More iPod Killers Introduced for the Holiday

An anonymous reader writes "MP3newswire.net has just released part III and part IV of their iPod Killers for Xmas list. Standouts are a $1200 24K gold-plated player from Jens of Sweeden, a 137 Gig unit called the Xclef, Sony's first true MP3 player, and iRiver's MPEG-4 video jukebox. If you missed them, here are parts I and II."

Comments

MPIO

[N8F8]

I've had an MPIO FL100 since I bought it last christmas. MPIO/Digitalway, the manfacturer, does a better job than most electronics manufactures in updating the firmware. For a craction of a price, at least take a look. The iPod is a sexy piece of electronics though.

Re:$1200 for 24K?-Pyrite and Brass ver on the way!

[Anonymous Coward]

Like the old saying goes:

A fool and his money are soon parted.

In this world, status and not reason, are the order of the day.

Besides that, won't the 24 karat plating on this iPod clone eventually 'wear away' from use? 24K gold is too soft to make jewelry out of so they have to add stuff like nickel to it to harden it up which lowers the rating down to 18 karat and 14 karat gold and so on.

This is what I want

[Wordsmith]

I've been looking for a while but there doesn't seem to be a player like this ...

I'm envisioning a CD/MP3 Walkman-style device that can read audio off of burned DVDs. I would have imagined there would be portable DVD-Audio players capable of doing this, but I can't seem to find one.

THe closest I can find are the portable DVD players that ALSO happen to support dvd-audio and mp3. But these are far bulkier than I'm looking for, and have far shorter battery life.

I'm thinking a sub-$99 device that could double as a cd walkman, or, with a dvd in it, give me 4.7 gb of mp3s.

anyone seen anything like that?

Re:This is what I want

[zibadun]

Sony makes one http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Sep/con20030 923021241.htm I have one. Too bad it locks up and hangs all the time and cost more like $250. And the little control widget is absolutely useless for managing a DVD full of MP3s. But it's a good start :)

Re:Huh?

[aristotle-dude]

So I have a choice of platforms too? Oh wait. No I don't. I have to use Windows media player running on "windows" to sync my MS certified device (read licensed) with the "Plays for Sure" logo on it. Some stores even require use of IE for windows. Sounds like MS has it's hand in it from end to end with also but with Apple, I would not be forced (if I was a PC user) to use their OS to use iTMS.

I think you have confused yourself by the illusion of choice you think you have with WMA. Al those stores require MS compatible software/hardware from end to end.

Actually, with either that commercial wine implementation or Maconlinux (if you have a PPC machine), you can run iTunes on linux if you wish. There are also hacks you can use to strip to DRM from iTMS songs which will allow you to then sync them with linux software or third-party windows software to your ipod or any ACC compatible player.

Rio Carbon

[dchamp]

Odd that none of the 4 articles mention the Rio Carbon mp3 player. I just got one a week ago, and love it. It's a 5gb HD based player, smaller than the iPod Mini with more space, and the battery lasts up to 20 hours. Plus, you don't need to use iTunes / MusicMatch type software (although you can if you want to) - I just plug in the USB 2.0 and copy files to it.

iPod already killed for me

[GCP]

Other manufacturers already killed this generation of iPods for me--admittedly a pretty tiny market. ;-)

I got the iRiver 20gig hard drive unit this time, and it gave me freedoms not offered by the iPod.

One kind of freedom was double the battery life.

Another was free use of my own files. The iPod, according to the Apple Store, had two modes, which I (not they) call the Free Mode and the Big Brother Mode. The Free Mode, they proudly proclaim, lets you use it as a portable USB drive, plugging in to any computer and doing anything you like with any of your files. Anything, that is, except actually PLAY THEM. That's disabled in Free Mode. This media player won't play any media if you loaded it in Free Mode.

If you actually want to use the media files you load, you have to use Big Brother Mode, using a special loader app that doubles as a storefront for exactly one store: Apple's own. Your device has to be registered with this app and there are all sorts of arcane rules about how many units of this can be registered with that on which computer and how to properly disable one before you can move to another, etc. Bah!

The iRiver, like most non-iPods, has one mode: Free Mode. It's just a simple portable USB drive that lets you plug into any computer you like and put any files you like anywhere you want, and it will play the ones whose file types it recognizes.

And like so many non-iPods, the iRiver plays OGGs, which is great because I write software that produces audio output and I'd like to be able to play my own output without incurring legal liabilities for my own code.

And like so many non-iPods, the iRiver has an FM tuner that I can use to listen to the news and other live broadcasts. (I only wish it had an AM tuner as well.)

And it will record live audio direct to MP3 from either its built-in microphone or off the radio.

I'm a technical guy whose idea of "cool" doesn't involve sporting hip fashion accessories. Name brand rock star touts and the chance to be considered hip don't hold a candle to useful features, as far as I'm concerned.

And I'm not interested in signing up for Apple's You Can Be a Hip Lemming, Too, But You'll Have to Do As We Say agenda. If they can produce something with superior technical features that doesn't require me to submit to their larger agenda, I'll give them another chance when I make my next purchase.