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Diva Gem Bluetooth MP3 Player Review
i4u writes "I4U reviews the first Bluetooth-enabled MP3 Player. The Diva Gem from Daisy Multimedia enables users to use the player as a wireless Head-set or Hands-free device for mobile phones. So users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player. Pretty neat concept."
The Bluetooth function enables users to use the DIVA GEM as a wireless Head-set or Hands-free device for mobile phones. So users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player.
...oh great, now I have to worry about some ass bluejacking my Led Zepplin.
Sigs cause cancer.
Atleast they called it an MP3 player and not an iPod!
Hmmm.
1. Isn't this a screwed up N-GAGE, the terminal abortion that happened a while ago?
2. What if someone bluejacks my Hammerfall into some Eminem, or other rap SHIT? Strongly worded, but I absolutely detest (c)rap.
got sig?
Will it be able to work with other bluetooth devices, such as keyboards? I realize I'm stretching it a bit, but it might be possible.
On
They don't say how battery life will be affected while Bluetooth connectivity is intact. Any ideas anyone?
I think you'll find that sony ericsson released the first device like this called the HBM-30.
am not singing my songs loudly and annoying other people. I can have annoying phone conversations. Yippie!
http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
Diva Gem Bluetooth MP3 Player Review
I know all those words and that doesn't make any sense.
In at least as good a sonic quality as 128kbps MP3?
The one thing I'd really love with my iPod would be a bluetooth remote AND bluetooth headphones. The iPod could stay in whatever inside pocket I put it in, and I wouldn't have to worry about headphone cords or remote cords.
What is the point of these mp3 players with tiny storage?
Why can't more companies make mp3 players like that one you can get off tiger-direct.com, $120 for a 10GB mp3 player? Surely that technology can be refined, and I am willing to pay $150 for a good quality 10GB portable MP3 player.
I am not willing to pay $200+ for any MP3 player, nor do I want to buy crap (cheap could easily break 10GB mp3 players or tiny storage mp3 players).
Site is pretty slow already... Here's the text of the article.. Posted as AC to prove I'm not karma whoring.
published: 06/09/04 last updated: 06/09/04
Daisy Multimedia sent us their highly anticipated DIVA GEM Bluetooth enabled MP3 Player. We reported about this interesting Gadget last November. Now I have the chance to try it first hand.
The Bluetooth function enables users to use the DIVA GEM as a wireless Head-set or Hands-free device for mobile phones. So users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player. Pretty neat concept. Lets see if it works.
large photo
Overview
This is now the 6th MP3 Player we review this year. The Jens of Sweden and the Vandisori Players stand out so far with their quality and breath of features. Daisy Multimedia is the first to offer Bluetooth in an MP3 Player. I stumbled across another one on the Computex Award Page from First International Computer Inc.
The Diva Gem is available in three colors (Fanatic, Stardust and Glamour). I received the red (glamour) one with 128MB storage. The Player has a good small size measuring 86x32x20mm. It weighs 25g without battery. The surface has a metallic feel to it, giving the Diva a high quality appearance. It is bundled with the usual accessories a head-set (necklace style), power-adapter, USB Cable, Audio Cable and a CD. The Audio cable is quite useful. It has on the same end the male 3.5mm plug and the 2 RCA audio inputs.
The Diva Gem comes with a 450mAh Li-Ion battery that is supposed to power the player for 20 hours. When connected to the Computer via USB the MP3 Player is charging. So the power adaptor is not really necessary if you have a Computer available.
Diva Gem accessories: Audio Recording Cable, USB Cable, Player, Necklace Head-set, Power Adapter.
Besides the Bluetooth functionality, which I will explore further down, the Diva has another not yet so common SD/MMC Card slot to extend the storage of the player. The card slot is in the battery compartment. In regards to the more or less standard features the Diva Gem provides MP3 and AAC ( Apple's favorite) playback, a 20 station FM Tuner, a very sensitive Microphone for voice recording and mobile phone head-set operation and a backlit 4 line LCD display.
