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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."
Well, does it?
"Madness is something rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, peoples, ages it is the rule." -- Nietzsche
Are we going to see a blog photo of 50-odd iPods being delivered to Redmond in the next few weeks?
In *2004*???
I'd been holding out on buying a MP3-enabled device until Microsoft put one out. Thank goodness the wait is almost* over!
GMFTatsujin
* For high values of "almost"
It supports mp3, wma, and 0E formats. It also can play video and show pictures. I hear the visualization for IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is quite soothing.
So why should I care again? By then another revision or two of the iPod will come out and it will only get better. Dell will have improved their product, so will Creative, and everyone else in the industry.
MS may make nice hardware (their mice, keyboards, and joysticks are all great), but why should I care? Tell me next summer and I might listen, but is there ANYONE who is even thinking of buying an MP3 player that won't because of this announcement? I doubt it.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I've always had a saying, for every loss there is an opportunity. Digital music up, CD's down? Think what you can do to help Digital music along? Is there a problem there that needs solving? Is there some worthy contribution you can make? Business is chess and business is war at the same time. Or better still, time to consider a new industry to open a store in? Yes it hurts but in the end you may not only keep your house, but upgrade the house as well :-)
...in bed
3. Blue screen of death in audio form?
Have you been listening to the 'top 10' too?
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!
Drill baby drill - on Mars
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?
Ladies, form queue here -->
Including the author? This is not a piece of Microsoft hardware...
This makes the cost comparison slightly misleading. One American dollar is about 1.50 Canadian.
and Treble are belong to us
"I am Heisenborg. You will probably be assimilated"
Instead of pirated WMA files use the new WMD format - the U.S. government has a hard time finding them on your system...
Blues screen of death.
United States of America, good ol' backers of world peace.
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....
Too bad we aren't talking about hardware. From the article (there's an article!?!?!):
MICROSOFT is jumping into the portable media market, launching software for a new line of mobile devices designed to free digital content from a computer and play music, videos and photos on the go.
Sure, they may do good hardware, but knowing it's software they are producing here, one's first thoughts should be towards whether the software will be infected with DRM, and to what extent.
More innnovation from Redmond.
Now, if they could just invent an online store where I could donwload songs electronically and burn them to a CD.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Care to back that up?
From what I have seen, WMV9 is a decent codec, but it is far from "innovative". It' sjust another hash of MPEG4, and has huge attributes in common with DivX 4/5, XViD, and other MPEG4 codecs.
Now, I own an MS keyboard and an MS wireless mouse, and they both do a great job. But the Xbox?
Dateline August 23, 2004
Microsoft released Service Pack 9a for its Portable Media Center music device today, much to the relief of hundreds of thousands of Donny and Marie Osmond fans whose music files were being stolen by remote Chinese Linux users using an exploit recently found in the device's Portable Media Messenger Service.
Although Microsoft was quick to release the Security fix, they are still working hard to enlist other popluar music artists (besides Donny and Marie) into their roster of DRM'd Pay-for-Play music.
Nothing odd about it. The Australian author, writing for an Australian audience, refers to his own currency as 'dollars' and refers to the American currency as 'US dollars.'
It's like in Ireland (pre-Euro days) when we talked about 'pounds' (meaning Irish pounds) and 'pounds sterling' (meaning British pounds.) In the UK they talk about 'pounds' (meaning pounds sterling) and refered to the old Irish currency as 'Irish pounds.'
Nobody puts the nationality on their own currency in everyday speech. Where's the confusion?
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Every god damn story on /. has at least fifty "OMG who cares" posts: "Quit posting about SCO" "Quit posting about MSFT" "Quit posting about solar flares" "Quit posting about the 2.6 kernel" "Quit posting about Apple." So I went ahead and fixed the problem for all you whiny bitches out there who can't be bothered to figure out how to filter stories.
Here's the new Slashdot, made especially for those of you who "care less and less".
Don't you know: Portable music players haven't been invented until Microsoft comes up with one.
(I think it was Petreley who came up with this notion.)
Break out the Photoshop fark-style, it's time to add some groovy DJ headphones to the Slashdot bill gates cyborg icon. Who's down with DRM? Every last homie!
