Slashdot Mirror
World's Smallest MP3 Player
Chris_Yates writes "mobiBlu is claiming to produce the world's smallest mp3 player, the DAH-1500 cube. The player is 24x24x24 millimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items), weighs 18 grams, uses OLED technology, and comes in a variety of colors. The 1GB version is currently selling for $130 at Wal-Mart. Buy one today, so you can lose it within a week!" Update: 07/25 22:56 GMT by T : An anonymous reader points out this review of the device.
Is it really that small?
My MPIO already fits in my change pocket and performs all the functions I need it to, I'd be more interested in a player that was this size and packed a lot more meory. A matchbook sized player with 6gb of memory would hold all of my songs and I wouldn't be so prone to lose it. ;)
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
I found this wee thumbnail sized MP3 player... plugged in my own earphones... hit play and heard weird static with the sound of flies buzzing played. Then my cell rang and a weird, detached voice said "Seven days..." and hung up. Any ideas?
Trolling is a art,
You'll get it stuck in your iSophagus.
Can you say iSophagus?
I can't believe this, it's wonderful! It's gonna become my precious! It's GOT to become my precious...
Global warming is a cube.
The famed OLED display that this device has is deafeningly absent from the pictures. Maybe its so small that I can't see it?
The device uses USB 1.1 which is painfully slow to manage songs IMHO.
I take TWO things into consideration with my mp3 player choices.. FM Radio Capabilities, and power management.. This has an FM radio tuner (ipod cost $250 and doesnt?? wtf??) and also, the rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery that charges from the USB port is freakin awesome.. this thing couldn't get any better.. but, i'm still scared to spend over $100 on an mp3 player.. i rather use my $60 ILO with FM tuner and recording capabilities.. real nice design though.. i'll get one once they drop in price.. 1gb is a good amount of space too.. anyone who needs more than that, is crazy..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
... cluster of these things, as a NAS *RAR* lol. I dont know why you'd want a mp3 player that small, interface would be a bitch compared to the slightly larger say, ipod mini.
Shadus
powering their web server?
There was a whole story and shirt about swallowing an MP3 player, and now you can!
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
I get yelled at for loosing my frigg'n massive universal remote, now I have to worry about my music collection falling into the recesses of my couch?! Arg!
> The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of
> your finger
Anyone with one inch square fingertips is scary. Seriously. I doubt seeing a 1" cube I could relate it to *ANY* body part.
Having a device that small is nice, but my MP3 player is already mostly size limited by UI concerns why would I want anything smaller than a Credit card.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Call me a geek but one of the first things I thought of when I saw this was being able to roll a 20 sided wireless die w/ speaker and have it say 'HIT!'. It could be hooked up to my character sheet and the DM computer. Throw in that overhead LCD map projector and we're good to go.
but blocky. I wonder if to cut down on height they widened it's base. It seems like in your pocket you'd always sort of feel the pressure of it. It looks nice but I'd still rather have a shuffle.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
With a player that small, maybe they could just make one the shape of a hear piece and we could just change the musics with a bluetooth remote.
I think that this may so small as to be impractical... I had a cell phone that was too small in that the buttons were impossible for me to press with my (sausage like) fingers without messing up. I had to get a bigger one.
I don't mind something that is small enough to be hidden by a sock, but not a match book...
It does seem like this could create some interesting possibilities for integrated earphones. Perhaps an ear phone that hooks over your ear>
Anyhow, Like my wife says, anyone who says that size doesn't matter has a small , er, MP3 player
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
Where Dilbert is buying a new computer, and the salesman shows him the desktop, the laptop, and the fingertop (which is glued to your fingernails).
"Dave, about last night..."
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
Apparently their server is hosted on one of these as well.
http://slashdot.org/~gmhowell/journal/112533
Lasers Controlled Games!
And hey, since Wal-mart is selling this, I think it might just give the iPod a run for its money.
ShortFormBlog: Writing a little. Saying a lot.
...here's a link to Wal-Mart's website. They appear to be nearly sold out of the 1 gig ones, though.
