I guess the Sony Walkman NW-HD05 (20 Gig Mp3 player) that I bought a few weeks ago is a spoil of war. I compared for months against the fan boy favorites (iPod) and every other little box with a HD and mp3 decoder chip -- and decided on the Sony for simple reasons....
1. Removable and replacable battery 2. Battery life of more than 20 hours per charge 3. Sound quality (I am not an audophile - but on the audiophile websites - they gave this thing a constant thumbs up) 4. Consistantlly high user reviews 5. Size (yes it is smaller than an Ipod)
The only thing people complained about constant was the software....In the end I figured big deal....my software experience with Sonic Stage would be shorter than a blind date. Only long enough to dump 20 gigs of mp3's from my USB HD to the player -- and then it would be divorced from the PC anyway, so who cares if the software sucks and sony is evil, as a consumer -- sound, quality, battery life and usability is 99% of the overall experience in the long run.
Why not have a music service where you pick your tunes, pay for them -- and have them delivered on plain old fashioned CD...just like if you got them in the store. Everyone wins.
There is no DRM on an established media. The content providers are not taking any more risk than with the CD's they sell of the shelves at the record store or target. The customer owns the "master" and it is not tied to any particular technological device or operating system. They would be 99.9% compatible with anything that can play music.
We know this model works. It has made many record companies and artists rich and famous and many customers happy ever since the introduction of the first LP....All the way through 8-tracks and cassette tapes. The customer retains the right to choose what to do (digital wise) with that CD. If the customer happens to own a PC and Portable music player --- he can rip it to whatever format and bitrate that floats his boat.
I can't wait for a $16.99 (MPAA) tax on renting a DVD in America or going to the mvoies. At that point I am for sure going to burn a copy -- no matter if there is a nasty "skit" during the previews that discourages me to or not.
Can't let these crazy Canadians have all the taxable fun.
"Like JPEG, MP3 simply isn't bad enough to forsake compatibility for a superior codec."
BINGO! Saying MP3 is on the way out because there are a couple of obscure codecs that may sound better, is kind of like saying gasoline is on the way out because there are some vehicles that can use Ethanol or Power Cells. Over the years I have had over 15 devices that can decode Mp3's, if I was only able to throw AAC's or OGG's at these devices -- I would be listening to a lot of air. (Which in my wifes opinion would be more preferable than my actual musical tastes).
From where I am standing most Apple fanboys appear to wear (like a badge of honor)proudly the fact that they have purchased each "generation" of Ipod's -- one after another, every six months or so. They are like collectors.
Me personally, when I purchase something, I want it to last...and for it to be a WIN/WIN situation. I get value as a consumer, and the producer gets points for quality. Everytime I hear, "ooh, I need a new 5th gen iPod - my 4th gen is on it's last legs". I simply turn up the volume on my mp3 player (that was purchased before even the 1st gen iPod was a flicker in Stevies imagination) and chuckle.
" Its not vaporware if you cancel/delay a product that no one knows about."
Yep. That has to be an internal Apple slogan. I have also noticed that their reach does not exceed their grasp. You see so many products and markets (PDA, Cellphone, etc.) that people say "If only Apple would enter the fray" -- well there is good reason I am sure. Quality would suffer, support would suffer, and most of all you may alienate a fraction of the fan base if you just throw something out there of subpar quality.
OTOH - There is always the "Shuffle" --- not hard to beat that. I think that was a litmus test to see if Jobs was the new Charlie Manson. Hey -- let's put an ordinary, simple product out there and see if our cultsters will worship it above all others no matter the fact that it is less of a product than most of the competitors.
If you don't mind me asking, what kind of wireless cards and router are you using? That accomplishment (being able to stream DVD quality video) would be a great advert for the hardware. I am assuming this is on Linux, so the 'g' cards are supported and have good drivers.
