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MP3beamer Released

Posted by Hemos on from the connect-to-everything dept.

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.

8 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Very interesting concept by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ...until you realize it costs four hundred dollars. I'll stick to iTunes, thanks.

    1. Re:Very interesting concept by oskard · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That post was unrightfully marked flamebait. Any one who posts their negative opinion on slashdot is considered a flamer, and that's simply due to the (f)laws of civil discourse.

      But he has a point, its 400 dollars for something you can write software to do.

      --
      Sigs are for Terrorists.
  2. Worth a look by Deekin_Scalesinger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Reminds me of Tivo for the musically inclined. Consumers do seem to like black boxes, as long as they work right the first time. I'd look at this for myself - it would be nice to have a music only drive and dedicate one machine for that task. Four hundred is a decent price point as well.

    --
    "As the intrepid kobold companion continues his journey, he begins to wonder... if priests raises dead, why anybody die?
  3. Re:$150MM?!? by generic-man · · Score: 2, Interesting

    MM is for "million" because M is for "mthousand." It comes from the Roman Emperor Maximus who was known for having thousands.

    --
    For more information, click here.
  4. Where's the utility? by Radi-0-head · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So why can't I do this with my existing machine and maybe an additional hard disk for storage? Oh wait, I already do!

  5. hmm.. side note by shadowpuppy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A while back I noticed that iTunes has the ability to automatically rip a CD when it's put in the drive. And when it's done the CD can be automatically ejected. I'm not certain but I suspect that combined with some Applescript and a CD jukebox could be a frightenly effective combination. How much you wanna bet that programmers at Apple have already done it for themselves?

  6. Sync to iTunes - How? by Slackrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In the product FAQ, they mention an MP3Beamer Sync component that automatically syncs your iTunes collection with your MP3Beamer collection. I'm curious how they pulled this off. Does the iTunes Sharing protocol (DAAP) support file upload? Or are they pushing the music in some other way?

  7. Re:re by mc900ftjesus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The Mac mini is a great $499 computer until you put enough options on it to make it worth while. It's a mere $724 with a Superdrive and 80GB HDD. Want a monitor? Not included in this magic $499 price, want wireless? Keep raising the low low $499. Wow, my $499 Mac Mini is really cheap when it has features added, mine would be over $1000 with a few basic additions (512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, wireless, Monitor, DVD-RW, Airport crap). Dimension 3000 with same config (RAM, HDD, DVD-RW, Monitor) was $669. That Mac mini is sure cute.

    This is not a discount or cheap computer, it's just another expensive Mac completely stripped down so it looks cheap. At least it's not an eMac or iMac or whatever cute Volkswagon Bug-type crap Mac will try to overprice and get people who buy "cute" things to jump all over. At least they offer loans.