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What A Portable Media Center Might Look Like
An anonymous reader writes "From the Redmond's answer to iPOD dept... While wandering the exhibitor aisles at Embedded DevCon, we were drawn to this slick looking reference design board in the Freescale (formerly Motorola Semiconductor) booth. The Portable Media Player Reference Design, a.k.a. "Jazz", is based on a Freescale i.MX21 embedded processor, runs Windows CE, and is compliant with Microsoft's Portable Media Center (PMC) standard. PMCs, Microsoft's answer to the iPOD, will initially support digital music and videos, digitally recorded television shows, and digital photos."
There are several reasons this is not an iPod killer per se. Mostly because it does not beat the iPod in any of the areas in which the iPod excels: being a very small, very light, fairly durable, tightly enclosed music device with good battery life and a nice interface. MS's stuff is going to be necessarily larger, necesarily heavier, necesarily more precarious unless they ruggedize the HELL out of those LCDs and reinforce the plastic grating over the speaker. Battery life will probably be about the same as a portable DVD player, and if the interface is anything like Pocket Media Player, it's got NOTHING on the iPod.
In short: this looks like it has exactly the same features and price point as the device I traded in for my iPod, a Toshiba PocketPC. And just like the PocketPC, it'll have limited appeal which becomes even MORE limited when Joe Q. Fancydevice realizes how hard it is to get first run movies onto it...i mean, how fast can the processor be in these things and still keep battery life?
Still, competition is good for the industry. The market pressure will force Apple to make iTunes even better (and there's room for that). But I don't think they have too much to worry about...a bigass laptop wannabe is NOT in the same league as a tiny little music device.
Nice looking board, no doubt about it, but to really make a splash they ought've made it 16:9 instead of 4:3. Just like the old car commercial says, "Wider is better."
...it starts with an 'i' and is about the size of a 'note'book. Highly portable, 4 hour battery life, runs OS X, and can even interface with the Internet and an iPod! Screw Microsoft. What more could you want out of a PMC?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Anyone know if this will support Ogg? I'm still regretting putting my whole music collection into OGG format. IRiver is still a little expensive for me.
iPod is #1 because of marketing, pure and simple. They're selling a branded lifestyle, not electronics.
Designer jeans don't cost so much more because they're necessarily better, or of a higher quality construction, etc..
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Until the size, weight, and power consumption of screens that display video and photos are both reduced, and show an increase in quality, I don't believe that a device such as this will win out over the Ipod. It will be either too bulky, or it's screen will be too small for any real use, or the batteries won't last an acceptable amount of time, or a million other problems. Sometimes it's better just to do one thing, and do it well, than to try to do many things, and do all poorly.
The reason for the largish size:
When the weight of the stack of EULAs equals that of the product, Microsoft releases.
What the hell is pre-emptive in this case.. it does something before you tell it to? That's not so much clever as scary
Also, "Real-time".. er, isn't it supposed to be realtime? Would be a tad annoying if it did it 5 mins after (aka Windows ME)
Lastly, just cos everyone else has and I want a go...:
Yes, but does it run linux?
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
Before everyone gets in an uproar over the word 'Microsoft', remember that this device simply follows the standard Microsoft created.
It's based on an ARM processor, so should this device ever take off, the ARM Linux port could easily be customized to take advantage of all the features.
This could also be used as a MP3/video player for your living room stereo and TV, connected to the server via the built in ethernet.
Also, if you look carefully at this larger view, notice the device could make a really cool portable gaming device. Imagine running MAME on this...
Of course, if Linux were loaded on the device we would not need to worry about silly things such as DRM (included in the Microsoft specification.)
I had a bitter experience with Motorola's 9S12DP 1K79X defects (SCI interrupts, PLL registers, BDM bugs, CAN freakiness, etc).
Does anyone know what the roadmap is for their 16bit MCU lines? Perhaps I should be using Renesas or go 8bit AVR...
My Music
My Movies
My TV Shows
My Pictures
Settings
They forgot to include :
My MPAA lawsuits
My RIAA lawsuits
My upcoming jail terms
DirectPay (TM) money transfer
It's about time somebody came up with a Personal Lawsuit Origanizer.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
It needs a better name. One that characterizes its functionality, and portability.
Let me be the first to suggest "omni-pr0n-sent."
Well unlike an ipod it plays video as well and audio. I personally can't wait until these type of devices become affordable to people like me. My personal favorite of this type is the Archos 400 which can also record video as well.
