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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."
As long as the battery is replaceable and doesn't blow up, I think I'd be content.
I own an iPod and a coworker of mine has the Dell. So I've seen and used both.
They are the only two units for sale right now worth having. The others are bulky, ugly, more expensive...why bother.
In the end I went with the lock-in. I bought the iPod becuase I bought alot of iTunes music, and I love my iTrip FM transmitter.
This is an awfully sloppy review.
The price comparison links for the iPod say they're for the 20Gb model when in fact they're for the 15Gb model, thus eliminating a major point in favor of the Dell model: no USD$50 Apple premium.
The conclusion makes it sound like there were many problems with the unit, but reading the rest of the pages I found that outside of the reviewer botching the software installation, his only criticism was that the unit isn't a very featureful voice recorder. (And how he expected things to work properly after he canceled the software installation in the middle, I don't understand. Maybe it could have been smoother, but panning it in the review when he did such an unusual thing in the setup just doesn't seem fair.)
There's almost no discussion of playback capabilities. Those of us who've used these devices know that there are issues to watch for: some devices have problems at certain bitrates, or with handling variable bit rate recordings, etc. No apparent effort was made by the reviewer to address those issues. I'd also have appreciated some discussion of the quality of the audio stage, how much power it has, how it performs with quality headphones, etc.
This "review" reads more like a poorly executed "first look" than the product of a reasonable-length, in-depth evaluation.
I currently have a NEX II, which I am happy with. It works quite well and has excellent battery life. My only problem with it is the firmware is HORRIBLE. And still horrible even after all the firmware upgrades. Apple has award winning software on their player, and in the long run I think this makes a big difference.
There are a few things about the IPod Mini I don't like. The price is not attractive, but there is that old saying, "You get what you pay for.", and I think that's true. I also mentioned before that it doesn't come in white. I would really really like one in white and I hope they come out with that. I am also a bit concerned with the battery or harddrive going bad. It's quite expensive to replace that battery if it dies and I don't know if you can replace the harddrive if that dies. I don't want to have to buy a whole new unit if my harddrive busts while I'm jogging with it.
BTW, does anyone know if jogging will hurt the HD in the IPod Mini?
Like I've said earlier, the real risk to the Record Labels and the music industry is not Peer-to-Peer networks or piracy, although both may affect them to an extent.
The real hit is going to come in the form of people downloading songs that they like - I do not have to buy an entire album of crap just to listen to one song, and neither do I have to pay $12 for a CD full of crap.
This is the market's way of getting back and eliminating bad music. Sure, there will always be some cross section that will listen to stuff like Britney and the Boybands, but they will largely diminish purely because popular demand for better material will kill them.
Apple, HP, Microsoft and now Dell. Yay! Way to go.
What made the iPod a hit was its simple user interface. The scroll wheel. Apple patented it, and now everybody is having trouble making a competing product.
...I just use my $40 MP3 CD player with burned CDs.
It is at your loss when you only get the songs you like. I have several CDs that I got for one song, but after listening for several months I suddenly realized that a different song that I didn't care about is now the one I like the most. Not all songs have reached that point, but some have, enough that I'm unwilling to get just one song for fear of missing the better ones that you need to learn to like. Most real artists don't include a bad song on their album.
I however do not listen to (much) RIAA music. I cannot comment on some of their practices I've heard of but not seen myself. If you really want some hit song, perhaps you are better off with the one song, if they really do just but garbage on the rest of the tracks so they can get a their quota of 9 songs...
THG was one of the first sites to break open the original 5GB iPod to see what was inside. You ignorant clod!
yeah, it sounds great to you . and that's what everyone else wants?
Why would you need to take a FLAC audio file on a portable device?
because, some portables are capable of playing through a line-out into good speakers and some players even have near audiophile snr to make a difference.
My God man, why do you need OGG and FLAC support? I have thousands of MP3 and AAC files.
because of freedom. freedom to get an encoders that work on different platforms. because people have already encoded their files this way for their media center. because there's no extra licensing.
The likely reason for needing to install the drivers to use it is that this discourages you from casually going to a friend's house, plugging in the Dell device, and copying over your friend's 3GBs of MP3s onto it. If you have to remember to bring the CD with you, it's that much more likely that you won't bother.
--- Bwah?
It has nothing like the scroll wheel and excellent UI to distinguish itself like the iPod has.
Just what has a scroll wheel and excellent UI got to do with your music? You do use an iPod for playing music, right? This Dell player doesn't need to distinguish itself because it does exactly what the iPod does - lie in your bag and play music.
iPod devices. WMA plays on...evrything else. Can you say Sony Betamax? Superior product that failed in the long run.