In the battery compartment is the slot for the SD/MMC storage card to extend the storage of the Diva Gem.
Usage
Right away the Diva Gem is very intuitive to use for me. The Player switches on by clicking the Play button on the side (no waiting). To lock the buttons the Diva has a button that toggles the lock. A small key icon on the screen indicates if the player is locked or not. Many other players have a slider button to lock the buttons.
The display is very clear and bright. The Menu tree is very easy to navigate with the joystick button on the front. Holding the joystick button for 1-2sec takes me to the main menu. This menu has four icons: Audio Player, FM Radio, Voice Recorder and Settings. In each of this main modes a submenu with further options is available.
I uploaded some MP3s and the sound is excellent. The 5 built-in Equalizer modes are noticeable changing the sound. The volume control is very fine with 55 steps. It still sounds great on the maximum volume. So definitely the Diva Gem is a solid MP3 Player like the Jens of Sweden or Vandisori. Also the FM Tuner is working very well. With the automatic preset the Player finds me 20 stations right away. The sound of the radio is very good. I am actually inclined to say that the Diva Gem has the best FM Radio sound and reception quality from all the MP3 Players I tested this year.
The Diva Gem has 6 buttons and a joystick.
Using Diva Gem as a Bluetooth Head-set
Now the Bluetooth functionality makes the Diva Gem unique, so I was very excited to try this out. I tested it with the Sony Ericsson T610 (provided by MaterialSpieler), one of the view Bluetooth phones available on the US market.
Daisy Multimedia provides easy to follow instructions on
i was thinking of a bluetooth headset, does anyone know of mp3 players with blutooth headsets?
It's socerers that get their abilities from Charisma. Wizards get it from Intelligence.
Geez!
-no broken link
The "Diva Gem" from "Daisy"?
If they're not targetting 12 year old girls, I suspect they've made a mistake there.
There's no obvious straightforward way to buy this in the US that I can find. How much does it cost?
You have to pay for quality. Get used to this idea, you'll see it again.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I wouldn't want to talk into that thing or have to hang it around my neck...I don't suppose they have a version of the headphones with a mic as well?
"They've canceled the show but we're still here. What does that make us?" "Big Damn Junkies, Sir!" "Ain't we just"
(From the Article) Features
* built-in memory (up to 256MB) and MMC/SD card slot
* Multiformat support: MP3 and AAC
* FM tuner integrated, live capture from the radio function directly in AAC
* Bluetooth Hands-free feature*
* Backlit graphic LCD and easy navigation through menus and play lists
* Multilanguage menu
* Various playback modes
* 5 equalizer presets & one 10-band custom
* Sensitive mic, voice operation recording (VOR), file folder system
* Over 14h continuous play on the Li-Ion battery
* Embedded charger, charges via USB or DC
* USB Removable Drive when connected to PC or Mac
* Driver-free for Windows 2000/Me/XP
USB Drivers:
Win 98; Driver free for Win Me / 2000 / XP / Linux 2.4.19 / Mac OS 9.1 and above
This seems to be a nice and multi-featured unit. The expansion slot is something that I have been waiting on for a little while now and the fact that AAC is supported is nice but too bad no OGG though. Seeing that the USB Driver for "Linux 2.4.19" was included makes this my personal top choice now as to MP3 Players.
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. -- Hunter S. Thompson
But it should seem pretty self evident.
Bluejacking is the practice of finding bluetooth enabled devices that are not your own and sending data to them to cause them to do something.
Example given on the site is to create a contact on a Bluetooth enabled cell phone with some text as the name of the contact as 'Hello, you've been bluejacked'. Then do a discovery for other bluetooth devices, find another bluetooth cell phone, and send that contact to it. Guy's phone beeps, it says "hello you've been bluejacked" to him, and he's all confused by that.
