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MP3beamer Released
An anonymous reader writes "MP3tunes, Michael Robertson's new music venture, has released a snazzy linux music appliance called MP3beamer. The $399 box auto-rips CDs and imports MP3s and then connects to iTunes, Java devices, media receivers, web devices even WinCE units with handy feature to "sync" songs from server to remote machine for offline playback not just streaming - see screenshots. Last time Robertson launched something with "Beam" in the name it led to avalanche of lawsuits and more then $150MM in legal payments with BeamIt from the old MP3.com." It'd be excellent to get a review of one of these machines; looks like a good one.
Having your music on one box might be appealing to some - heck, it is to me. Part os it is I dont want to keep a 550 watt machine going solely got music streaming - it does make a dent in your electric bill. It appears to be pretty portable too - if the functionality is as expected this will be a hot seller IMO.
"As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
Heck, with Hymn they could even add support for iTMS files, outside of the US anyways. Not that it matters. If I wanted to change portable players I'd just find one that played unprotected AAC and run my music through Hymn myself. But there don't seem to be any options out there!
Or you can download slimserver for free. Granted the $70 fee gets you linspire, but I'm willing to bet someone wanting to do this has the ability to download linux iso images and do the install themselves and for free.
you might be missing the point. simply because they have "solutions" priced at $400 and $70 does not mean they are trying to con anyone.
there are many customers that will fork over the $400 because all the configuration is done for them and they can rely on dedicated tech support should the need arise. if they do not care for the standalone box and they only require the software then its only $70 again, the software is designed to work out of the box. no need to spend however long to configure it yourself.
sounds like a pretty compelling argument to those consumers that do not wish to spend the time researching and configuring their boxes to "emulate" the behavior of mp3beamer.
you acturately point out that the functionality of the mp3beamer can be achieved for "free". but just a reminder, for a true geek this functionality and more has been available for a long long time. from the time you could put up a playlist on the web to putting music on an ftp site to remote controlled streaming music and even potentially converting one's music from a lossless format to mp3 or whatever on a case by case basis.
the point is that the mp3beamer is a convient package in the same way a pre-built desktop is a convient package. the best thing is that you could go into business offering similar "solutions" derived from similar software. you might even decide to sell your solutions at $300 and the software at $40. you might make a killing in sales on the assumption that your solutions were at the same quality or else the consumer will continue to vote elsewhere with their disposable income. anyways. im done.