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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."
The summary says it has a measly 1.5 gig hd. Yes, some MP3 players of 20g or 10 or 40, but 1.5 is still a lot for many many songs. Hours on end to be truthful. If you frequently have time to update with your computer, I can't imagine 1.5g being a limit.
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When a female asks if you want to see her Aireo and doesn't lift up her shirt
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?
Did they just design the thing before the new 4gb mini drives came out, or could they not get a deal on them? I mean, with a 4gb drive, they could at least compete with an ipodmini on capacity. Right now they are in that awkward place between memory based and drive based players-- too heavy to jog with, but too little to store your whole collection.
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Crudely Drawn Games
Once again, a contender enters the field with completely different hardware specifications, obtuse pricing and little forecast on who will be dominating the field in 2004 and 2005. From my point of view, it is an innovation of merit, wireless access to your computer, on the fly playlists and a iPod mini-esque agenda to annouce, but... 1.5GB is the bare minimum I would believe for an audio prepherial.
Apple and HP should't lose too much sleep over this devices redeeming wireless factor, the fact it isn't a household name is becoming irrelevant as more consumers become aware of competing technologies but because it doesn't play buddies with iTMS or even Napster 2.0 is distressing, especially as the music download services enter maturity
But still, cool technology, useful placement, wrong time
Kudos to it
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.
I would like to salute the ashes of american flags, and all the fallen leaves filling up shopping bags.
This post sounds like and advert, same copy as the site and everything...
Just a few small points.
1. How does it get 'wireless' power? I assume it needs a power cable to charge the battery. Maybe incar?
2. With a mac the ipod syncs when it is docked, so the list would be.
a. get ipod from car
b. dock ipod
c. sleep
d. put ipod in car
3. Its a bad idea to leave valuables in the car
4. The thing that cracks me up most is the 'Pick your playlists' bit. With only 1.5GB vs 15GB in the same price ipod (which has 10x capacity but is 'overpriced'?) many will need to pick the mp3's they want in the software for this thing, more so than any ipod user.
5. FM transmission is cool, but way lower quality then a wired connection
6. Syncing over wifi to a car is going to take a long time, 11Mb/s max, prob 1-3Mb/s in reality, bit slower than the 400Mb/s of firewire.
Just my 2 cents,
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.
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won't work with any of the top music-download services
Sure it does, if it plays good ole' mp3s... because the "top music download services" are always going to be the free ones... perhaps the author meant "top pay services"...
You could also broadcast a live audio from anywhere with network access, as well...
I don't think this is an 'iPod Killer'. The phrase iPod killer assumes that the development of the iPod will stand still at the current stage of development, which it obviously won't.
I think if Steve Jobs has any brains at all, wireless will make its way into the next iPod. I don't think that video (rumoured to be in the next iPod) is a killer app on portable units, but I could be wrong. I can see a future for video combined with wireless - the possibilities are endless here, especially with vehicle mountings.
That said the Aireo is certainly a nice unit. The original postings saying that a 1.5 gig drive is a disadvantage is completely wrong. When you have wireless, you have unlimited storage - it is just remote to the device.
The only thing the Aireo will have to overcome is the iPods strong branding. Kudos to the Aireo for being the strongest contender yet!!!
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.
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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.
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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.
Firewire 400 Mbit/s (or 800 if you have the later type)
Wi-Fi 11 Mbit/s (or maybe 54 if you're lucky enough to get it to work).
I daresay if wireless synching becomes popular they'll put it in the iPod soon enough.
Wireless synching is a good idea, but you still have to plug the thing in to charge. In that sense, it hasn't gained any physical advantage over any other player. The interface for the iPod, especially on windows, sucks ass. If plugging it in automatically synched it and it automatically un-docked itself when done it would be every bit as good as the Aerio. Now... If someone could just figure out a way to charge these gizmo's wirelessly we'd be set!
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.
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
Vorbis keeps getting compared to beta. That's wrong. It's very easy to support multiple digital formats whereas it's very very difficult to support multiple hardware formats (vhs vs. beta).
- Drive past building with open WiFi network.
- Download all their MP3s.
- Profit.
Warsharing?CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?