I don't know about you, but when I'm listening to music on the move (on my zen nx - ipod has terrible battery life) I don't tend to look inside my pocket that much, on on the passenger seat if i'm driving. Sometimes people seem to forget that loads of us were listening to mp3s on the move way before Apple came out with the iPod. It's a nice looking device, of that there's no doubt, but it's just a piece of electronics that allows me to listen to music - nothing more nothing less. That fact seems to have been lost recently.
When am I ever going to listen to 15GB worth of music on my player? That's like my _whole_ friggun music library! I don't even listen to half those songs anymore... I would rather have something like a 1.5 GB mp3 player.. Hey, it could be smaller and probably easier on the batteries.. ? The only thing I could find that had those specs was the Muvo2, and no store around here (lower B.C.) sells it.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
As someone who does a lot of travelling and moves around a bit, I see these things as digital wallets. Why else would you want 40 Gb? Dell's device might be more usefull if you could go to any computer with a reasonably modern OS and plug it in, without needing administrative access to install drivers.
There is another problem, USB. The iPod has firewire which doesn't need a host, I can only speculate that this is one of the reasons why Belkin chose firewire for their card reader. USB is good, it's good to have both, but when you want flexibility, USB has it's issues.
Sometimes it's just the little things that count, that make a good design great. When I go to work and work on pc hardware and Windows, I miss the details, nuance and elegance that makes working with my Mac at home a joy to use.
Just what has a scroll wheel and excellent UI got to do with your music?
Oh gee I don't know. What does your keyboard, mouse, monitor and Operating System have to do with your computer?
Both articles are underrepresenting its true capacity of 163,840 songs.*
* Songs are 30 seconds each at 32 kbps
Point is, the song is COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS as a unit of measure, since songs can be different lengths and encoded at different bitrates. It hold 20 gigabytes of music, 'nuff said. Or perhaps I should say "Gibabytes" (God that sounds so stupid) to appease SI whiners.
Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
Not true - CD players skip. MP3 players don't. I think the whole "shocks trash your hard drive" deal is a myth - I've never once heard of anyway's iPod having shock-related problems. I take mine jogging, and it has no issues whatsoever. If there was any kind of significant risk from everyday shocks, Apple would warn you about it.
don't use special batteries
You can recharge the iPod from any AC outlet, and car adapters are available. Also, you can buy an add-on AA battery pack, if you anticipate not nearing civilization for a long time.
and have virtually unlimited "storage" capacity
If you want to carry around racks of CDs. I can fit my iPod in a pocket, and listen to anything I want, anywhere. With an MP3-CD player, you can barely fit the player itself in one pocket, let alone extra CDs. That's not an issue if you use it only in the car, but car audio is not the iPod's target use.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Well "double-dumbass on you!"
He paid for some software and maybe a portable player of some kind. Sure the price for the encoder was factored in but you know damn well what he means. When he encodes something his computer doesn't ask him to stick a quarter in the box.
Don't encode you stuff, who cares. Hold out for that monster quality portable and listen to your flawless music while you wait. It's a free world.
FLAC and Vorbis can have all the free, cross platform encoders and decoders they want. Nobody outside of the twenty guys bitching everytime an iPod article hits Slashdot gives a shit. Certainly nobody who's going to be making any substantial money selling portables cares.
Those of you who care about all the stuff in your list amount to nothing more than a pack of posers. Calling Mac users "sheep", that's rich.
You're just in a different flock my friend or hadn't you noticed?
Perhaps, but if that's your basis for countering the original post's assertion that "it seems the iPod is still a superior product overall", then it doesn't really contribute to the argument for the DJ / against the iPod, since the Dell DJ doesn't have a user-replaceable battery, either.
you are still a sheepeople. you run Linux like 25 million other people.
you want to be a true free person?
write your own personal OS.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
The price difference between the 15Gig ipod and dell is $50.
for this you get:
-it feels nicer in your hands and slips into your pants pocket better and is less of a pocket weight in you jacket or shirt.
-Best quality earphones magnets you can buy, with low-tangle coated wires
-Firewire charging. Did you see the brick the Dell comes with?/ this is not really a portable device.
-you can charge the apple anywhere with a tiny plug for the fire wire.
-you can plug the apple into most computers with or without software
-better wheel interface.
-store more songs with better high quality song format AAC
THe price difference bwteen the 20 Gig model is 100$. for this you get all of the above plus
-- a dock for your desk
-- a smaller remote than the dell.
It also works with itunes music store.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.