Mirror
/. in 6 minutes...it must be a new record or something
Coral cache of the site.
Google cache
Mirrordot
Not that anybody round here would be reading the article though.
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger...
Sounds like it should be really easy to push the buttons to control the thing...
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
The battery life of this seems impressive.
From the specs:
BATTERY LIFE
Approximately 17 hours
PLAY TIME
16 hours with WMA (64Kbps) or 8 hours with MP3 (128Kbps) per 256MB
How difficult is it to hit F7? Or run a spell check?
Sigh. OOPS, I meant, dificult.
Cheers, Nostrada
17 Hours, visit the product's website.
while thire building small mp3 players, wouldn't it be better to just build it into a pair of headphones? no cables geting in the way and not as easy to lose.
Solid Splash design
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items)
I don't know about the rest of the non-gigantism population, but the tips of my fingers are rather smaller than one cubic inch.
For scale: early in the movie 'Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban', Harry causes his b*tchy aunt to inflate and blow away like a balloon. Her finger was the first part to inflate; when she holds it up, the tip of the finger appears to be about 1" in diameter.
To sum up: normal finger tips are not 1" in diameter.
/ pulled a muscle reaching for that comparison
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
can we mod the posts? this gives me a chuckle before I even get to the comments.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
There's always got to be a "Yeah that's neat, but..." post. Here's mine:
Yeah, that's neat, but when's the firmware update coming that supports Ogg. MP3s are so 2002.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Oh wait, wrong site. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
If you're going for small form factor, why on earth would you want a cube? Surely the ideal is more of a thin credit-card shape, so that it'll fit conveniently in pockets. Not to mention offering more surface area for sensibly-sized controls.
I suppose this is marginally more convenient than the "caltrop", "shuriken" and "mousetrap" form factors, but it's a close thing.
1"x1"x1" = 1 cubic inch.
0.98" x 3.3" x 0.33" = 1.06 cubic inch.
And the shuffle is easier to fit in your pocket.
Check out Wal-Mart Watch.
People are the problem, stop procreation now!
Anyone out there have a ruler and an iPod shuffle to verify this?
#include "cunning_plan.h"
This thing is almost exactly the same volume as the ipod shuffle (though a cube is arguably an inferior form factor), and requires a cable to connect it to a computer instead of having a built-in USB plug.
That means it's not as useful as a self-contained portable storage device.
"Leave the strategizing to those of us with planet-sized brains." -Tycho
The article seems to be down, but is it smaller than this?
http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea
Philosophy.
Of course the new Digital Millenium Toilet Act will let the RIAA hang around your house for a day or so until the evidence reappears.
Realistically, how big is the market for this? How many people want to play the world's smallest MP3? Does it play normal size MP3s?
It'd better be washable, since something that small is going to be getting lost in my pockets for sure.
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
So that's how it happened... I've spent many nights lying awake wondering what would happen if these two ever met.
Laziness, check. Impatience, check. Hubris, double check!
Ooh, look! An actual review.
How did they go about making the screw stand up?
The mp3-player is also known as JNC SSF-8100: http://www.jnc-digital.com.au/products_details.php ?id=66#
So, as the mobiblu site's down, who _actually_ created this?
Yup, the shuffle is easier to pocket, but a display screen, nested folders, WMA playback and an FM tuner kick in features Apple is to elitist to include. (PS, I'm writing this missive on my Powerbook...but I do think Apple is elitist.)
16 hours (wma) or 8 hours (mp3) just seems too amazing from something that small. Assuming that half of the device is battery (the other half is controls, memory, processor), this leaves half a cubic inch for a battery.
It would be interesting if true though. At that size, you could just integrate it into the headphones.
Do not eat this micro iPod.
Do not eat this microsized music player.
Do not eat it.
You have been warned!
If the average geek really has fingers 1 inch square, then that would explain a lot of typo's on Sloshdat...
Oh well, what the hell...
...and smuggle it out in my colon.