The best I have been able to stream with much success over any wireless network (b or g) is somewhere between VCD and SVCD quality. What I save in running a few 25' cables throughout the house -- I lose in CPU cycles transcoding everything to MPEG1 VCD quality so that I can stream shows across the network. Not to mention the possibiliy of having to transcode again to a format for something like a video Ipod or PSP.
because I am not much of an apple fanboy, and saying this makes me feel dirty -- however, they usually seem to deliver pretty well lately on the hype they are generating. Micro$oft has a tendancy of the "cry wolf" syndrome or vaporware, or delivering less than what was hyped. Apple seems to be able do live up to the hype.
Dugway proving grounds in Utah. Many people I grew up with's parents worked there. Mostly just a dumping ground for chemicals and agents that other states have managed to avoid getting dumped in their backyeards:)
They great thing about video game systems is that despite all of the hype at launch -- in the end, they either sink or swim based on the quality (and in some ways quantity) of games produced for them. With the Dreamcasr being the exception -- it crashed even with quality games.
I don't follow the handheld market much since the SP. Based on the hype for the PSP, and the success of the PS2 -- I thought that it was sure to have play for a while -- but it is pretty evident of late that it is hurting. Some of it seems to be lack of quality games, and some of it seems to be a good ole' fasioned ass whoopin from the "underdog" DS that seemed to be at deaths door when the PSP launched. All it took was 3 or 4 good games for the DS to rise from the ashes (it seems).
KDE and Gnome are both bloated behemoths whose aim is to crush humanity by their girth.
I had always liked gnome, but they refuse to get the file manager / selector (something every app. uses) down to something that does not make me want to pull out my hair. And what good is a sound daemon / manager if every other program that wants to play sounds has not been made aware that the "sound traffic cop" only wants certain programs that were invited to the party to be able to play sounds. ESD = BAD.
KDE takes longer to start up than my old 2 cycle weed eater on a cold day.
"That's complete BS. We need more organizations like the EFF and more funding to support them. The internet should be become the greatest interactive public library in history, not a logjammed pollbooth laden series of checkpoints and chokestops."
And more baseball teams like the Cubs. Or more movies like Battlefield Earth.
I think a fair judgement would be to force Bill Gates to stand out in the cold for a week in line with hundreds of his coworkers for the oppurtunity at midnight on the 6th night to get trampled by people rushing to get their refunds from his wallet.
Just because they are popular or slick, does not mean they are the best.
Here is my criteria:
1. Can I plug it into any OS and have it be seen as a regular USB Mass Starage device? (No special drivers, no "secret agent" proprietary transfer programs that only support certain OS's, etc. etc.)
2. Can it play a majority of NON-DRM related formats? MP3, WMA, OGG, etc. etc. The more the better.
3. Does it have a battery solution that would render the player useless if the original battery were to wear out? Is the battery solution user replacable at a resonable cost? Is the battery solution rplacable even if the company that sold it to you goes out of business or only supports their "current models"?
4. Is the device firmaware upgradable? Are firmware upgrades and updates activly provided? (firware upgradable does not mean much if the parent company never offers them)
The funny thing is -- I don't think the device that is the most popular (iPod line) even comes close to meeting any of those reqs.
My Archos Jukebox does (HD Based) My Frontier Labs CF based player does
Jar-Jar was the reason my kids (aged 4-7 at the time) wanted to see the movie a second time....and a third time. That got George about $35 compared to the $7 he lost from me wanting to watch it a second time.
All of the "hard core" 40 year old Star Wars geeks can say what they want about script failure and misplaced loyalties -- but George knows where his bread is buttered.
Agreed. Having people spend 2/3 of the article on the installation process these days is akin to reading a review on an airplane that says: "It flies".
" And then there are newer PDA's out there that have as much horsepower as frikkin possible (Does it have a hemi?), and with the tiny battery, 2-3 hours can be about right if you're using it like you'd use a PC. Such as playing MP3's in background while connecting over wifi to the killallthebastards.com FPSMMORPG and yakking to your buds on a VOIP call. Yeah. That tiny LiIon battery's gonna die real quick."
I can be reading/. with MP3's playing in the background and I still get less than 2 hours.
The only thing that really works is if I listen (not stream) MP3's with the screen off -- I can get about 4 hours.
I think this will make a huge impact on the industry as compared to music and movies.
being addicted to a TV show (or getting into a TV show in the first place) is like crack. If I miss an episode (or get into a show late into the season) -- it is a very time sensitive issue. I either miss out on it and become "lost" or wait for the DVD a year or 2 later.
