Review of Dell's Digital Jukebox 382
bu115hit writes "Tom's Hardware has a review of Dell's Digital Jukebox. The quick summary is that Dell has provided their own version of an iPod in size and shape, and they gave it better battery life. However, it seems the iPod is still a superior product overall, for ease of use if nothing else."
Behind the game (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Behind the game (Score:2)
Re:Behind the game (Score:2)
The 40 gig iPod has better price/performace than the Dell (assuming performance means capacity).
Re:Behind the game (Score:5, Funny)
"My only wish is that the IPod Mini came in white."
Don't you know why iPod mini colors were chosen?
Re:Behind the game (Score:2, Insightful)
There are a few things about the IPod Mini I don't like. The price is not attractive, but there is that old saying, "You get what you pay for.", and I think that's true. I also mentioned before
Re:Behind the game (Score:2, Informative)
Whats the big deal with the mini? (Score:2)
Do the new pretty colors justify that much of a rip off? I don
Re: (Score:2)
Another review of Dell's digital jukebox... (Score:5, Informative)
Straight from Steve Jobs's own weblog [justonemorething.com] comes a more succinct review [justonemorething.com]
Re:Another review of Dell's digital jukebox... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Another review of Dell's digital jukebox... (Score:3, Informative)
There is obvious apple bias, but I agree with pretty much every point he makes.
Re:Another review of Dell's digital jukebox... (Score:2)
Netcraft says the site is hosted on FreeBSD.
not Steve Jobs' "own" weblog... (Score:2)
Last time I checked, Steve's name wasn't Olivier Lebra, and Steve didn't live in Montreal, Quebec.
If it's supposed to be a parody, you could have fooled me...
Re:Another review of Dell's digital jukebox... (Score:2)
Am I missing something here? Doesn't Steve Jobs own apple or something? Why does he have to buy one?
First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:4, Informative)
- slightly wider (not that much)
- slightly thicker (not that much)
- slightly heavier (not that much)
- not as many songs (after 2500, does it make a difference?)
PROS
- cheaper
- twice the battery life
For a commuter on a budget, this looks like it stands to gain some market share.
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:5, Informative)
That Dell thing looks just like any of the other generic MP3 players out there. It has nothing like the scroll wheel and excellent UI to distinguish itself like the iPod has.
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:2, Funny)
What we really need in the review is some objective data on whether an Apple or Dell is better at helping you pick up the evening's companion at the gym.
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:2)
The point of buying an iPod isn't that it is necessarily a good mp3 player (it sort of is), but the fact that you will look incredibly hip using one. A iPod is just the thing a modern metrosexual man would use while walking his poodle or checking his .Mac mail on his 17" iMac.
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:2)
I have to agree. Aesthetics isn't the *only* thing that matters to me, but there's no way I'd buy that thing (or the Neuros [neurosaudio.com]) just because I couldn't stand to look at it. That white band around it looks like those old white wall Chevy tires [petepaulsen.com] from the 1950's.
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh gee I don't know. What does your keyboard, mouse, monitor and Operating System have to do with your computer?
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:4, Interesting)
- slightly wider (not that much)
- slightly thicker (not that much)
- slightly heavier (not that much)
While each dimension might seem only "slightly" bigger/heavier, the results are surprising if you do the math.
The Dell is 56% larger by volume and 36% heavier than the iPod. Figures below.
Volume:
Dell: 4.1 * 2.7 *
iPod: 4.1 * 2.4 *
(9.52 - 6.1) / 6.1 =
Weight:
Dell: 7.61
iPod: 5.6
(7.61 - 5.6) / 5.6 =
number of songs. (Score:2)
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:3, Informative)
- slightly wider (not that much)
- slightly thicker (not that much)
- slightly heavier (not that much)
- not as many songs (after 2500, does it make a difference?)
