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Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player
prostoalex writes "Microsoft announced Portable Media Center, a digital music player, to be available in the second half of 2004. The announcement follows Dell's foray into portable digital music. Microsoft plans to license their software for the Media Center to third-party manufacturers as well. Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, ViewSonic, and iRiver are already on the list. The actual Microsoft-branded devices are promised to start at $350."
What will happen to people using these things when Microsoft deprecates the WMA format, just like they did with the AVI format?
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Sounds like Windows CE all over again. Sure, it won't be any good until 2008, but after that, better throw those damned IPods away!
I also find it slightly unbelievable that it plays MP3, a DRM-less media. I thought Microsoft assumed all customers wanted DRM (which is why it's going to feature so much in Longhorn!). Don't tell me they've actually come to their senses and realised that no-one is going to buy a device that only plays licensed music!
more portable MP3 players = more features to choose from in the market + lower prices
Even if MS's player is crap, we'll win.
Here's the press release.
Interesting to note that Creative is on the list. Will we be seeing a (more) bastardized version of the Nomad?
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This makes the cost comparison slightly misleading. One American dollar is about 1.50 Canadian.
Huh? The xbox is clunky, huge, and looks like the industrial design was done by the programmers. It was clearly thrown together quickly from stock parts.
Apple, of course, is completely the opposite, and one of the reasons people buy things like the ipod is the great design (aesthetic, ergonomic, and otherwise).
Somehow I think usoft's tagline is going to have to be something like `It doesn't suck too much, and -- hey -- Windows!'
We live, as we dream -- alone....
The Xbox was not designed to be portable, it was designed to kick ass. How else are you going to fit a 733MHz Celeron PC into a console? Curve the damn thing into a hemisphere?
We're not talking about product design, we're talking about performance and functionality. That's where Apple fails to meet my needs in terms of personal computers. I'm a gamer, and I will *never* use a Mac for gaming again.
The only thing I'll give Apple at the moment is the iPod (which rocks) and their product design, but aside from that their products are nearly impossible to upgrade (on-board video? wtf!? -- iMac), and I don't care what anyone says... they aren't as fast as my AMD (gigaflops be damned), and certainly not as inexpensive.
As far as the media player goes, Apple has them beat, I agree 100%. Windows Media and MP3 just plain suck. The iPod would kick even more ass than it currently does (which is a lot) if it supported Ogg Vorbis, but until then, I suppose AAC will work. My speakers in my Geo Metro aren't that great, anyways. And AAC (at higher bitrates, ie 192Kbps and up) sounds pretty damn close to Ogg. Yeah, it may be bigger, but I don't even have *two* gigs of music on my drive... yet.
"I can smell an Apple enthusiast from a mile away."
Insert clever one liner here.
It's a pain in the tuchus, but it does work.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Mostly I think its because people are afraid of computers and don't want to switch to something different because "it might break it". This way of thinking is whyt microsoft is the powerhouse it is today.
With Macs, well their customers worship Apple and would never even consider diverging from Jobs' Golden Path. And besides with Hardware people tend to buy what's available right now since hardware is always in a state of flux.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the first sentence in the article clearly states that "Portable Media Center 2004" is a piece of software, not a new hardware device:
It sounds like MS is developing platform software for such devices and will license the platform to the actual hardware vendors (Dell, iRiver, SonicBlue, etc). This seems similar to the kind of relationship Microsoft has with its Smartphone manufacturers: Microsoft supplies the software, Motorola et al. supply the gadgets.