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Music Media

$300 portable MP3 CD player 63

Posted by CmdrTaco from the did-we-mention-this-already? dept.
An anonymous reader sent us a link to NAiAM's CD-MP- a $300 player that will play CD-Rs full of MP3s, as well as straight audio CDs. I thought I posted this, but it isn't showing up in the archive, and several people recently submitted it.
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$300 portable MP3 CD player More

$300 portable MP3 CD player

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  • Same experience here.
    This product continues to be vapor-ware.

  • You mean "...will be ready for shipment before Christmas"?

    Their website has said that since october '98.

  • ROTFL (Score:1)

    by synaptik ( 125 )
    Lord Kano:

    The retroactive nature of changing one's .sig on slashdot has given Chris an excellent opportunity for historical revisionism, and to nullify your flame. ;)
  • That "Christmas" ETA was Christmas of 1998. I visited the site last summer and it said the same thing.

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad

  • Posted by JoeyRamone:

    Oh I want such a player. Let's say (conservative estimate) 10 normal cd's can be placed on one cd-r, than we have 600 minutes of listening pleasure. Great stuff for my daily train-voyage :)

    Gimme one :)

  • Posted by JoeyRamone:

    Thank god the ramones are slobs themselfs :). By their records.....
  • Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:

    >>Copyright 1998 Chris Hedemark.
    Hey Chris, it's not 1998, it's 1999.

    If you don't know that how good can your claim of copyright be?

    LK
  • Posted by PasswdIs ScoreOne:

    It is my understanding that any digital consumer audio equipment (in the US) must follow the rules laid out if the Digital Copyright Act or whatever.

    Devices must:
    (1) only use special media that is heavily taxed. [see the so-called 'audio grade' blank CDRs)
    (2) and implements serialized copy protection to disallow copies to be made from copies.
    (3) "computer Peripherals" are exempt from this.

    An example is Philips consumer audio CDR recorder. It will not record on 89 cent CDRs but instead requires 'audio grade' CDRs costing several dollars each and which support the serial copying system.

    If this MP3 unit has to do this it will not be worth the added cost of operation.
  • Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:

    When you change your .sig it takes effect retroactively. So two seconds after you change it when someone attempts to access it they see your revised version.

    At the time I posted my message it said 1998.

    LK
  • Yeah, this sounds much better than fussing about with filetransfers for the RIO, etc. Just pop in the disc and go.

    Hm, wonder if I can get my fiance to get me one?

    And yeah, man, the Ramones are the coolest. :)
    Kyt (seen Rock'n'Roll High School over 200 times.)
  • This unit is a player, not a recorder, so it should not be subject to (2). (1) might be another issue, not because of the cost of the CD-Rs, but that they might have to refuse to play anything not recorded on an "audio grade" CD-R, and thus have to modify the device to do so. (Grrr)

  • >The idea is already WELL KNOWN. It is just a matter of someone getting one of these things to market.

    The basic idea is well-known, an optimal implementation less so. Most of the MP-3 players I know of are the size and cost of desktop computers, since in fact they are desktop computers. Getting the appropriate computing power into a small package -- preferably one not much larger than a typical audio CD player -- is not so well known, nor is the optimal minimal operating system.

    That the Clarion system does not do this yet means either that the software upgrade isn't easy, it doesn't have the processing power, or Clarion for their own reasons has chosen not to do this. As a result, there's a market.
  • Combining the technologies seemed like such a conceptual no-brainer (though I have no idea how tricky the circuitry would be) that I've been surprised that I hadn't heard about such a think sooner. I want one. Now. Gimme.

  • Nice! (Score:1)

    by altman ( 2944 )
    Ok, I'm cynical: I don't think they can do it for the price. Also, the page hasn't changed for almost 6 months...

    Hugo
  • Every page is marked copyright 1998 - could they have already missed their deadline?
  • Way, way, WAY down in the bottom, it states:

    "The CD-R version will be ready for shipment before Christmas. The hard drive based unit does not have a slated release date because we are still deciding on best storage size and are obtaining marketing research on prospective sales of the units."

    In other words, this is vaporware - the product still has nine months in the coming, and damn near anybody could make this product in that amount of time. Sure, I'd like one, but I for one ain't holding my breath...

  • This product gives consumers what they want in audio delivery.

    What people want is lower prices on music. With places like the Warehouse charging as much as $20 for a single CD, the price of music has increased faster than inflation. In particular, the 1985 cost of a record was roughly between 6 and 10 dollars. The 1999 cost of a CD is roughly between 12 and 20 dollars. While the price of an album has gone up 100%, the consumer price index [bls.gov] has only gone up 56% in the same time period.

    The other thing people want is longer playing times. With the exception of portable models, single disc players are a rare item. Multi-disc changers, supporting anywhere from five to 200 discs, is the norm.

    - Sam

  • this has been reported on by mp3.com for some time now... it was due christmas 1998.... i doubt we will ever see it.
  • I noticed that too... it has the 'taste' of a info-mercial.