Windows CE - The Pontiac of Operating Systems.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
It seems to me that this has got to be an all time low point for announcements of innovation in consumer electronics. Why? Maybe its because of the down turn in the tech-market means new products are not being developed. Another possibility is that microsoft's moves into hardware production(x box,phones) and Hardware specification (palladium, watches, media player, smartScreens) is having a chilling effect on the electronics industry. Recently they (allegedly) tried bankrupt a phone maker and move his technology to a competitor. Shades of Stacker and all the other software companies microsoft co-opted, ruined then bought their technology.
There is little doubt that MS stifled innovation in software. Just the fact that jobs could tweak an open source project to tripple the speed of a web browser over IE, when IE has had a clear field to innovate for five years or more, speaks volumes about the MS innovation stifle field. How could apple even dream they could technologically beat MS in the Power point market, but they did.
Does anyone else find these MS offerings utterly tepid compared to Apple innovation the day before?
M$ gates announces a recylced idea for a portable that shows sport scores, headlines, and plays RIAA/MPAA approved media. The debut the smartScreen, a 1500$ screen-only that hooks to your compute by wi-fi but cant play movies or mp3s, then they announce that anyone who already bought was is out of luck since that they will be changing the specs to use 802.11a to get better bandwidth for movies. then an oversized so-called "video" ipod that also cant show DVD movies, for more bucks than a ipod.
The only thing I thought was interesting was that they decided to switch to 802.11a for the smartScreens and not 802.11g. I dont know much about these standards except what Jobs said. 802.11a is dead, because it is not backwards compatible with 802.11b hotspots whereas 802.11g is.
How is it possible that one company can lead the entire market year after year going back all the way to the taming of dynamic memory. While the other company can lead the bussiness world and innovate nothing.
Thank you for your support.
If they can get good battery life and video quality, they can sell on the digital video part
Or maybe, just think, Jerry Springer on the run?
Maybe they can make it interface with camera phones, and store them and stuff on a bigger screen than a phone
My Pocket PC can play video and audio files, play emulated NES games, browse the web, and a whole lot more...
You need to re-encode your mpegs or avis to a PPC friendly bitrate, but its not that tough.
Walkman, before this, was popular not because it offered equalizer (it didnt), radio (initially, it didnt), multiple headphone jacks etc. It was popular because it was simple.
If you want to make a iPod killer, make a device that is simple to use, good 'OS' (that has AI like remember my favorites and gives them priority in random mode), practical capacity (not insane sizes like 40GB, who has or wants 10,000 songs on their palm?).
Oh, it also has to look cool and not be a commodity. And, did I say, no DRM?
You might find this to be an appropriate web comic. Although when you think about it, it's all about whether a device is "designer" or not. Laptops can do everything a PDA, MP3, etc. can do. So why have smaller devices? Because sometimes they meet a real need. In the case of the iPod, it was a good mix of a sound player with high capacity storage. It hit the very edge of that "sweet spot" in which pocket devices are allowed to live. I think Microsoft's problem here is that these devices go beyond that "sweet spot" and start competing directly with Laptop type devices.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
You know that they'd have to cross the thing with a Cell Phone. In theory, a device that I can carry around 4-5 movies, 20-30 hours of music, and huge amounts of pdf, html, and docs would be great. The down side, it will be nearly output only and battery life will be short. I don't think a full Windows platform should be needed for this too work. I think that the electronics folks could most of it in hardware.
My thing is some one needs to get personnal mobile input down and quick. Entering any data on a cell phone is a PTA. Entering PDA data isn't much better. At a desktop, keyboards and mice work well for input devices. We need a device that we can wear 24x7 and use as effortlessly as current desktop keyboards and optical wheel mice. Until then, our dreams of the ultimate mobile PC will be stalled until input catches up with output.
That's what it's meant to cost, isn't it?!
By the way, for the funky Apple capitalization impaired, it's:
iPod, iTunes, and iMac.
Not iPOD, Ipod, or IPod.
Why did this get modded (Score:1, Troll)??? This comment makes an excellent point--just look at Apple's advertising!
And before you start talking about high quality construction, remember the rechargeable battery issue!
... Features are gr8 but look at the MMC card in the pics, this thing is HUGE. saying that maybe they could quite easily just shrink all the circuitary? isn't the iPod basically the size of the HDD inside it?
You think, they would do some additional market research to possible, names. JAZZ, is so closely associated with iOmegas' Jazz Drive, and their infamy is well, known. I wouldn't want to be even remotely associated to that company.
Some kind of Name a little more media savy or Market Targetable.
