Dell Launches Flash Music Player

desert island writes "Dell launched a new flash-memory digital music player, named DJ Ditty, to compete with the iPod Shuffle. Both devices are $99 and come equipped with 512 megabytes of memory. The biggest difference between the devices is the Ditty's 1-inch LCD display screen, which helps users navigate their music lists. In addition, the Ditty can receive FM radio and sport a rechargeable lithium polymer battery that can provide up to 14 hours of continuous play."

Comments

Re:WMA/AAC

[supercytro]

The main difference between the ipod and this player is that this player looks like a 50c lighter.

Re:John Gruber

[Fahrvergnuugen]

slashdotted? TFA: Written by John Gruber / Daring Fireball

1. See news item that Dell had released a new flash-memory-based music player to compete against the iPod Shuffle: the Dell DJ Ditty.

2. Note that no picture of said Ditty accompanies news item.

3. Visit dell.com.

4. Note that no picture of said Ditty appears on front page of dell.com, even after several reloads to cycle through random promotional images.

5. Search for ditty in text of front page of dell.com.

6. Note that ditty is not found.

7. Begin to suspect that even Dell is not very proud of this device.

8. Visit apple.com.

9. Note prominent and primary emphasis on luscious product porn of new iPod Nano.

10. Hop back to dell.com and search for Ditty in site-wide search box.

11. Note vague resemblance to a 50-cent Bic lighter:

12. Note footnote attached to claim in Product Highlights that the Ditty can pack 220 songs into 512 MB of memory, roughly twice the songs Apple claims can fit on a 512 MB iPod Shuffle.

13. Follow footnote to see explanation that this storage estimate requires encoding songs as 64 kbps WMA, which bit rate is half that of Apples default of 128 kbps AAC, and roughly equivalent in fidelity to that of transmissions carried over tin cans and string, but which, perhaps, is not a dirty marketing trick, but, rather, a fair assessment, considering that anyone with such profoundly bad taste in industrial design who would consider purchasing this device probably also has such bad taste in music as not to notice that their 64 kbps-compressed songs sound like mush.

14. Sit back and recall, with tremendously smug satisfaction, a decades worth of tech industry punditry holding that superior design would never get Apple anywhere, and that Apple should instead, you know, be more like Dell.

Re:You underestimate the role or image and iTunes.

[Lars T.]

Talking about the Dell logo - compare the logo on the player and the one on it's screen. Jobs would have the people responsible executed - and rightfully so.