World's Most Expensive Mp3 Player

An anonymous reader writes "TrekStor, a German manufacturer of MP3 players has developed the world's most expensive MP3 player. This unique custom-made portable player is based on TrekStor's i.Beat organix mp3 player, and has one GB of memory, 25 hour battery life, supports MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, OGG audio files, and is cast in 18 carat gold with 63 diamonds (one carat)."

Comments

Bah.

[Malor]

You can have my slightly-beat-up 40g iPod, with a tired battery, for TWICE that price.

There.... 'most expensive' didn't last that long. :)

Re:Bah.

[prell]

And by defining your price as relative to the variable mostExpensivePrice, rather than a fixed amount, you are assured to have the most expensive music player, forever :-)

Ogg support!

[Flamekebab]

Why does it seem that one has to pay this much for an Ogg player?

For a non-proprietary codec, there's not much hardware support..

Re:Ogg support!

[Theatetus]

IRiver just put out a great 1-G player with Ogg support...

...wait for it...

...that doesn't use USB mass storage and instead only uses the proprietary MPT only available on Widnows XP.

So, they supported oggs, and then cut off the one section of the market that gives a damn about oggs... now they'll probably point to the slow sales of the model and say, "see? people don't want ogg".

Re:Ogg support!

[jrmcferren]

The T-30 from iRiver has been supporting ogg, but again it has the MTP. It is also important to note MTP can be used in linux with gphoto as MTP is similar to PTP. Winamp now supports both MTP and iPods.

Re:Ogg support!

[Flamekebab]

Precisely why I went through the immense hassle of finding an iRiver H320, because it doesn't require any of that "transfer software" bull.

Re:Ogg support!

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out the iAudio U3:

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/u3/

  + MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV(Up to 48KHz Stereo), OGG and FLAC
  + Mass storage device, officially supports MacOS and Linux
  + Can record to wav or mp3 from built-in mic, line-in, or built-in FM tuner
  + New features via free firmware upgrades
  + Bunch of other neat little things...

Re:Ogg support!

[Eskarel]

Actually the T-30 is only MTP if you buy it in the US or certain parts of Europe. If you buy one in Australia, Asia or a few other places then it's just a regular old mass storage device which mounts just fine on my linux boot.

I'm just going to point and laugh now.

Re:Ogg support!

[Trogre]

How stupid. I think I'll stick with my Samsung Yp-U1 for now.

Has an inbuilt voice recorder and does every Ogg bitrate known to man.

Re:Ogg support!

[Lehk228]

acording to wikipedia

Linux MTP interoperability can be achieved by using gPhoto which supports PTP with some MTP extensions, or by using libmtp with gnomad2.

Have I missed something?

[Fatchap]

How much does it cost? Or does the fact that I am asking mean I can't afford it.

Re:Have I missed something?

[LunaticTippy]

Hm, article says "price not disclosed yet."

I'm wondering how it became the "world's most expensive mp3 player."

Re:Have I missed something?

[EggyToast]

Mostly due to the fact that gold and diamond are "precious," and have a rather standard market value. Still, I think this has it beat:

Intergem White Gold, Diamond-encrusted iPod Nano Case

The stupid thing about it is that "most expensive" is so fleeting. All someone would have to do is craft a device that uses more gold or more diamond, and ta da.

Re:Have I missed something?

[AKAImBatman]

I'm wondering how it became the "world's most expensive mp3 player."

What? The 24 caret gold and studded diamonds aren't enough of a tipoff?

Honestly, I think it looks terrible. If you're going to make a player out of Gold and Diamonds, make it look like it's made of Gold and Diamonds. Don't just plate a regular player with a black, plastic screen and green LEDs. It will clash with all the expensive decorations.

Re:Have I missed something?

[LunaticTippy]

What? The 24 caret gold and studded diamonds aren't enough of a tipoff?

I'll tell you what 24 caret gold and studded diamonds remind me of: Fingerhut. In other words, Crap. Cheap crap. With tiny worthless diamonds and a thin but pure gold electroplate coating. I am so glad this shit of a company ruined my image of richness, but forever gold and diamonds will seem cheap, tacky, and Forever Fingerhut.

Not telling you the price? That's Infomercial 101. Don't answer yet, there's more!

The thing looks like crap, too - only reinforcing my gut reaction.

Re:Have I missed something?

[TClevenger]

The stupid thing about it is that "most expensive" is so fleeting. All someone would have to do is craft a device that uses more gold or more diamond, and ta da.

Or just put a ridiculous price on an ordinary MP3 player. Just because nobody is stupid enough to buy it, it doesn't mean that it's not the most expensive.

Re:Have I missed something?

[Billhead]

18 carat, not 24.

Re:Have I missed something?

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in an collage city where iPods a nearly the norm and this is one MP3 play that no one will steal. According our campus police blotter there are at least 10 iPod reported stolen each week. However this thing is so ugly and cheap looking that this no one wants to steal it. With only 1GB I rather have an dressed up iPod shuffle.

Re:Have I missed something?

[Braino420]

Oh that's easy, it's probably the 18 carat gold or 63 diamonds on it.

Re:Have I missed something?

[CharterTerminal]

Dead on, there. I bet they could fetch twice the price if they sold it in a bundle along with a box of eight dozen vanilla-scented tealight candles and a pair of elastic-waist polyester slacks.

Re:Have I missed something?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's cast, not gold plate or fill. That means the case is solid 18k.

Re:Have I missed something?

[LunaticTippy]

It's cast, not gold plate or fill. That means the case is solid 18k

Don't fall for this crap. Yeah, it's cast. With Nickel/Tin. Then lovingly gold-plated. They lie to you. Anything from fingerhut with 1 carat of diamonds (split into 63 worthless pieces) isn't made from solid gold.

I know this isn't from fingerhut, and claims to be made from solid gold. But come on, it sure seems like it!

Re:Have I missed something?

[jackelfish]

I totally agree and fail to see how this article is actually interesting. I could top the Gold and diamond mp3 player, lets make that a platiunum and diamond mp3 player. Wait, if we make it a really big platinum and diamond..... This sounds like those really expensive martinis where you get a stir stick with a ruby glued to it.

Shame...

[Odin_Tiger]

Too bad it's still ugly. Not to mention, expensive as hell or not, it's not 'fad'-y enough for anybody rich enough to want one to actually get one. 'A' for effort, tho...

Re:Shame...

[Jozer99]

You know, before this, I wasn't sure, but now I can confidently say that covering any piece of crap in gold and diamonds will make it an obscenely expensive piece of crap. Substitute whatever object you want (i.e. pen, mp3 player, cellphone, car, wife) for "piece of crap". I call it Jozer's Law.

Re:Shame...

[br0ck]

Too bad it's still ugly.

It doesn't matter as long as they remember to add Angelina Jolie lips..

Re:Shame...

[Odin_Tiger]

That might work, but only if they include a free iPod as well.

Close, but not luxury looking yet

[JordanL]

The player would glisten and be dazzling... but I imagine that the headphone would still look just as tacky.

Re:Close, but not luxury looking yet

[LiquidCoooled]

For the price this thing is looking like it would cost, would you really care if your butler looked a bit silly wearing the headphones.
Afterall, your ears must be worth far too much to rish damaging them.