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
This functionality exists in these two devices. They are small, portable (0.5 kg) with a decent battery life (2.5~3hrs watching divx) have MStick and CF interfaces, USB 2.0 and touch screen, 256 (u50) or 512 (u70).
True they are expensive at USD 1,500 and USD 1,700
But they are a full-blown computer with a Celery M 900 o Centrino 1Ghz.
I'd rather buy one of these.
The last sentence of your post:
How is it possible that one company can lead the entire market year after year going back all the way to the taming of dynamic memory. While the other company can lead the bussiness world and innovate nothing.
Caused a funny paraphrasing to pop into my head...
"If Apple did not exist, it would be nessecary for Microsoft to create them"
(apologies to Voltaire)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
While obviously it's hard to get excited about a screen and a bit of green circuit board, I still came away from that thinking "Why? When I could just get a PSP..."
It's going to play movies, it will handle music, and it can play PS2 quality games (on a 16:9 screen), the only downside is it has no hard drive, but the UMD discs have a decent enough capacity for my portable media needs, and besides it looks sexy as hell!
320x240 is great if you're comparing it to a PalmPilot. It's not enough to play TV on the LCD. And it's certainly not enough to run much text on, and it sounds like it can't drive a TV at good enough rates to use that as a monitor either - plus it doesn't say anything about driving HDTV so I assume it can't do that either.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Does it come with a magnifying lens so I can see what's happening when I play my TV shows and videos? Maybe it's just me, but I find that any video screen smaller than about 10" is completely unwatchable. To make matters worse, mobile video is even more difficult to see on the go because of the variations in ambient light intensity and the jostling motion of walking/commuting/etc.
These mini-video players look like a poor solution to a non-problem.
While thinking philosophically, we see problems in places where there are none. -Wittgenstein
Jazz is also a MIDI sequencer. Naming issues?
Its definatly not an ipod killer but with the included fm tuner and decoder it definatly beats the new archos those was on /. today.
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up... reading.-Henny Youngman
Yes, true, the ipod has very good marketing. But it is also a great product. None of the other music players out there even approach the itunes/ipod solution. It is just so easy, so seamless and so powerful. No one else has made a comperable product, that's why it is the most succesful. Its not the construction its the interface and the integrated music "solution".
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
This entire article should be modded -1, redundant. Several Portable Media Center devices were shown months ago, e.g. Creative and Samsung.
I am tired of using "ported" version on any portable device, cant we just make them windows device, (well, linux fans can install linux) and make it portable?
MEC Station Deluxe
6.5" 16:9 Aspect Ratio Screen
20gb, 40gb, 80gb, flavors ($599, $699, $799)
Compact flash support (so you can dump pics from a digicam card STRAIGHT onto the MEC, i.e. if you're on a vacation and need a lot of pic space but only have one card)
TV-out
~4.5 hour battery life
and for the supported media formats...
MPG-1, MPG-2, MPG-4 (DiVX, XViD, RM), JPG, GIF, BMP, WAV, MP3
and in the future...
TXT, OGG
Plus it runs embedded linux variant (not sure which one).
I have one, and it's out NOW.
It rocks. It rocks...
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
If the Sony PSP lives up to the hype. It will be able to play movies and a whole lot more.
I don't think any company apple, dell, M$ has ever come close to the success Sony has had with handheld devices. All the way back from the walkman in the 80s. Sony dominated.
The PSP is being marketed as a multimedia device anyways. I don't see how anyone can get all excited over this mock up board and not already know about the PSP which will be out early next year. As far as no hard drive, dont count that out - Sony is planning on releasing many add-ons and types of the PSP for various needs. It does also have the mini discs as well for movies and such that will start coming bundled with Sonys DVD movies. I am unsure if there will ever be writers for this for the public, but if there were, it would be pretty slick. It also has true 16:9 widescreen.
have you ever watched movies on a portable dvd player or on an airplane with a personal screen? they are good enough for airplanes and great for portable use such as on car/train trips.
Steve once said that there wouldnt be a video ipod because video is too compliucated and he wanted a simple user experiance, but what if he does the same thing he did with online music, a downloadable music service. there are already others so its feasably, and apple seems to have a strong relationships with ip powerhouses. also, if you look on the tiger preview for the looking glass preview, when steve searches for pixar, it looks like he has movies, not onyl trailers, I'm probably wrong about that I ddint look too carefully.
Hey there! You're using the latest MS powered device blah blah.
MY Music
MY etc.