PROS
- cheaper
- twice the battery life"
And then there's:
- installation process so bad that a "mom" would have returned it
- unfinished product (doesn't work with many USB hubs, etc.) " buy the device now before Dell spends the development money to get it right" vs. "something that works out of the box without any trouble and does what you expect"
Headphones, dock, firewire (Score:3, Insightful)
for this you get:
-it feels nicer in your hands and slips into your pants pocket better and is less of a pocket weight in you jacket or shirt.
-Best quality earphones magnets you can buy, with low-tangle coated wires
-Firewire charging. Did you see the brick the Dell comes with?/ this is not really a portable device.
-you can charge the apple anywhere with a tiny plug for the fire wire.
-you can plug the apple into most computers with or without softw
There is more to the cons (Score:5, Interesting)
I feel that I won't get modded up because i'm so late to the thread. (and i live for karma)
But I am very surprised that nobody has mentioned the very important facts about Dell Jukebox. In fact, I am close to believing that everybody is talking out of their ass when it comes to hdd mp3 players.
My brother has a Creative Jen Xtra. It cost 270 bucks for 30gb model. It's the cheapest hdd player ever when it comes to gb/dollar. I found a guy who had a Dell Jukebox. Both of them had the exact same interface. I didn't see enough of the dell to see if it's got all the creative's EAX stuff, but the user interface is exactly the same.
Now, you don't know how bad the interface is. And frankly, if you've never really used iPod, I suppose you'd think it's pretty nifty. You just don't really know how good life can be.
First of all, dell/creative doesn't work as usb mass storage device. Even iPod works as firewire mass storage device!! The device driver and the provided software sucks. Again, perhaps you don't know how good things can be unless you are used to iTunes/iPod combo. All I know is that the drivers for dell/creative cause crashes on windows xp sometimes and half of the times it doesn't crash, it doesn't work. It's like crapshoot.
On the dell/creative interface, it is the most convoluted thing. No designers in the world has ever come up with how you can comfortably present all the complexity of hdd mp3 device. No one. For example, in iPod, there is no way to delete songs or find bps of songs or edit existing playlists. Apple made a decision when they decided to hide all that for simplicity of use.
On dell/creative, you can do all of the above. The tradeoff? You can't just play a song by clicking on it! When you click on a song, it brings up a menu and you scroll to "play this song" and it enters the "currently selected" section where it will be played. Most operations make you hunt through menus and godawful number of clicks.
Sizes. dell/creative is big. I can use my iPod comfortably with three fingers. My index finger supports iPod, my middle finger balances, my thumb clicks buttons. I have to use the whole hand to hold the dell/creative. Especially creative zen is awkward because there are buttons to operate on the side of the players. You have to coordinate all five fingers which all has buttons assigned to it.
I bet you, if I had gotten dell/creative about an year ago, i would have thought it was pretty sweet. But alas, I got an iPod. I know how good things can be. I tell you, no reviewers have spent enough time with any number of mp3 players to really know how good iPod is compared to the others. Trust me, we wouldn't be hearing about no iPod killers.
For the records, I am an ex-linux user of about 3-4 years. Then I became freebsd user. Then I got a used crt imac g3 600mhz (fastest computer i own). My freebsd server still serves files over samba and acts as the gateway.
Re:Fifth page tells you why you just got hosed (Score:2, Interesting)
I generally like all of my collection, there isn't any "fluff" in it.. it's all collected carefully and I would much prefer to have a device which could just hold the entire library.
I mean.. 20gb.. 40gb.. 60gb.. for laptop size mini drives, yes, it is important to keep it smaller than larger
Re:First page says what most will need to hear... (Score:2)
The Battery (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Battery (Score:5, Funny)
I look at my Sony Clie and my GBA-SP. Both have a tiny little screw that holds the battery cover on. Both my Clie and the GBA-SP are smaller than the iPod, and yet they still managed to provide user-access to the battery.
I haven't seen the miPod up close yet, but I imagine they don't have a battery cover either.
I think Apple just doesn't like screws.. they're definately anti-screw. Maybe it's because Apple hasn't discovered a way to make them glow yet.