- Bob Goatse.
So the headline reads that this is the worlds smallest mp3 player... yet if I take the usb cap off my ipod shuffle, it's volume is measurably less than that of the DAH-1500. Does that mean I've had the world's smallest mp3 player since february, and nobody's come out with anything smaller?
"Leave the strategizing to those of us with planet-sized brains." -Tycho
Leela: What's the matter Amy? Did you swallow your MP3 player again?
I can see the spam subject lines now..
"DECREASE YOUR CUBE SIZE **NOW!** WITH M0B1BLU!!!11!"
What I really want is a player that:
/. visitors
1. Plays ogg
2. Uses aa/aaa
3. Takes flash cards (SD, miniSD, etc)
Also nice:
A large commercial website that can handle the load of
Building a healthy future; Connecting communities
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items)
I bet you're already thinking "how big of a katamari do I need to roll up one of those?" but please keep the Katamari Damacy fanboyism to the Games section.
24 mm / 25.4 mm/inch = 0.945 inches
0.945" ^3 = 0.844 cubic inches, or something near that.
1.06 is bigger than 0.844
And it's a cube.
It's cool.
Just because Apple doesn't sell it, it doens't mean it can't seem cool to some people.
Of course, the shuffle is still easier to fit in your pocket, still.
And maybe it's not for your pocket, it's something to hang with your keys. Or hanging from your neck.
Or sitting on your desk.
Looks nicer in this review than in TFA. I really like the fact that you just copy files to it to play... the Magic Star "Grey Whale" player (which I still think is the spiritual ancestor of the Shuffle) worked the same way, and it was very convenient.
The Magic Star player is in some ways a better design: it doesn't need a USB sync cable because it had a USB jack like the shuffle's. I don't see why they couldn't build the USB jack into the headphone dongle, though.
Having a display in a box that small and cheap is pretty good. I still wish it was flatter and longer so it was more pocketable.
It looks like it has the same problem that the Magic Star player did. Low speed USB 1.1 interface. Make it USB 2.0 and eliminate the sync cable and you've got a winner.
that those greedy portable music manufacturers don't include an expandable memory slot, then one could seriously consider buying a flash-based player.
i'm not going to buy a player that is locked in the amount of storage it has. that's as silly as someone buying a digital camera that ONLY has internal memory.
anyone know if there are any good players with expandable flash storage?
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
The one sold at walmart is usb 2.0
Or with an extention set so you can use the controls.
BTW: I think I will paint one dot on side on, 6 on the opposite, 2 on another, 5 on that opposite, and 3 and 4 dots on the two remaining sites. Then I can use it for monopoly.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
It seems perfectly reasonable to me...The main problem these days is fitting a functionally sized UI onto the smallest possible player, but if you made a UI-less player, built into some headphones, say, with a bluetooth UI hooked into a watch or something, that would kick ass.
Mods on crack I tell ya.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
They should fit the whole contraption in a hearing aid size form factor. Then have a wireless control either on a ring or wristwatch form factor.
They've got nothing on iPod Flea!
A religious war is an adult version of a fight over who has the best imaginary friend
Highspeed (400+Mbit) or Fullspeed (11Mbit). I gather the last, which is practically completely compatible to USB 1.1 - same slow speed.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
1. Does this play the podcasts? 2. Does it have the internet in it?
Since when size matters.... oops *ducks*
High-speed is optional in the USB 2.0 specs.
The previously slashdotted Minty MP3 has an FM transmitter using a MAX260x chip.
WMA playback is not a feature, it's more like a DRM virus...
People are the problem, stop procreation now!
Yup, the shuffle is easier to pocket, but a display screen, nested folders, WMA playback and an FM tuner kick in features Apple is to elitist to include.
Oh, I do think it's a nice little unit, though I'd rather have it do MP4 than WMA since WMA is kind of tied in to Windows. The functionality and price are all good, but I'd rather they have made it a less clumsy shape even if it was in a slightly larger box.
