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Gateway Portable MP3 Player

Posted by michael on from the black-and-white-spots-optional dept.

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.

18 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. No more music hardware technology updates... by DeltaSigma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...until the blurb includes "ogg vorbis."

  2. Re:Put into perspective by kmak · · Score: 4, Informative

    In fact, the Archos Jukebox records as well, and the newer versions have a little movie player!

    Ya, when I saw the specs, the first thing on my mind was, "What were they thinking?"

    Truly two years too late..

    --

    I'm not the devil.. just his advocate.
  3. Trying to figure out by stinkwinkerton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why this is frontpage news? Is it the size or is it the fact that is records voice as well? I'm not trolling, really honestly trying to figure out what the supercool part is.

    --
    "Look! There! Evil, pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension!" --Buckaroo Banzai
  4. looks like a repackaged muvo by utexaspunk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    looks like a repackaged version of creative's muvo, which means it uses its own proprietary USB key that has the controls on it. why can't someone make a little mp3 player that is basically the buttons and headphone jack into which one plugs an ordinary USB-keydrive? that way one could keep a couple keydrives around and swap them.

    1. Re:looks like a repackaged muvo by FatRatBastard · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I suspect because it would be expensive. If you add all of the controls and headphone jack to the dock you then have to pump data from the drive to the dock. Thus, the dock has to have USB hub hardware for data transfer from the drive to the dock. With all of the controls / jack on the drive all the dock needs to do is provide power to the drive, which I suspect is a much simpler hardware setup (thus cheaper).

  5. Shows up as a Drive letter by sker · · Score: 4, Informative

    The article doesn't mention DRM because there isn't any to speak of. The device shows up as a drive letter and any MP3 or WMA in the music folder is seen by the player. It doesn't even ship with any special software aside from a voice file converter and an icon editor... pretty decent.

    --
    nonsig. unsig. desig.
  6. Price.... by I_am_Rambi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Price.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Two Reasons
      1.Size
      2.Battery Life

      1.Is the iPod the size of your thumb? No, only solid-state mp3 players are.

      2.Does the iPod use a single AAA battery for 12 hours? No, only solid-state mp3 players do.

    2. Re:Price.... by Mikey-San · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The iPod doesn't need a AAA battery. It gets 8-10 hours on its internal rechargeable battery. A couple of hours less and no wasting batteries. I can even recharge it by plugging it into my FireWire port while I'm using it.

      I'll take the iPod on this point.

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      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
    3. Re:Price.... by Mikey-San · · Score: 4, Informative

      Of course not. It doesn't need to be, since it's a FireWire storage device. (It's bootable, too. Install OS X on it and watch as you can boot your Mac with it.)

      FireWire, strictly as a protocol, is much more interesting to me for a few reasons:

      1. FireWire is isochronous.
      2. FireWire is peer-to-peer, not master/slave (like USB). That means one could hook up a theoretical FireWire-eqipped TV and stream the DV footage you just shot of your day at the beach right to the screen, nothing else involved.
      3. TCP/IP communication over FireWire, because of point number 2, is much more flexible than USB. (I don't know if USB supports TCP/IP communication at all. Just guessing that it does.)
      4. FireWire can push 1.5 amps (versus less than a tenth of that for USB 2) to a device. That makes powering small notebook HDs or charging MP3 players quite easy to do.

      The only thing that sucks is when a computer manufacturer puts a 4-pin FireWire port on a machine instead of a 6-pin port. (The difference being the two pins that perform termination power transfer.) I dunno why people ship 4-pin ports on computers when a device the size of a deck of cards has a 6-pin port. Go figure.

      --
      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
  7. Missing features by nother_nix_hacker · · Score: 5, Funny
    No mention of DRM
    Does DRM have better sound quality than MP3?
    1. Re:Missing features by Frostalicious · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does DRM have better sound quality than MP3?

      Only if you enjoy the sound of sweet silence...

  8. What the appeal is... by LamerX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The appeal is the size. Look at it, it's 128mb and 1.5 ounces. It's so super light, it could actually be put into your pocket without a big square lump. I haven't seen a lot of MP3 players, but this looks to be one of the smaller ones out there. And the fact that it can double as your geek-kit-driver-holder is pretty neat.

  9. Re:Put into perspective by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For 250 bucks I can get a gig of SDRam for my PDA/Smartphone which can play mp3s.

    Whoopity do. This article was only posted so michael could add his "wah wah DRM" comment to the end.

    It's not really news or at all thrilling, just another in a sea of "me too" products.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  10. your perspective is skewed by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These are Gateway customers we're talking about. Basically, people who have no idea how to buy a computer or computer accessories. 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.

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    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  11. Plenty of these... by LamerX · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are TONS of other small mp3 players like this... it's really nothing new...

    RipFlash http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 06RVH3/104-5806291-7855108?v=glance&me=ATVPDKIKX0D ER

    Irock 520
    http://hardwarecentral.dealtime.com/dealtime2 000/R eviews/product/read_product/1,7235,3310,00.html

    Sony NW MS9
    http://sudhian.dealtime.com/xPR-Sony_NW_MS9

    The list goes on and on...

    Just search google... Like I did....

  12. Just in time! by amorico · · Score: 5, Funny

    A friend of mine called from 2000 looking for a state of the art mp3 player. Even at 1.5 ounces the shipping is going to be hell.

    -a

    --
    "The plural of anecdote is not data." -- Roger Brinner
  13. Do the math by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The appeal is the size. Look at it, it's 128mb and 1.5 ounces.

    Math time, kids!

    128/1.5 = 85 MB per oz
    10240/5.6 = 1826 MB per oz

    Oh, but it's cheaper, you say?

    128/129 = ~ 1MB/$1
    10240/299 = ~ 34MB/$1

    Thanks for playing. The Gateway player is just Yet Another Mp3 Player; the non-hard-drive players are all pretty damn small and light. Some are cheaper than this, too. And no DRM.

    I agree with the other posters- it's completely yawn-inspiring, and reminds me of all the other suspcious stories we've been seeing recently...like that Tivo-like unit that randomly got three paragraph's worth on the front page for no apparent reason. When are slashdot editors going to realize they're being taken advantage of?(I'm politely assuming they're not doing product placements).

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