It's basically just pranking somebody. In this case, the MP3 player can act as a wireless bluetooth headset. If you did a discovery on your bluetooth phone near somebody with one, you'd likely find it. Assuming they haven't changed the pin (assuming it is changeable), you'd be able to link your phone to their headset and possibly simulate a ring to them. They'd answer, get nothing, and wonder wtf was going on...
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
users can listen to music and can pick-up incoming calls with the MP3 Player.
i have been able to do this for ages now on my Ericsson p800 and now on my new p900
i almost feel sorry for you Americans using clunky old phone tech, perhaps i can interest you in one of these ?
>I am not willing to pay $200+ for any MP3 player, nor do I want to buy crap (cheap could easily break 10GB mp3 players or tiny storage mp3 players).
since your attitude is unlikely to yield much profit for any company, no company will make a product to meet your demand.
if you aren't willing to pay, your demand won't be heard.
why is this thread "Insightful"? since when is (basically) being cheap "Insightful"? either you pay for quality or you buy cheap. if "quality" goods can be made cheaply, then there'll be even better "quality" goods that are a bit more pricy.
$249 128MB
$339 256MB - Special Order
$224 64MB - Special Order
http://www.technipeal.com/product.asp?3=34
I believe the max bandwidth on bluetooth is 768kbps, or 1 mbps (not sure which).
So if the bluetooth device on your ears was doing the actual decoding, then sure. Plenty of bandwidth. If the iPod was doing the decoding, then you'd get some pretty fierce quality loss. Not big enough of a pipe to send CD quality stereo audio in real time.
However, it's entirely possible to build a bluetooth set of headphones with an MP3/AAC/whatever decoder in it, then use the docking port on the iPod to grab the undecoded songs, and send them via bluetooth. More than a bit pointless, but possible.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Though the Diva Gem use of bluetooth is interesting, I'm intrigued by another possible use of wireless: transfer of music files at the player level.
Do there exist portable music players that allow either transfer or broadcast of music files to other devices within a certain radius, through Bluetooth, WiFi, or some other means?
I can recall an earlier Slashdot story which talked about iPod users swapping headphones with eachother. The propensity for people to do this could be enabled by adding a swap or broadcast feature to players themselves.
Needless to say, this feature is begging for RIAA harassment.
Some of us like MP3 players that run for weeks on one AAA battery and have no moving parts. Look at it this way, there are two markets for MP3 players. In one you have people who want gigs of space for more songs then they can ever realy listen to. In the other you have people who want a small device that plays just enough songs and is realy durable. Two markets, two types of products.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I read the headline and got excited. I read the article and was disappointed.
The added bluetooth functionality is ONLY good for using this device with a phone. As cool as this is, this is not what I have been waiting for. I want to hide my MP3 player in my pocket, and listen without wires.
Surely that technology can be refined, and I am willing to pay $150 for a good quality 10GB portable MP3 player.
I am not willing to pay $200+ for any MP3 player, nor do I want to buy crap (cheap could easily break 10GB mp3 players or tiny storage mp3 players).
Then I guess you won't be getting an MP3 player anytime soon. At least not a high quality one.
You pay for what you get in this world. If you're not willing to pay what it costs for quality, you don't get the quality. Simple.
The charge is what the market will bear. You're setting your standards cheaper than the market price, and so you're not part of the market. Deal with it.
Reminds me of people wanting to buy a top of the line digital camera but not willing to spend more than $200. Well, you can get a digital camera for $200, but you're not going to get one that's high quality and top of the line. Hell, you can't even get a high quality FILM camera for that price.
Sounds like its operating as a standard bt headset, which means that the sound quality for the wireless part is telephone quality only. I have published diy instructions in the german computer magazine c't on how to build a device that receives mp3 _over_ bluetooth. See www.bluemp3.de (german page) for details ...
This thing has an SD slot... which means 256-512MB can be added quickly...
SD cards are TINY, so you can fit a few into your wallet/purse/arse for adding/swapping to different playlists as you go.