Re:Close, but not luxury looking yet

[m0nstr42]

The player would glisten and be dazzling... but I imagine that the headphone would still look just as tacky.

And, just like a new iPod, the glisten and dazzle would last approximately one week. Should have picked titanium, or some other scratch-resistant shiny metal. Now THAT would be worth something. And they could coat the screen with scratch-resistant transparent aluminum. Thank you Scotty.

Grammy Bling

[wiz31337]

Finally an MP3 player I can wear to the Grammy Awards!

Re:Grammy Bling

[Mr Pippin]

Sorry, doesn't appear NEAR trashy enough to be considered "bling".

Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[Fallen Kell]

... when they havn't even ANNOUNCED the price? How do they know it will cost more then the Sun Enterprise 10000 that is sharing out MP3 files which are then decoded on a SunRay Thin Client and played for me at my desk? Huh? Huh? Riddle me that Batman...

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[nem75]

Holy cow, you're right! Who knows if it doesn't turn out to be cheaper than the 18 carat gold with 63 diamonds MP3 player by that other company?

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[thefirelane]

when they havn't even ANNOUNCED the price

They have a price matching + 1 policy.

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

I think they meant "Most expensive portable dedicated electronic audio playing apparatus". After all, it plays oggs and such.

OTOH, if your Sun 10k is a dedicated mp3 server, Send me an application, I want to work where you are!

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[AKAImBatman]

How about a Sun E450 for on the go tunes? Nothing quite like hauling an Enterprise Class server in the trunk, eh? ;-)

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[xx_toran_xx]

The price means nothing. The intrinsic value of the materials used to create the device are what make it so valuable. You do have a point, though, the article title is a bit misleading.

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[fm6]

How do they know it will cost more then the Sun Enterprise 10000 that is sharing out MP3 files which are then decoded on a SunRay Thin Client and played for me at my desk?

Only portable players count.

A nitpick: a Sun Ray doesn't decode anything. All its software runs on the host. Like all of the current generation of "thin clients" it's not a client at all, just a kind of terminal.

Ironically, I'm typing this on one...

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[jeffmeden]

Sun Enterprise 10000 that is sharing out MP3 files

With up to a $250,000 fine and 6 months in jail per infraction, you bet your sweet ass its more expensive than any ol mp3 *player*...

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[anothy]

... when they havn't even ANNOUNCED the price?

if you have to ask, you can't afford it. ;-)

Re:Huh? How can it be the "most expensive"...

[jcostantino]

Now do you really think that guy hooked that server up in his car or was he just transporting it and decided to take pictures for a joke project? I would hate to see the size of the power inverter required to keep that running.

It's a shame that the majority of comments on that were in the realm of "You are a moron!!!!!!!one!!!!" and not, "Ha ha, funny joke!" since it is very likely a joke.

There are audio interfaces for the VW cd changer interface and if the car is so equipped, could send serial commands from the head unit back to the server to switch songs and play/pause. It's entirely possible, just not very practical.

3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

When I was in Berlin, Germany, I was walking through KDW, and they had a gold plated keyboard. It was some 3000 in cost.

I was just like "who the hell would buy something like that."

This too. It's just too much. It's like, buy one of those, and everytime you look at it, just remember all the poor people you had to screw over to make enough money that you can just drop it on something like this.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was in Berlin, Germany, I was walking through KDW, and they had a gold plated keyboard

Oh, that Berlin? The one in Germany? If you had just said "Berlin" I would have been confused, because I would have thought you meant Berlin, Pennsylvania, and they don't have a KDW there.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

*smacks you*

Shut up troll. Just because someone adds a little information into things, doesn't mean you have to be a dick about it.

Some people may not even know what KDW is. I didn't know until I actually went to Berlin, and I had been speaking German for 10 years.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[firl]

ya in KDW its really nice, really big, and really expensive. Then again they have things like specialized bass speakers that look like woobly planks of wood. after that I just left and went to the KFC to feel more normal.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

Yeah, KDW kinda bothered me, too... seems like it was a rich person store. I stopped by the next day and had some Weisswurst, since this was the closest I was going to get to Munich/Bavaria on that trip.

It didn't taste right, and cost twice as much, but then, so will anything that's a local specialty outside of that area. I was just more surprised that they even had Weisswurst there.

I think that's the only thing I bought there, everything else was just way too overpriced, or was just plain expensive to begin with.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[henni16]

seems like it was a rich person store.

The KaDeWe is mainly a tourist trap.

Though I know some people that once in a while go there to shop for gifts or buy some specialities (foodwise) that you won't (easily) get elsewhere.
Like the Weisswurst you mentioned.

Also: Weisswurst in Berlin? Heretic! You are supposed to eat Currywurst or Doener. ;-)

Re:3000 Keyboard

[crabpeople]

Your second sentance

everytime you look at it, just remember all the poor people you had to screw over to make enough money that you can just drop it on something like this.

answers the first...

I was just like "who the hell would buy something like that."

Re:3000 Keyboard

[thedletterman]

"verytime you look at it, just remember all the poor people you had to screw over to make enough money" That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. Wealth is not a zero-sum game. I, like everyone else I know, don't get rich screwing people over. Instead, we get rich from benefiting other people, who voluntarily increase our wealth. Poverty is not a virtue, nor is wealth evil.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

The KaDeWe is mainly a tourist trap.

Oh, *so* true. Hehe.

Also: Weisswurst in Berlin? Heretic! You are supposed to eat Currywurst or Doener. ;-)

Hey! I spent a month in Munich, a year or two before hand, so I was DYING for some Weisswurst. I mean, as bad as it is to get Weisswurst in Berlin, imagine trying to get it anywhere in the US! Although, I kind of regret the choice, now.

I did however eat my first night there at a placed called "Schildkröte", and got the "Berliner Teller", it was damn nice. :)

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

"Everytime you look at it, just remember all the poor people you had to screw over to make enough money"

That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a long time. Wealth is not a zero-sum game. I, like everyone else I know, don't get rich screwing people over. Instead, we get rich from benefiting other people, who voluntarily increase our wealth. Poverty is not a virtue, nor is wealth evil.

Right... I'm aware that it's not a zero-sum game, because the Gov can produce more money at any time. But when you think about it this way: Within the terms of who has money, it is a zero-sum game. If you get a dollar from me, then I lose a dollar. It all has to add up to the same total.

No, *wealth* is not a zero-sum game, as when I give you money, I'm expecting something from that. But money certainly is.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[thedletterman]

So by your logic, when I clean your garage, and you give me twenty dollars, did I just screw you over, and were you poor?

you see where your logic utterly fails?

I don't know anyone who has been made rich by taking from the poor.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[HotmanParisHiltonKam]

So by your logic, when I clean your garage, and you give me twenty dollars, did I just screw you over, and were you poor?

I have yet to meet anyone who got rich by cleaning out people's garages for $20. Earning a living and getting rich are two very different things. In fact, the working poor are a growing problem.

I don't know anyone who has been made rich by taking from the poor.

Tobacco companies come to mind instantly. Smoking is predominantly a poor person's pastime and given the detrimental aspects of the behaviour I'd say that the companies screw people over in large numbers.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[ACDChook]

And then you'd smile, because you're rich, and don't care about poor people.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[Krach42]

So by your logic, when I clean your garage, and you give me twenty dollars, did I just screw you over, and were you poor?

