Mix Wi-Fi and Portable Digital Audio, Get Aireo

Midwestern gadget freak writes "What do you get when you mix Wi-Fi and digital tunes? The Aireo, which syncs with a PC over a high-speed wireless link instead of a cable or dock. It packs in other features not found in an iPod, but has a measly 1.5 gigabyte drive and won't work with any of the top music-download services. Its maker isn't a household name, but Best Buy will sell the things in a few weeks."

Comments

If every mp3 player is dubbed "iPod Killer"

[revolvement]

Why is it that the iPods are still the #1 seller? Is it brand name recognization, or is it just that maybe Apple's product is better in the long run?

Re:If every mp3 player is dubbed "iPod Killer"

[t_allardyce]

I think Apples product isnt necessarily the best, its just become a fashion accessory, and walking around with white headphones is so this year. I wouldnt be surprised if people just buy white headphones or another mp3 manufacturer doesnt make their product look similar. Until next year ofcourse when it will be all about blue headphones!

Re:If every mp3 player is dubbed "iPod Killer"

[clifyt]

"I think Apples product isnt necessarily the best, its just become a fashion accessory"

I'd tend to disagree. I ended up trying out a half dozen MP3 players a few years ago, and ended up giving in and picking up the much more expensive device. I was ready to find faults with it for being so damn expensive, but it just worked and it did it well.

Now, when I get a chance to see other MP3 players, I pick them up and give them a go. Sometimes I try to con manufacturers into one that I can review from a musicians POV (I run a small musicians website and am somewhat known in the industry...though no one seems to know for what, and I haven't figured it out either). Since then, I've gotten my hands on a few others that had promise, but didn't live up to my expectation of the iPod and I sent them back.

The iPod is a fashion statement -- it says I care enough to spend money on quality, and if it looks good in the fine italian leather strapped to my ass, thats just an added bonus.

Give them all a shot and don't look at the aestetics until you've tried them from a functional aspect. You'd see the iPod is great because it focuses solely on what it is supposed to be and nothing more.

I like

[lukior]

I like this thing. I don't need 40 gigs or 80 gigs or whatever when dealing with a portable music player. I want it to be small and I need more storage than 128 megs. 1.5 gigs is pretty good. I also don't care if it doesn't work with any of the music services. I don't want that DRM'd crap. Until they get things right I can find all the music I need on P2P. I dissapointed that there biggest sell point is that it is wireless. But I guess I-pod wins design and lots of other players are smaller so you go with your strengths. What is the price I didn't spend enough time looking to find it.

Useless use of a good hardware combo

[t_allardyce]

It doesnt say anywhere (or does it??) that it can link up with other Aireo's so whats the point? sticking a wireless link in it just so you dont have to plug the cable into your computer!? Ok so it could be cool if you want to leave it in the car or something but its not designed as a car stereo box so you would have to be pretty lazy to justify that. What would be really cool is if it could communicate with other mp3 players on the street so you could listen to what others were listening to (like jacking in with headphones but wireless) or even better, swap music with people. Im guessing they didnt do this for "legal" reasons but hopefully someone will come up with a firmware hack.

It's a file server...

[(H)elix1]

Think of it as a wireless file server. Too bad about the drive size, but an interesting combo. Looks like the 'mini' computer intel(?) was pushing a while back. I suspect these are being made by the same folks who bought the polaroid name.

Almost the right idea

[sithkhan]

I think that this product is a step toward what the majority of /.'s are seeking for portable audio devices. I am intruiged by this product, primarily for the wireless capabilities it possesses. I have been researching audio systems for my car which would allow me to wirelessly update my musical selections. I had looked at the CAJUN Car Audio Jukebox, but this device comes close as an option. I dream of finding a local merchant that makes custom Mini-ITX cases, and installs them in my vehicle inexpensively. But I will consider this, as an alternative to my dream car audio system.

Flash slot

[terradyn]

And it has a built-in slot for small flash-memory cards to transfer photos from digital cameras to its hard drive, a feat the iPod can match only with a Belkin add-on. This feature isn't fully operational on prototype Aireos but is scheduled to be available with finished devices for sale.