Thats where they keep going wrong especially with personnel devices like music players.
You just don't need eye candy for that stuff.
Consumers just don't care, as long as it looks good and works like a charm.
Keep it clean and simple.
I'll admit that the iRiver h120 isn't as convenient as the iPod with the iTunes Music Store (I have to convert all of my iTunes music to mp3 before putting them on mine), but the device itself is extremely nice. It is only slightly larger than the iPod, considerably cheaper, and lighter. It comes with the carrying case, a built in mp3 encoder, optical audio in and out, and a built in FM Tuner. It plays mp3, ogg, or wma, and is firmware upgradable to play new technologies as they emerge. Battery life is right at 16hrs. It's not marketed as highly as iPod, but I vastly prefer it.
- "That's just the kind of fuzzy-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."
If you want to change where your mydocs folder points to (a network share, or just a shorter folder path), just right-click on it and pick properties, and its staring you in the face.
... PlaceN entries under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Pol icies\comdlg32\PlacesBar)
If you want to actually customize the places bar, download the tweakui powertoy, and go to "common dialogs"->"places bar", and enter your own folders. (if you don't want to download anything, just add Place0,
... when something like iTunes for video becomes available. I have some extra $$$ in my pocket, and I've been eyeballing the Archos Jukebox thingamabob. Unfortunately, I'm having real serious trouble thinking of a good way to get content to it. My ReplayTV might be the answer, but .. well it's hooked up to my TV! Heh.
"Derp de derp."
Harddisk, SD ram slot, 64mb ram, color screen....aside for the ARM processor, this thing's a portable xbox.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
what the hell is the point of a small portable movie player? I would never want to watch a movie on a tiny screen like that. I would play games, but I'd much rather get a GBA instead. that thing is too damn huge and ugly. No thanks, I'll pass on that ugly piece of junk.
What I like about the ipod is that you don't put things on it, per se. It IS itunes, just it goes with you. And when you connect the ipod they sync and all your playlists and everything else goes with you. And then, when you listen to the ipod your play counts sync back up with itunes. That, for me, is what makes it great.
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
the PMP-120 They call is a "Portable Media Player"...20 GB, runs linux, looks pretty cool. There's no price listed yet but I imagine that it's going to be pretty expensive.
There is no denying, the iPod is a wonderful piece of hardware. Playlist management is definitely lacking in the iRiver. WinAmp play lists work on the iRiver, but it's not the same thing. Play count really isn't important to me, so that's a feature I don't miss. I like being able to record several hours of audio. I'm taking a night class right now, and it's nice to be able to carry it in and record the lectures and such.
- "That's just the kind of fuzzy-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."
...compliant...Microsoft...standard...
Did you just those three words in the same sentence?
"BullShit Acronym": PMC. I expect the M$ spec will revolutionize mobile media consumption the way their Multimedia Personal Computer (MPC) reference spec revolutionized desktops: not at all. As usual, it will be Apple which turns on masses of consumers to mobile media with a right way to do it, even if they wind up buying an inferior product from M$ instead.
--
make install -not war
More fucking DRM crippled crap I'll never buy.
(Except maybe a used/broken one, specificly to crack the DRM).
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Anyone else notice the lack of ability to boot another operating system on these devices?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
This means heavy, heavy DRM.
If content is so valuable, how can it be given to consumers hands in the first place??
I'd buy one of it could play Divx movies. But we know that'll never happen. The funny thing about DRM is that for the first time in history manufacturers are bending over backwards to NOT sell us the products we want!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
It has good marketing now, but wouldn't it have been a success anyway? I remember seeing the first announcement of the iPod and thinking how much I wanted one - I'd have happily bought a Mac if that was the only way to get one to work.
The difference I see between this and the iPod is that people want, and are used to having, music while on the move. I play my iPod everywhere. I can listen to music when I'm doing pretty much anything, but I can't watch movies in anywhere near so many situations. Portable movie players do nothing for me at all. I think it's catering to a market that doesn't exist.
Disclosure: I do _not_ own an iPod, and I'm _not_ an Apple fan.
Yet I think the iPod probably won on its own merits, not just marketting.
At one point, I actually went looking for an MP3 player. Let me tell you, the impression I was left with was that all the iPod competitors sucked. They sucked like an industrial vacuum cleaner. They sucked like an expensive hooker. That kind of suckage.
The hard drive based ones were larger than a brick. Most still are. (*Cough* Archos.) Looks like everyone just put the cheapest desktop HDD in there, and presumably half a car battery. The think which you'd need custom made pants if you wanted to put them in a pocket, and presumably a new set of suspenders too.
