Petite MP3 Player Boots PCs Into Linux

An anonymous reader submits "A French company has created a teensy MP3 player that also boots PCs into Linux. The 1.7-inch diameter, half-ounce Medaillon (way smaller than an iPod) has been around for a while, but 128MB and 256MB models of the Z2 version are now supplied with Shinux, an embedded Linux distribution that includes lots of cool open source applications." The list of included apps, from AbiWord to Xchat, is pretty impressive for a device intended primarily as a music player.

New?

[catbertscousin (770186)]

So... it's like a jump drive you can boot from?

Re:New?

[ceeam (39911)]

Except it has a battery, MP3 decoder, DAC, battery...

<Disclaimer>TFA not read</Disclaimer>

Re:New?

[maxwell demon (590494)]

Apache ?

Who needs this on a key ???

The Apache is there to protect the key: If anyone who isn't allowed to tries to get the key, he'll be shot down with arrows, then scalped.

Way smaller?

[Richard_at_work (517087)]

It also stores way less music or data. No comparison.

Re:Way smaller?

[Sc00ter (99550)]

Yah, no kidding.. 128megs vs. 20-30gigs. Yah, that's fair to compair.

Re:Way smaller?

[frodo from middle ea (602941)]

How about this MP3 [jetaudio.com] player.

It is actully smaller than iPod, comes in 20GB and 40GB versions, and comes with std battery life of 14 hrs and an extended one comes with battery life of 35 HOURs.

It shows up as a USB mass storage on your PC, so can be used in windows, linux , OSX natively (any OS that supports USB mass storage). Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk.

And it plays MP3, WMAs, Flac, and most of all Oggs.

Much more sturdier than iPod. Has FM tuner and can record from FM or buil-in or in-line Microphone.

The only thing it doesn't have is a interface with an online music store, But that's not a problem for someone like me , who already has more that 400 CDs.

P.S. I am not a spokesman for the company, just a satisfied customer.

Re:Way smaller?

[clf8 (93379)]

Umm, it's got no screen. If you don't have the remote, I'm sure you can still start and stop music, but how do you navigate what you wanna play? And, given thousands of songs, how do you choose what to listen to?

"Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk." You must keep your music sorted pretty well; i just let iTunes do it for me. How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player.

Re:Way smaller?

[meringuoid (568297)]

How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player. Or does it store a database on your computer also? Or, do you just drag over your 20+gig of music and let it recopy every time? It's the stupid software that makes things easy.

I have an iHP-140; same principle, it's a USB hard disk that just recognises mp3s, oggs, wmas and wavs that you load onto it. It's... not hard, you know. Two simple commands to keep hard-disk collection and p

Re:Way smaller?

[Civil_Disobedient (261825)]

Look, I hate the iPod-People as much as the next guy, but let's be honest, here.

The unit you linked to is only smaller because they've put the entire display on a separate "remote" unit. That sucks. From an engineering point of view, you want to minimize all ways in which to break the thing -- having a dedicated wired-remote doubles these chances. And look at the weakest link in the chain -- the cable from the remote to the unit -- if anything happens to that cable (stretched, yanked, sliced or diced) or the plug on the end, there goes your fancy display.

Never mind that it's encased in aluminum. The cord isn't.

If they had put the display in the unit, it would be near-perfect. If they added a 1/8" optical-TOSLINK connection to either the unit itself, or the base, that would be perfect. Who wants a line-audio copy of a CD? Digital, man!

Re:Way smaller?

[Azar (56604)]

I've never even heard of this unit before so I was suprised to find out about one with so many features I've been looking for. That unit has some pretty impressive specs. The biggest gripe I can see with it is the LCD and controls are not integrated. Too easy to lose or break.

You seem to be happy with it. Tell me though, what are you biggest complaints? What don't you like about it?

Re:Way smaller?

[tomstdenis (446163)]

Shhh you!

128MB .... 20GB they're all the same aren't they?

Also am I the only one not impressed by their 20Hz-10Khz freq response range? Where does 90dB come from? [isn't 16-bit PCM a range of 96dB?]

etc, etc, etc.

It's just another mp3 player with some flash stuck on the back. Nuttin new here.

Re:Way smaller?

[DigitumDei (578031)]

Well I read the article, it doesn't say whether the linux takes up part of that 128/256megs (or my reading is up to shit, quite possible considering how little sleep I've had).

I'd be pretty pissed off if I bought a 128 meg mp3 player and found half the space gone.

Shinux ???

[freedom_india (780002)]

Couldn't they have thought of a better, nicer name...?
Sounds like kleenex...

Smaller than iPod? Hmmm... maybe France has a future after all..

Re:Shinux ???

[swordboy (472941)]

Its the perfect name for the aspiring geek. As in, "ooh, shiny!"

They've figured us out. Who forgot to wear their tinfoil hat?

Re:Shinux ???

[biglig2 (89374)]

Not to whore for karma, but it is presimably called Shinux because the company that make the Medallion is called Shinco, and it's their own distro.

Interesting that they made their own distro rather than just installing an existing one, they must have a lot of Linux geeks.