Re:The Battery (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Battery (Score:2)
If you're proposing to replace the actual li-ion polymer battery, that might open Apple up to liability issues, because those batteries aren't exactly the most stable things in the world. Also, the
Re:The Battery (Score:2)
I heard lithium polymer batteries were *safer* than Lithium-Ion batteries, which is what is in the GBA-SP.
If Nintendo thinks replacing the battery yourself is safe, it's good enough for me. Nintendo actually sells replacement SP batteries for $10.
As far as space is concerned, take a look at a GBA-SP.. I don't see how
Actually, the battery isn't replaceable (Score:5, Informative)
(Also, iPod's battery is replaceable, via several different methods [ipodbatteryfaq.com].)
Re:Actually, the battery isn't replaceable (Score:4, Informative)
I must admit I am biased - it took Dell months to give me a refund for a cancelled order. After trying a variety of mediums of communication and talking to people on three continents, the way I got results was a simple letter in an envelope posted with a stamp. So much for it being a technology company.
The best thing about Dell computers is that there is a whole ecosystem of other companies that fill the niche of supplying Dell parts within a reasonable time frame. They cost more, but you know that your order is actually going to get processed and that you will get the part. Last time I ordered a part directly from Dell I allowed five weeks, and it wasn't enough.
Re:The Battery (Score:2, Interesting)
Unlike Apple, Dell doesn't seem to have an official replacement program in place. I'm sure they'll institute one once the first wave of customers start finding that their Jukeboxes can't hold a charge, just as Apple did. Also, you can purchase replacement batteries and do the install yourself for about $50, just [ipodbattery.com]
Both good (Score:5, Insightful)
They are the only two units for sale right now worth having. The others are bulky, ugly, more expensive...why bother.
In the end I went with the lock-in. I bought the iPod becuase I bought alot of iTunes music, and I love my iTrip FM transmitter.
Re:Both good (Score:3, Insightful)
Really? I hate mine. I don't even consider it usable.
Re:Both good (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Both good (Score:2)
I have to disagree. The audio quality from one player to another is not always equal. Creative Labs' Nomad Zen NX (and some other Creative players) have the highest (meaning best) signal-to-noise ratio [ndt-ed.org] of the players I've looked at. (Though I still bought an iPod.)
And based on the reviews I've read about other certain players, the firmware and/or hardware is unresponsive at times causing the user to wait up to 10 or 15 s
Battery life (Score:4, Interesting)
8h+ == 16h?
Re:Battery life (Score:3, Interesting)
No. Replace "up to" and "over" with "about". That may help you parse the sentences in a way that may make sense to you. The rest of us get it.
~16h = 2 * ~8h
Whoever modded this question "interesting" should be flogged. The parent post is vacuous.
Re:Battery life (Score:2)
Re:Battery life (Score:2)
Over x hours meaning just more than, say 8.2 hours.
iDon't Care! (Score:2, Funny)
Poorly executed review (Score:4, Insightful)
The price comparison links for the iPod say they're for the 20Gb model when in fact they're for the 15Gb model, thus eliminating a major point in favor of the Dell model: no USD$50 Apple premium.
The conclusion makes it sound like there were many problems with the unit, but reading the rest of the pages I found that outside of the reviewer botching the software installation, his only criticism was that the unit isn't a very featureful voice recorder. (And how he expected things to work properly after he canceled the software installation in the middle, I don't understand. Maybe it could have been smoother, but panning it in the review when he did such an unusual thing in the setup just doesn't seem fair.)
There's almost no discussion of playback capabilities. Those of us who've used these devices know that there are issues to watch for: some devices have problems at certain bitrates, or with handling variable bit rate recordings, etc. No apparent effort was made by the reviewer to address those issues. I'd also have appreciated some discussion of the quality of the audio stage, how much power it has, how it performs with quality headphones, etc.
This "review" reads more like a poorly executed "first look" than the product of a reasonable-length, in-depth evaluation.
Future of the music industry (Score:5, Insightful)
The real hit is going to come in the form of people downloading songs that they like - I do not have to buy an entire album of crap just to listen to one song, and neither do I have to pay $12 for a CD full of crap.