It depends. Was cleaning my garage worth twenty dollars? There are three possibilities.

My garage was already mostly clean, and you had very little work to do: You win. You got twenty dollars, and I got very little value.

My garage was just dirty enough that to both me and you it was worth exactly $20: Neither wins, fair exchange.

My garage was a complete and udder mess: I win, by a lot. you did all tons of work, and I only paid out $20.

Now, let's drop the wealth, and value issue from all this. Money only goes one way in the transaction. I have money, and I give it to you. In this simplistic view, I lose money, and you gain exactly the same amount of money. Zero-sum game.

If you want to talk about where the money ends up, then it's a zero-sum game, because there's only so much money in the system, and when I lose money, someone else gains that money in the exact same amount.

Again, I'm not talking about wealth and value here. I'm talking about purely money. If you want lots of money, then the only way to get that lots of money is to get people to give you money. That's the simplest rule of the game.

Now, in order to get people to give you money, they expect something in exchange. So, now the more expansive rule is, in order to gain lots of wealth and value, you need people to give you money for the least amount of wealth/value that you give them. Ideally, none.

This is why people who steal make tons of money, they get lots of wealth/value with nothing in exchange. Drug dealers, alcohol, and tabacco included also make tons of money, because their market has a significantly greater worth on the use of the products, than the seller has in just holding the products. Thus causing the prices to be quite high for what you're actually selling.

Also a big market is software, and digital content suppliers. In this case, everything that is provided in exchange for your money is ethereal, non-physical "IP". You don't even sell it to them, you're just letting them use it under a set of restrictions that you establish, and in the future, could technically revoke. Look at that, now you're selling things for vastly over the price required to make it (in the order of 1000~10000x times more in some cases) Just because the customer perceives a value in it.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[itchy92]

I don't know anyone who has been made rich by taking from the poor.

That's probably because you're not rich enough.

All those workers who fill the factories to produce cheap consumer crap? Yeah, they're having their lives taken away just to eat a scrap of food. All the CEOs of companies (western and eastern, I'm not discriminating) that move production to the lowest bidder, and pay out $.40 USD an hour, and charge $100 for a product that cost $3 to make, those are the ones that get rich by taking from the poor.

And you can't really argue that value is relative, and the people making $.40/hour find that to be an acceptable reimbursement for their labor. Because they don't; they'd just rather not die.

Re:3000 Keyboard

[thedletterman]

Color me befuddled.

1. By only paying .40/hr they are TAKING from them?
Now there is no such thing as slavery, so it seems these persons are willing to accept .40/hr for their labor. They aren't taking anything from them, are they? You used the zero-sum game, if i gave you a dollar, i no longer have that dollar... so the company is the one going poor here, not the person taking the money.

2. By charging $100 for product that costs $3 to make, they are taking from POOR?
Now here's where your argument is great for a real laugh.
a. I thought only the RICH paid way too much for cheap shit. Apparently, and this is the step i've always missed, the rich get rich because the poor are too willing to spend their money on overpriced junk.. that they are willing to risk starving to death to own, but unwilling to make their ow or accept any substitute. That makes sense. I don't know many rich people that put $12,000 of spinners but need three months to pay their electric bill or will buy their baby $300 nikes but can't afford to feed them anything better than McDonalds. Financial mismanagement does seem to plague the poor. So maybe you're onto something as to cause and effect relationships.
b. If these people 'would rather not die' and the product only cost $3 to manufacture, market, manage, distribute, and merchandise... then why don't these people, who have the talent and ability to manufacture these enormously profitable, ridiculously cheap to manufacture items.. make and sell their own?

Re:3000 Keyboard

[itchy92]

Okay....

1. There is no such thing as slavery? To say that someone is WILLING to accept $.40/hr to not STARVE TO DEATH is a little contrived. No, they are not physically taking something from these people, but they are condemning them to a pretty bleak fucking existence while they get rich off the "slave" labor.

2. a. My statement had nothing to do with the poor paying for shit they can't afford. My point was simply that that is how the rich get rich. By minimizing cost (the aforementioned "slave" labor), they are able to reap huge profits from whatever they're producing. There was no ethical argument with this; they charge what the market will bear, and apparently people think a $3 kninknack is worth $100. If the poor are living beyond their means, it's their fault for not being responsible.

b. What? These people are forced into these menial lives by a cyclical system of oppression. They are not given a chance at education or entrepreneurship. This isn't a job at fucking Burger King where you can tell the person to go get a real job if they're unhappy. They have been systematically deprived of the talent and ability to even escape sub-poverty, let alone engage in capitalistic indrustrialism.

I think you need to go take a look around outside your fucking suburb. Maybe then you'll have a better idea of what life is really like for countless millions of people.

Morons

[Locke2005]

I could gold-plate a cow turd to create the most expensive cow turd in the world... but that doesn't make it any BETTER than any other piece of shit out there! Same goes for this MP3 player...

Re:Morons

[Rude Turnip]

Of course it would be better! You'd be the proud owner of the first turd that could be polished.

Re:Morons

[networkBoy]

What about my extensive corpolite collection you insensitive clod!
-nB

Re:Morons

[hal2814]

Reminds me of a joke:

Back in the days of outhouses, there was a wealthy man who wanted an outhouse that didn't smell. One day a salesman came to his house and promised him just that. The salesman brought in the builders who used the most precious materials they could find and built a massive, jewel-encrusted outhouse.

The owner was pleased with the appearence of the outhouse. When completed, he used it for his usual business and sure enough the outhouse stank. He called up the salesman who came by to look at the outhouse to see why it's not working as intended.

He stuck his head in the door and immedeately jerked it back out. "I see your problem," he said to the owner. "Someone took a crap in there."

Re:Morons

[Phat_Tony]

No kidding. As far as I could tell, there was NOTHING fancy about the player. In fact it only comes with 1 GB of RAM, where Apple's already been selling ones with 4 GB for a while now.

If I were going to get the most expensive MP3 player, I'd want it to start with about 100GB of flash, and then come up with some other innovative features too. Maybe an FM tuner and both XM and Sirius tuners, along with recording/time shifting their content. Video and photo capability. Maybe HD video out? Or really high audio quality and support for some good lossless encoding scheme. Come on, do something impressive.

Otherwise, I think anyone with that much money to waste on an MP3 player and jewelry would do a lot better buying a gorgeous watch and an iPod Nano. I mean, why get something gold plated and jeweled that's going to be obsolete in a few years anyway?

Of course, maybe that's the whole point- to really show off your wealth, you need to not only indulge in conspicuous consumption, but stupid conspicuous consumption. You don't buy fancy expensive stuff that's high quality and will last, you buy fancy, expensive stuff that's low quality and disposable. That'll really show off how rich you are.

Re:Morons

[Lispy]

Not impressed until I see one made of mithril!

Re:Morons

[JohnFluxx]

A trap door would work well. Btw, that's why toilets have a U-bend with water in them. The water stops the smelly air from the sewer coming up through the toilet.

Re:Morons

[jayhawk88]

Thank you Jokey McNoget.

Re:Morons

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"I could gold-plate a cow turd to create the most expensive cow turd in the world... but that doesn't make it any BETTER than any other piece of shit out there!"

Well, you can keep the non-gold-plated cow turd. I'll take that other one off your hands.

