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Review of Dell's Digital Jukebox
bu115hit writes "Tom's Hardware has a review of Dell's Digital Jukebox. The quick summary is that Dell has provided their own version of an iPod in size and shape, and they gave it better battery life. However, it seems the iPod is still a superior product overall, for ease of use if nothing else."
Straight from Steve Jobs's own weblog comes a more succinct review
CONS
- slightly wider (not that much)
- slightly thicker (not that much)
- slightly heavier (not that much)
- not as many songs (after 2500, does it make a difference?)
PROS
- cheaper
- twice the battery life
For a commuter on a budget, this looks like it stands to gain some market share.
libertarianswag.com
The iPod was purchased as my primary entertainment device, and I later purchased a Dell DJ for use with a project that I am working on for a school.
The iPod was purchased based on winning design, features, available accessories (iTrip, CF reader, etc). The Dell DJ was purchased because it was $219 no tax no shipping for the 15MB version, making it by far the cheapest portable device that can store several GB of data.
However the interface on the DJ is horrid. The display does this "windowing" thing where clicking the main button never performs an action but only leads you to a menu of actions. To do the most simple thing in the world, resume playback where you left off, you have to click three times.
The primary clicker is also a joke. The combo scroll wheel is tacky and too loose. Often I will go to click only to have my thumb spin the wheel down instead. The recording button is a nice idea, but you have to hold it down to register, and there is no way to name your recordings so you know what they are. (By the way, this might be good because the way you enter names in other sections is to wheel tediously through letters A-Z, then choose the options to shift to letters a-z, then wheel to the actual letter you want.)
Also, no dock for the DJ. It uses a USB2 connector on the top...bad design. The connection is so tight I was afraid to plug it in for fear of breaking it. Pulling it out makes me just as fearful.
And finally...worst of all...the Dell DJ does not detect as a standard USB2 device! WTF was Dell smoking? Am I supposed to carry the Dell DJ driver CD around at all times? Why not just carry my data on CD instead? The whole point of portable storage is to load it up, and take it anywhere you need the data to access it. The iPod is detected as a standard firewire/USB device on every version of Windows 98SE or higher.
Overall, it will serve its purpose for a prototype, but Dell needs to spend some serious money to come out with a 2nd generation version that addresses these issues. I understand they can't use a wheel like Apple does, but there has GOT to be a better analog input than what they came up with.
Oh, one last nail in the coffin...the include software is from MusicMatch and is without a doubt the worst piece of software I've ever used. There is no automatic sync. The option to sync your player and computer is buried three levels down in the software. The ID3 tags you make in music match don't translate to the player (will sort 1 10 11 12...19 2 20 21 22 on the player, ignores track number). The only saving grace is that as a standard Windows Media device, you can use pretty much any other program to sync the device, but I think Dell was really stupid to sign up with MusicMatch instead of just writing their own (given that Windows does all the work, all they need is a pretty interface with a big "Sync" button).
That's about all that comes to mind. I wouldn't recommdn the Dell unless you were someone who planned to load their entire collection once and then never ever ever touch the player again. If you had to sync/update the Dell DJ on even a weekly basis it would drive you up the wall. Spend the extra $100 and get the 10GB iPod or the extra $40 and get the 4GB iPod mini.
-JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
I called Dell sales and Dell technical support, and Dell has no method for replacing the battery (outside of warranty), and the battery is not user replaceable.
(Also, iPod's battery is replaceable, via several different methods.)
I use a standard MP3 CD player in my car - and as a result have a very simple way to convert audible content to pure MP3.
Just download the older version of Audible's software - I think version 3 or below will work, and use the codec that comes with it. Grab Goldwave, a very impressive digital audio editing program, for less than $50. It'll be happy to open audible files using the codec mentioned, put in splits at silences (cue points), and save the individual blocks into MP3 files. Overall, conversion of a 6 hour book or book part takes 2-3 hours on my P4 1.3.
