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More Linux Portable Media Players On The Way
An anonymous reader writes "According to LinuxDevices.com, Taiwanese motherboard maker FIC will unveil a Linux-based portable media player (PMP) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. FIC's 'Vassili' includes a 3.6-inch color LCD screen and a 20GB hard drive, and supports files in MPEG 1-4, MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, AVI, and JPEG format. Speaking of Linux-based PMPs, Archos will also showcase its lastest PMP, the Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 at CES, and other Linux-based PMPs have recently been announced by iRiver, Veritouch, and Zupera."
can I hack it to run MAME?
What about OGG support? That's the single killer feature for me.
You are not the customer.
Am I the only one who finds it sad that these monstrosities are replacing PDA's? I remember how excited I was at the possibilities presented by those amazing, tiny computers. The things we could do with them, now and in the future. Now that everyone has their calendar app, the innovative companies that were making them are either going out of business or dropping the product lines.
But it's OK! We have this nifty device you can watch movies on! Look at the pretty colors!
... Who the FUCK cares?
... *goes off to flirt with some other dude with an iPod*"
Girl: "Hey, that's a cool MP3 player!"
Luser: "It's not JUST an MP3 player! It runs Linux with a 2.4 kernel, and I even have a copy of GCC installed so that I can compile stuff on it!"
Girl: "Uhh, okay
Serious question: does that mean they are open source?
I mean, as an end user, I don't much care if something is "linux-based" or "foot fungus-based" if I can't open it up and re-do the way that works best for me.
I had an Archos, and the guys at rockbox.org went to considerable trouble to reverse engineer it (and I contributed my own smidgen of code to that project), but Archos apparently saved a bunch of money on assembling their machines, and the damned thing broke down (and mine was far from the only one to break down -- I'll no longer buy anything from Archos).
And Archos's firmware was so ridiculously bad (the Rockbox guys sped up directory browsing alone by a factor of perhaps 50) that I no longer want to buy an mp3 player that I can't hack. Having hacked with teh Rockbox software, I know what I want in an mp3 player -- and I figure I'll have to do it myself.
I want a new mp3 player, indeed my mom wanted to buy me one for Christmas and asked what kind I wanted, but I wasn't anymore versed on what is open source and what isn't but is reversed engineered and what is totally closed, so I couldn't tell Mom what to buy.
Loss for me, loss for the electronics store, loss for the manufacturer.
So "linux-based" I don't really care about -- open source, I care about.
So reply if you know: what hard-drive based mp3 players have hackable source or open source firmware replacements?
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Where is a device like this going to see the most use? At home most gadget customers have the equipment to play all sorts of media, a larger screen, and a couch.
At work, they have a 14" screen but no couch.
Outside of work and home, well its -15F today...
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
WTF? And I bet the music manager only runs on Windows and OS/X. But it's based on Linux! Super.
Sig goes here.
I seriously hope they use mplayer and add support for all of the file formats that mplayer can handle.
Why?
Well... mythtv records in this crazy format called NUV. It's opensource, but it's not in any top ten codecs list. But... mplayer supports it just fine.
I sure would like to have a portable media player that supported "raw" mythtv recordings
Yesterday I was in Target and MP3 players have reached the point where they are packaged in that impossible to open plastic card and hung on metal pegboard hooks in lots of 10. Even with extra storage we're still talking in the $150 range. Why would anyone care what OS it runs? It's practically disposable at that point.
It might have something to with the name. "Ogg" isn't exactly dressing for marketing success. People don't want to listen to "oggs". At least "MP3" sounds cool and techie.
".music" would have worked. or: ".tune", ".sound", ".tun", ".mix", ".track"... anything but Ogg!
Names have power. As Bankie would say, there were the fingers of the Ogg developers, far from the people's pulse...
I hope all these manufacturers adhere to the GPL and release the source code for their devices. Right now there are several big players in the SOHO router marketplace that do not. The ones that do provide stripped-down versions of what they actually ship, and most of them had to be persuaded to do so. They consider their device driver modules proprietary and don't provide source for those regardless of what the GPL says. Many of these manufacturers are not based in the U.S., so I can see how it might be expensive to bring a court action to enforce copyright, but that shouldn't be an excuse. Restraining orders preventing manufacturers from selling their products can be very effective.
Will the FSF or other copyright holders finally stand up for their rights? I'm no lawyer, but I seem to recall that if you don't take affirmative steps to protect your copyrights you can lose the protection they provide.
Impress her with the 2.6.9 kernel and you'll have it made
Yes and we're all hoping that it PMP slaps the iPod, and that we won't have to put our sweet asses on the corner to afford one.
I was under the impression that the wmv family of formats was proprietary to Microsoft. I'd be shocked into next Tuesday if MS licensed those codecs to be used for a Linux-based player. How is it possible that FIC is doing this legally?
Thad
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
See, here's the thing.
These Linux based PMPs are cool.
But the iPod Photo is a Portable Image and Music Player.
And everyone knows nothing else is as cool as a PIMP.
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Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
That Archos PMA400 that's going to be introduced at CES is really going to be more than just a PVP. It's going to be a full-fledged PDA with a built-in hard drive. You'll be able to keep your calendar and contacts on it, check your email on it via Wi-Fi (or via Bluetooth, if your cell phone lets you do that), and possibly do some web surfing as well.
So why don't we see more PDAs with built-in hard drives?
Seriously, is it a battery life issue, or is it just that nobody else has thought of it yet? It seems to me that if a Palm or PocketPC device came out with even a 5GB microdrive inside, it would cause real problems for a lot of MP3 players that aren't iPods. Plus, PDAs with built-in hard drives would automatically have an advantage over most smartphones in terms of storage. Add in a faster processor and some extra memory, and now you're talking about something as close to a PC as you can get in your pocket. (Assuming your pockets aren't quite big enough for that OQO, of course...)
Personally, I'd be all over something like that Tapwave Zodiac if it could hold 20GB of my music collection, too. Wouldn't you?
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
So then it's settled...
All occurences of the string "OGG" in encoders/decoders/players and existing song file names will be replaced with 69R
eg: "Rammstein - Reise, Reise.69R"
Think of the pickup lines... "Hey baby, want to sample my 69R selection?", etc.