Sony takes on iPod Shuffle 501
Ben writes "It seems that Sony has decided to take on Apple with a low cost flash based player that will go up against the Shuffle.
Pocket-lint has
the low down on some of the stats,
as does the BBC and Engadget." The major improvement in my eyes is that some models have an FM tuner.
Ousted Sony CEO was given iPod as Gift (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:FM Radio (Score:1, Interesting)
Never understood why all these rival players seem to include FM radios, if I wanted an FM radio I could use the one built in my phone (not sure what FM is doing in a phone either)
And I've never understood you anti-convergence guys. Think about it - if you happened to want to listen to the radio, you'd now be carrying three gadgets instead of just the one. Throw in an organiser too, and you're really starting to take the piss.
Sony may actually have something here (Score:5, Interesting)
Now all we need to do is find out if the audio quality is just as good.
Re:FM Radio (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, a DAB radio would be nice, but I don't really need it, and I think the extra cost would be too much for most people.
Doubts (Score:5, Interesting)
The iPod isn't a blazing success because of technical superiority; the iPod isn't a blazing success because of crazy mad features. The iPod is a success because it does what it was designed to do very, very well--better than the players that boast eternal battery life, radio tuners, wireless, video playback, more storage, more audio formats, lower prices, and smaller packages.
It's about finding the right balance--and based on what I'm seeing, I don't think that Sony's upcoming offering will succeed at striking that balance.
More importantly. (Score:3, Interesting)
This will most likely mean a shift for Sony from being a hardware company to a content company. It will also mean hightend interest in DRM and copy protection on Sony's part.
Personally, I think it's a big mistake for Sony to forget "their old slogan".
Sony -- Because caucasians are too damn big!
The price point (Score:2, Interesting)
Ironic though that after all these years of complaining about the high cost of Apple computers, all of a sudden it hard for others to beat the quality, user experience, AND price point Apple does? *shrug*
FM tuner can be a big deal (Score:2, Interesting)
So, I absolutely consider the addition of an FM tuner to be a very big deal.
...and here's why it will fail. (Score:3, Interesting)
It all looks pretty reasonable, sexy OLED display *on* the actual device, and then you get to this part:
While it connects via USB, the player appears to have a non-standard connector, so it won't connect directly to a PC's USB port, just the bundled cable. (From The Register [theregister.co.uk])
Just like the iPod photo, which needed a special cable to connect to TVs to show photos, it will fail (iPod photo is Apple's slowest seller) - nobody wants to carry around a cable for basic functionality.
Imagine the scenario, you're at a client site, or at a friend's house, and need to move a file from one computer to another - and because the network is down, you have to use your USB stick. But no, you forgot to bring the cable. Brilliant.
Re:Kudo to Apple... (Score:5, Interesting)
Until the shuffle came along, most flash-based player manufacturers thought "People need to see what song they are listening to" and thus tried to cram a poor interface with display on a tiny gadget. But Apple said "let the interface be clean and simple, and let there be new no display -- and there was no display". "Let the users listen to songs that they like, and they listened to songs that they liked, whether it was in a playlist order or a random order -- they still liked the songs."
I didn't think I'd like the iPod shuffle without a screen, but I wanted a flash-based player (& iTunes support).
Having had a shuffle since Macworld, I can say it is the only player I use (I also have a 20GB iPod). Screen? Don't really need the screen.
And here's a tip -- ONLY ADD THE SONGS YOU WANT TO HEAR!! Then it doesn't matter if it is in playlist mode or shuffle mode, you'll always be listening to songs that you like.
Re:That kills it for me too. Sorry try again Sony. (Score:2, Interesting)
iPods work as USB drives, but only play music loaded with iTunes or one of the many 3rd party reverse engineered iPod loading apps (GTKPod and ephPod come to mind).
The iPod display gets all song metadata from a database file, not the tags on the individual song files.
Re:Er... WTF? (Score:5, Interesting)
For what its worth, I saw several people crowded around the Shuffle and other iPods and no one around the other players which were in a different area of the store.
All other things aside, cool players (Score:3, Interesting)
And these things look goooood. If they're as good as iPods in sound and ease of use (conveniently NOT thinking about iTMS and iTunes) they should sell quite well. And battery life of 50 hours with thingies you can buy in just about every store won't hurt either.
Of course, as a mac user, I think I'll have to pass, I don't see them make it mac compatible, the bastards
imo the first real competition. Strange, how the consumer space works, no?
Re:Sony may actually have something here (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, "insane" is a good word to describe it. Remember the touted battery life of Sony's PSP, vs. the real-world performance?
Unless Sony has discovered a radical new MP3 decoding chip or audio amplification circuit that no one else knows about, I'm likely to disbelieve that their products actually do have ten times the battery life of similar devices.
More likely what's going on here is that Sony's still transcoding all your music to ATRAC3 -- it's a power-friendly format to decode and you'll never notice the difference through $10 earbuds anyway.
Re:Kudo to Apple... (Score:2, Interesting)
1. a screen
2. work without any special software to transfer files
3. have a user-replaceable battery
You don't want a screen? I don't get it. I've got a 1GB Muvo Mico N200. With 1GB, I can fit between 17 and 24 albums (that's 200 to 300 songs at a good bit rate). I like every one of those songs. However, sometimes I like to listen to them in random order, and sometimes I like to listen to one album at a time. If I am listening to one album (say the 1st album on the player) and I want to switch to listening to the 12th album on the player, how do I do this on a ipod flash (with no screen)? Pushing the 'next' button 100 times is NOT acceptable.
Also, I don't understand this devotion to itunes. I look for [and buy] players that specificaly DON'T support itunes (or any other transfer software.) I keep my music organized in the file system by artist, ablum, and track, so I can quickly copy full albums onto different devices -- no special software required. That way, if I get some new album that a friend of mine would like to hear, I can plug in the player, copy the album, and it is done. He doesn't have to install some stupid piece of software just to talk to my player.
Regargable batteries eventually wear out. At a minimum, I want to be able to replace the regargable batteries when this happens. Can't do that with any of the ipods. I prefer players that use standard batteries (AA/AAA). That way, I can have spares already charged up when I am away from any power sources. Better yet, if all of my batteries are used up, and I don't have time for a recharge, I can stop by the petrol station and grab a few alkaline cells. You can get an external battery pack for the ipod mini and standard, but they double the size of the package. With the ipod shuffle, you are out of luck.
The N200 also has an FM tuner, which is useful for listening to NPR/news/traffic/weather --esp. while traveling. However, having a tuner isn't a big deal for me. However, if you do have a tuner (and has other people have pointed out, this works well in health clubs where the TV sound is broadcast over FM) how do you change the station without a screen? You could auto-scan, but sometimes autoscan misses some faint stations and the only way to select them is by setting the station manually. Also, how do you switch FM regions (or know what region is selected) without a screen?
I guess if you don't have very many features, you don't need the feature of having a screen either. However, I can get a lot more features (with pretty good usability) for about the same price as an ipod shuffle, and I don't have to buy a new one when the battery wears out. Why do people buy the shuffle anyway?
Thinking outside the box? I think Apple needs to check out the boxes of some of their competitors...
Re:FM Radio (Score:2, Interesting)
and everyone (except that one dork nobody likes) has an ipod. A few regular iPods, tons of people with mini's, and i'm the only one with a shuffle. I'm assuming that's because it's relatively new and no major holidays have passed for people to get one as a gift.
Re:Why. (Score:2, Interesting)