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Pocket PCs Masquerade as iPods
agwadude writes "Wired News has a story about a British software firm called StarBrite that is selling a virtual iPod that runs on Microsoft's PocketPC operating system. It mimics the iPod interface exactly, including the unique scroll wheel. It's a mere $20 but this seems right considering it's only software, and it only supports MP3. MacDailyNews has a shorter story."
Is the software really the selling point of the iPod?
Software doesn;t change the fact that storage is still a problem, especially since you need to use some of it to install this program. For the price of the software plus a memory card you can just buy a real MP3 player...
Besides, the beauty of the interface is how it is designed for your hands, not your pointing device. How do you get feedback and all that on a touchscreen, be it with your fingers or worse, with a PDA-pencil...
considering that 20 gb hard-drives for pocket pc's cost an arm and a leg, this is hardly an 'ipod killer'.
$20 for mp3 player software? why? just make an ipod skin for some free software.
for great justice
It doesn't seems to support aac files. All it has is pretty interface and ability to play mp3 files. (not even ogg or wma) What happens to just using xmms or winamp?
Other than adding cool but useless features that do little more than drain battery life at an awesome rate is there any other point to the ipod having a color screen?
These guys are just begging for a Cease & Desist, they'll probably get smacked down for "trade dress"-- the argument could be made that the iPod's UI is unique and therefore able to be protected from duplication.
Same thing they used to shut down those cheesy iMac ripoffs ~5 years ago.
A better use for the money would be wifi (for bluetooth-like syncing, not for uploading songs), longer battery life, and more durable parts (it's durable now, but it couldn't hurt to stiffen up some parts).
Besides, if I want my iPod to look prettier, I'd want it in the design of the case, not on the screen.
That's completely untrue. The iPod hardware is great, certainly (except the battery... grr) but it's the UI that really makes it - the fact that you can get to any one of 10k songs really really quickly and easily, with one hand.
Lovely hardware working perfectly with lovely software is Apple's modus operandi - at a lovely price (for Apple).
so I won't touch it with a 10-foot pole........
No, it's not a bad thing that the software doesn't support the "invasive" copy protection (which is easily broken now, BTW).
It *is* a bad thing that the software doesn't support AAC or Windows Media, both of which are more suited to portable devices than MP3 on account of their superior audio quality per kbps of compressed audio.
The iPod is a slick but over-priced piece of hardware
If it were over-priced someone would have come out with a copy that is the same storage/size/weight but cheaper. Can you point me to such a product?
How much is that going to run you? With the price of 4GB CF drives and the PocketPC device, you may be better off getting a laptop.
There's never enough when you have too little
You seem to mistaking the ipod with itunes. They duplicated the hardware of the ipod as a skin for an mp3 player, not the itunes interface. It does make for a cool and simple interface, but is probably really hard to use with a stylus and without being able to feel the buttons and wheel. Aside from that, your points about lesser functionalty and higher price are well taken
I think this will have the opposite effect of what many people think. PPC owners can check this out, realize it's a damn good interface, and then they might decide that the iPod is worth the dough.
Or, they go look for a CF hard drive for more space, learn about the iPod mini being much cheaper than the drives by themselve, and wind up buying a mini instead.
However, I don't see many people using this *as* an iPod... it's just not cost-effective. I bet some people who only need a few songs will use it, but more than likely those people would not be in the market for a real iPod no matter what.
I think pPod will actually increase iPod sales.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
im sorry homer, but isnt that why people love the ipod in the 1st place (The only edge Apple has now is design, UI, and integration with iTunes)? I mean take all that cool stuff away and you have a dell dj and all that other knock off crap.
"If knowledge is power... explain George W. Bush!"
Two words: Karl Rove
This thing wasn't developed to be "an iPod killer". Hardly. The developers didn't even bother trying to mimic the iPod with all its functionality. What it DOES have is a pretty face. A pretty face and a well-known face. These guys know that Apple's iPod is the best selling mp3 player out there and they want to capitalize on that. That's it. Nothing more. They aren't trying to revolutionize anything, not trying to invent some new killer app. They just want to make a few bucks riding the iPod's success.
Of course, they're probably gonna get nailed for it, but hey, it was fun while it lasted.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Album art. Digitial photos. Portable porn. Fireworks visualizations. There is no reason it shouldn't have color, battery smattery.
That would be hot if you could change the color of the ipod screen and what not. They need to move to a color LCD version.
Bleh. I agree 100% with the other replies that said this was a horrible waste of batteries and unnecessary. It would turn the iPod from something (supposedly) simple and elegant to one of those moronic CD systems with multiple bullshit coloured LEDs, gimmicky-looking level meters and speakers with doesn't-look-metallic-at-all silver/grey plastic detailing.
If you really just want to change the colour of the display, perhaps an interchangable backdrop or lights would be more appropriate. But I think that would still complicate the design and add a point of potential breakage.
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They emulate a piece of hardware that is so stupid simple that as a GUI it'll actually work. That's OK, not original, but not stupid either.
...
... but if everybody had to be 100% original in order to produce, it'd be a weird world.
Apple will have no problems with that. They may have to change a few details, but as long as this is
1) only software, that;
2) doesn't totally emulate iPod's own (proprietary) software;
3) doesn't insult Apple's product...
there's no legal problem at all.
The only - philosophical - gripe might be they try to run with someone else's good idea, but then again, most everybody does. That doesn't stop people from buying Windows - or rival products that emulate Windows - or downloading Linux, or buying Apple mp3 players, or
You might have an issue with me naming linux, Apple, Windows,
Copying in it self isn't good, copying good ideas is only sensible. In the end, let lawyers and marketing sweat the details, and let us not waste time with these superficial issues.
I think, therefore I am...I think.
"In order to really emulate the experience, it comes with a bottle of epoxy to glue your PDA's battery in place so you can't ever replace it."
The irony of this comment is that the software is shown running on the iPaq, which has a permanently sealed battery that is, if anything, harder and more expensive to replace than the iPod's. So not only is the poster complaining about a battery problem that doesn't exist (the iPod's battery is fairly cheap to replace), the same "problem" exists in the PDA.
And yes, I own both an iPod and an iPaq. The iPod's battery is fine. The (much older) iPaq's battery is dead. You wouldn't believe how tricky it is to replace an iPaq's battery...
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