Slashdot Mirror
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."
few with fm radio
how come mp3 players with fm radio are so hard to find?
doesn't it occur to manufacturers/ consumers how much functionality is added with so little effort by adding fm radio?
i have an iriver IFP-180T solely on the basis of it having an fm radio
how much does the fm radio circuitry add to the cost of an mp3 player? 50 cents?
will someone please enlighten me then how come fm radio is so hard to find in mp3 players?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The Neuros is open source. Hell, even the electrical diagrams are provided!
Approximate figures based on CD-quality WMA (64 Kbps)
The thing that Apple consistently gets right is the usability. I have an MP3 player with display, but it's a pain to use. There are just too many user interface inconsistencies. The thing won't even stop fading each track when you skip through a couple of tracks at a time. I realize that the display won't fix that. Given that I want to listen to music and not stare at it, I have to say that a usable player without display beats a player with a display and horrible interaction design any day. I'd prefer if the Shuffle had a display, but it doesn't need one to come out on top of the competition.
I like the CARS take on it:
CARS is good stuff!
Be sure to get that FM receiver option so you can listen to higher-quality music when you get tired of your 64 Kbps WMA collection.
I have yet to hear my iPod skip at all, ever, and I ride my bike and run with it in my pocket. It gets shaken most of the time it's on.
Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
SIGFEH
Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio?
Funnily, this is the kind of music that you're most likely to find available as unrestricted mp3s, which will obviously work in any music player you like.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
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!
A bit over a month ago, I got back onto a dirt bike for the first time in years. I wasn't doing anything crazy, just some easy trail riding and off-road sightseeing, mostly in the same general area. I was on my way back from one of these outings, humming down the track I'd been using to get home each day, came around a corner into a narrow section only to find some kind soul had dumped a half-metre high pile of dirt across the path. I didn't have my dirt bike reflexes back by any means, and hit the pile off balance and carrying a fair bit of momentum.
The front suspension bottomed out at the same time as I pitched forward, then those big springs uncompressed and slammed the tank into my groin hard enough to crease the plastic. I'd lost a lot of speed by then and didn't so much crash as roll to a standstill and fall off. It was probably only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours before I could move enough to take a breath and turn the MP3 player off. As a result of this experience I can vouch for two things;
1. the iPod never skipped a note
2. hearing the Foo Fighters' MIA still makes my eyes water.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
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.
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/4d12acb0722715b19 eb0a3491221d3ab/index.html Mirrordot mirror of the /.ed page
Yes they did. They said the HD-based players skip if you move them around while they're playing.
Anyone know if this is true?
To let an iPod skip is almost impossible.
The iPod stores about 30 minutes of music in ram.
Every 30 minutes it spins its harddrive for about 10 secondes to load another 30 minutes of music into ram.
So, to let an iPod skip is next to impossible.
I assume what everyone is talking about when they dismiss radio as being teh suck is commerical radio. Personally, I stopped listening to commercial FM long before it became the province of Clear Channel and friends.
What is readily available on FM that is not commerical includes the following:
If you're interested in music only, you may want to start with something like this station if you don't have something similar in your own backyard. Most likely more interesting than what you're listening to at the moment.
Then, of course, if you're not the musical type and have a preference for animated conversations in which people share their opinions with others who have identical opinions, there's always AM radio.
So, making a player with no screen is doing themselves a disservice, while making a player with a color screen is lunacy.
Monochrome or bust, baby!
i forget
"then those big springs uncompressed and slammed the tank into my groin hard enough to crease the plastic"
See? There's your problem. You should always use a groin of case hardened steel, instead of cheaping out and going for plastic. Lesson learned.
I HAVE CUBIC WISDOM THAT TRANSCENDS AND CONTRADICTS ONE DAY GODS
The base Shuffle player holds 512 MB of music in a proprietary format.
Hmm, in all fareness RTFM.
The base Shuffle hold 512MB of
MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B, M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4) and WAV
You can see for yourself at http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/specs.html
So you can enjoy the Blue Screen of Death!
For us, the 40 was the best option. Keep in mind that there are others out there that do not have our wants and lives.
The Shuffle is perfect and because it plays in random mode it is great that no song will be repeated too quickly.
This is the part I don't get about the iPod Shuffle. Didn't just about every MP3 player do shuffle mode both before and since?
I'm not saying it's bad, but I just don't get it as a selling point. It's like marketing the new BMW - Stearing Wheel. "It has a steering wheel so you can make turns!" um... ok. good. Anything else worth mentioning?
I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other about whether people should be buying the shuffle. I just think that if they're buying it _because_ of shuffle mode, maybe they should be made aware that there are a few other players out there that may meet their needs.
TW
Mod this dude up. I'm a bit tired of fiber-deficient /.ers trashing products and services that don't fit their own personal needs. Find another, for Pete's sake! There are over 6 billion people on this rock. You can't build a unique iPod for all of 'em.