    And this new CD player comes in not just Black, but blue, green, pink, cyan, ANY color of the rainbow! Order yours now for just 19 easy payments of 19.95!

    cool idea, sucky page.
    ---------------------------------------
    The art of flying is throwing yourself at the ground...
    ... and missing.
  • Wow, I've been thinking about how to make such a creation, if only I had the time. This is a very cool toy :)
  • I remember reading earlier on Slashdot about the CD^3, a CD-based MP3 player developed mainly by a small group of college students. They were making the CD^3 as a college senior project. The description in the article sure does sound like the CD^3, especially with the touch-screen panel, and the table they provide comparing it to conventional CD's, MiniDiscs, and analog tapes, I mean, it looks exactly like the table that was on the CD^3 web page back when I was keeping up on it...

    Anybody know if the CD^3 guys finally found someone to buy up their product? I'm guessing it could be these people.

    Oh, something I didn't catch in the article, if it IS the CD^3, it's run on Linux!!!

    Gotta go...

    --Jason

  • ... that this article is posted the day after the "MP3 - Dead already?" article.

    (I've been waiting for such a beast ... I hope it does hit the market soon!)

    Long live MP3!!!
  • The Rio uses flash memory to hold MP3s ... and not many MP3s at that!
  • I e-mailed these people about 3 months ago inquiring as to how I can get my paws on one of these puppies, and have yet to hear anything back. Has anyone heard anything from them about when/where these will be available? If it's for real, where do I send my $300???

  • This is so cool! i have been lokking for something like this since i started getting mp3's!
    I hope they release this soon! Gotta have it.
  • But the whole thing smacks of being written by a clueless-twit marketing drone. Ugh.
    This might put my empeg purchase plans on hold...

  • MP3s (Score:1)

    by Beef ( 19842 )
    Finally, I can drive from Edmonton to Yellowknife on a single CD! Yea!

    The RIAA is a ball of yarn.

  • The Ramones are the coolest guys ever to walk the face of the earth :).

    You must renounce coolness, and take up the righteous path of slobbiness.

  • Do you think they'll let me out of the institute today? I only bit Mr. Monroe once in the past week.
  • Think, "Post-revisionist."

    Hey, COOL! NT turns quote marks into question marks. Yip yip horrah for multiple-platform LANs! Maybe I can convince the office manager to get some Tandys also.

  • No. The only act in question is the DHRA, The Digital Home Recording Act, from which computer peripherals are COMPLETELY EXEMPT.
    The beef with the rio, and others, is that *if* they fall under the act, they would have to follow the serial copy protection scheme (in CD audio, basically a 2 bit scheeme, one bit for 'original' and one bit for 'copyright'. If both bits are set, a copy can be made. if the copyright bit is set, but the original bit isn't, then the device is NOT supposed to copy. When a copy is made of an original, it must change the 'original' bit to 0. (this is my understanding)
    note that mp3 has these flags in it's header information, though we don't use them.

    The device mentioned here (that probably doesn't even exist), would certainly *NOT* fall under the DHRA, as it is absolutely *NOT* a recorder. There are no other rules about 'audio playback devices', only recording devices. The recording industry wants control of recording, not playback, as one implies the other. If they control recording, they control distribution.

    Note: Computers & Peripherals were exempted from the DHRA specifically so that the music industry wouldn't inhibit innovation in the computer industry. This hasn't changed, I think the computers are just getting smaller.
  • I *like* the RIO. It's not what I think of when I think of a portable mp3 player... but it's neat.
    However, I won't buy one unless it is about $100.
    If it is THAT limited in storage capacity, it's all solid-state, there are no expensive parts.. and the casing sucks.. why is it $200? ($320 CDN in the stores here). I'd LIKE to be able to toss one album on the rio before I go out for a ride, it should be cheap, durable, and ... cheap.
  • Looks like it, I wonder if it'll happen?
  • This one HAS compact packaging! It's 10% bigger than a Portable CD player.
  • So I'm a /. newbie dope; if I don't ask I'll never know.

    kmj

  • a friend of mine talked to one of the Ramones' roadies. he said that joey ramone is so far gone that he needs help tying his shoelaces and stuff.

    apparently backstage they were serving all sort of nice pastries and sandwiches, but joey kept demanding for "bubble gum and boiled octopus".

    hehehehe ...

  • Well, looks like it's gone now. Bummer. I sort of wanted to check this one out, even if it is basically vapourware (from what I've read in the comments here).

    Oh well, I guess I'll try tomorrow!

  • Since it's running Linux, they should just be able to add a CD player, then you could store MP3's, play normal CD's, and play CD's of MP3's. That's what I want! I'd be happy to pay more for the player as well.

    I figured though they might not be able to get data CD players that could take enough abuse to be car players.
  • Other than a bit of a makeover the information on the site hasn't changed in 8 months or so (well, they did put in that bit about Faith Hill, I guess). They asked people to reserve one of the units by filling out a form, which I did and I still haven't heard from them.
  • it has a built in 16 MB Flash ROM.
    I think it can stores about 8 to 9 songs with an average playtime of 4m 30s at 112K

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