Incidentally, the thing that I miss the most about my shuffle is the clock. Since it doesn't have a clock, it can't update the "last play" time in iTunes when it syncs, so my clever set of chained smart playlists for Party Shuffle can't account for and avoid dups for the music that I listen to on my shuffle.
I suppose I could write a script that I could run before and after syncing the shuffle to put the songs whose play counts have changed into a "recent shuffled" playlist, but I think I've already spent way too much time on fine-tuning my iTunes settings.
Fuck that. I don't want a shit-ass FM receiver, nor do I give any number of shits for WMA. Anyone who doesn't realize that mp3 is THE standard for portable music is on crack. I'm don't hear much whining that other players don't put AAC playback on *their* players.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
She loses everything - cell phone, tin whistles, sisters...even herself.
Caroline Corr: "She's dizzy. She gets lost and stuff...You know, in airports, you're looking for Andrea. And she's lost her passport...she's lost her boarding pass."
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
but that's probably because they don't track your location with MP3 players, plus tunes are more useful.
...
Reminds me of those SNL skits - but instead of teeny cell phones, it's teeny MP3 players
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I have to say that is a dumb form factor.
Who wants a 1" cube bulging in their pocket? I would hate to sit down with that thing in my pocket.
Or under their shirt at the end of a lanyard? It wouldn't hang well, stick out noticeably and don't get it between you and a surface.
Also good luck trying to hold that thing in a way the allows you to use the controls.
Which other national chain has these in stock? Or shall we compile a list of "mom & pop" retailers and link to that list by region, then completely ignore that the world's largest retailer is selling this new startup product? That seems like part of the news to me.
After all, it is the world's largest retailer, and when they carry a new tech product it tends to (1) sell well and (2) be reasonably priced.
Wally world isn't my favorite store for anything, but you anti-Walmart zealots make me want to shop there more just to piss you off.
everything in moderation
Pointer to those useful sounding scripts?
Thanks.
The players supports .mp3 and .wma; not only .wma. I personally don't care about .wma too much, but I'm always happy when I'm given more choices.
The iPod flea is even smaller.
Also here
ShoutingMan.com
Actually, Walmart is selling an enchanced version with usb 2.0 added and the ability to play walmart's drm files (wma). I am fairly certain this means high speed transfers. http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-101.html lists the max download speed at 6 Mbps.
So you get all those features in a wonderful form factor... one with the controls on one face of the cube and the screen on another face (forcing an handedness among other usability issues). Of course you have to hold this thing some how while attempting to use the screen and controls yet all dimensions are the same and small (average thumb pad is about the same size as one of the faces).
Also great to put in you pocket... *rolls eyes*
Nice features bad bad form factor.
Bob Goatse goes for the 60GB Photo iPods, surely?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
Err, sorry. iFlea, not iFly =\.
This player is intrguing, and has some nice features: Small, light, portable, and has OLED and an actual display (which devices like the iPod Shuffle do not).
However, I do not see the one thing that makes it a blocker for me: How long does the battery life last... in lifetime? 10 hours per-charge if you drain it fully, but does it only last 100 charges? 1000? More? Less?
I don't like buying $130.00 "disposable" products, but it seems that is what our society is breeding now. "Its only $300.00, just throw it away and buy a new one!" (speaking of a certain printer that had some issues, and was cheaper to buy a new one than than keep fixing the existing one. The same can be said for quite a few products these days; PDAs, mp3 players, DVD players, headphones, etc.)
It seems like these vendors are continuing to churn out "degrading" products in the hopes that we will keep replacing them with new ones, hopefully from the same vendor. We are not CONSUMERS, we do not "consume" technology like our cars "consume" gas. We are customers, and we expect quality products for our hard-earned dollars, not trash that "expires" in 6 months and gets tossed in a drawer.
So does this thing last 3+ years while charging every day? Does it have a decent LiIon battery to take that number of recharge cycles?