Microsoft announced an *operating* system for media players -- primarily for use in PVP's (personal video players). This is basically a stripped down windows CE. They didn't announce an actual player (To be manufactured by them).
Headline: Microsoft Launches Portable Music Player
Definition: Launch: To actually start selling something, as in "Apple launched Mac OS 10.3 Panther last Friday."
Article: Microsoft Announces....to be available in the second half of 2004.
Definition: Announce: To promise that someday you will develop something.
This is great. Microsoft to users: "Don't buy an iPod...we'll have a poor substitute that sucks and has support for crippled DRM WMAs from places like 'Napster' 2.0 and the rest of the lame new download services. And you only have to wait a year!"
"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."
I'm glad you pointed that out. Now I hate both my keyboard and my optical mouse!
"Derp de derp."
Thanks to using off the shelf parts it's as cheap as a PS2 that doesn't have a NIC or hard drive. Not to mention HDTV and real DD5.1 support. Not bad for "thrown together".
I know you are just trolling but....
First off: either you have a problem understanding teenage sarcasm or you are surrounded by idiots.
I'm about to go off on a rant, but there is a very shot thing you should take away from this. If you hold onto a sinking ship, it's your choice. Just remember that your family will go down with you. If you really cared about saving your business, you would study your demographic and location, and you would revise your business plan. If all you can do is whine about unseen forces acting against you and spout some neo-McCarthyistic bullshit and think it's a solution, well, I guess you deserve what you bring on yourself.
For someone so interested in good Christian morals and [your idea of] good family values in your music you have an awfully dirty mouth. You refuse to sell recodes that feature artists using profanity to stir an emotional response for some socioeconomic plight, but have no qualm throwing it in some teenagers face. For you outburst, I'm sure you have converted them to another recording industry lap dog. Assume they don't. There are a couple of likely outcomes. First: these kids never bought anything form your store, and probably never will. Second: They have bought something from your store, but won't again. As far as how either is going to help you immediately, I'm not sure.
Then there is the issue of your demographic. You state that you are proud of your achievement of running a store devoid of profanity and non-Christian values. The thing I find amazing is that there are actually people out there who model their lifestyles off of the Cleaver's yet still swap songs. Do you think that stocking your shelves with albums that are stamped with the explicit lyric label (such as Frank Zappa's lyric-less albums) might increase or decrease the piracy rate? I can't blame you for your praise of satin's children who call themselves Metallica. It's obvious you both enjoy smacking people around instead of taking their money.
I'm no business student; I'm an informatics student, so my sense of logic hasn't been warped yet. As far as I know, a business model is a complex thing that needs to be adapted over time to conform to market change. Sales projections are much the same. They use multiple variables that must be taken studied and individually accounted for. Your sales equation sounds like it uses constants, not variables, so the only explanation for a drop in sales is piracy. Do you take into account the changing tastes of your demographic, stiffer competition (including legal internet distribution), a stale economy and reduced disposable incomes, or the quality of and demand for your product?
It's easy to assign blame to something that can't or won't defend itself. After all, man has been using scapegoats since the creation of religion, and probably before. The RIAA is successful in blaming pirates because they have billions of dollars over decades of time to influence laws, people's tastes, and technology. I find it odd that you use the phrase "powerful pirate lobby" when I have not heard of such a delusion. If there is a music related lobby with bottomless pockets and laws to bend, it would be the RIAA. Who else could so powerfully convince law makers that EVERY blank CD and tape will be used to pirate music, and the sole way to solve it is to tax each blank and give it to the industry.
And for the record, Wal-Mart puts more locally owned and operated (mom and pop) stores out of business than any amount of piracy could ever hope to accomplish.
Wow... good luck at catching up to Apple by 2004.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
You mean like the X-Box?
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
Man, it's nice to see Microsoft coming up with some more new innovative items. Next thing they'll come out with is the first ever digital camera!
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.
if windows blue screens, the xbox green screens.. what with this one do?
MABASPLOOM!
Maybe that's why there's always so much excitement when something new comes out from Apple and when Microsoft releases something, it's no big deal.
