type.
Personally, I prefer my car deck that plays mp3s from CDr's, because I don't need to listen to music when walking from my car to my home or office (yes, I know, I should jog/bike/walk more, sue me). But I can't compare it's price or features to any other type of player.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
Well, I was just waiting for you to tell me when it was over...
Seriously, this is nothing that you (or anyone else, for that matter) can decide or declare and make it so. It is for the market to decide. There's no timetable for when Vorbis must catch on. And it doesn't necessarily mean one must win and the other lose. All there needs to be is sufficient interest in the format to make it compelling for player makers to include the codec for Vorbis along with their MP3 support (etc.). It might never happen, but it certainly won't if you simply decide it won't and quit.
I agree it is tiring to see the same old things over and over on Slashdot when this comes up. That includes post such as yours declaring that Vorbis "didn't make it." Sorry, not your call to make.
When a friendly Gateway sales representative says "would you like to throw in an mp3 player for just $129.99?", lots of people are going to go for it.
Good.
No, really. I'm all for the proliferation and popularity of easy-to-use MP3 players. But they aren't going to be as ubiquitous as CD players until they get as cheap, as simple, and as rugged.
Most of the people here are obviously saying "It sucks, the iPod/Zen/Archos is better.". Well, yeah, but not everyone needs the power of one of those enough to justify spending $300 or so on it.
If you could get a car that does everything you need for $20,000, are you an idiot for not spending $40,000 on one that's "better"?
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.