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Microsoft's Tips for Buying an MP3 Player
An Anonymous Reader writes "In another extension of Microsoft's 'Plays for Sure' campaign, the company has launched a web page with six tips to help consumers purchase the 'correct' MP3 Player for them. Among the insights of the article hard drive-based players suck and a stopwatch is a useful feature to have on your player. Unsurprisingly, the iPod meets none of Microsoft's criteria. A humorous commentary is available, of course." From the article: "6. Don't get locked into one online store. Have you ever been on the hunt for a particular song? Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you're looking for."
They didn't say microdrive players suck, but the page IS about flash players. About the display thing, I wholeheartedly agree, I think people assume any ipod is "teh coolness", but I'd rather buy a flash player with a display and fm tuner for the same price as an ipod shuffle, I think apple manages to confuse a decent amount of people, and the apple fanatics, well, they'll buy anything apple.
The Neuros is a brick when compared to the iPod, and that's the only reason it never sold that well. Had it had its current feature list and been the same size as an iPod it would have done much better, even with its limited marketing budget.
Sure, the iPod's looks carry it a ways, but it's the size of the thing, and its smootheness (which makes for better pocket-ability than any of its last gen competition) that have made it so popular. Most consumers care far more about how big a DAP is than about its format support or even battery life...
Unsurprisingly, the iPod meets none of Microsoft's criteria.
Is that so? Up until recently, I seem to recall every iPod sold having a display.
For the most part, linux is too bloated for the minimalistic speed required of an MP3 player. A lot of cutting would have to be done, and it's probably easier for people to write from the ground up. Linux is great in a lot of situations, but not all of them.
Help I'm a rock.
Every player up to the Shuffle was a hard drive based player. Thus the only iPod that could not meet the criteria (and still be flash based) is the Shuffle.
When did ANYONE with a clue listen to Microsoft? "Linux costs you more money", "Linux has more security problems" and "IE doesn't have any security holes which we can't fix and do the second we know about them if you have a fucking time machine!" seems to be all they can say lately.
I'm sick of Bill and his lies, who gives a fuck if he says Longhorn will stop teenage pregnancy, cure world hunger and get every geek laid within a week of buying it. He talks so much crap now (and so do most people who have spin doctors sitting up their ass all day) that we may as well go listen to the talking clock for a bit and at least get some truth even if it's useless 10 seconds later.
I like muppets.
Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you're looking for.
Rare jazz performance? Sure, I often want stuff like that, but why would I buy it off of an online digital music store? Nearly every store supplies its songs in a mediocre 128kbps-ish format, generally sub-par to the equivalent LAME encoded 128kbps VBR MP3. Why would I want jazz, with all its high-hats and dynamic range, in an uber-low quality format? Britney Spears' new single, sure.. but jazz??
And don't say AllOfMp3.com (who have changed CC processor to someone else)..
but why?
what is it about fm radio that doesn't appeal to you?
to me it's a free jokebox, it has no downside
in all honesty, respectfully, i can't understand you not being impressed by fm radio
i run and listen to mp3s, then at some point i get bored with my choices, and yearn for something random and fresh: voila, radio, different channels, different tastes
why is it that, if you are correct, people are hellbent on listening to nothing but that from their own collection?
isn't that incredibly asocial and self-important and stuffy?: "i know all there is to know about my musical tastes and my tastes will never change on a moments notice and yearn to hear something new and fresh"
i don't think that my mp3 collection, as large as it is, adequately describes all of my musical interests or whims or desires to find something new and different
are people really that incredibly inward and unexperimentive about their music choices?
i honestly can't believe that
and if you are correct, well then that's sad to me
are people really that cloistered and stuffy?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The whole purpose of having an MP3 player is not to have to listen to the radio...
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
I can fathom why they'd want to make a page like this, but it wouldn't stop anyone from purchasing that ever-so hip iPod/mini/shuffle/gumstick.
Really? Not even point three, "You'll want a display"? How many people would choose an iPod Shuffle over one of these? Note the price difference and the presence of an FM tuner/recorder.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
I have seen the Neuros and the iPod side-by-side. The player itself is of reasonable size, but it is a flash player, and only capable of holding 256mb of music. Attaching the "backpack" enables it to hold a lot more music on the hard disk, but it essentially makes it a brick.