This is the market's way of getting back and eliminating bad music. Sure, there will always be some cross section that will listen to stuff like Britney and the Boybands, but they will largely diminish purely because popular demand for better material will kill them.
Apple, HP, Microsoft and now Dell. Yay! Way to go.
Thats your loss (Score:3, Insightful)
It is at your loss when you only get the songs you like. I have several CDs that I got for one song, but after listening for several months I suddenly realized that a different song that I didn't care about is now the one I like the most. Not all songs have reached that point, but some have, enough that I'm unwilling to get just one song for fear of missing the better ones that you need to learn to like. Most real artists don't include a bad song on their album.
I however do not listen to (much) RIAA
Re:Thats your loss (Score:2)
In fact, some of the bands I really like are ones which are unaffliated and which you probably have not even heard of.
My point is that good music will get heard, no matter what. Hell, I hated G3 when I first heard them, and after listening to them for a while, I do not know how I ever got by without listening to them.
Quality seldom goes unnoticed, especially in an area l
Re:Thats your loss (Score:2)
They used to be called "album tracks" and that's where you find the artist's true sound and personality; what their music is really like when they're not trying to make a no.1 single. Bands like U2 and Qu
User Interface (Score:2, Insightful)
Meanwhile... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:2)
I own both, iPod wins hands down (Score:5, Informative)
The iPod was purchased based on winning design, features, available accessories (iTrip, CF reader, etc). The Dell DJ was purchased because it was $219 no tax no shipping for the 15MB version, making it by far the cheapest portable device that can store several GB of data.
However the interface on the DJ is horrid. The display does this "windowing" thing where clicking the main button never performs an action but only leads you to a menu of actions. To do the most simple thing in the world, resume playback where you left off, you have to click three times.
The primary clicker is also a joke. The combo scroll wheel is tacky and too loose. Often I will go to click only to have my thumb spin the wheel down instead. The recording button is a nice idea, but you have to hold it down to register, and there is no way to name your recordings so you know what they are. (By the way, this might be good because the way you enter names in other sections is to wheel tediously through letters A-Z, then choose the options to shift to letters a-z, then wheel to the actual letter you want.)
Also, no dock for the DJ. It uses a USB2 connector on the top...bad design. The connection is so tight I was afraid to plug it in for fear of breaking it. Pulling it out makes me just as fearful.
And finally...worst of all...the Dell DJ does not detect as a standard USB2 device! WTF was Dell smoking? Am I supposed to carry the Dell DJ driver CD around at all times? Why not just carry my data on CD instead? The whole point of portable storage is to load it up, and take it anywhere you need the data to access it. The iPod is detected as a standard firewire/USB device on every version of Windows 98SE or higher.
Overall, it will serve its purpose for a prototype, but Dell needs to spend some serious money to come out with a 2nd generation version that addresses these issues. I understand they can't use a wheel like Apple does, but there has GOT to be a better analog input than what they came up with.
Oh, one last nail in the coffin...the include software is from MusicMatch and is without a doubt the worst piece of software I've ever used. There is no automatic sync. The option to sync your player and computer is buried three levels down in the software. The ID3 tags you make in music match don't translate to the player (will sort 1 10 11 12...19 2 20 21 22 on the player, ignores track number). The only saving grace is that as a standard Windows Media device, you can use pretty much any other program to sync the device, but I think Dell was really stupid to sign up with MusicMatch instead of just writing their own (given that Windows does all the work, all they need is a pretty interface with a big "Sync" button).
That's about all that comes to mind. I wouldn't recommdn the Dell unless you were someone who planned to load their entire collection once and then never ever ever touch the player again. If you had to sync/update the Dell DJ on even a weekly basis it would drive you up the wall. Spend the extra $100 and get the 10GB iPod or the extra $40 and get the 4GB iPod mini.
-JoeShmoe
.
