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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."
1. "DJ Ditty" is a stupid name, and likely to get them sued by P. Ditty. (This is the same guy who threatened legal action against "Puffy" forcing them to change their name to "Puffy Ami Yumi.")
:-P
2. 512MB, FM Radio, 1 inch LCD screen... That sounds awefully familiar... You don't think Dell would just be rebranding and pretending they did all this great and competitive R&D, do you?
Nah. That wouldn't sound like Dell. (Which is to say, that sounds EXACTLY like Dell.)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
(taken w/o permission from Daring Fireball)
Rhymes With Ditty
Wednesday, 21 September 2005
See news item that Dell had released a new flash-memory-based music player to compete against the iPod Shuffle: the Dell DJ Ditty.
Note that no picture of said Ditty accompanies news item.
Visit dell.com.
Note that no picture of said Ditty appears on front page of dell.com, even after several reloads to cycle through random promotional images.
Search for "ditty" in text of front page of dell.com.
Note that "ditty" is not found.
Begin to suspect that even Dell is not very proud of this device.
Visit apple.com.
Note prominent and primary emphasis on luscious product porn of new iPod Nano.
Hop back to dell.com and search for "Ditty" in site-wide search box.
Note vague resemblance to a 50-cent Bic lighter:
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.
Follow footnote to see explanation that this storage estimate requires encoding songs as 64 kbps WMA, which bit rate is half that of Apple's 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.
Sit back and recall, with tremendously smug satisfaction, a decade's 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.
Since the linked story doesn't have pictures of the MP3 player in question, here's the official page from Dell. Enjoy.
--
RumorsDaily
If you're going to post an article about a new product, it might be helpful to post a link to the product. I kind of like being able to see pictures of what the article's about...
Funny how the pc-pro with &%#%& advertisement over the text in Firefox, said that the AAC/mp3 format of the ipod is a tie in and this way suggesting that WMA is not a tie in. Very funny.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
hallelujah! a radio!
now i would actually buy one of these things
why the heck the iPod doesn't have a radio is completely beyond my understanding
i would never buy an iPod simply because of that incredible oversight
50 cents of circuitry=massive improvement in usefulness... do a cost-benefit analysis
i simply cannot fathom why any player would not have a radio... what, it's peripheral to the player's purpose? you mean playing music?
and PLEASE, none of the bs about radio being dead... radio is NOT dead
if you get one pop station in the middle of nowhere, that is NOT an argument against the inclusion of radio for those of us who live in major cities and have a lot more channel options
seems like a no-brainer to me, it's so little added cost for such great benefit, and yet getting a radio on a player seems like such a struggle... i don't understand that
are you listening apple? it's a deal breaker for me, and plenty of other people, to not include a radio
good move dell!
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Both the Napster and Yahoo have unlimited music access for these players. I think Real might also make music available that way. I have used both Napster and Yahoo (with Yahoo now because it's cheaper and I like the attitude of the developers).
You can also find per-song costs to BUY for only $0.79 on Yahoo. Walmart's are $0.88.
The unlimited subscription and cheaper music prices are _not_ available on ITunes. Yahoo/Real/WalMart/ETC are competing with each other to give you a reason to go with them - once you buy an Ipod you are locked into Itunes and Itunes alone.
Who ever came with that idiotic name? It should have been named Dell P14YZ0R!
People say "I'll google it up!" when they want to search for something on the net.
They'll say "It's so Dell!" when talking about something so ugly that people can use it to scare kids.
-xype
It'll probably never be in the nano though, that thing's pushing it as it is on size.
They also aren't advertising for it. In a similar article, they disucss Dell's marketing scheme for this product.
"Dell has launched a digital music player dubbed the DJ Ditty in what it calls its first "word-of-mouth" promotional campaign. The vendor announced the player in the US only with a banner on its website, and stated that it is getting the word out through employees and customer focus groups. Dell has also launched a special multimedia site targeting young buyers. The announcement was so low-key that a UK spokeswoman was unaware of the launch. "We don't get US announcements but I wouldn't be surprised if it were available here soon," she said."
This might have been a viable competitor with the iPod Shuffle, but only if people know about it.
"For Great Justice."
There are lots of similar players on the market. Why is this one better/more newsworthy? It does not even look cool.
Freedom of speech doesn't come with bandwidth.
Civilization, the death of dreams.
That's one .mp3 player that everyone I know who has an iPod would never buy. Dell needs to find some designers that know how to make things look good.
As far as i am concerned, the iTunes software is one of the key reasons Apple have done so well. It's easy & effective, whereas I suspect Dell is not. But then I guess we knew that right?
DJ Ditty changed its name to "Ditty" to avoid confusing its fans. At a recent product launch, some people were chanting "DJ Ditty!" and some people were chanting "Ditty!" and it threw everything off. This way, everybody can just chant "Ditty!" and be on the same page.
iPods can be put into one of two modes: player mode and storage mode.
In storage mode, it becomes an external hard drive. Music files copied to the iPod in storage mode cannot be played when the iPod is put into player mode. Unless, that is, one uploads one of the many third party pieces of software that allows you to do just this.
In player mode, one does have to use something akin to iTunes to transfer files. But that something does not have to be iTunes. There are many third part programs that will suffice. This is how iPods can be used with Linux, which doesn't have iTunes available.
So, out of the box, your friend is correct. But one can easily fix the problem by installing third party tools.
Dell's offering
:P
As you'll notice its a little longer thinner (depth) and not as wide. I doubt the Zen Nano was packing extra space inside just for the heck of it. Dell also has a 5 band equalizer compared to the Zen's 4 band.
So the conspiracy theorists can go back in their holes now
-everphilski-
This article analyses and explains why the shuffle sounds the best of all major mp3 players: Shuffles Secret
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
And what about software on the PC side. Shuffle's iTunes integration will no doubt kick the crap out of anything Dell can bundle together. Also the fact that it can play iTunes downloaded songs. I don't think you have appreciated how important these two things are!
Also what REALLY matters is brand and image. People think Apple and even the Shuffle looks cool. So cool they even were the thing on their arm or around their neck.
Nobody wants that ugly thing from Dell, especially with the Dell logo so visable. Can you imagine anyone with that around their neck. It looks like a lighter. The only people who would have it around their neck will be young boys who like like geeks and nerds (and hence were even aware of the extra features). The 'oh so cool' people will stick with the shuffle and will act free advertizing to everyone else.
Mark my words, this player will rapidly die. After a few news articles like this, nobody will ever talk about it again. I honestly don't think it stands a chance against the Shuffle.
No joke. It is pure hype that makes people think the Ipod is well designed.
You don't know anything about design. Maybe you've been walking around acting like you do, but you don't. Your friends like you too much to stop you when you start talking out of your ass. They cringe inwardly, but they just smile and nod outwardly. I'm here to relieve you of your delusion. You're welcome.
The click wheel is a terrible interface. What, is there a little piece of string in there that connects the click wheel to the menus? The screen menus go up/down/in. Wheels go around. The metaphors just don't link up at all.
And yet, dispite this, the vast majority of human beings are able to figure it out within a few seconds of picking it up. Just like they can figure out that a steering wheel goes left and right, or that a volume knob controls quiet and loud, they can discover that clockwise is down, counter-clockwise is up, and pushing in means 'in'. How do you explain this? Is it perhaps that people are able to understand new things that don't precisely align with what they knew before? Inflexible adherence to metaphors (precisely what you're suggesting is preferable) is one of the quickest ways to design a shitty interface.
Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.