Compare that to some musty old (non time sensitive) copy of a Rolling Stones song. That song was there 20 years ago and it will be there 20 years from now -- in the same never changing format as the first time I heard it on the radio.
Is it just me or would this be like buying the plates and silverware when you go out to dinner?
I am not hard to please - At the end of many (most) movies I can give them a thumbs up and then move on with my life. Very few times have I said, yea I want to buy that movie and watch it a thousand more times.
Even in this day and age when I could pop a DVD into my laptop and "click rip and burn" -- I don't even bother doing that. It's not like the movie is going to end any different or have a different plot line the 2nd time I watch it.
We just ordered a couple of these for work to test out.
We are stuck in a bad position with PDA's (PPC and Zaurus).
The problem is we have a mobile workforce that needs a handheld form factor, with fairly complex (in house built) applications. Tablets are too big. The device has to have the option of "being holstered" to allow for the workforce to do more tradional gets your hands dirty type of work between data collection sessions
The PPC memory base is about 64 meg split between storage and memory. Fairly complex database driven applications can eat through that memory in no time especially if the particular user base has more than one application that they need to switch back and forth from.
The OQO seems tempting, because there would be no more need to "port" the parent applications to the PPC or Zaurus. And there would be no more need for the "feature" and asthetic tradeoffs that you have when you port to a device with 320x240 display and 32 megs of memory.
Sure battery life is a concern -- but when our user base can plug into a car charger betweeen work sites, it should be minimal. (The battery life of a PPC with the backlight on and constant usage is not exactlly anything to write about anyway....)
Slashdot Mirror
"The Famicom was still in production in Japan until a year or so ago."
And it is still outselling the Xbox.
I guess the Sony Walkman NW-HD05 (20 Gig Mp3 player) that I bought a few weeks ago is a spoil of war. I compared for months against the fan boy favorites (iPod) and every other little box with a HD and mp3 decoder chip -- and decided on the Sony for simple reasons....
1. Removable and replacable battery
2. Battery life of more than 20 hours per charge
3. Sound quality (I am not an audophile - but on the audiophile websites - they gave this thing a constant thumbs up)
4. Consistantlly high user reviews
5. Size (yes it is smaller than an Ipod)
The only thing people complained about constant was the software....In the end I figured big deal....my software experience with Sonic Stage would be shorter than a blind date. Only long enough to dump 20 gigs of mp3's from my USB HD to the player -- and then it would be divorced from the PC anyway, so who cares if the software sucks and sony is evil, as a consumer -- sound, quality, battery life and usability is 99% of the overall experience in the long run.
Why not have a music service where you pick your tunes, pay for them -- and have them delivered on plain old fashioned CD...just like if you got them in the store. Everyone wins.
There is no DRM on an established media. The content providers are not taking any more risk than with the CD's they sell of the shelves at the record store or target. The customer owns the "master" and it is not tied to any particular technological device or operating system. They would be 99.9% compatible with anything that can play music.
We know this model works. It has made many record companies and artists rich and famous and many customers happy ever since the introduction of the first LP....All the way through 8-tracks and cassette tapes. The customer retains the right to choose what to do (digital wise) with that CD. If the customer happens to own a PC and Portable music player --- he can rip it to whatever format and bitrate that floats his boat.
I can't wait for a $16.99 (MPAA) tax on renting a DVD in America or going to the mvoies. At that point I am for sure going to burn a copy -- no matter if there is a nasty "skit" during the previews that discourages me to or not.
Can't let these crazy Canadians have all the taxable fun.
"Like JPEG, MP3 simply isn't bad enough to forsake compatibility for a superior codec."
BINGO! Saying MP3 is on the way out because there are a couple of obscure codecs that may sound better, is kind of like saying gasoline is on the way out because there are some vehicles that can use Ethanol or Power Cells. Over the years I have had over 15 devices that can decode Mp3's, if I was only able to throw AAC's or OGG's at these devices -- I would be listening to a lot of air. (Which in my wifes opinion would be more preferable than my actual musical tastes).
