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More Linux Portable Media Players On The Way

Posted by timothy on from the promises-promises dept.

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."

6 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. But the real question is... by mohrt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    can I hack it to run MAME?

    1. Re:But the real question is... by Catbeller · · Score: 5, Informative

      Valid question.

      -Firewire is freely licensed by Apple.
      -USB is not. At least last I heard.

      -Firewire does not require a CPU, ie a PC, to mediate file transfers.
      -USB requires a PC. And originally, Windows, tho that changed eventually.

      -Firewire 400 is faster than USB.
      -Firewire 800 is faster than USB2. Note that contention on the inferior bus and the mediation of the CPU are two big factors that retard USB and USB2.

      -Firewire, six-pin, has a superior ability to power peripherals compared to USB.

      -(Bone to pick) Firewire and USB were introduced by Apple and Intel, respectively. Intel used its influence in mobo design and OEM to promote its own, inferior, standard over Apple's. (And Apple waived the licensing fees - $1 per mobo, I believe, early, so that was not a factor). As a result, to this day Firewire still hasn't hit the magic numbers to drop the cost down to parity with USB. Microsoft had no small role in retarding the introduction of Firewire in Windows. MS/Intel swing a lot of weight. They did not exactly like Apple making a new standard.

      So we're stuck with a slower data transfer rate in real life and a lousy peripheral power option because Intel wanted to rool over all.

  2. So they run Linux ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... Who the FUCK cares?

    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 ... *goes off to flirt with some other dude with an iPod*"

    1. Re:So they run Linux ... by MikeMacK · · Score: 5, Funny

      2.4! Dude, come on, of course she's not impressed, should be running 2.6!

  3. But is it OPEN? by orthogonal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?
    1. Re:But is it OPEN? by tobiasly · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Neuros has open firmware, hardware, and software. You currently have to download a trial version of TI's compiler for their DSP, but last I knew there was an effort underway to get a gcc target written for it.

      Start here to find out more about its open-sourceness.