Otherwise I agree... @ 7-10MB/song (256-320kbps compression), a 128/256MB player gets full very quickly. And most of the tiny players use an inferior audio codec and HP passives, so you wind up w/ poor audio quality compounded w/ the expectation that you run high compression and low bit rates (128kbps) on your source materials.
Overall it results in a highly portable, but poor quality, solution... I'll stick w/ the iPod
I second this comment.
All I want is a 1GB memory-driven player for $100.
Guess I'll be waiting a while.
Just in case you want to have a look into the Linux and portable (digital) audio players overview.
Thanks!
www.moviebums.com
Instead of a ring, you could play this messed up thing that Weird Al put at the end of Off the Deep End...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
*built-in memory (up to 256MB) and MMC/SD card slot
you can pop in a 1gig SD module if you'd like
www.moviebums.com
Lets see how long this one stays up
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
Nice idea but here is my grim outlook on it. This device does not have 2 avancements against ither a cell phone or an iPod. I would refer you to the article titled the 10 biggest tech flops. Or something similar to that. "Products have to have at least 2 benifits and 1 drawback only to be commercialy successfull" A device that does more, or a device that does lots of stuff but not very well. Now, if there was a phone that did the three functions then that would be a good product!
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
"You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous"
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
RTFA: It does support some open standards.
Like your big mouth.
I'm using a better solution :)
I'm using the FM-transmitter on my iPod, which my Nokia 6610 picks up. If I get an incoming call, I get a tone in my ear and the phone picks up. If I want to listen to regular radio, I just change the channel on the phone.
It's not CD-quality, but it's good enough for me.
[sarcasm]
Wow, you're willing to pay a whole extra $30 for a 10gb MP3 player like the one on Tiger Direct except "good quality"??? I'll get right on it!!!
[/sarcasm]
Seriously, I didn't see any 10gb MP3 player on Tiger Direct for $129. I did, however, see a 1.5gb MP3 player for $179. I'm guessing that if you didn't misread something somewhere, a 10gb MP3 player that costs $129 is actually a huge pile of crap. $30 won't even come close to making it "good quality".
I honestly can't find a 10gb MP3 player anywhere on the Internet for less than $250. That's for a new one -- you can get a refurbished Archos 10gb for $125-$150 at Amazon.com, but that thing is a piece of crap (take it from my personal experience).
I do agree with the stupidity of MP3 players that hold 128-256mb of songs because that's maybe 20-40 songs. If you can't pop in another 20 songs like you can with a CD (and do it at a reasonable price), it's worse than a standard portable CD player.
I'm not an avid music listener, but I think the bare minimum size for an MP3 player so you can take a variety of your favorite music with you is about 1gb or 1.5gb.
Would you pay $150 for an iPod-sized MP3 player with 10gb of storage? The smallest 2.5" drive I can find currently in production is a 20gb Seagate -- I can't find any 10gb 2.5" drives in production. So, that drive costs about $100; in quantity, it won't be much less.
Who's going to make a "good quality" MP3 player for essentially $50 each, minus the labor, R&D, distribution mark-up, etc.???
This Diva Gem 4000 is a 256mb MP3 player (far less than 1-1.5gb I mentioned above), and it's going for $329 MSRP, $249 USD on Technipeal.com:
http://www.technipeal.com/product.asp?3=34
Also, I love bluetooth, but I won't be touching this thing -- here's a little fine print I'm sure many haven't seen yet:
"A free firmware update in August 2004 will also allow wireless file transfers with Bluetooth enabled computers."
From my Archos experience, I am very wary of buying any tech device partly based on a promise from the manufacturer that they'll be releasing a firmware update to let it do an important thing. Bluetooth file transfers from an MP3 player to a computer is pretty damn important to me -- what are you going to do, hook it up via USB until you hope they come out with the firmware update?