Re:Morons

[CrankyFool]

I look forward to my MP3 player glowing blue every time I read comments on slashdot.

Re:Morons

[coaxial]

I could gold-plate a cow turd to create the most expensive cow turd in the world... but that doesn't make it any BETTER than any other piece of shit out there!

I beg to differ! The fact that only Paris Hilton can afford it , PROVES it's better. You little people just don't understand. Next thing you'll be telling me is that eating raw fish eggs and porpoise penises are gross. They're not. They're a delicacy. You're just mad because YOU can't afford them.

Re:Morons

[Trogre]

Yes, but this one does Ogg Vorbis.

Re:Morons

[blincoln]

Of course, maybe that's the whole point- to really show off your wealth, you need to not only indulge in conspicuous consumption, but stupid conspicuous consumption. You don't buy fancy expensive stuff that's high quality and will last, you buy fancy, expensive stuff that's low quality and disposable. That'll really show off how rich you are.

Exactly.

Seeing this article made me wonder whatever happened to the gold-plated, diamond-encrusted Sega Game Gear from the early 90s. Melted down to recover the gold, I assume.

Re:Morons

[pafrusurewa]

As far as I could tell, there was NOTHING fancy about the player.

The Trekstor iBeat Organix is nice and has a couple of features that the iPod doesn't have: FM tuner, OGG playback, built-in microphone, FM and line-in recording straight to MP3 with the bitrate of your choice and the line-in can be used for a second pair of headphones. And it has great battery life and doesn't need iTunes to work. Plus the OLED display looks nice IMO.

Re:Morons

[Phat_Tony]

I don't consider any of that "fancy" except for maybe supporting two pairs of headphones. iPod's aren't the only thing on the market. I'm pretty sure the iRiver players do all that stuff. I think IOPS do it to. The Samsung Yepp does that stuff. It looks like the Creative MuVo2 FM does most of that except for the OGG playback. I'm sure there are others.

Re:Morons

[Anonymous Coward]

:) The only funny comment in this entire thread. Thank you - you made my day.

Re:Morons

[pafrusurewa]

> I'm pretty sure the iRiver players do all that stuff. No FM tuner. At least not in the sub EUR 200 range. > The Samsung Yepp does that stuff. Special software needed. > It looks like the Creative MuVo2 FM does most of that I have one of those. Extraordinarily poor quality; the headphone jack is a design failure (it has to break sooner or later), no recording to MP3, very poor radio and recording quality, terrible humming sound when the backlight is active. > I'm sure there are others. Doesn't look too good, at least in Europe. I looked around extensively when I had to replace that terrible Creative MuVo.

Re:Morons

[pafrusurewa]

> I'm pretty sure the iRiver players do all that stuff.

No FM tuner. At least not in the sub EUR 200 range.

> The Samsung Yepp does that stuff.

Special software needed.

> It looks like the Creative MuVo2 FM does most of that

I have one of those. Extraordinarily poor quality; the headphone jack is a design failure (it has to break sooner or later), no recording to MP3, very poor radio and recording quality, terrible humming sound when the backlight is active.

> I'm sure there are others.

Doesn't look too good, at least in Europe. I looked around extensively when I had to replace that terrible Creative MuVo.

Re:Morons

[Phat_Tony]

I don't have time to look into this, but I know iRiver has sub-200 euro models with FM, at least in the US. Like the iRiver ifp-990- it plays Ogg, has an FM tuner, has 40-hour battery life, doesn't require any software, and I've used one, and it has decent sound quality. Also, look at the old iRiver G3 line. I know browsing in stores there have been others offering all these features.

With a brief look at Amazon, how about the COBY MP-C941? Or the BoomGear MP-800? Or the RCA Lyra RD2217? A Yahoo! Shopping search for "mp3 player fm ogg record" under $250 yields over 1,500 results. Surely something in there meets these requirements?

Re:Morons

[pafrusurewa]

I'll give you iRiver. Sadly they have a rather poor presence here. I couldn't buy them right now, even from Amazon; I'd have to order from shady foreign companies and wait a couple of days.

I mostly buy locally or from vendors I know or Amazon; a bad or even malicious vendor can really delay warranty claims (warranty is at least one year here). We even have the right to return mail order stuff within two weeks for a full refund in the EU but again, too many scammers out there. They just go bankrupt, never to be seen again.

Thanks for your thoughts.

The Irony

[pranay]

If I am rich enough to buy that mp3 player, would I still want to buy crappy 99 cent low quality mp3 to fill it up? Worse yet, would I still use my p2p software to download illegal mp3 for it? I had rather get rid of a couple of those shiny diamonds, and invest in one of those holographic memory/storage units. All the songs ever published, CD quality, in your pocket. A-ha!

Re:The Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

You would only use it to listen to an 80's Norwegian band?

Stupid

[Eightyford]

This sounds like the $3500 USB flash drive. The obsoloscence of technology and the artificial rarity of diamonds. Wow, people are dumb.

Re:Stupid

[ivan256]

Hmm, 63 diamonds that add up to 1 carat... 1/63 carat diamonds are not rare, artificially so or otherwise. There are about $4 worth of diamonds in this MP3 player, if that.

It never ceases to amaze me how much people will pay for things that have tiny chips of diamond on them if they're told the chips add up to a carat. If the size of the diamond is less than a half carat, and you're paying multiple digits of dollars for it, you got ripped off. (I mean moreso than if you buy a multi-carat diamond at the going rate.)

If this MP3 player is gold-plated and has diamond chips in it, it's likely that they raised the manufacture cost by $20 or so... If it's cast in gold (like the article says, but I don't believe them), that's another story, but we'd have to know how much it weighed before we could jump to price judgement.

Re:Stupid

[Zwack]

Why would they lie about casting it in gold?

It's supposed to be expensive... Cast it in gold and still charge significantly more than the parts are worth.

Of course there are so many expensive things that can play MP3s that it is a meaningless comment.

My USB key + MP3 player/Transmitter + Jeep + FM Radio combination is probably the most expensive that I own... And it's mobile.

The Widescreen TV that we just bought can play MP3s... I'm not sure why they felt the need, but it does.

Z.

Re:Stupid

[ivan256]

I don't think they'd lie, I think the blog that's reporting on it may not have their facts straight. It seems more likely it would be plated. Castings of gold would be pointless and heavy.

Re:Stupid

[Dolda2000]

Castings of gold would be pointless and heavy.

Then again, doesn't the entire idea seem rather pointless either way?

Re:Stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

World's most expensive glass cutter. And it plays music!

Re:Stupid

[Zwack]

"It seems more likely it would be plated. Castings of gold would be pointless and heavy."

It depends on what the point is...

In this case the point is to make an expensive useless gadget that they can make an obscene profit on.

Imagine that the case weighs 2 ounces because they've made a big "hefty" case out of gold. Assuming a Gold price of $500 per ounce that is a $1,000 cost to cast the case. Now they've put a small amount of work into making the case so they have to add that cost, let's say $500. So the case actually costs $1,500 to make. They put a $100 MP3 player into it (I'm guessing here)... and then they stick 1 carat of diamonds on it (let's be generous and say it's $50 including labour.)...

Total cost $1,650 to make the mp3 player. They want to make a profit, so they take that total and cal it a straight $5,000. Sure it's $3,350 profit, but think of the free publicity for selling "the world's most expensive MP3 player".