Forget violins. Now you can go to your whiny teenager and say, "this is the world's smallest MP3 player, playing just for you" and not be lying.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
But you don't put this thing in your pants pocket you'd need a really long headset cord and it'd get caught on things. Either you put it in your shirt pocket (where flat is also better), or you just leave it hanging from the cord, in which case flat is usually better as well.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
let alone the fact that the Shuffle doesn't have a stupid custom usb cable to lose or have carry around to charge the thing.
Make it so that the two halves can sense how far apart they are, and have it turn off or pause when they are either very close together, or farther apart than the width of your head. That would be a nice simple interface: put the headphones in and it starts, take them out and it stops.
If you could put a motion sensor in one, you could use a gesture-based interface. Pull it out and shake it to do shuffle play. Move it in a circle to change volume. Flick it up/down to skip forward, flick it left/right to skip backward.
I need to correct myself... aspect of the controls live on two opposite faces (menu/hold on one face and play, volume, arrows on the other).
Also the screen is square obviously... not the best for showing song names.
"...about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items..."
She said it was how you use it that counts.
Not scripts, just smart folders. Unfortunately I can't just dump the XML because the important stuff is binary gibberish.
Basically, what I did was set up a series of smart folders:
2star - Rating is 2 stars and last played is not in the last 2 months
0star - Rating is 0 stars and last played is not in the last 6 weeks
3star - Rating is 3 stars and last played is not in the last 3 weeks
4star - Rating is 4 stars and last played is not in the last 4 days
5star - rating is 5 stars and last played is not in the last 25 hours
Weighted - playlist is 0star or 2star or 3star or 4star or 5star
Ambient - Genre is not Hip-Hop and playlist is not Unambient and genre is not Opera and playlist is not Flakey and kind does not contain quicktime
This works a lot better than just "play higher rated songs more often", because I know how often "more often" is. And I can tune things around, cut 5star down to 3 days or raise 3 stars up to 1 week when I'm feeling like more variety... that's how I ended up giving 0 star a frequency that's between 2 and 3 stars.
Unambient is just a regular playlist where I put stuff that I don't want to listen to while I'm working. Flakey is another set of chained playlists. I don't play quicktime in ambient because the volume equalizing algorithm iTunes uses doesn't work for quicktime.
Ogg Vorbis is technically superior to MP3, so if I have a choice (and I often do), I'll take a Vorbis. I therefore am not interested in any player that doesn't play it.
24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger
If the tip of your finger is about 1"x1"x1", you either have elephantitis or are about 12' tall. Are your other appendages of such unusual size as well? If so, poor you.
You must really have enjoyed Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat to respond to this post. Tell me, when MKII came out ( Mortal Tuesday, wasn't it? ) did you use the letter K where a C should have been in all your written work that day?
Back in the day when the fighter-genre was all the rage and video games were for nerds only, damnit!!
24x24x24 mm = 0.945" cubed.
nice try... but you are rounding up. i understand, a lot of guys do this. 0.94"x0.94"x0.94" = 0.83 cubic inch it doesn't have the usb port built in, but adds an oled screen, fm, eq, and voice/fm recording.
Still, in practical terms it's less convenient than even significantly larger devices, like the Magic Star MP3 player I had before the shuffle.
And it's a cube.
It's cool.
Just because Apple doesn't sell it, it doens't mean it can't seem cool to some people.
What does cool have to do with it? The Magic Star player is uncool as anything, but like the Shuffle it just worked, it didn't need a display, and I liked it a lot.
here's a review and some pictures
Ah yes, yet another pretender to the iPod Flea throne. :-)
(Note: embedded WMV. For stills, go here or Google 'ipod flea'.)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I used to use a similar scheme for a few playlists on my full-sized iPod. Imagine my surprise when songs I had played in my Shuffle weren't showing up in my "Recently Played" playlist. I guess it's great they it still bumps the playcount, but date-stamping is something I really do miss from my full iPod. Even if it just stamped all played songs with the time you updated the Shuffle.
Now I'm stuck using only star ratings and play counts to create the smart playlist(s) that I use to fill my shuffle. Oh well.
Hey Apple, you listening?
