Slashdot Mirror
Petite MP3 Player Boots PCs Into Linux
An anonymous reader submits "A French company has created a teensy MP3 player that also boots PCs into Linux. The 1.7-inch diameter, half-ounce Medaillon (way smaller than an iPod) has been around for a while, but 128MB and 256MB models of the Z2 version are now supplied with Shinux, an embedded Linux distribution that includes lots of cool open source applications." The list of included apps, from AbiWord to Xchat, is pretty impressive for a device intended primarily as a music player.
So... it's like a jump drive you can boot from?
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
It also stores way less music or data. No comparison.
Sounds like kleenex...
Smaller than iPod? Hmmm... maybe France has a future after all..
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
That comes with stuff loaded from the factory....
This is news? *yawn*
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Though it is a neat idea, I don't see the point. The average user is probably not going to use the Linux functionality, and thus probably won't pay the extra money for it. The form factor of the player is neat, though. But not as neat as Oakley's new glasses. http://www.oakley.com/catalog/eyewear/thump/
Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.
Looks like the MP3 player from Virgin that got discussed here.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
See this Coin-Sized MP3 Player
It also has been OEMed by Virgin Electronics and is available at Target. The only funky thing with this french OEM is that it has a Linux on it.
The question is: does this Shinux-booting MP3 player comes with xmms installed, so I can play MP3s?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
boots Macs into OS-X.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
I bet one of the included tools can mount NTFS. Just walk over to a server, discreetly boot up Linux, copy the SAM file, brute force it at home, and you've got superuser access. Any smart net admin would ban this player from their workplace.
Am i the only one who feels that charging a mp3 player by just a computer is a bad way of doing it?
Loading Please Wait....
It looks cute, nice and small. :)
I doubt that it will be a big success, but I hope it will be
This is the sig that says NI (again)
But the iPod could probably be used exactly the same way, though I have never personally tried.
The main point I see here though, is that if Mp3 players that come preinstaled with Linux get popular, then companies will have valid ground to stand on for banning people from bringing them into the work place as a security measure. Some companies already do it with iPods, just imagine if they get wind of this type of player.
Oh well, when it comes right down to it, 256MB just ain't enough space anyway.
With Linux installed, why is it using proprietary mp3 and not ogg?
I think this is a great idea. The French have always been a little bit ..... well ..... French. Sometimes it's très chic, sometimes it's downright weird, but you've got to admit, our baguette-munching neighbours across the Channel have a certain je ne sais quoi. Combine an MP3 player with a Live Linux distribution? Pourquoi pas? Sooner or later, somebody is bound to have a go at booting it up, and they might well be pleasantly surprised by what they find. {Bear in mind that the French percieve the USA as bullies, who throw their weight around and fight dirty when they can't get their own way; and resent the idea of their tax money going overseas to buy software when an equivalent or superior product is available locally. Although French youth culture may seem to be very American-influenced, the older and wiser generation classes 'pretending to be American' as a self-destructive behaviour practised mainly for shock value.}
And it only costs EUR159, which is about £100. Lovely! I might have to get myself one of these. I mean, I've already got Slax, Knoppix and probably even TomsRTBT lying around somewhere; I have my Palm Tungsten E, which plays ogg vorbis files, not to mention various combinations of lame, oggenc, mpg321, mpg123 and ogg123 on my home and work PCs, and my wonderful Philips DVDR70 which plays MP3s from CD-R. But I haven't got a device which gives me music playback and a live Linux distro in one handy little package!
One thing is stopping me, though. The minute after I've sent off my order for the 256MB version, as sure as eggs are oeufs, they will launch a 512MB version for the same price.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Or so it seems... From the website: Compatibilité OS : Win98/2000/XP/Me/Mac OS ( + 9.X )
Why, oh why, is this another Linux powered beast that "isn't compatiblilite" with Linux? The Zaurus has this curse, now we have another beast. It boots linux, so you'd think that it would be listed as such.
A few months back, I bought my daughter a Benq Joybee 110.
When we got the bulky box, and then opened it and this puny 2 inch thing came out, she said: "is that it?".
It has a built in Li-Ion battery, that can be charged via the USB connection.
This is a good idea, because I don't have to pay for batteries, the music player needs a PC anyway to copy MP3 files to it anyway.
Of course, the battery will die after a few years, and replacing it will be expensive, but for 99$Cdn after rebates, that is not a bad price.
Oh, and the Joybee is Linux compatible. It just appears like another drive. That was one of the criteria for buying it.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
I'll get one and put it next to my Quaassar and General Electric walkmans.
"It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself." - Henry Rollins
We at Terra Soft Solutions (Yellow Dog Linux) did this with an ipod a while ago. We had intent to sell ipods partitioned with a 5gb Linux space, and the rest open for music - but Apple informed us that the drive wasn't inteded for frequent read/writes, just burst reads... and that we would probably burn the drive pretty quickly.
:)
Ah well, it woulda been cool
no comment