On the whole idea of using it as a handsfree headset for a cell phone, it seems to me to be a ridiculous idea to answer your cell phone with a separate device that's the same SIZE as the cell phone. What advantage does that give you? It allows me to listen to music like I listen to my cell phone? Sorry, but I've talked on a cell phone for 1-2 hours straight, and I don't want to do the same thing with my portable music player!!
I'm sorry, but this device looks like a hack job, and a pretty expensive one at that.
On paying $200+ for a 10+gb MP3 player, deal with it until we have a breakthrough in technology. Nobody is going to hire slave labor so you can save $100-$150 on your portable music-playing device...
we need this! we need it now! i want to zap my friends mp3's without a computer and just being next to them!
who would dread receiving calls when I'm at "the good part" of my favorites songs... One more example where putting two functions in one device is unnecessary and even detracts from the usefulness of either application.
I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. -Henry David Thoreau
Sony Ericsson/Sony brought out a Bluetooth enabled MP3 player HBM-30, but its been available to europe for over a year.
http://www.sonyericsson.com/hbm30/
Small portable pla, uses memory stick duo, supports MP3 or ATRAAC and bluetooth function.
No wires, no missed calls - just great sounds
Plug in the headphones of the new digital music player HBM-30 and crank up the volume - but never miss a call. Incoming calls pause the music automatically, and transform your stereo into a wireless mobile handsfree without skipping a beat.
Hours of music, wherever you go
With 10 hours of playback time and plenty of storage options, the HBM-30 records from any standard audio source to give you unparalleled musical freedom on the move. Its excellent sound quality
Sprry may be first by an american compay.. definately not first in the world.
Have a nice day!
What I want is this player without the bluetooth.
Basically I want an inexpensive mp3 player that needs no drivers and is expandable (SD/MMC, Compact Flash, oh heck even Smart Media, just not that Sony memory stick crap^H^H^H^Hstuff).
Features of interest:
- Long battery life
- ogg (but I'm willing to give this up)
- random playback
- good sound quality (great would be nice but I did say inexpensive)
- AM/FM radio, yes I sometimes listen to AM
- 128MB internal memory (256 would be nice but with expansion I don't care too much).
Anyone know such a beast?
If you don't have it, and have an MP3 player already, try these headphones from coby they have a headphone plug for your MP3 player, and a headset jack for your cellphone without bluetooth.. the audio quality of the headphones is warbled (at least on my set) when the phone rings through
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
AAC? Cause if not - I'm not buying it. I'm not converting all my music from one format to another. I won't be buying a player until it does. Oh, wait it does support AAC.
Shit! Now what should I do with my iPod?
You know, some of us Americans are using P900's as well. I sure love mine. ;-) The mobile phone sophistication gap that used to exist between Europe and the US has largely been removed in the past couple of years, since GSM has become very wide spread standard on this side of the Atlantic. This has been driven largely by the fact that mobile providers who used to be TDMA based have switched over to GSM.
The obvious one would be the file transfer - if you already have an antenna and a Bluetooth driver, why not utilize the other capabilities? I'd much rather move songs via Bluetooth than plug it in to a USB slot.
It doesn't mention it in the article, but I hope that if you use the device as a headset it has a 'hold' feature that plays whatever you were listening too....
take your sig and shove it
Sorry about your Archos experience, but my Archos 20 has put on 35,000 miles, played for 6 hours a day for nearly 2 years now. (Knocks on wood) Bulletproof.
I still recommend used ones to friends...
The feature only said: "Bluetooth Hands-free feature" and the "Data exchange: USB 1.1 compatible".
Does this means that the player can not transfer data using bluetooth in the PC ?
He's so street and tough, that he sounds like the nerd in the basement of the science building.
I'm shuddering from the thought.
"Not big enough of a pipe to send CD quality stereo audio in real time."
Well, a 128kb mp3 or aac is about 1/10th of the size of a CD, and about 1/3 the quality, so presumably, it could easily handle this kind of bandwidth.