The sort of people who might buy it aren't going to care if it's all that good. They want flashy. The cast gold case might be a dumb idea, but they can use that to justify the price. Would you spend $5,000 (for example) on a "gold plated case studded with 64 diamonds totalling 1 carat"? No, you'd say "for that price I'd want a solid gold case"...

Z.

For that price, it comes with...

[adminsr]

... a whole gig.

Wow.

Re:For that price, it comes with...

[generic-man]

The Bang & Olufsen BeoSound 2 has no screen and no memory (SD card sold separately) and costs about $500. It's awesome.

Bah!

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Bah!

No AAC, can't connect to ITMS. Lame.

Re:Bah!

[muckdog]

No flac either, teh lames !!!!11!1!

Ha!

[plopez]

I think the Elbonians go them beat. Esp. if you count in the cost of the tractor needed to move the Elbonian MP3 player...

Re:Ha!

[MarkGriz]

"Esp. if you count in the cost of the tractor needed to move the Elbonian MP3 player..."

Yes, but it's worth it just for the lips.

Re:Ha!

[d4nowar]

Let us never speak of that again...

Re:Ha!

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who didn't get it, it's the theme of last week's Dilbert strips.

Re:Ha!

[Cheapy]

Is that with or without the Jolie lips?

Useful?

[eingram]

It seems as useful as a self-sealing stem bolt. And as if theft of portable MP3 players wasn't bad enough... maybe it's meant to be worn on the teeth (grill!)?

Some other expensive technology...

[TechnoGuyRob]

If anyone's interested, the Guinness World Records has information about various other expensive technology. For example, take this cell phone developed by Davis Morris International:

A cellphone designed by David Morris International, of London, UK, sold for $104, 050 in 1996. Made entirely from 18-carat gold, it has a keypad encrusted with pink and white diamonds. David Morris International is one of the world's most high-profile jewellers. The company supplied all the jewelry worn in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (UK, 1971).

As it turns out, the Hubble Telescope is the most expensive telescope--taking US$3 billion--and the most expensive domain name is (ironically) business.com, going for a wholesome £4.6 million (almost US$8 million). The Dreamcast computer game Shenmue cost $20 million to develop, and the Wilson WAMM system (Wilson Audio Modular Monitor) speakers cost $225,000.

It's entertaining to see little ventures like this. But let's face, the MP3 player is just for kicks. This is slightly interesting; at most.

Re:Some other expensive technology...

[mypalmike]

The Dreamcast computer game Shenmue cost $20 million to develop

"Enter the Matrix": estimated $30 million
http://www.armchairempire.com/Reviews/PC%20Games/e nter-matrix.htm

"Daikatana": estimated $25 million (from an article on my former employer, LGS)
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2000/06/20 /dark_glass/index.xml

Re:Some other expensive technology...

[Hal_Porter]

Duke Nukem Forever : estimated $

Program received signal SIGFPE, Arithmetic exception.

Re:Some other expensive technology...

[cgenman]

Someone should really let Guiness know that a lot of games break the 20 million mark these days.

Anyone care to make a guess as to how much Blizzard's 5 years of WoW development cost? Or for that matter the amount spent on the next Unreal Tournament, considering we've seen games using its engine yet the game itself has yet to be released? Duke Nukem Forever?

Interesting paradox

[leehwtsohg]

Hmm.... quite interesting, since the price of the MP3 player in the article has not been determined yet. All that is known is that IT will be the most expensive player...

Re:Interesting paradox

[Malor]

Eh, who you going to believe... a publicly traded corporation, or a random Slashdot poster?

Re:Interesting paradox

[networkBoy]

/. poster.
by miles.
-nB

Re:Interesting paradox

[painQuin]

Surely someone can fit some Lexus or BMW with an mp3 and beat this, no?
Does anyone else remember "world's most expensive bluetooth headset?"

Cheapest MP3 player

[Profane MuthaFucka]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1238959&CatId=1695

That one is $30, but every once in a while there are rebates which bring the price down to $10. There's no memory in it, but if you've got a SD card laying around this could be a nice little player.

Re:Cheapest MP3 player

[UncleJooky]

Not quite, if you look at the ads next to that one, you will find this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTool s/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1645242 It has memory and is less than half the price. pbbt

Re:Cheapest MP3 player

[Zantetsuken]

yes but with that you are limited to ONLY 128MB, whereas with the one he suggested as long as you dont care about screen quality, you could get that and a 1 or 2 gig sd card and have a player with as much memory as one of these Sandisk m250 2gig, or Mobiblue 2 gig "box", which cost about 120 to 160 USD, and when you run out of space, you can get another sd card as you need it, effectively enough swapping cards out like a cd player for unlimited space (by how many cards you have), vs a player with builtin memory, you have to delete songs

Crap Article...

[H8X55]

So it's the most expensive mp3 player ever made, but the price hasn't been named yet... And it's just a 1GB mp3 player refinished in *bling*...

Anyone else hearing the Earl of Yankerville shouting, "Take that price and DOUBLE IT!!!!!"

Re:Crap Article...

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean "Take that price, cut it in half. Now double it." ?

This is...

[danpsmith]

...for rich people with more money than musical taste. 1gb isn't even enough to hold my singles...

Got one for my horse

[SeeMyNuts!]

Poor guy broke a tooth on that caret. Worst $22,000 I ever spent!

That photograph...

[antdude]

... is tiny!

I beg to differ

[argStyopa]

Um, from TFA:

TrekStor has recently decided to produce a limited series of this magnificent gadget for those who would buy the most expensive mp3 player in the world. A price has not been disclosed as of yet.

How is it the "most expensive" if they haven't set a price?

Personally, I think this: http://www.automobilemag.com/auto_shows/naias_2005 /0501_volkswagen_passat/ is the world's most expensive MP3 player, at about $40,000.

Doesn't even use RAM, it's a friggin' cd player.

It's all about pricing...

[__aaclcg7560]

This MP3 player is the one everyone is talking about!

Ha

[Reality Master 101]

You know that Apple and Steve won't take this lying down. Just wait for the next product announcement. Apple WILL have the most expensive and overpriced technology, or Steve will personally scream at people until he does!

Re:Ha

[Garabito]

And he will call it "The 30th anniversary iPod".

Re:Ha

[tduff]

Steve will personally scream at people until he does!

Steve Ballmer works for Microsoft, not Apple!

Re:Ha

[Hal_Porter]

My God, you're right. It's all a scam, Steve Jobs is ...

... Ooh, what nice shiny silver and white boxes. Where do I sign up?

I never understood why

[artifex2004]

people strive for the gaudiest, most expensive and wasteful things they can('t) afford.

Re:I never understood why

[Hal_Porter]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman

Seriously, it reminds me of something called stotting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope

When excited or alarmed, most medium-sized species of antelope bounce up and down on all four legs, keeping them stretched out straight. This behaviour, known as pronking or stotting, acts as an alarming display. Some biologists theorize that stotting also sends a message to predators, showing that individual antelopes are fit and alert, and therefore not worth pursuing.

The idea is that by spending $lots on useless crap, you're saying to potential partners and potential predators "Look how much money I can waste on unimportant things. Just imagine what I could spend on something I take seriously."