From where I am standing most Apple fanboys appear to wear (like a badge of honor)proudly the fact that they have purchased each "generation" of Ipod's -- one after another, every six months or so. They are like collectors.
Me personally, when I purchase something, I want it to last...and for it to be a WIN/WIN situation. I get value as a consumer, and the producer gets points for quality. Everytime I hear, "ooh, I need a new 5th gen iPod - my 4th gen is on it's last legs". I simply turn up the volume on my mp3 player (that was purchased before even the 1st gen iPod was a flicker in Stevies imagination) and chuckle.
"It's ugly"
Oh yea, banner ads are much more sexy and pleasant today.
" Its not vaporware if you cancel/delay a product that no one knows about."
Yep. That has to be an internal Apple slogan. I have also noticed that their reach does not exceed their grasp. You see so many products and markets (PDA, Cellphone, etc.) that people say "If only Apple would enter the fray" -- well there is good reason I am sure. Quality would suffer, support would suffer, and most of all you may alienate a fraction of the fan base if you just throw something out there of subpar quality.
OTOH - There is always the "Shuffle" --- not hard to beat that. I think that was a litmus test to see if Jobs was the new Charlie Manson. Hey -- let's put an ordinary, simple product out there and see if our cultsters will worship it above all others no matter the fact that it is less of a product than most of the competitors.
If you don't mind me asking, what kind of wireless cards and router are you using? That accomplishment (being able to stream DVD quality video) would be a great advert for the hardware. I am assuming this is on Linux, so the 'g' cards are supported and have good drivers.
The best I have been able to stream with much success over any wireless network (b or g) is somewhere between VCD and SVCD quality. What I save in running a few 25' cables throughout the house -- I lose in CPU cycles transcoding everything to MPEG1 VCD quality so that I can stream shows across the network. Not to mention the possibiliy of having to transcode again to a format for something like a video Ipod or PSP.
because I am not much of an apple fanboy, and saying this makes me feel dirty -- however, they usually seem to deliver pretty well lately on the hype they are generating. Micro$oft has a tendancy of the "cry wolf" syndrome or vaporware, or delivering less than what was hyped. Apple seems to be able do live up to the hype.
Dugway proving grounds in Utah. Many people I grew up with's parents worked there. Mostly just a dumping ground for chemicals and agents that other states have managed to avoid getting dumped in their backyeards :)
They great thing about video game systems is that despite all of the hype at launch -- in the end, they either sink or swim based on the quality (and in some ways quantity) of games produced for them. With the Dreamcasr being the exception -- it crashed even with quality games.
I don't follow the handheld market much since the SP. Based on the hype for the PSP, and the success of the PS2 -- I thought that it was sure to have play for a while -- but it is pretty evident of late that it is hurting. Some of it seems to be lack of quality games, and some of it seems to be a good ole' fasioned ass whoopin from the "underdog" DS that seemed to be at deaths door when the PSP launched. All it took was 3 or 4 good games for the DS to rise from the ashes (it seems).
" Does this mean I can get busted for putting big chrome exhaust pipes on my Honda Civic?"
Only if you steal the pipes without paying for them. If you put stolen pipes on a ride that you have paid for, then the law of man has been broken.
If you pay for the pipes, then only the law of good taste has been broken.
KDE and Gnome are both bloated behemoths whose aim is to
crush humanity by their girth.
I had always liked gnome, but they refuse to get the file manager / selector (something every app. uses) down to something that does not make me want to pull out my hair. And what good is a sound daemon / manager if every other program that wants to play sounds has not been made aware that the "sound traffic cop" only wants certain programs that were invited to the party to be able to play sounds. ESD = BAD.
KDE takes longer to start up than my old 2 cycle weed eater on a cold day.
I personally settled on XFCE and filerunner.
"That's complete BS. We need more organizations like the EFF and more funding to support them. The internet should be become the greatest interactive public library in history, not a logjammed pollbooth laden series of checkpoints and chokestops."
And more baseball teams like the Cubs. Or more movies like Battlefield Earth.
