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iRiver Adds Ogg To Audio Player Firmware
Sesse writes "iRiver has just released firmware updates for its iFP-300T and iFP-500T flash memory-based audio player series. According to a news story on their site, this update includes features 'supporting the Ogg file format', so it looks like iRiver
can finally be added to the quickly growing list of
Vorbis-capable
hardware!"
I will propose that this product line consists largely of unreliable junk.
In general, one can plot a direct correlation between the language used in product literature and the manuals and PR releases, etc. versus the functionality and build quality of the said product line.
The articles on iRiver's site as well as their product specifications are full of mistakes and rideculous grammer/spelling mistakes. If a company can't spend a couple hundred bucks on a copy editor (or an educated native speaker) to communicate the product clearly and professionally then most likely they won't didn't spend jack shit on product quality or detail, either.
One day I had some grad students dig through boxes of "failed" peripherals in the back of the lab. Over half of them contained poorly written literature.
'Nough said. BTW, I have a Ph.D, so basic logic/deduction is not exactly foreign to me.
CONCLUSIONG: BUY AN iPOD INSTEAD!
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
One thing to note, though, is that if you encode your Ogg to reasonable quality (500Kbps) this patch isn't going to support you, so you will have to use a converter (they will soon provide for free) to actually downsample the music. I guess it's portable, so it isn't like I'm listening to the stuff through expensive high-quality speakers, but it is an extra step.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
If Apple is so pro-open source, when are they going to add Ogg Vorbis to the iPod?
But producers of audio-playback devices are stuck with a problem: because the vast bulk of digital sound out there stored on PCs is in MP3 format, they have to support MP3, and both Microsoft and Apple are not helping by pushing users to their own particular patented formats, thus providing little incentive to support an open format. This causes problems: it encourages people to continue using the closed formats, and that in turn encourages manufacturers to only support the closed formats. This is wrong, seriously wrong, and serious issues of liberty - both personal and civil - are at stake here. For without an open format, the plug can be pulled.
This quagmire of open formats dying because they need to dominate the market before they can dominate the market will not disappear by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that free and open music is important to you. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by the open source and free software communities to create an infrastructure that will support truly free - as in liberty - music, but that if the problem of lack of commercial support for open file formats is not resolved, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how patented file formats harms all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies on open file formats.
You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
Right now I am getting good use out of gnupod/gtkpod for my iPod, but would love to see more vendor support from day one for linux.
I hate to break it to you, but being patented and being open are not mutually exclusive.
MP3 and ACC, like pretty much everything else that comes out of the MPEG, are pattented, but the formats are completely open and well documented complete with sample code.
Their liscences are focused on getting money, for the algorythims they spent their time and money developing, from the people who make money off of their work: comercial software and streaming systems with thousands of clients. They generally don't charge any fees, or even require any contact, from small free projects.
I'm all for open source, but this feeling that it's wrong for people to get paid for their hard work is just plain bullshit.
What are you smoking, chief? I rip every CD I own to .ogg format, because lugging around a backpack full of CD's isn't an option.
When will people understand that music files aren't just for pirates?
AAC, WMA, and MP3 are licensed formats. Someone without a license cannot produce a coder, media in that format, or player, or if they're able to do so now, they can't rely on the fact in the future.
With CDs this didn't matter. Anyone who could physically stamp a CD could afford to pay a royalty on it, simply rolling it into the cost. Anyone producing a CD player, likewise, merely needed to roll the royalty into the cost.
Show me how you can build a free and open infrastructure for the distribution of music where anyone can at any time put their hand up and say "Ok, we're now demanding royalties on..." clients, encoders, actual music, you name it.
You can't.
And I think you know that which is why you compared saying MP3 et al "are somehow {...} less desirable than OGG" to "all open source solutions are inherently technically superior to any closed-source solution". The latter is clearly hyperbole. The former is objectively correct when discussing the patent regime but at first glance sounds a bit like the latter. If you wanted to make a fair comparison, you'd have either said:
KMSMA (WWBD?)