The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of your finger or various small items)
Most posters seemed to find the "size of the tip of your finger" part of this quote funny, but I personally find "or various small items" even funnier.
Q: How big is 24x24x24 millimeters?
A: About the size of various small items.
Yeah, that's some real useful information.
---------------------------------------------
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the features that you list as missing are included in the Creative Zen Nano Plus player, which is also about the same size and volume. I just got one and its great! It also runs off of common AAA batteries, alkaline or NiMH, so no issues of propriety batteries that need to be replaced by Apple CS.
Er, 12cm x 12cm x 1mm . Should have used the Preview button.
--
make install -not war
Yup, the shuffle is easier to pocket, but a display screen, nested folders, WMA playback and an FM tuner kick in features Apple is to elitist to include. (PS, I'm writing this missive on my Powerbook...but I do think Apple is elitist.)
Nested folders (or just seperate playlists) is the only thing I really think the Shuffle needs. I actually kinda like not having a display...less distraction from just listening to music. WMA playback? If you're talking about WMAs with DRM, I try to avoid DRM as much as possible (thank you, Hmyn project!)...if you're talking about getting music from friends who use WMA to rip their stuff...I look at such people as naughty puppies who just need a smack on the nose and pointed in the direction of a better codec. And FM tuner? Good god no...that's a feature that would not even be worth 5 extra dollars tacked onto the price for me. Too many people (myself included) live in areas where the radio selection sucks...those that are fortunate enough to have good radio in their area just need to pony up the 10 bucks to get themselves a portable FM radio.
Multiple playlists though...god, that would make a 1GB Shuffle so much more useful. 240 songs is great, but being able to seperate them into two playlists of 120 would be so much better. Wouldn't necessarily require extra buttons...just use some combination of what's there (holding the skip button for 3 seconds while paused, for example, to bump forward to the next playlist).
Hey Apple...once again, are you listening?
I was in Bangkok about two weeks ago and they were selling the Xenn XM-5, which bears a striking resemblance to the mobiBLUE DAH-1500.
...one of the few complaints I have about the iPod Shuffle is that it's too small. I actually paid for a little protective skin for it, not because I was worried about it getting scratched, but to make it a little larger and thus fit in my hand better. Go figure.
And these guys are shooting to be smaller than a Shuffle? No thanks...especially with a shape that awkward.
i'd love to see that oh-so-not-essential info mentionned in at least SOME MP players reviews ;-)
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
no ogg support => Trashcan
http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/06/29/techn ology/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20050629_GUEST_VI DEO.html
The external battery is a bit much though...
:q! Oh crap, not again...
I don't care about FM. I don't know why some people call it a feature on an MP3 player. If a person thought that FM was worthwhile, why buy an MP3 player? It's just not on any list of features I care about. I have a couple home theater recievers, I think they get their name because an AM/FM reciever is built in, but I never use them. Same goes for cars. I'd use the FM tuner on a car only because most radio makers don't bother to put a proper line-in on their radios.
.8" diagonal screen is going to be worthwhile on this cube player.
A screen is important though, but I doubt a
iFlea[http://www.layersmagazine.com/features/featu re_cs2/flea.htm%5D
And does it have as many nifty accessories?
lots of people are getting pissed at each other because of the fact they have different uses for different mp3 players.. i personally like having a radio in mine because it gives me the ability to listen to NPR and my albums during my commute.. different purposes for different people.. respect their opinions for what they choose and why.. personally, the ipod is very unpractical for me.. $250 for something that doesn't even have the simple technology of an FM receiver..
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
http://www.aztech.com/press/2005/PressMP3.pdf
There are many annoying things about it. The dongle has been mentioned. It is USB 1.1, which makes little sense, with maximum speed of 6 Mb/s. By far the most annoying thing is that it is only rated for 8 hours playing MP3 content. I assume that it will work on non-windows devices, but it is not specified as such.
The nice thing is that it seems one can use the device to transfer and play music, none of that annoying iPod type hiding and mangling of the files. I wonder if they are going to tie this to the walmart music service and market it like the ipod. Doing so would make a lot of sense.