I would have to argue that the better user interface definately goes to the iPod. The Neuros' interface is cluttered and confusing, at best. The 5 preset buttons on the side may be useful for some purposes, yet, I find that they just take up space.
The extra features on the Neuros include FM recieving and transmission, and a feature called "hi-si", which essentially records part of a radio stream for comparison to a DB when synced to a computer. Sure, these features have that "hey, that's kewl!" value, but it only lasts for a day, one week tops. Ask yourself: are you REALLY going to _use_ these features?
FM transmission is really just an ad-hoc solution for getting it to play through car speakers. In most circumstances, I find that a cheap tape adapter actually sounds better. FM reception is gradually turning into a gimmick in digital audio players. We are turning to digital audio for a reason: you will not find many radio stations that do not play absolute crap most of the time.
The iPod is an example of a device that does one thing and does it well: play digital audio through an easy to use interface in a stylish device. Devices like the Neuros do a lot of things, but it generally feels slapped together and half-assed.
why isn't there a Linux mp3 player?
Maybe because... an MP3 player doesn't NEED a freaking OS?
Seriously, with these mindless Linux plugs you guys just support the "Does your toaster run Linux?"-jokes, and heavens know we are fed up with them.
Sigged!
The definition of an MP3 player is a device that can play MP3 files.
Add other features as you wish.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
Music is music. The point of a MP3 player is to get hold of music you like where you want. It's a simple personal walkman (remember these, around in the 90s, played tapes, quite useful things), only it players data, if you're on a long car journey your MP3 list will run out sooner or later (as in get boring) and you can't change it on the run. So you flick over to a simple radio for a couple of hours to revive your boring music a bit with a break. Then you find more songs you like to add to it.. hence solving the problem.
So yea, no one wants to listen to the radio with their iPods.. only idiots would go "OMG I WONT DO THAT BECAUSE I HAVE THIS". The radio has many more uses then an iPod, even tried listening to say Radio 4 and a nice book or a radio drama?
I like muppets.
Quite right. Twenty minutes to copy a 17-meg file won't hold a candle to some of Windows' estimates.
Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
How many people would choose an iPod Shuffle over one of these?
You mean, how many people would choose a 1024/512 megabytes players over 256/128 megabytes players? Count me in. And as for the price difference - it will be eaten up quite soon by the non-rechargeable batteries.
You know, in a way I tend to agree with MS here, in the sense that I always thought moving parts are a bad thing for mobile entertainment devices. Idealy, if it is possible, I'd like my MP3 player to be fully solid state tech. Less power consumption, more rugged, and perhaps higher data density.
Of course, when the price factors in he equation, HD starts to look much more attractive...
Sigged!
Except, of course, for all of the ones that don't and haven't. Because the average consumer (as opposed to the average Slashdotter) doesn't care if their music is OGG, MP3, WMA, CD, or cassette. They want to be able to access it and listen to it when they want. All the other questions pale in significance by comparison.
As long as it doesn't become impossible to get one without it, I'm all for more players with a radio tuner. I know lots of people who'd want one.
...
Personally I don't want one, but I'd like a portable player.
Also, some of us live in countries where you have to pay a yearly fee if you have a radio and/or tv. I don't have either, and I'd like to avoid having to pay a yearly tax just to listen to my music
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Holy Apple-Fanatic Batman!
This is the first time I've seen someone pan 'extra functionality' as being bad. Well, actually that's a lie. It's the first time, since the last time the apple fans had to come out and be defensive about their product.
Not Meta-modding due to apathy.
Basic conclusion? Determine your size needs. This is based on A. How long do you listen it in one go. B. What is your tolerance for repeats. C. How often do you chance your songs. If you use it 4 hours per day, can't stand to hear the same song more then once in a week and never replace your songlist you are going to need more space then someone who likes to listen to the same album over and over again. HD's also can be damaged more easily by extreme rough use. Not by carrying them with you in your pocket while running but if you throw your stuff around the hd might not survive. For most people there will be no problems.