I've worked with my share of yuppies, and it seems plausible watching them showing off their new toys.

Re:I never understood why

[Sapphon]

If I remember my Duesenberry correctly, people base their happiness not on their standard of living in absolute terms, but instead in comparison with their peer group. It doesn't matter that they have much higher life expectancy, less disease, or leisure their forebearers could only dream of, relative status is measured by - amongst other things - possessions.

Conspicious consumption is a means of broadcasting to your peer group that yes, you can afford this item, and oh, if they can't, that's allright - you're obviously just a little better off than them. The increased relative standing makes you happy, and everyone else unhappy.. up until the point where everyone has gaudy item #1. Then the cycle repeats (does anyone excitedly clamour to go next door to watch colour television any more? No, but perhaps to check out the home theatre system..).

When your resources start to deviate significantly from the mean, the set of items you can buy that will impress your peer group necessarily shrink. Ipod Nano? Yeah, well mine's diamond encrusted, with a hot grits dispenser and a Natalie Portman background. The gaudier and less useful the item is, the more it says 'I have so much money that I can afford to waste it on things like this, because I am better than you.'

The reason, I suspect, that the conspicious consumption of celebrities has such an effect is precisely because they are celebrities. Their lives are well-documented, so you have a sort of one-way peer group thing going on: we compare ourselves to them, but they don't compare themselves to us.

And that, artifex, is why people strive for the gaudiest, most expensive and wasteful things they can('t) afford :-)

Funny Timing

[bohemian72]

Last week's Dilbert theme was all about an Elbonian mp3 player that looked like a little scarecrow toilet brush thing.

Elbonian mp3 player

Fromt TFA...

[Shadow Wrought]

When asked what market they were targeting, the german company replied, "Paris Hilton."

Re:Fromt TFA...

[Hogwash McFly]

Brings a new meaning to the term 'market penetration'...

Re:Fromt TFA...

[Shadow Wrought]

LOL, best laugh I've had on the dot in quite a while. Thank you much!

Re:Fromt TFA...

[Anonymous Coward]

...well in this particular case it is a wide open market.

Not an iPod.

[otis wildflower]

It doesn't matter, it's not an iPod. Chicks dig iPod, so ask for it by name.

Give me an iPod that has a red LED screen and 14k gold all around so that it looks like some kind of wicked '70s digital watch, Daddy _like_...

Re:Not an iPod.

[WillAffleckUW]

It doesn't matter, it's not an iPod. Chicks dig iPod, so ask for it by name.

Otis is right. I just went to a friend's birthday party, and she had the music from iPods of the party guests playing. It especially seems to be a girl thing.

Me, I have a flash USB card that is an MP3 player with voice record instead.

Diamonds are cheap in bulk

[Animats]

Despite all the hype from de Beers, diamonds are cheap. Look on eBay under "loose diamonds". Yes, you'll see big asking prices, but watch what prices auctions actually finish at, as people try to unload unwanted diamonds. The resale market for diamonds is incredibly weak.

Re:Diamonds are cheap in bulk

[Anonymous Coward]

The cheaper diamonds you see on ebay are visibly deficient (I3). An expensive diamond should not have any inclusions visible by naked eye.

You missed the most critical point

[Black Copter Control]

So it's the most expensive mp3 player ever made, but the price hasn't been named yet... And it's just a 1GB mp3 player refinished in *bling*...

Most-Expensive isn't an adjective. It's a trademark (at least, it's the name of the domain...) No need to set the price.

1GB?

[91degrees]

Seriously, if they're so busy adding to its cost, they could have given it a bit more memory, surely. And it can't be a space issue. 4GB will fit in the volume provided by an SD card these days.

iRiver...

[RockClimbingFool]

That is what I don't get about all this place and its die hard support for the iPod. It doesn't support Ogg. It is perpetuating acceptance for DRM.

iRiver supports Ogg, they update their firmware alot because of user requests. They have even had a true hard disc video player for a long time. iRivers players look just like external drives and don't require propietary interfaces to get files off and on them.

I really can't wait till Apple does come out with the true video iPod. Everyone will be saying how innovative Apple is, and how no one designs like Apple, etc. It will have more DRM on playing video files. Hell, I am supprised the current ipod photo plays non-drm'd video files at all.

We should all be out buying from companies like iRiver that support open codecs with no DRM and don't care whether they piss off the media companies.

Anonymous reader writes...

[Rhys]

My crappy blog needs more hits!

Seriously. Spend 5 minutes on the site and it looks like it is thrown together in 5 minutes. Most posts don't even have comments.

player expensive...

[Anonymous Coward]

...server cheap

Oh, I get it ....funny

[frovingslosh]

Neat joke... A little late for April 1 but still funny. Keep talking about the most expensive mp3 player but never actually mention a price, even if you RTFA. Funny. Yea, right!

Same old story

[Keith Russell]

No platinum. Fewer diamonds than a Victoria's Secret bra. Lame.

Re:Same old story

[sinclair44]

Well, you could use lame, but why do that when it has OGG support? Counting lame against it is unfair!

Re:Same old story

[zippthorne]

Since when did "number of diamonds" become a valid measure? You could spray 1 carat worth of diamond dust and have thousands of diamonds. That'd be the most expensive ever right?

also, why are we still pretending diamonds are valuable? why not use something that's not easy to manufacture from a material that's as common as water? They're not even precious gems. they're "semi-precious."

Re:Same old story

[themysteryman73]

And a Victoria's Secret Bra holds more, too...

No FLAC, no deal

[Brunellus]

All that bling, and no lossless encoding?

Re:No FLAC, no deal

[vonsneerderhooten]

FLAC?
Need i remind you that it only has 1 gb storage? 1 GB of FLAC ~ 1.5 hours, if you're lucky.

Re:No FLAC, no deal

[anti-trojan]

Remember that a CD is 74 minutes @ 650 MB... 1 GB is longer than 1.5 hours even uncompressed.

It's more like 3-4 hours with 50% FLAC compression.

WAV?

[dtfinch]

Is FLAC too complicated?

There is hope!

[corychristison]

The best MP3 player I've been able to find that is comparable to the iPod is the Neuros II Digital Audio Computer.

The only downsides are:

• they are discontinuing the Neuros II
• Neuros III may not be out for a while.. :-(
• they are a little bunky :-S

I still want one... but I am a poor "Web 1.0" developer...

Re:There is hope!

[Anonymous Coward]

er, requires windows, only 10h battery, looks crap with its cheapo black plastic and crappy little buttons. lame.

Re:There is hope!

[d0nu7]

That may be the most expensive mp3 player, but they sure do have the cheapest servers!

Re:There is hope!

[wed128]

does not...i've been using it in linux for a few years. Not to say it doesn't have it's drawbacks, it is pretty buggy.

Best & most exclusive MP3 player on the market

[0xdeadbeef]

Exclusivity has a price, and with a brand like Bang & Olufsen, it has a elite clientele and dedicated followers. Even though people say there is no display, I don't think it is required as I prefer to operate it hands only, eyesfree. I have an iPod, a Creative Zen, & a Lexar MP3, but they are all visually fnord distracting, unlike the B&O which give me eyesfree operation from my pocket. Earphones are very comfortable and give an unparelled sound, equally fnord balanced over all frequency ranges. Easily links up with fnord Windows Media player and the BeoPlayer Software is also very cool.