I think a fair judgement would be to force Bill Gates to stand out in the cold for a week in line with hundreds of his coworkers for the oppurtunity at midnight on the 6th night to get trampled by people rushing to get their refunds from his wallet.
Stay away from "lock in" products.
Just because they are popular or slick, does not mean they are the best.
Here is my criteria:
1. Can I plug it into any OS and have it be seen as a regular USB Mass Starage device? (No special drivers, no "secret agent" proprietary transfer programs that only support certain OS's, etc. etc.)
2. Can it play a majority of NON-DRM related formats? MP3, WMA, OGG, etc. etc. The more the better.
3. Does it have a battery solution that would render the player useless if the original battery were to wear out? Is the battery solution user replacable at a resonable cost? Is the battery solution rplacable even if the company that sold it to you goes out of business or only supports their "current models"?
4. Is the device firmaware upgradable? Are firmware upgrades and updates activly provided? (firware upgradable does not mean much if the parent company never offers them)
The funny thing is -- I don't think the device that is the most popular (iPod line) even comes close to meeting any of those reqs.
My Archos Jukebox does (HD Based)
My Frontier Labs CF based player does
They want to charge you a buck to watch shows recorded on your DVR?
Why couldnt you just hit record for free? Or even schedule a recording?
Jar-Jar was the reason my kids (aged 4-7 at the time) wanted to see the movie a second time....and a third time. That got George about $35 compared to the $7 he lost from me wanting to watch it a second time.
All of the "hard core" 40 year old Star Wars geeks can say what they want about script failure and misplaced loyalties -- but George knows where his bread is buttered.
Agreed. Having people spend 2/3 of the article on the installation process these days is akin to reading a review on an airplane that says: "It flies".
you said:
/. with MP3's playing in the background and I still get less than 2 hours.
" And then there are newer PDA's out there that have as much horsepower as frikkin possible (Does it have a hemi?), and with the tiny battery, 2-3 hours can be about right if you're using it like you'd use a PC. Such as playing MP3's in background while connecting over wifi to the killallthebastards.com FPSMMORPG and yakking to your buds on a VOIP call. Yeah. That tiny LiIon battery's gonna die real quick."
I can be reading
The only thing that really works is if I listen (not stream) MP3's with the screen off -- I can get about 4 hours.
Battery life is an issue.
I think this will make a huge impact on the industry as compared to music and movies.
being addicted to a TV show (or getting into a TV show in the first place) is like crack. If I miss an episode (or get into a show late into the season) -- it is a very time sensitive issue. I either miss out on it and become "lost" or wait for the DVD a year or 2 later.
Compare that to some musty old (non time sensitive) copy of a Rolling Stones song. That song was there 20 years ago and it will be there 20 years from now -- in the same never changing format as the first time I heard it on the radio.
$2 an episode is the right price.
Is it just me or would this be like buying the plates and silverware when you go out to dinner?
I am not hard to please - At the end of many (most) movies I can give them a thumbs up and then move on with my life. Very few times have I said, yea I want to buy that movie and watch it a thousand more times.
Even in this day and age when I could pop a DVD into my laptop and "click rip and burn" -- I don't even bother doing that. It's not like the movie is going to end any different or have a different plot line the 2nd time I watch it.
We just ordered a couple of these for work to test out.
We are stuck in a bad position with PDA's (PPC and Zaurus).
The problem is we have a mobile workforce that needs a handheld form factor, with fairly complex (in house built) applications. Tablets are too big. The device has to have the option of "being holstered" to allow for the workforce to do more tradional gets your hands dirty type of work between data collection sessions
The PPC memory base is about 64 meg split between storage and memory. Fairly complex database driven applications can eat through that memory in no time especially if the particular user base has more than one application that they need to switch back and forth from.
The OQO seems tempting, because there would be no more need to "port" the parent applications to the PPC or Zaurus. And there would be no more need for the "feature" and asthetic tradeoffs that you have when you port to a device with 320x240 display and 32 megs of memory.
Sure battery life is a concern -- but when our user base can plug into a car charger betweeen work sites, it should be minimal. (The battery life of a PPC with the backlight on and constant usage is not exactlly anything to write about anyway....)