So don't be tempted by "extras". Extras are easy. Making a damned good solid mp3 player is not.
As for the whole wma nonsense. My hearing is pretty bad but on the whole
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The average slashdotter doesn't even care about ogg. However, every single time an mp3/wma/aac player is discussed, someone always chimes in about ogg. Ogg support is such a rarely desired that few manufacturers want to spend the money on something that probably won't pay itself back with increased sales.
Also, I noted in the system requirements:
Microsoft® Windows ® 98SE, 2000, ME or XP
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Call me stupid, but I thought that the store using closed & DRMed formats were the ones doing the locking in, not the player that didn't support the locked format.
After all, had they used a open format, I would be able use it on any fscking device wouldn't I?
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Expecting an ad to be accurate is like expecting a fart to smell like perfume.
There are several ironies that one cannot help poke fun at:
A professional what? Playlists are bought and sold. There's about as much 'professional insight' in radio playlists as there is in coming up will silly ways of walking.
How about "don't get locked into one OS/Office Suite/browser vendor"? Just couldn't resist that one.
Also, people should remember that this ad came from a corporation. Corporations are by definition non-living entities which have the capacity to act as if they were living beings. In other words, they enjoy many of the same rights and benefits as living, breathing human beings (more, in fact), but have no internal moral code to speak of, since they're not people. Without an internal moral code, they could be accurately thought of as severely mentally ill.
So, you could interview any severely mentally ill individual and get information just as good/delusional as you get from Microsoft:
Maybe
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I don't know.... I can see the validity to the argument that the Shuffle lowers the bar for "Apple quality" - since it's just a "me too" flash player for people who only shop for "cheap".
On the other hand, it went along with the Mac Mini, which is another experiment by Apple to cater to the lower end of the market - and most people consider the Mac Mini a stunning success.
I'd never buy a Shuffle, but by the same token, I'd also never buy an iPod Mini. They seem like "all style, no substance" to me. You pay close to the price of a player that can store 4x as much music or more, and you get the exact same thing except in a little bit smaller, colored casing? But nonetheless, it was a huge success.
Sometimes, you can't just go by the "feature set for the $" to determine what will be a "hit". It may determine what the "technophiles" among us buy, but the general public has other motivations. I've talked to a number of iPod Mini customers, and generally - they don't do lots of MP3 downloading. They jusy buy a few things here and there off iTunes and rip the CDs they already own - so 5GB is plenty of space for 'em.
The problem with a FM transmitter for the iPod is that you sacrifice quality.
A better solution is to get a new car radio that has a 1/8" line in on the front, then you just connect an audio cable between the iPod and the radio, and you power it with a cigarette lighter.
This means that you would have to get a new radio, and an iPod, but once you get a radio that has a line in, you don't have to change it if you get a new portable, because 1/8" is essential in a portable music player.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
Microsoft is just trying to spread the misinformation by making consumers think that iPod only works with iTunes, which is untrue.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
It meats 2) Goodies (Games, notes, scheduling, contacts) 3) Display, 4) Playlists (iTunes generates playlists based on YOUR needs) and 5) Size. So the iPod matches 4 of 6. 4 is greater than 0.
Or in other words, you have to get a Shuffle thanks to Apple's lock in. I'll pass.
The title of the article is "Get 6 tips for buying an MP3 player with flash memory." The windows media devices page mentions a number of hard drive based solutions. But it's way more fun to ignorantly bash Microsoft! Woo hoo!
The fact is, iTMS and the iPod are seamlessly integrated, but Apple has done nothing to prevent users from getting their music from other sources. (to be fair, they made no effort to encourage users to use other sources either)
That's not true, don't you remember what Apple did to Real when Real tried to sell music for the iPod?
"There is nothing preventing another music download service to open up tomorrow and offer MP3's or AAC's for sale (some already do), that will be compatible with the iPod."
Umm, where have you been? Apple already shut out Real for trying this. They also refuse to license their version of DRM to anyone. They have and will always have 100% control over the iPod's downloading service. End of story.
Your ignorance is infinitely greater than you realize.