The price is there but if you own one, you are probably the fnord only kid on the block (or neighborhood) who has one. And I think that is worth it !!!

expensive useless crap for stupid rich people

[Thud457]

I bet these guys or these guys can top that!

Re:expensive useless crap for stupid rich people

[buswolley]

Sing with the bling!

Re:expensive useless crap for stupid rich people

[networkBoy]

The scary thing is that hammacher is sold out!
-nB

Most expensive MP3 player = Unisys Clearpath ($2M)

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Most expensive MP3 player = a Unisys Clearpath (that's a mainframe) running Windows Enterprise. That's something like $2 million to play your pirated tunes.

Language barrier.

[The-Bus]

Internal memo found from TrekStor:

To: TrekStor Design Team
From: Klaus, Head of R&D

OK, we're in a heap of trouble. As we know, at our pow-wow a week ago our CEO handed me a napkin with the specs for our next player. As we all know it said "Feature: Rich!!!" with rich underlined three times.

Well, about an hour after we got delivery of this prototype diamond player I looked at the napkin again and realized the colon was just two dots of soy sauce. It's supposed to be "feature rich"... without the colon! We need to figure out how we can unload this, pronto! Everyone call your wealthy friends.

Danke,
Klaus

See, now it all makes sense.

Ha HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget the free iPod! It's all in the marketing.

Nooooo

[nightsweat]

That's the world's most expensive crap glued ONTO an MP3 player.

But where?

[phorm]

Will I find a gold-encrusted SD card to go with it?

Well....

[Creepy Crawler]

I've got a MP3 player Im selling.
Starting bid:

100 Mee-eeelion dollars! (diamond rio)\

Guess what? I can set the price at anything I want. What matters is if the fucktard pays it. Heh heh

Expensive Technology

[CriminalNerd]

"Expensive technology" is not truly "expensive" if it relies on jewelry alone. We should only acknowledge a gadget's "expensive-ness" if and only if its technology is very advanced and worth as much as it's priced.

hey didn't Puff Daddy....

[rune2]

hey didn't Puff Daddy (or P. Diddy or whatever-the-hell-he's-calling-himself-this-week) have a diamond encrusted iPod? Some people just have wayyy too much money for their own damned good.

tell me about that iriver

[twitter]

iRivers players look just like external drives and don't require propietary interfaces to get files off and on them.

For older models, that's true. I have a H320 and like it.

What newer models is it true for? I know that it's not true for every model available at Best Buy. All of them use, mtp, a crapy M$ transfer protocol. I tried the small portable players and the nifty looking movie player and another one in between. I'd love to see a link to a model without this problem.

Note, OGG = best. Nice marketing.

[twitter]

It actually looks like a nice player, see for yourself at the TrekStor site. Plays mp3 and ogg. If only it works by normal USB, firewire or MMC, it's awesome. The gold plate for the wealthy customer is not a bad marketing ploy. It sure drew attention here. For the rest of us, there's the normal player, which you can have gold plated on your own at a local jeweler if you must.

How do you know your E10K is worth more?

[wsanders]

I can pick one of those puppies up for about $9K used:

http://www.anysystem.com/sunen10e12ra.html

"Here's a nickel, kid, get yourself a better computer."
                                                      -Dilbert

Looks pretty dec--oh wait

[iknowcss]

I was reading the specs thinking to myself "what's so great about this stupid thing? One gig of space? My USB key has that and it was dirt cheep" Then they "blinged it up." What's the incentive? Why not just take an iPod and do the following: 1. Replace all chrome with gold 2. Replace white with diamond 3. ... profit Now there's an mp3 player.

iriver transformation MTP UMS

[ergean]

http://www.mtp-ums.net/

You'll find there more infromation on how to change your player from a MTP to UMS. There is a catch with that, you can't go back to MTP and can't play MS DRM-ed music, as far as I know.

Hope you'll find it useful.

Happy owner of a T30 iriver.

duct tape it....

[Anonymous Coward]

...to the dash of a maybach...now you're talking a nice gadget!

Billy, Billy, Billy...

[attemptedgoalie]

This is a big one...

You made me snicker. It is a good day.

Whoops, my bad

[captainPenguin13]

I thought Microsoft had finally attempted to jump into the MP3 player market.

Ha, my old SGI beats that...

[Anonymous Coward]

My SGI which I only use for playing MP3's beats that. Over $30,000 original purchase price!

On top of which, it has a bigger hard drive (but not by much).

Ahem

[apankrat]

I think Mr Jobs is getting ready 'to pursue other endeavours' as they say.

Looks like...

[f8l_0e]

their server's only worth was in gold plating too.

Re:Best & most exclusive MP3 player on the mar

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad troll! No biscuit!

Copy and paste from here.

fnord to you too, Sir

Love those tags, but...

[serginho]

... if it's labeled "stupid" and "whocares", why bother posting this in the first place?

Re:Love those tags, but...

[hsoft]

Tags for a story are defined by the community, not the editors. So if a story has 'stupid' and 'whocares' tags, it means that a lot of people think it's a stupid story.

This is basically moderation for stories.

Where can I get this gold plated cow turds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't tease us with these references without posting a link and a price...

Edible

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm selling the one and only edible Mp3 player for $1 billion dollars! Tastes like a turkey dinner, complete with turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce (shaped like a can), stuffing, biscuits and even desert, pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

I've got an even more expensive iPod

[ChrisA90278]

What do you mean "most expensive"? I have one that could cost more sendmy $1M and you cn not only have my blue 4GB "mini" but you get bragging rights to owning the most expensive iPod on Earth.

The turd market

[fm6]

True, nobody will buy a gold-plated turd, for the same reason nobody will buy an unadorned turd. But people will buy gold-plated gadgets.

Oh the irony...

[Fluoxetine Freak]

...of a site dedicated to the most expensive things, running Google ads that are for the *cheapest* mp3 players alongside TFA.

Back to Cute Overload it is then...

1 2

[retnuh1]

Its to bad the worlds most expensive mp3 player can't buy the worlds most expensive server to survive a slashdotting.

Re:iriver transformation MTP UMS

[twitter]

nice, thanks.

Didn't that mean...

[Zantetsuken]

I thought that 63 diamonds (one carat) meant 63 diamonds in one carat EACH - then again I might have been the one to read it wrong...

Re:Didn't that mean...

[ivan256]

Look at the picture. 1 carat diamonds are *way* bigger than that. (63 times bigger I'd wager. :) Either that, or it's a huge MP3 player.

With a round cut, 1 carat diamonds are about 6mm across.

If you find it advertised for a higher price....

[Anonymous Coward]

If you find it advertised for a higher price, we'll gladly charge you the difference plus 10%

Screw that! I'm waiting for....

[Sublmnl]

...a kevlar and titanium reinforced player that does NOT support MP3's. How about FLAC, SHN, APE, MKW, WAV? And I'd insist on a drive much more immense than 1gb. I don't care if it's as big as the first Sony Walkman. Give me RCA jacks, an optical out, a digital equalizer and a cheap tuner. Rio is the only one who has came close to something I'd buy. I returned two MP3 players given to me as gifts...imagine my disappointment when I opened them.