But were they at least cheaper, to justify carrying a huge brick around? Well, no. About half were only marginally cheaper. Definitely not the kind of price difference to justify carrying a brick around. The rest were actually _more_ expensive than the iPod. Sad but true.
Now I can understand going for a niche. Stuff like "we'll offer an inferior product, but far cheaper. For people who can't afford the original." Nothing wrong with that. Both AMD and Intel went for that market too. (The Celeron for example.)
But this was not the case. It was a big heavy brick and no price incentive to buy that one instead of an iPod. What the heck did their PHBs and marketroids think?
The other option were Flash based MP3 players/memory sticks. Except for a long time that meant 64 MB or 128 MB. The problem is: depending on the songs, 64 MB might even hold only 3 of my MP3 files. Or a maximum of 6. Hardly an improvement over the portable CD player I already had.
The iPod fit a nice convenience niche. It had as much capacity as the huge bricks everyone else was selling, but in a much more compact size. While larger than a memory stick player, it could still fit in a pocket just as well.
Then there were other convenience factors, like the fact that they have a display which can actually show a damn playlist. Others, like Creative, _still_ seem to think that a super-tiny two line by 16 characters (or so) display counts as all the screen space one would ever need.
In the end, I ended up sticking to a CD based player. (Hey, at least that one _is_ cheaper.) I also ended up with the idea that _if_ I were to buy a smaller player, and iPod would be it. Not because of Apple's hype, but because Apple's competition is only now starting to wake up and get its head out of its ass.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Well... at least Redmond hasn't lost ground, they are still the same 11 (eleven) years behind Apple, remember Win'95 = MacOS '84 ? :-D
:-D
That's great, in about 8 years, M$ will come with a real iPod competitor. Still makes me wonder where WE Apple users will be by then... "Scotty, do your thing!" jajaja it's actually FUN looking at the whole industry trying to come with ANY device that can compete with the iPod... Last year there were about 6 gadgets that tried to do that and totally FAILED, this year there are like 20 waiting their turn... the iPod is the Jesse James of the portable music players
This will be great when something like iTunes for video becomes available.
"iTunes for Video" has been available for many years and it's called Media Center. Version 10 these days. Plays well with ArchosAV and ReplayTV. You can even get an iTunes/iPod maxi/mini skin to make you feel right at home...
Da Blog
good battery life
You're kidding, right?
Da Blog
Most still are. (*Cough* Archos.)
The larger Archos uses 2.5" HDs so that sets a minimum limit on their size. But the V2 with the lithium cells are much slimmer than before - they fit in my pocket just fine. Then again, I wear combats with plenty of capacious pockets!
One major benefit of 2.5" is the cost - I got my 20GB Archos for $70 after rebate at Amazon. That's pretty amazing. And considering I can expand it to 80GB for around $80 that's compelling. I await the first 100GB 2.5" drives with great interest. I suspect, however, that the Archos disk interface craps out at the 48-bit LBA boundary...
There are the smaller media card reading Archos handhelds that probably use 1.8" HDs. I don't know for sure, but they are the same size as the standard iPod and include media card readers so it seems likely.
Da Blog
Does Media Center have a service where I can buy content?
Good point, Apple blurred the difference between packaged software and rented software (music) quite well with iTunes.
Media Center plays AACs, but probably not Apple's DRMd AACs unless you use VideoLAN or Hymn to open them up. If I want to play licensed music I suppose I'd use AllOfMp3.com or similar. Let's hear it for global free trade!
Da Blog
I've had a Creative Zen for about a month now so it's the only one I can speak to. For one thing, it's pretty clear that Microsoft's stated intent it to create a new market - Marcus Ash the PM in charge of PMC has told me that repeatedly. It's true that they will compete to one degree or another b/c the market of people buying high end multimedia devices is only so large but that's ancilliary. If MS doesn't convince new people to buy that otherwise weren't interested, it won't be a winning proposition. As far as the unit itself - I think the Zen is pretty typical of the form factor they'll all have. Here's some pictures with actual size comparisons. It's just slightly larger than an average PDA. The interface is sweet and very easy to navigate. I also have an iMATE PocketPC Phone edition and this things blows it away in every category as far as multimedia goes. The only real shortcoming is the speaker volume is challenged. I think you're wrong about the battery life issue as well. If you are playing Video than it's reduced a bit, but as far as Audio goes, battery life virtually identical to that of an iPOD.