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Holiday Competition For iPod Dollars
An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net is running a two part article on 15 new digital music portables or "iPod Killers" as the digerati have dubbed them. iPod Killers for Christmas Part I includes what I think is the coolest new player, the Olympus MR 500i with touch-screen technology and and sharp black-on-white color scheme. iPod Killers for Christmas Part II's most interesting portables are the new Epson MPEG-4/MP3 media jukebox and the SoniqCast Aireo 2 Wi Fi. Lots of photos and size specs. Also, Ogg Vorbis is picking up steam as more new players are adding it."
quite a while now
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
If ogg gathers support, Apple can create a firmware update for the iPod and it will be back to square one.
Actually, a number of players work just fine with iTunes; they appear just like an iPod would, you get the same sync options, etc. Before I bought an iPod, I used it with my Rio500 until I got tired of trying to assemble mp3's on the rio's limited space (even wit a 32MB expansion card, whoa, a whole 32MB!). Straight from an Apple press release in 2001:
download songs to popular MP3 players from Rio and Creative Labs with plug-and-play simplicity with no extra software or complicated driver installations required.
Please help metamoderate.
There is no way that could be true. Perhaps if you left the drive and/or the battery out, it might cost that much. If you assume that the battery is marked up 100%, that is still $25-$40 depending on who you buy it from. The iPod Mini drives alone, are sold for storage for digital cameras. When iPod minis were first introduced, photographers were buying them and tearing them apart to get the drive out of it. Apple's large purchases drove the price down enough that the entire device was cheaper than the drives alone. So. while I'm sure that Apple is probably marking them up by 30-50%, they still cost more than $12 to make.
Why doesn't anything interesting happen when I have mod points?
The Apple iPod has user replaceable batteries!
:)
Google it, if you don't believe me
GPL Deconstructed
RTFA: Apple ships 92% of HD-based players, and 68% of all players. so you're a dumb windows user?
Which leaves me wondering about this, from the article:
Of note, Ogg Vorbis is making some significant progress in the market as a number of manufacturers are turning to the open source codec to draw Ogg fans.
Hmm, maybe some folks DO care about Ogg Vorbis support in their DAPs? Enough, apparently, that manufacturers are starting to notice.
Teenie-boppers looking for portable music player aren't going to be asking for Ogg Vorbis, sure. Just like teenie-boppers aren't going to particularly care that their PC's are running Windows (as opposed to, say, Linux).
Have you even used WMP10? The first time you try to rip a CD, it has a popup box that informs you that DRM is enabled, lets you read a quick blurb about it, and then lets you disable it completely.
It's simple. iPod has struck the ultimate balance of features, portability and usability. All the other guys are trying hard to match this balance, but they infallibly run into the next problem:
Brand. Apple was first to market with the best player, worked very hard on developing a killer brand. This brand nearly touts the iPod as fashion statement, for cool, hip people. All the kids want it:
Friday night my Girlfriend and I were eating at Taiko, a Japanese restaurant right by our favorite cineplex. A lady and her daughter sat by us. At some point in their conversation, the mom asked the daughter what she wanted for christmas. She almost right-away blurted "an iPod!". The ensuing dialog had quotes such as "all the other kids have it or want one".
The other interesting thing is that on one hand you have the iPod, and on the other hand you have "everything else that's trying to beat it". That pretty-much gives everything else an aura of "second-rate items". Kids KNOW THIS. For that one time of the year where parents seek to buy that special thing for their rotten little brats, you can bet your ass they ain't guna go for "second-rate".
iPod dollars aren't going anywhere. Sorry to burst yet another sensationalist-headline-seeking online mag's bubble.
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Um, possibly for a new revision with a beefier CPU. Ogg, for all its benefits, its not kind to most embedded CPUs out there (relies heavily on floating point math, etc).