Re: Side note

[retnuh1]

slashdot appears to eat less than and greater than "" symbols when used in the subject. But I guess that'll teach me to stick to the tried and true !=.

Avoid Slashdotting, Go To The Source

[cmholm]

I hear Google spiders pages. Rather than hammer some idiot's 'lux goodes' site, why not search for and surf to the frickin' OEM? This player is just a one-off for a zillionare.

Re:Turds

[cgenman]

Sadly, it still looks like a turd too. Most people would be more apt to spending ten or twenty thousand for the most expensive MP3 player ever if it didn't happen to look like it came from a corner jewelry store in Brooklin.

"Yo Yo Yo! Check out my MP3 Playaz! Ain't it the Shiznit?"

That's easy

[cyclobotomy]

So I can make the world's most expensive anything just by gluing diamonds and shit onto it? From the title, I was hoping it would be the most expensive because of the massive amount of features, or money poured into R&D, or limited production... sort of like the Tour de l'Ile watch.

Trekstor is NOT German

[Anonymous Coward]

TrekStor is an electronic design company from Singapore. They design USB to Flash IC's and MP3 IC's used in a lot of known-brand mp3 players like Creative and MSI. Since a short time they changed their policy from a designer that only manufactures proof-of-concepts in limited quantities to a producer of MP3 players. They are the inventor of the thumb-drive. The first USB memory-stick ever. I have one of their very early (pre-usb) MP3 players that runs of 1 penlite and uses a 32Mb SmartMedia memory cart for storage.

Awesome Marketing

[rlp]

Combine expensive jewelry (something that you normally keep) with consumer electronics (quickly obsolete and disposed of) and you get - EXPENSIVE JEWELRY THAT YOU THROW AWAY!! I stand in awe of the marketing genius that came up with this. Now if they can only identify a large enough market segment of wealthy stupid people (hint: try the entertainment industry).

That's great . . .

[dweebzilla]

But, I'd only consider buying it if it came with a '64 baby-blue impala SS ragtop lo-rider w/ spinners. Now THAT'D BE HOT.

1GB

[Old Breadbutt]

"The mp3 player has one gigabyte of memory..."

a big sucker

[Anonymous Coward]

it takes a big sucker to bite that one!

Interesting...

[woolio]

Business.com is one of those crappy search-engine-ad pages...

Well two of three things are certain:
1) Whoever sold the domain name is still laughing. And his bank is laughing too.
2) Whoever bought the domain name made a lot of money
3) Whoever bought the domain name lost a lot of money

Dilbert

[Liquid Len]

http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/ dilbert-20060328.html
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/ dilbert-20060329.html
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/ dilbert-20060401.html

Volkswagem, yes...

[TransEurope]

...they know how to ruin a brand. They (Volkwagen core company) should better focus on that what a "Peoples Car" is, and let the daughter company Audi do the job on luxorious cars with their A4/A6/A8. Instead the traditional car series Golf/Passat are climbing higher and higher in prices, and no one buys them. Really stupid. Never make a concurrent product in the own company.

WAIT. P-DIDDY HAS ONE.

[BWhaler]

The second P-Diddy and Paris Hilton buy one, it will go from the 'most expensive' mp3 player to the tackiest.

P. Diddy's iPod is more expensive

[sokoban]

And it holds more music to boot!

http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/30/engadget-exclus ive-sean-p-diddy-combss-custom-diamond-ipod/

You call it a the most expensive mp3 player

[Anonymous Coward]

I call it a pimp device.

Perfect

[Flyboy Connor]

Perfect to play all my Britney Spears songs with!

Only 1 GB??

[Timberwolf0122]

I kinda reconed on them putting say 8Gb (4x2Gb Internal SD's), I doubt the likely hood of an extra £200 on the price tag would of greatly troubled the buyer.

Long term investments?

[p3t0r]

Actually adding gold and diamonds might be the only way to make sure this mp3 player won't loose its' value within weeks like others tend to do!

US $25 000

[Mondor]

Well, I've seen this thing on CeBIT this year. It wasn't really noticable booth, although quite large, with a huge portrait of Depeche Mode... There was a nigga DJ with all his tools, and he was constantly saying one phrase... Let me remember... It was like...

"Yo, check this out, TRECKSTORE, yeeeeah.... Check this out... This is the most expensive MP3 player on Earth... twenty five thousands dollars... Check this out... Yeah.... Aha... twenty five thousands..."

So I assume it is about 25 000 USD for one piece of electronics. It's like, for example, a Siemens phone from Escada - uglyness with jewelry for about 1000 USD. Well, some people have a taste substituted with money, I guess.

and YOU say...

[weinford]

... Apple is expensive? ;-)

Faberge Dog's Egg

[Anonymous Coward]

I can confidently say that covering any piece of crap in gold and diamonds will make it an obscenely expensive piece of crap.

Funny you should say that. Viz magazine once ran one of its silly adverts for a "Faberge Dog's Egg" complete with "diamond-encrusted flies" and golden lolipop stick, "as if whimisically inserted by a passing child."

I lost it when I moved house :-(

Today's Bible Lesson

[hey!]

I could gold-plate a cow turd to create the most expensive cow turd in the world...

Well, then. In that case I will take for my text today 1 Samuel 5-6.

The Israelites had just engaged the Philistines in battle, and the Philistines had carried off the Ark of the Covenant. However G-d had a nasty surprise for them:

But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. [1 Sam 5:6]

In other words, he smote them with a plague of fatal hemorrhoids. As the ark was moved from Ashdod to Gath to Ekron, each city in turn was afflicted. It has been suggested that the Philistines were Greek refugees from wars with Troy; in any case it appears that they had somewhat Greek ideas of military heroism. However, this was not a threat they could vanquish by sending out their most powerful champion. The Philistines decided to restore the Ark to Israel, and consulting their diviners as to how to do this, they were informed that they'd have to make an additional "trespass" offering to compensate the G-d of Israel for the humiliation of being carried off:

Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods [hemorrhoids], and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. [1 Sam 5:6]

Who knows, maybe He'd have preferred a diamond encrusted MP3 player. In any case, the moral of this story is, uh, "do not blaspheme".

Sorry, I have to run...

Gold is cheap! Diamons are cheap in SA

[cheekyboy]

Listen,

If you want gold, go kitco.com and gold is cheap, wow, if its 1oz of gold, thats no more than 588dollars of gold, melting etc... is trivial, its too soft, so it has to be a 50% gold/nickel/silver mix or something, 9ct.

Diamonds are a waste, big deal, show offs, any crystal is good enough, no one cares, your just a show off millian aire, or drug lord/oil tycoon.

Common rich person, I can make you happy, ill find you aliens and secret tech. Forget diamonds and being PDiddies friend.

Its like those 25,000 dollar mobile phones, whats the point.... utter stupidity, it prooves that if you buy it, you dont deservey your wealth. You didnt deserve it or earn it fairly, like the yahoo CEOs KIDS.

Elbonian MP3 Player

[boto]

Is it the elbonian MP3 player?

Figures

[Gyorg_Lavode]

Most expensive in the world and it STILL doesn't play mp3's, wma's, ogg's and AAC's.

Worlds cheapest player $1.99

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.poperti.com/

Indeed, my U2 does OGG just fine

[marcus]

And mass storage, and FM, and voice recording...

Definitely a feature packed device the size of a pack of gum.