Olympus Preps MP3 Player With Cam & Color Display

igrp writes "Japan-based electronics manufacturer Olympus just announced their plans to enter the HD-based MP3 player market currenly dominated by Apple's iPod. What makes this stand out from all the other 'iPod killers' are their players' specs. Their top-of-the-line 'MR-500i' model sports a 1,22 MP camera, a 3.7" color touch screen VGA display with a slick-looking red backlight, JPEG support and according to this German newssite weighs in with a battery life of 8 hours. No word on prices and availability in the U.S. yet."

Comments

Sounds like too much integration for my tastes

[Megaweapon]

So you can take a picture of yourself listening to music? I've never looked at my digital camera and thought "gee, I wish I could plug my headphones into that!".

Re:Sounds like too much integration for my tastes

[Omega1045]

I see your point, but I see a day when some kids will laugh at me when I talk about my palmOS cell phone and my 20GB iPod, and my digital camera. I think in the next few years we will see something the size of an iPod with 100GB of storage that can take photos, shoot movies, and get cell/wireless calls plus hook up to a network via WiFi/WiMax.

Specialized devices tend to work better

[PIPBoy3000]

For the most part, I've found that separate devices for separate functions tend to be cheaper, smaller, and more effective. Imagine if you had to haul along your laptop, camera, and electric toothbrush if all you wanted to do was listen to some music.

Re:Specialized devices tend to work better

[erick99]

That's why I have a printer and a scanner, the all-in-one units are quite good but I wanted a really good scanner and a printer that could do a great job printing photo's. That's not to say there are not features that can be combined. I think music and video could go together well, especially with the larger hard drives in the players these days.

Re:Specialized devices tend to work better

[The-Bus]

This is completely correct, of course. And the reason for this is that with all of these devices you need to make them as small as possible. Besides the obvious engineering feat of putting in laptop circuitry, camera circuitry, and electric toothbrush circuitry all inside one cellphome, the fact is, it just doesn't make sense.

This is why, I think, there will never be a wildly popular laptop/pda combo. The PDA is supposed to be small. The laptop is supposed to be large enough to be functional. Then idiots like QOQOQOQQOO (or whatever that's called) make something in between that doesn't really do everything. I'd rather have a kickass music player instead of it having the ability to take crappy pictures as well.

Re:Specialized devices tend to work better

[bill_kress]

Actually, you brought up the biggest point to do this kind of thing. Most of these items have a certian minim usable size. Suppose you take a digital camera, to hold it steady it should be fairly large and have a little weight to it.

So if you can take the same package and drop in a HD, all of a sudden you can reuse the controls, battery and display for an MP3 player.

Same with a cell phone. Although the form is different, you can already have a phone that is way too small to use, so what are you going to do? stuff extra plastic in there?

The reason for the complaints here is probably that they haven't found the right form factor yet, hard drives don't fit into a good cell phone form, and the cameras they choose are usually low-res "bonus" items, but these things will change.

Sounds like a great idea

[wvitXpert]

1. Find hot girl

2. Ask hot girl to listen to song

3. Take picture of hot girl's boobies while she listens to music

4. Profit!

Re:Sounds like a great idea

[AuMatar]

Please. Any true geek would be touting the benefits of C over C++.

When in doubt...

[BaldGhoti]

Ah, the greatest electrical engineering principle of them all:

Low on features? Install a shitty camera.

On ANYTHING.

Re:When in doubt...

[flonker]

"All programs evolve until they can send email."
(Richard) Letts Law

"Except Microsoft Exchange."
Art's Corollary

"All hardware evolves until it can take photos and play music."
Flonker's Corollary

Here's the actual site for this device

[xmas2003]

www.robe-gate.com

Now how is your Japanese?!?

Prices were already anounced..

[keepper]

249 for the 100i
499 for the 500i

http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1097689832. ht ml

Amazing!

[Noehre]

Now I can have a digital camera in my cell phone, PDA, digital music player, underwear, toast, milk carton, and pencil.

We get the point, CCDs are cheap and small now. Isn't technology grand. Now stop shoving shit into places they shouldn't be.

Been there, seen that.

[eddy]

MP3 player + camera + color display. I think iRiver already did that.

Re:I don't get it.

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

Because, if you're like most people, you carry your phone with you everywhere you go, and leave your digital camera behind - unless you know in advance that you'll need it.

I use the camera in my phone all the time for those times when I didn't know I'd need my camera with me (i.e., a co-worker falls asleep at his desk and starts drooling).

You need to shift paradigms and stop thinking of it as a full-feature camera being shoe-horned into a product and start thinking of it as the equivalent of those disposable cameras you can buy (because you forgot to bring your nice camera), only without having to buy anything...

Re:I'm surprised we haven't seen this from Apple y

[jxyama]

that there are cheaper (possible) alternatives doesn't mean it's overpriced. the fact you (personally) don't see the benefits of some of the features (including things like designs) doesn't mean it's overpriced. i think the fact that the masses are buying iPods in bunches cast serious doubt on your (and many others) almost cliche-ish assertion that iPod/Macs are overpriced.

if apple was once the dominating mp3 player but now on the decline, then your claim that apple is being stupidly stagnant holds water. however, they have been and still are dominating the mp3 player market...

Yeah, but does it do gapless?

[erik_fredricks]

My Rio Karma still trounces everything else, if for no other reason than the fact that it plays tracks back without the annoying gaps that every other player out there puts in. It's even smart enough to eliminate the tiny gaps that the mp3 format includes by default.

Show me any other player that can do gapless playback, and I'm there. Until then, I won't consider any DAP that doesn't play back music the way it was recorded.

convergence?

[StateOfTheUnion]

Why does convergence in the small device world so often seem to mean slap to vintage 5 year old technology camera on the device? 1.2Mp?

What am I supposed to do with these images? 1.2Mp today is like including 8 track functionality or minidisc digital input on a stereo system . . .

I think I'd rather pay less and have a smaller device that didn't have substandard features included . . .