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Digital Music Player Overview
An anonymous reader writes "MP3 Newswire just posted its fifth article of its 'iPod Killers' for the holidays list. Most interesting are a bluetooth unit from Aiwa, Sony's Vaio U, and an Ogg/photo/FM broadcast record, flash unit from SAFA." See also I, II, III, and IV.
Seems that ipod has the total "mental" superiority, as every MP3 seems to be compared to it.
One thing that I wonder about is the digital convergence, will iPod surve with so many the new Mobile phones containing MP3 player functionality. It used to be that MP3 player phones were far between, but seems that all 3rd generation phones will contain it as standard feature.
I can't wait for them to come out with the FPS game in which you kill iPods!!
So looking at the photos of these players it would seem that Apple has hired all the designers and engineers who understand interface, asthetics and functionality.
C'mon guys, give us something that's at worthy of competing with an iPod. I'll give you the first killer idea for free: make it just like the iPod but without the stupid glossy, scratch-prone plastic and polished metal.
It's called the iPod mini.
I think what companies don't realise that it's not really the player they have to better...it's iTunes. When it comes down to it, although the iPod is a great player, it's really it's integration with itunes that makes it work so well.
If I understand correctly, Apple's iTunes' architecture (at least, on a Mac) allows MP3 player manufacturers to write "plug ins" for it, so it works with their players much the same as it works with the iPod. A list of iTunes compatible players can be found here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=935 48.
My question is - why is this list so short? Isn't writing a plug-in a fairly simple thing? Why have so few of the MP3 player manufacturers bothered to make their players compatible with this program?
iTunes for Windows won't work with any player but the iPod. If Apple makes that decision, to encourage people to buy iPods, that I at least understand. But as long as the architecture is there on the Mac, why don't more player manufacturers take advantage of it?
- Alaska Jack
'iPod Killers'
Inevitably, something that wants to be just a "product A killer" lacks the originality that made "product A" popular to begin with.
Creativity can't be mimicked. I for one welcome any products that aren't easily defined by other products. The next batch of iPod-mimicking underlords, on the other hand, aren't so well-met.
I'm really interested in hearing about the iPod rapists.
You really want to hear about some trying to stick a 1/4 inch head phone jack in the 1/8th inch port? You sick bastard.
I mean, is there a technical reason (beyond the space-saving shape) that an iPod needs the kind of battery it has? Would an iPod work with regular ol' AA batteries? Or do they not supply enough juice?
Being able to use just regular, store-bought batteries would really make an iPod a lot more appealing to me, even if they brought with them a small increase in size & weight.
- Alaska Jack
The competitor's iTunes are called Direct Connect, BitTorrent, Kazaa and eMule. Sometimes it is called "my friend from college that has 200GB of music and hasn't been busted by the record companies (yet!)" The usability factor is there, of course, but it is not that bad actually, and such a thing as "my boyfriend's friend who knows computers(tm)" or "my nephew who is into programming(tm)" coupled with $0 /song can make things much easier for the average consumer.
Previously, on Slashdot... Build Your Own iPod Battery
Fetch Text URL - Firefox Extension
>None of these play Vorbis/FLAC?
Dammit, at least RTFSlashdotSummary: "and an Ogg/photo/FM broadcast record, flash unit from SAFA."
Compared to the iPod and the mini, these products are just plain ugly. (IMHO). Until the competitors manage to steal or match Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief industrial design talent, the iPod will reign supreme.
Since I'm financially challenged and these products are aesthetically challenged, I'll go without an mp3 player for now.
Treo + Kaffi = Traffi
This article takes a very narrow view. What about the Mini Disc players. The new HD-MD format has a 1 gig disc that costs $7. 7 bucks for a 1 gig removable media alone should give this line of players a huge boost over most mp3 players. Add in the battery life (40-50 hours on a single AA), and it becomes a great option. Hardware prices start well below the price iPod mini too.