In the end, a 1 gb memory stick it cheaper than this toy, and the form factor of the iPod. Even the sony, though twice as big and more expensive, seem to have some advantages. And I am hesitant to buy a product from a company that cannot produce a corporate web site that does not look a it is promoted a cheap toy or art exhibit.
Anyway, dongles are so 20th century. if they were going with slow transfer, they should have gone bluetooth.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I suppose I could write a script that I could run before and after syncing the shuffle to put the songs whose play counts have changed into a "recent shuffled" playlist, but I think I've already spent way too much time on fine-tuning my iTunes settings.
:)
s p=updateshufflelastplayed
Or you could let somebody do it for you!
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?
Haven't used it yet, but something you might want to check out. Looks like it does exactly what you're talking about doing.
Assuming this script works, thanks Google!
Well, I like audio entertainment. So I consider radio and pre-recorded playback two sides of a coin just as a CD player in a car comes with an AM/FM radio. I don't think many people would opt for a CD only player in their car nor do I really want a portable player that doesn't have a radio. It is a personal preference, though, and I just wish Apple would give us the option--after all, the chip set in the shuffle has built in FM radio support (and screen support, and WMA support)!
PS, I'm not a big fan for WMA, but more options are better than fewer.
m-i-l-l-i-m-e-t-e-r
Proud owner of BOT2K3 [ bot2k3.net ]
ummm... it was made small so it's "Good to Go"?
Get your Unix fortune now!
I just copied it from your comment.
"And hey, since Wal-mart is selling this, I think it might just give the iPod a run for its money."
That's modded funny? That's pretty insightful to me. I think if the price comes down a bit, it'll sure give the iPod Shuffle a run for its money. On price, if Walmart wants to be it, it will.
Besides, with a built in FM tuner, even the technologically inept can use it until they figure out what an MP3 is. That's a definate Walmart winner. That feature alone makes is a definate Rio killer. It also has 5 hours more play time than the iPod Shuffle, weighs less than iPS, and actually comes in color (white is so 2004, unless you like being mugged).
The jury is out on iPod killer status, but I have to say one thing. It is pretty sexy, and a definate conversation starter (for geeks at least). If it goes hits $110 or less, I'd probably get it.
I8-D
It's still nowhere near as tiny as the iPod Flea!
The firmware (which you can download from MobiBlu's website) has "StationZ" and "MP3PZ" scattered all through it. So I'm guessing the hardware is pretty closely related to the StationZ "pendant" MP3 players. Unfortunately I'm not leet enough to recognize what cpu it's using from a hex dump, so I can't guess anything more from the firmware file. (FYI, 'strings' only gets about half of the text in the file, since the rest is in UTF16 or some other 2-byte character set.)
Myself, I go to the FM side of the dial for pretty much one thing only -- the FM-stereo simulcast of my local PBS station. When I can't sit in front of the TeeVee for the News Hour (w. Jim Lehrer), this handy broadcast lets me get my nesw and info nonetheless.
Granted, my use (and admittedly the availability of FM stereo simulcasts of your local PBS station) may not be terribly common, but if there's one slice of FM that I use every day, that'd be the one.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
I'm using a list called "good weighted" that's 3-star-or-better songs from Weighted, then for the shuffle I'm extracting the least-played several hundred of those. That way I get a lot of stuff from "Unambient" on the shuffle, and there's enough of that most of my shuffle stuff has had 5 plays or fewer, and it's still got some weighted ratings.
:)
Now I'm wishing the shuffle had a "skip this but mark it as played" button.
Apple, you listening?
Supposedly, the firmware on this thing can be upgraded to support more music formats. Maybe the manufacturer will release a patch, or perhaps the hacking community will take care of it once they get their eager little hands on a firmware binary.
I hate to point this out, but the article did say that it was an MP3 player. :-) My turntable won't play compact discs, either.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Considering how small it is, it will soon become The World's Most Lost MP3 player.