I guess they'll sell a lot to Linux evangleists. "What's Linux" "Let me plug my jewelery into your PC and show you!"

Except anyone mad enough for that probably already has a keychain drive.

So its a USB Key...

[nurb432 (527695)]

That comes with stuff loaded from the factory....

This is news? *yawn*

Why?

[Unkle (586324)]

Though it is a neat idea, I don't see the point. The average user is probably not going to use the Linux functionality, and thus probably won't pay the extra money for it. The form factor of the player is neat, though. But not as neat as Oakley's new glasses. http://www.oakley.com/catalog/eyewear/thump/ [oakley.com]

Re:Why?

[theLOUDroom (556455)]

But not as neat as Oakley's new glasses.

Those things are silly.
What if you want to listen to MP3s when it's dark out?

You've got a damn expensive MP3 player attached to another product in such a way the you can't use is 50% of the time.

Re:Why?

[B1ackDragon (543470)]

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, they show a picture of the lenses flipping up, for just such an occasion.

Though, they still look ridiculous (horrific, even). Maybe that's why the first two people using them look like they're screaming?

Re:Why?

[Spoing (152917)]

1. What if you want to listen to MP3s when it's dark out?

You flip the lenses up. [oakley.com]

Re:Why?

[ViGe (49356)]

You flip the lenses up.

And look completely ridiculous :-)

Re:Why?

[gl4ss (559668)]

those oakleys wouldn't exactly be cheap without the mp3 either.

*What if you want to listen to MP3s when it's dark out?* you flip 'em up and "look like a dork, OMG" as if nerds ever cared for such a thing.

Re:Why?

[aurelian (551052)]

No, you're missing the point. People aren't buying an mp3 player which happens to be embedded into a pair of Oakleys, they're buying some Oakleys that play mp3s.

i.e. the market is people who buy Oakleys, viz expensive sunglasses, not techies or geeks looking for a wearable mp3 player.

Re:Why?

[ndogg (158021)]

You know you want to be like Corey Hart [lyricsxp.com]

Re:Why?

[Koyaanisqatsi (581196)]

"It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses with mp3 players."

"Hit it!"

Re:Why?

[maxwell demon (590494)]

How un-geeky. The glasses should change their tone automatically according to present need using some light sensors, controlled by electronics, with the possibility to customize the darkness-tone curve.

Re:Why?

[Minwee (522556)]

They should also go completely black whenever you are in danger.

If Oakley made peril-sensitive sunglasses, I would be all over them.

Strange...

[mirko (198274)]

Looks like the MP3 player from Virgin [engadget.com] that got discussed here [slashdot.org].

This is player is made by Korean EraTech

[i4u (234028)]

See this Coin-Sized MP3 Player [i4u.com]

It also has been OEMed by Virgin Electronics [i4u.com] and is available at Target. The only funky thing with this french OEM is that it has a Linux on it.

Re:This is player is made by Korean EraTech

[gl4ss (559668)]

pretty big coin.

coin shaped sure, but you could make it also a rectangular and way much bigger and claim it was 'coin sized' if you meant that it was some ancient or collectable coin.

Recursive MP3 player

[Rosco P. Coltrane (209368)]

The question is: does this Shinux-booting MP3 player comes with xmms installed, so I can play MP3s?

Re:Recursive MP3 player

[OblongPlatypus (233746)]

And the answer is: Yes, it does. From the list of apps:

...
# tightVNC remote access
# XMMS multimedia player
# xterm X console

My iPod

[Mononoke (88668)]

boots Macs into OS-X.

The ultimate hacker tool

[spyrochaete (707033)]

I bet one of the included tools can mount NTFS. Just walk over to a server, discreetly boot up Linux, copy the SAM file, brute force it at home, and you've got superuser access. Any smart net admin would ban this player from their workplace.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[blowdart (31458)]

Err. Right. Any smart admin has disabled access without a password, so you can only shut it down by the pulling the power, any smart admin has passworded the BIOS and told it to boot off the hard drive, and any smart admin has disabled the USB ports on a server anyway.

Other than that though it's not a hacker tool, there's no blue LED.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[Crashmarik (635988)]

Any administrator in a security sensitive environment will ban all removable media. Take a look at the recen Livermore Labs scandals.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[Errtu76 (776778)]

Any smart net admin would lock the door to the server room so none of this is possible.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[really? (199452)]

Err ... how is this any different from any USB memory stick?
Any admin worth hir/her salary would have the BIOS password protected and no USB support set.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[Le_Batleur (822375)]

BIOS password protected: Mandatory.
USB Support killed: Doubtful.

I guess you armchair sysadmins don't actually know what happens when you kill a useful facility like USB? I'm getting tired of seeing this line of reasoning coming up, and not enough being done to have it shot down.

You throw out support for USB fobs (which have taken over from floppies, mercifully, and must have at least halved support calls planetwide!), cameras, audio recorders (not *just* MP3 players), mobile phone synching - all kinds of stuff which can be used as much in evil as in good.

Use the sensible approach - approach the task in greater detail. Monitor what is being done with USB, educate what is acceptable, highlight what may be exploited, ban what is only globally unacceptable.