Re:I own both, iPod wins hands down (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I own both, iPod wins hands down (Score:2)
Where this hurts you most is when you go to a school, or K
Re:I own both, iPod wins hands down (Score:3, Interesting)
I haven't used the Jukebox, but I highly doubt the Dell uses a similar design. The wheel on the Dell is the diameter of a pencil. It is made of cheap plastic and has a very firm groove in the "notches" that the wheel ticks off. The end result is you can't spin it, you roll it. The wheel has no inertia and will stop as soon as your thumb stops moving. You have to roll it repeatedly to travel a longer
Why use a mp3 player with a hdd? (Score:3, Interesting)
In contrast, my old Rio CD mp3 player uses a pair of AA batteries that don't require a special charger (if I'm on the road, I'm glad to be able to "recharge" my mp3 player anywhere AA batts can be found), the batteries last several hours too, and I probably carry more than 15G worth of data on my CDs (and more importantly, I can burn as many more as I want). Finally, there's no risk to trash the hard disk heads with shocks. All of that for the $110 I paid for it new 3 or 4 years ago.
So I'm wondering : sure CD mp3 players don't have a particularly exciting form factor, and I have to swap CDs, which isn't sexy, but they're cheaper, they (seem to) fare better with shocks, consume less power, don't use special batteries and have virtually unlimited "storage" capacity. It seems to me those are much better no-nonsense devices compared to those hdd mp3 players. Hip tech fashion victims aside, do these iPod things really make sense for the average Joe Blow like me who just wants music on the go without headaches and wallet-aches?
Re:Why use a mp3 player with a hdd? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why use a mp3 player with a hdd? (Score:2)
Re:Why use a mp3 player with a hdd? (Score:3, Insightful)
Not true - CD players skip. MP3 players don't. I think the whole "shocks trash your hard drive" deal is a myth - I've never once heard of anyway's iPod having shock-related problems. I take mine jogging, and it has no issues whatsoever. If there was any kind of significant risk from everyday shocks, Apple would warn you about it.
don't use special batteries
You can recharge the iPod from any AC outlet, and car adapters are available. Also, you can buy an add-on AA ba
No audible.com (Score:3, Interesting)
So I returned the Dell and bought the Gateway DMP-X20. For the same cost, I got all the same features, plus an FM tuner, voice recorder, and audible.com support. So far I've been happy with the Gateway.
-tim
Re:No audible.com (Score:2)
One other thing - the Dell's scroll wheel and buttons are nicer than the Gateway. The Gateway's scroll wheel is slick (in the slippery way) and if your hands are very cold it's very hard to spin without depressing it and activating the button. The forward/back/menu buttons around the scroll wheel are also hard to find by feel and nearly impossible to depress with heavy gloves on.
Still - audible.com baby!
-tim
Re:No audible.com (Score:3, Informative)
Just download the older version of Audible's software - I think version 3 or below will work, and use the codec that comes with it. Grab Goldwave [goldwave.com], a very impressive digital audio editing program, for less than $50. It'll be happy to open audible files using the codec mentioned, put in splits at silences (cue points), and save the individual blocks into MP3 files. Overall, conversion of
Fortune said it best... (Score:5, Interesting)
Dell Unveils Its iPod Kryptonite
Bizarro was an imperfect clone of Superman yet still pulled off the occasional superhero feat. So it is with the Dell DJ.
By Peter Lewis
The evil scientist Lex Luthor used his duplicator ray to try to clone Superman, but something went terribly wrong. The result was Bizarro, a good-natured but ugly and backward version of the Man of Steel. Bizarro was the antithesis of cool; his home planet, Htrae, was square.
When Bizarro had good news to announce, he would say, "This am terrible!"
Which leads us into a discussion of Dell's new Bizarro version of Apple's iPod, called the Dell Digital Jukebox Music Player, or Dell DJ for short. Coming from the square world of Dell instead of the hip world of Apple, it's bigger, heavier, and clunkier than Apple's sleek, suave, elegant iPod, which arrived on the scene two years ago and quickly became the most popular portable digital music player on our home planet, Earth. Even worse, the Musicmatch-backed Dell Music Store is the clumsy, Bizarro counterpart to Apple's brilliant iTunes Music Store.