I find this to be the most interesting feature it lists. I do digital photography as a hobby and I've always thought this feature would be awesome for an mp3 device. I personally have a hard drive based storage device (the MindStor - discontinued) for offloading my media but it's still rather large and bulky. There are also a bunch of portable storage devices with video screens out that play mp3s but the mp3 functionality is an afterthought.

I would love to be able to replace my ipod with a device that can function as both which still being compact. I would buy that in a second.

Re:Let's give a warm welcome to the iPod killer

[EulerX07]

Did anybody ever catch that newscast about people hired by companies to promote products secretly? It was on cbs.

Some of these actors would be on the streets, and keep asking passerbys to take picture of them and another actor on that brand new camera that just came out.

On the more insidious end of the scale, they would hire pretty women (believe me, those REAL lookers in bars) to go smoke in bars, and give cigarettes/ask for a light. Men would of course be eager to please, and they would see what the lovely lady was smoking.

And then...there were those that were paid to surf around public forums and do publicity like "I totally saw "whatever" movie, it's really good!, you have to see it!". Basically it's manufactured word to mouth. If parent isn't one of those drones, he's trying to look like one.

Why use TCP/IP?

[bitflip]

If you're interested in music around the house, might I suggest a low-power FM transmitter?

Then you can buy cheap receivers, and put them all over the place, and listen to the music that's on your server.

Virtually no server configuration required! And if you time it right, you can have it play your theme music while you pull into the driveway ;-)

WiFi Security

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm curious. How hackable will this be? Does this include WEP encryption (or WAP)? Not that WEP will do much good. This may open up a new door as far as Wi-FI security goes. If this device is constantly looking for a 802.11x connection while it is on, (and if this device becomes somewhat popular) I suspect someone will come up with a rootkit to install malware on it, and then transfer to the users computer. Yet another wireless back door.

Points not discussed yet... no car player?

[iamhassi]

"Wireless 11mbps isn't fast enough"

Ok the first time you connect the Aireo it'll take forever to transfer your mp3s, but future connections should only take a few seconds. Why? Because as soon as you download a mp3... or two, or ten... you wirelessly send them to the device. And how long does it really take to send a mp3 at 11mpbs? 3-5 seconds? Do I really need 400mbps to transfer a 4mB mp3? I think not.

"FM Transmitter is worthless/unnecessary"

Depends on what you do with it. This is the perfect mp3 player for your car: you can send mp3s to it wirelessly and listen to them through your radio with your stock radio, no wires needed. What could be a better mp3 player for your car stereo? You'd need to keep it powered while in your car though, so you'll probably end up leaving it running 24/7 plugged into the cigerrete lighter, but if it can play mp3s for hours with tiny built-in batteries then it can't suck that much power so your car battery will be fine.

I really hope they come out with a car stereo version. A car stereo with a 10+ gig iPod drive, mp3 cd/dvd+-rw player with the ability to transfer songs from cd to hd and can play songs from mp3 dvds instead of cds, wireless 802.11 access, and of course FM and all the other features an aftermarket stereo includes.

That's a lot to pack in a car stereo, but I'd imagine it would be possible. I'd also like to see a way to keep the 802.11 active with the car shut-off, since I don't want to run out and start the car just to transfer some mp3s.

Beginning of the End for RIAA

[stinkenstein]

Here is why this is important.

Think about the marketing forces behind commercial radio stations, their value can be summed up as "driving consumer preference by making music available in a channel that exposes users to advertising messages."

Something like this (which I have been waiting for for a while now) can make it so that Pepsi, instead of paying to have Britney on their commercials, can just buy her new song from her for $1MM outright, and have access points which automagically d/l the song to you whenever you go into a Pepsi vending establishment.

In other words, moving back to a world where music is too cheap to pirate. Why bother downloading from Kazaa if all you gotta do is buy a Pepsi at lunch, or go to McDonalds instead of BK, or Mobil instead of Shell. This does two things:
1. Seriously reduces the need for record companies, really all you would need is some sort of clearinghouse.
2. Disintermediates all the middle men in radio advertising, since companies can now directly affect consumer preference, rather than coming up with tricky ad copy to do it and then baiting us to listen to the ad with a kewl tune.