DivX has WMV beat in terms of quality, but WMV is FREE and it is more widely deployable, assuming you don't care about the non-Windows world.
Yes, that wonderful Microsoft definition of "free", which means "bundled into the price you paid for the OS, or the price the OEM paid and passed along to you." When Microsoft released the WMV code & player for Linux (even if it is binary-only), then we can talk about free beer.
There is a player for Mac, but it's out of date and not compatible with the latest WMV9 files.
DivX also has WMV beat in terms of availability to run on other systems. Heaven forbid people would actually have to find & install software!
However where Microsoft really scored is their controllers. I know that sounds dead wrong, but bear with me for just a moment. The Controller S/Japanese Controller is one of the favored controllers. And the larger Xbox controller is fantastic for those of us with large hands. In addition it has two expansion ports, but still manages not to be excessively heavy. I consider Microsoft's controllers to be about the second and third best ever made, after the Dual Shock 2. The analog triggers are a nice touch, as well. (Sometimes, I get the feeling that sony gave their controller four shoulder buttons in order to discourage emulation. If your game needs that many buttons, it's just going to be awkward on a console unless you have a special controller.)
Microsoft also seems to have been quite successful with their mice and keyboards, as well as their gaming devices. I had a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback Steering Wheel which I gave to my father recently, and it was a great gaming peripheral. (I only replaced it because I got the Logitech Driving Force wheel for $30 used at Software Etc., and it's USB and works on PS2, PC, Mac, Linux, etc.) I bought some Microsoft Digital Sound System 80 speakers (actually made by Philips) which were pretty ugly but which sounded really nice and had a good set of controls on them.
In summation; Microsoft is decent with hardware. Anything they don't understand, they can commission and stick their name on. Their software tends to be sketchy but the Xbox is pretty reliable, so I don't see why a handheld media player wouldn't be. They will be pissy about supporting open formats, but most other companies are too. Besides, they do what makes them the most money, and the more complex the software gets the more likely it is to contain errors. They are doing their market a favor when they support only the features which are most desired.
That said, I don't plan to buy one. I want a device that does everything but suck my dick (I would prefer a separate device for that, with no other purpose, and no network connectivity.) I want a normal-sized cellphone which folds out to reveal a sizable back or side-lit color screen and a miniature qwerty keyboard. I want it to have firewire (IEEE1394B will do), act as a USB device or host, and have that laser drawn-and-rangefinding virtual desktop keyboard. Oh yes, and s-video output. It should have a tolerably fast CPU (enough to play a small MPEG4, anyway, and be a phone at the same time) and be a world phone. It can be moderately large, but not excessively. The size of a largish PDA would be okay, like perhaps the size of a Zoomer, only narrower.
In this internet-connected age, this would let me do pretty much anything I need to do with a mobile device. I just need to be able to run ssh on it, and maybe vnc, besides the media playing and phone calling applications. Ideally it would all be able to run at once, and I could flip between them. Something like this with enough power would be worth as much as a laptop. You're going to need CF support though, because the storage demands of such a device will be significant. On the other hand, firewire and USB can fill that need as well, so maybe it would be enough to have something other than CF that would be smaller.
Of course, by the time anyone puts all this in one credible device, MRAM will be out. And Duke Nukem Forever will be announced for the following Christmas...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
All that is AFTER the Pepsi promotion - 100 million songs (and thus millions of new users) from iTunes.
Apple did say they always thought the online music world would boil down to them and Microsoft - I think they were correct.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Uh, no. The reason it's as cheap as a PS2 is that Microsoft makes a loss on every Xbox sale, whereas Sony makes a profit on every PS2 sale.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
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.
An MP3 player than can give me a BSOD and will have IE force bundled with it. Hurray! Where do I sign up?
large hands is just a polite way of saying "fat"
read my blog
From The Jargon File:
Now, Microsoft have just announced a new, super-dooper portable digital media device, but it won't be out for an entire year.
So people will wait for it, and avoid products such as the iPod, the Rio line, iRiver, etc, etc.
Then Microsoft's device isn't released next year. They delay it. Perceptually.
Stops you from buying their competitors product when they have no other way to compete. That's FUD.
mmmm blue screens on your microsoft player... lol