I would rather see a MP3 player (hd equipped or not) with bluetooth HEADPHONES! That way I can wear it on my wrist or leave it in my pocket while it's playing and no wires to get in the road.
The review said SD isn't common....WHAT? It's more common then say, memopory stick!
Gorkman
if the device already supports bluetooth, why not transfer the audio over it aswell, and use wireless earpieces for it?
anyone seen wireless bluetooth headphones for sale anywhere? other than those headsets for gsm phones
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Hey fucktard, I was replying to a fucking post about an iPod, read the fucking thread, asshole.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
If you're sending encoded music out the bluetooth connection, then you'd need a decoder on the other end. The guy was talking about sending audio to headphones, not sending encoded streams.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
" a small device that plays just enough songs "
Just enough for what?
http://www.huaqi.com/english/products/viewproduct. asp?id=459&classid=52
This product can use bluetooth headphone to listen to music. And the quality is also very good, besides, it is also a cute USB stick.
I always thought this would be a good idea, as i'm constantly missing calls when i'm listening to my minidisc player. Also have the advantage over MP3 playing phones where playing mp3's doesn't drain the phone's batteries.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Not sure why people keep coming out with the "first" BT enabled MP3 player...These guys have had a BT enabled MP3 player for probably a year...http://www.mptronix.com/... It uses BT for control but also has built in FM transmiter and up to 80GB storage, I would want one with any less ;-D
I'm an American and I've been using both a P800 and a P900 in New York since each of them came out. You can stuff that FUD where the sun don't shine.
It would be great to have a voicemail built into the bluetooth box, much like the old Sony phones used to have. This way (a) you can leave different messages for different people or groups (b) you don't have to go through phone operator's silly menus, (c) can easily archive or copy to PC messages, eg if someone gives you a number to call later, and (d) if you go abroad you can still get voicemails without paying exhorbitant sums to access your home voicemail box (about $4/minute last time I checked in the UK)
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Does anyone actually use blue tooth? People talk about how wonderful it is; yet no one I ever encounter has it. Reminds me a lot of the Zip disk. "It's so great." Do you have one? "No." Maybe I'm just on the wrong end of technology, but I've never found a need for blue tooth (or the Zip disk :p).
Would be neat if it recorded your conversation to mp3 as well. Can you say instant Jerky Boys?
According to this comment, you can purchase it here.
As detailed here. Not very elegant, but with newer PDAs with faster Bluetooth network implementations, I'm sure it could be improved.
My i730 phone doen't have blue tooth (AFAIK), so I guess that'd be why I'm missing out on it. I've seen a lot of other stuff, keyboards, mice, head phones, etc that are blue tooth, but never really hear about anyone using it. I guess I'll just stick to using USB/USB2 for my PDA, Cell, Keyboard, mouse, etc.
Like the anonymous coward, I've also had a really good expirience with my Archos (Recorder 20). I have heard that they released some bad models, like the FM Recorder 20. Which model do you have?
And have you checked out RockBoxx, the open-source OS replacement for many of the older Archos models?
I warned about this over a year ago.
It's roughly 50% compression, so around 700 Kbits/sec seems about right. That's what they're using for the new Airport Express thing. iTunes compresses the audio output into the ALAC codec and sends it to the Airport Express for output on the stereo.
Still a bit high for bluetooth, but within the realm of possibility.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Several people here complained that the unit could only act as a bluetooth headset for a cellular telephone but could not transfer files via bluetooth. Mind you that the speed bluetooth runs at would be painful for moving more than a couple songs, but, here is a bluetooth player about the size of the Diva GEM. The Xlive player takes full advantage of bluetooth's capabilities. Xlive XBM-100 512MB Bluetooth MP3 Player There are three sizes, 128, 256, and 512. Like the Diva it allows recording of FM Radio. It does not allow the use of an SD card like the Diva. Its one greatest feature, IMHO, is that when used as a bluetooth headset to your phone it can record your telephone conversations.