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Sony Admits MP3 Error
inflex writes "In a rare show admission of taking a wrong turn, Sony's officials have admitted that their stance on MP3 players was wrong." While this was pretty obvious to anyone who has ever shopped for a portable MP3 player, it is nice to see Sony admit their shortcoming. Ken Kutaragi puts it best when he says, "We're growing up," and with any luck future devices won't be crippled with silly formats no one uses.
I've had a Sony diskman which plays AAC (never installed the software) and MP3s for ages. And they're not scrapping AAC. So...what's this all about?
I made a critical comment about the iPod last time and was modded down too, for no good reason.
/. now...
You're not alone. I criticised the iPod's design a few days ago and got hit with an Overrated mod. The Apple zealots practically own
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
And how long before they support Ogg?
Dated technology?
It uses the same 'new' hard drives that everyone else does.
When it was first released, it was the FIRST to use the 1.8" Toshiba drives. Then the mini was the FIRST to use the 1" Hitachi microdrives. I wouldn't call the iPod dated. Bleeding edge is more like it.
And there are two features that other players haven't figured out yet: Music management and software quality.
For example, Apple's biggest erstwhile competitor, Creative, has it's PlayCenter software reviewed here. While the user is happy, there are three things that iTunes does that make the iPod a superior experience:
Smart playlist creation: The need to select artists, albums, songs, etc, is greatly reduced by the ability to create a playlist via database rules:
Album is and
Album is and
Genre is and
Genre is NOT and
Artist is and
Artist is and
Song playcount is greater than and
Song has not been played in and
Song rating is greater than
Playlist creation is trivial; you can create multiple playlists with only a few selections, instead of dragging and dropping.
The idea is that your music is in a database and not in a filesystem, even though on the back end there exists a filesystem to hold the music. How is that for 'dated technology'?
Then there is the 'transfer' process. On the iPod it will always transfer, until there is no more room. It has two synch modes; automatic and manual. Manual allows you to, if you so desire, drag and drop playlists and songs. Automatic synchs your playlists until your iPod is full. There is no mode during which a 'transfer' cannot occur unless the iPod is full.
Then there is the battery life. The user expects 12 hours, and Creative gave him 9 hours. Perhaps it was defective? But on my experiences with my two iPods, and my friends, we expected 10 hours and got 12 hours. How is that for exceeding user expectation?
The iPod IS the superior product, at least for the brief period of now, but that doesn't mean Creative or Sony can't catch up.
They just can't ignore the software.
GPL Deconstructed