Jason
ProfQuotes
I was thinking the other day that I may never get an iPod or similar device. I don't like using the word never, of course, but I recently stumbled across something on eBay. 4 gig CF cards for $300. 2 Gigs on Newegg are in the $200 range. With that kind of storage, I'm seriously considering skipping the whole portable music player device and getting a new PocketPC/Palm that'll use one of these cards. 4 gigs is more than adequate for my music needs, plus I have other reasons for wanting a PDA.
Though I doubt that's a reasonable alternative for a lot of people out there, I figured it was worth mentioning. I'm really attracted to the idea of having a little 'store all my interesting media' device.
We gots some cool stuff coming around the corner.
"Derp de derp."
...to just put a table together with the product names, their suggested retail price, the type of media they use and/or built-in storage size, connectivity (Firewire/USB/etc) and their supported formats?
And actually, I'm having my doubts that that's a comprehensive comparison/listing they've got on there in the first place.
All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
I picked up an iPod the other day and I found that its USB and Firewire connectivity on PCs to be iffy at best. I couldn't get Firewire to work at all, most of the time when iTunes tries to connect to the iPod, it causes a fatal system error and I have to reboot XPpro. I haven't had trouble with any other devices using these ports so I have to assume the PC version of iTunes has some glitches that create problems with some PC configurations.
Not sure what's so informative about that. I, too, have an iPod that I connect over Firewire to my PC and it works flawlessly, and has for a year without a single problem. Perhaps you should increase your sample size before making assumptions about the PC version of iTunes?
I know this because Tyler knows this.
The problem I find with all these players is that it seems you get to choose between somewhat bulky, fragile hard drive units with a lot of storage but poor battery life, or small flash based players with at most 1gig of space. My own player, a Panasonic SV-SD80, is about the size of US quarter, but squared off. It weighs about an ounce and a half and I never go anywhere without it, as it is so small you can drop it in your pocket and almost mistake it for loose change. I've dropped it several feet onto hard pavement at least 10 times with no ill effects. Plus, running on its internal battery it gets 16-20 hours of run time, and with the water resistant case it comes with (which has an extra AAA battery inside) you get around 50 hours. Try that with an iPod... That being said, even with a 1Gb SD card installed (sidenote: why would anyone buy a non expandable flash player??) I only get perhaps 200-250 songs on it, which means I'm bored of the rotation in about a week.
What I would like to buy is a player that comes packaged something like an ipod, but where the top 1/4 of it is a micro size flash based player (with an SD slot!) that contains a 1 or 2 line display, basic controls, and a small battery, and would afford the ultra-portable benefits of the SV-SD80 or similar player. For those times when you want access to your whole library, you would attach the bottom 3/4 would as 'dumb' modular add-on that simply holds a 20-60gb hard drive and a bigger battery to support it all, and the ability to shuttle songs to the flash unit as needed. Maybe even a larger (color?) display. It wouldnt need the player circuitry or controls, headphone jack etc, as that would all be contained in the flash head unit.
these pieces of crap are not ipod killers. 256kb? wtf is that scheisse. now try the iriver H320 or H340 perfect for the open source warrior, plays ogg vorbis , and now with the latest firmware, Xvid video! http://iriver.com/product/info.asp?p_name=H320
and an Ogg/photo/FM broadcast record, flash unit from SAFA.
RTFA, the SAFA SR-M800F can play MP3, WMA and OGG.
I don't know what is sadder: people responding to /. without even reading the one sentence blurb, or the mods who didn't do the same and modded parent up.
I know, this is /., it shouldn't surprise anybody...
I'm really surprised iRiver wasn't mentioned. I've got the 40GB HP-140 and it's a nice player with FM and the ability to record high quality compressed or uncompressed audio. The interface isn't as nice as the iPod, but with the open source Rockbox firmware being ported to several iRiver models, seems like a pretty serious competitor (especially for the Slashdot crowd).
Many of the players in the articles haven't been announced for domestic (the USA for me) release.
Just glancing over, these two m:robe players from Olympus, the Aiwa S710BT, and the Toshiba gigabeat haven't been announced for release anywhere outside of Japan. As far as I know, anyway.
There can be only one.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.