And encypt the HDD partition if you're really that paranoid about seeing it when booting USB - otherwise it's useful to carry recovery software on a USB removable drive.

Between USB and the proposed universal drive bay of Intel's (although I can't see many users needing that activeated as much), it's too inflexible to ban at that high a level.

We don't ban road usage because criminals might drive on them. That's akin to what you're proposing.

Re:The ultimate hacker tool

[gl4ss (559668)]

....any server you can get to and boot it is 'insecure'..

the ultimate rehash "hacker!" comment maybe.

**Any smart net admin would ban this player from their workplace.** are you an IDIOT??? what you're saying is that any smart admin would ban things like usb memory sticks, cd's, floppies, portable harddisks and just about any other means of data storage. sure, that's nice and convinient, if you work in coal mine.

charging

[Ziak (807893)]

The Medaillon includes a tiny rechargeable lithium-ion battery, said to provide up to 8 hours of playback time. The battery recharges when the Medaillon is connected to a PC via a supplied USB cable.

Am i the only one who feels that charging a mp3 player by just a computer is a bad way of doing it?

Re:charging

[blowdart (31458)]

Am i the only one who feels that charging a mp3 player by just a computer is a bad way of doing it?

Why? My Zen recharges by USB, as does my phone when it's docked in it's cradle. That saves me 2 power adapters when I'm travelling. Heck, even my digital camera powers up via a cradle which can draw power from USB alone, and my portable hard drive draws power from a USB2 port (unless you're on a Dell Inspirion which complains that the device is sucking too much power from the port. Cheap ass dells!)

I think it is a good idea

[kbahey (102895)]

A few months back, I bought my daughter a Benq Joybee 110 [benq-eu.com].

When we got the bulky box, and then opened it and this puny 2 inch thing came out, she said: "is that it?".

It has a built in Li-Ion battery, that can be charged via the USB connection.

This is a good idea, because I don't have to pay for batteries, the music player needs a PC anyway to copy MP3 files to it anyway.

Of course, the battery will die after a few years, and replacing it will be expensive, but for 99$Cdn after rebates, that is no

Looks are everything

[Killjoy_NL (719667)]

It looks cute, nice and small.
I doubt that it will be a big success, but I hope it will be :)

Cool I guess...

[jmcmunn (307798)]

But the iPod could probably be used exactly the same way, though I have never personally tried.

The main point I see here though, is that if Mp3 players that come preinstaled with Linux get popular, then companies will have valid ground to stand on for banning people from bringing them into the work place as a security measure. Some companies already do it with iPods, just imagine if they get wind of this type of player.

Oh well, when it comes right down to it, 256MB just ain't enough space anyway.

MP3?

[lunadog (821751)]

With Linux installed, why is it using proprietary mp3 and not ogg?

Re:MP3?

[piquadratCH (749309)]

With Linux installed, why is it using proprietary mp3 and not ogg?

The player itself probably has only a dirt cheap mp3 decoder chip onboard. The ability to boot Linux (or some other OS) has nothing to do with the player's abilities. Every USB mass-storage device can boot an OS (but not every PC can boot from a USB device).

Interesting idea

[ajs318 (655362)]

I think this is a great idea. The French have always been a little bit ..... well ..... French. Sometimes it's très chic, sometimes it's downright weird, but you've got to admit, our baguette-munching neighbours across the Channel have a certain je ne sais quoi. Combine an MP3 player with a Live Linux distribution? Pourquoi pas? Sooner or later, somebody is bound to have a go at booting it up, and they might well be pleasantly surprised by what they find. {Bear in mind that the French percieve the USA as bullies, who throw their weight around and fight dirty when they can't get their own way; and resent the idea of their tax money going overseas to buy software when an equivalent or superior product is available locally. Although French youth culture may seem to be very American-influenced, the older and wiser generation classes 'pretending to be American' as a self-destructive behaviour practised mainly for shock value.}

And it only costs EUR159, which is about £100. Lovely! I might have to get myself one of these. I mean, I've already got Slax, Knoppix and probably even TomsRTBT lying around somewhere; I have my Palm Tungsten E, which plays ogg vorbis files, not to mention various combinations of lame, oggenc, mpg321, mpg123 and ogg123 on my home and work PCs, and my wonderful Philips DVDR70 which plays MP3s from CD-R. But I haven't got a device which gives me music playback and a live Linux distro in one handy little package!

One thing is stopping me, though. The minute after I've sent off my order for the 256MB version, as sure as eggs are oeufs, they will launch a 512MB version for the same price.

Re:Interesting idea

[andrewweb (257554)]

"Bear in mind that the French percieve the USA as bullies, who throw their weight around and fight dirty when they can't get their own way"

Actually, I think you'll find it's not just the French who think that....

We (YDL) did it win an iPOD a while ago

[zapp (201236)]

We at Terra Soft Solutions (Yellow Dog Linux) did this with an ipod a while ago. We had intent to sell ipods partitioned with a 5gb Linux space, and the rest open for music - but Apple informed us that the drive wasn't inteded for frequent read/writes, just burst reads... and that we would probably burn the drive pretty quickly.

Ah well, it woulda been cool :)