Somehow, I am thinking of the type of hat which has the little strap under the chin that keeps it from blowing off, and along part of the strap is the piece which is for the ear. Maybe incorporate some of the noise canceling technology used by those noise cancelling headsets while you are at it.
This idea is now posted on Slashdot...! Its now Prior Technology posted in a Public Forum... with time stamp.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
I was reading the review and in the cons section it says: "No DRM Support". I don't see that as a con, but more like a pro. Who need DRM
No, Ogg Vorbis not technically superior.
Ogg Vorbis stores data in floating-point format, which is fine for computer CPUs that are equipped with a floating-point co-processor. However, supporting an extra processor sucks up more energy and reduces battery life. Otherwise, without the co-processor, the floating point calculations would have to be performed in software, which would impact performance.
MP3 uses only integers, and so is ideal for portable, battery-saving systems.
This matter was solved on engadget a few weeks ago. DAH-1500 24mm x 24mm x 24mm = 13824mm^3 BenQ Joybee 102r 41mm x 41mm x 8mm = 13448mm^3
Two of the four 'Cons' in the review are:
It's Tiny
No DRM Support
Surely in the wrong column?
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Decent price for a GB audio player, cool form factor, evidently very portable... ^_^ However, I have serious doubts about the sound quality of the device. Obviously the internal amp isn't going to drive a big pair of cans like those available from AKG or Grado, but has anybody tried listening to it with a decent pair of in-ears, eg. Etymotics or some such? I'd be interested to read what you think...
DAH-1500 dimensions: 24mm h x 24mm w x 24mm d = 13,284mm^3
Joybee 102R approx dimensions: 41mm diameter x 8mm depth = 10,562mm^3
Of course the Joybee 102R lacks a screen and radio, and they haven't upgraded to larger capacities.. but it's clearly smaller.
Looks amazingly similar to a JNC product here http://www.jnc-digital.com/Eng/, check the SSF-8002/8005/8100 model out.
Built-in battery. Remember the fallout after Apple released their first gen iPods with built-in batteries? This is essentially a disposable device.
photos of shuffle and dah-1500
http://www.i4u.com/article3863.html
New MobiBlu DAH-1500 review on I4U
http://www.i4u.com/section-viewarticle-101.html
The square design seems a tad... inconvienient. How about the same idea and functionality in the form of one of those wafer-thin calculators. They have a power source and a display.
It looks like a great idea, just an odd form factor.
actually, I can... unless they are encoded at a high bitrate. What's nice about Vorbis is that it you can get get equal or better quality at a lower bitrate.
Free electronics!
Good news for all world's smallest MP3 player owners. We understand your trouble in operating the device. But troubled no more, as we have provided an external control for it. With it's 10cm x 10cm x 2cm dimension, we guarantee you will be able to distinguish between play and stop button.
Available now at ebay.
~So much for the smallest mp3 player
Why is it every time I read about some new techno gidgit that going to revolutionize our lives, I think about the Japanese? Once you run out of coolness in your toys, you get things like Karaoke.
Looking at the volume of this compared with the iPod shuffle, I assume the headphones are slightly larger to compensate? .... ?
Darwin Hawking Blackmore
You're quite right. I can't hear the difference, and I really don't care. I'm not a sound engineer, but I am an engineer. I care about quality and good design, which Vorbis represents.
So go ahead and keep your "it's OSS/Underdog/Nerdy so I have to have a completely impractical product requirement" attidue, the rest of us will get a life, and a decent digital audio player.
Care to explain what's 'impractical' about the Ogg Vorbis requirement? Plenty of players can handle Vorbis; it's only crappy ones that can't. Apparently, it's not only practical, but it makes economic sense to include it.
Meanwhile, I've spent a comparatively small amount of money on a player with more features and capacity than I'd ever need.
Moderation -1
100% Troll
TrollMods really are screwing up Slashdot when a simple "upgrade" wishlist to the latest tech scares them as much as the Troll under their bed.
--
make install -not war