I've converted dozens of audiobooks this way and never had a problem playing them in my RFX9000.
That would be an easy way to listen to audible content on these new Dell players.
How many roads must a man walk down? 42.
MusicMatch, the software that comes with the DJ is by far the worse part of the product. However you can pay $20 for Dudebox, a much better product by Red Chair. Highly recommended.
I recently owned both a Rio Karma and an iPod after I bought the Karma (20gb) for myself then received an iPod (10gb) as a corporate gift a week later.
/. before:
Just thought I'd point out a couple of things which I haven't seen on
-The iPod is easier to use, and looks cooler, but it will only synch to one PC, so it's significantly harder to pirate your friends' songs. (Since everyone in my office got one, they were a little disappointed when I explained they had to copy mp3s onto a local computer, then copy them onto the iPod in a separate directory using it as an external hard drive, THEN load from there into their iTunes back at home before they could take each others' songs).
-The Karma uses a proprietary filesystem, so if you want to use it as an external hard drive as well, you'll have to install the Rio software on the PC to which you want to transfer files.
-The Karma has a little scroll wheel on the side, which you have to have functional to navigate the OS. However, the design is such that it is most likely to fall on the wheel if you drop it (take a look at a picture of the Karma and you'll see why). After dropping it once, and breaking the wheel, I had to crack the thing open and krazy glue the wheel back into place (nerve racking since it's designed so that dropping glue 5 mm's off will glue the wheel so that it won't turn). My other option was paying $200, or 66% of the price new, to have it fixed by Rio itself. THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM.
-Finally, a nitpick: Rio charges extra to permit mp3 encoding in its software. It's not a big deal to use a third-party encoder, but seriously, WTF?
So I'd say get the Rio Karma for better pricing and pirating capabilities, but keep it encased in bubble wrap or avoid all pavement or something.
I jog with a second generation ipod in an arm band all the time. Occationally, if I'm running and hitting fast forward it will hang. As long as it can keep the buffer full, you should be fine. Since the ipod mini is a smaller device, it should be more secure than a full size ipod.
From Red Chair software comes "Dudebox Explorer." Kinda stupid name, but it does oh so much more than the included crap for this player. You can stream files over the internet from the Dell player fer cryin' out loud. It does everything the included software should, but doesn't. The software is $25 for the full version, but WELL worth it. Red Chair makes enhanced software for many other MP3 players out there as well. Rio's player, the Ipod, & Nomad are all included. You can basically edit EVERYTHING on the MP3 player as if it were a hard drive in oyur system. You can edit ID3 tags, rearrange playlists, control play functions, and as I said before you can play songs over the internet on another computer. It generates a web page playlist on the fly to allow easier access. Just type in the address into the explorer bar. I used it to play music on my laptop when it was connected to my desktop through the LAN. Winamp streamed it like any old web radio station. SWEET! It makes the Dell Jukebox that much more worthwile to have. The software fits on a floppy so I can easily sneakernet the software to another computer to uses it as an external hard drive. It is STILL a far cry from plug n' play, but I don't do it that often anyways.
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/
>>>>>> Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive.
Yep.
Quite honestly, there's nothing more useful than reserving 2GB on your iPod for an OS X Server install so you can boot your Xserve in an emergency. Xserve even comes with a front-mounted Firewire port specifically for this purpose.
I pretty much have my server emergency kit on me at all times.
Check out the iRiver iHP-120 (and the new 140 model) . Purely in my opinion, the iHP-120 sounds a lot better than the iPod. It also has a longer battery life (I get about 12 hours out of it) and it can play WMA, MP3, WAV and yes, Ogg Vorbis. It can also record direct to WAV or MP3, has a pretty decent FM tuner, and 20 gig of HDD space (or 40 gig on the iHP-140). It's a good solid all-metal construction and it's about the same size as the iPod. If you're considering buying an iPod, you really owe it to yourself to read up on this beauty first.