[...]
Bizarro, the pathetic wretch, was driven mad by constant comparisons with the handsome, smart, and sexy Superman he was meant to emulate. So too must the DJ suffer from inevitable comparisons with the iPod, with its two-year headstart. If the iPod did not exist, the DJ might even lay claim to the title of Best Portable Music Player Since the Sony Walkman.
But the iPod does exist, and so do Apple iTunes and the Apple iTunes Music Store, and thus the Dell DJ is doomed to be merely the second-best player on the market.
Nothing works on a hub... why not? (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF???
It is not just a matter of needing a powered hub, either. The Tom's Hardware review notes that it was a powered hub with which the Dell digital jukebox failed to work.
I don't know enough about the USB spec to know who's wrong, but it seems to me that if USB devices don't work on a hub, either
a) the hub is defective, or
b) the device is defective, or
c) the USB spec itself is defective.
What's the deal? Are hubs supposed to work, or not?
Re:Nothing works on a hub... why not? (Score:3, Funny)
A big improvement (Score:3, Informative)
MusicMatch, the software that comes with the DJ is by far the worse part of the product. However you can pay $20 for Dudebox, a much better product by Red Chair [redchairsoftware.com]. Highly recommended.
Re:A big improvement (Score:2, Funny)
Ouch. (Score:2)
The last remaining link to the caveman people?
Venting about the Rio Karma (Score:3, Informative)
Just thought I'd point out a couple of things which I haven't seen on
-The iPod is easier to use, and looks cooler, but it will only synch to one PC, so it's significantly harder to pirate your friends' songs. (Since everyone in my office got one, they were a little disappointed when I explained they had to copy mp3s onto a local computer, then copy them onto the iPod in a separate directory using it as an external hard drive, THEN load from there into their iTunes back at home before they could take each others' songs).
-The Karma uses a proprietary filesystem, so if you want to use it as an external hard drive as well, you'll have to install the Rio software on the PC to which you want to transfer files.
-The Karma has a little scroll wheel on the side, which you have to have functional to navigate the OS. However, the design is such that it is most likely to fall on the wheel if you drop it (take a look at a picture of the Karma and you'll see why). After dropping it once, and breaking the wheel, I had to crack the thing open and krazy glue the wheel back into place (nerve racking since it's designed so that dropping glue 5 mm's off will glue the wheel so that it won't turn). My other option was paying $200, or 66% of the price new, to have it fixed by Rio itself. THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM.
-Finally, a nitpick: Rio charges extra to permit mp3 encoding in its software. It's not a big deal to use a third-party encoder, but seriously, WTF?
So I'd say get the Rio Karma for better pricing and pirating capabilities, but keep it encased in bubble wrap or avoid all pavement or something.
A little unfair on the installI (Score:2)
I find this unfair in that my iPod can only charge when plug it into the firewire port on my external drive. Apparently daisy chaining doesn't work so well with the iPod.
Find that in the iPod docs. And I am a shameless consumer of Apple products. Don't assume that Apple stuff always "just works".
tom's hardware...tom's schmardware (Score:2, Interesting)
15 - 20GB?? I'd rather have a 1.5GB player (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:15 - 20GB?? I'd rather have a 1.5GB player (Score:2)
Peace
design, design, design (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who does a lot of travelling and moves around a bit, I see these things as digital wallets. Why else would you want 40 Gb? Dell's device might be more usefull if you could go to any computer with a reasonably modern OS and plug it in, without needing administrative access to install drivers.
There is another problem, USB. The iPod has firewire which doesn't need a host, I can only speculate that this is one of the reasons why Belkin chose firewire for their card reader. USB is good, it's good to have both, but when you want flexibility, USB has it's issues.
Sometimes it's just the little things that count, that make a good design great. When I go to work and work on pc hardware and Windows, I miss the details, nuance and elegance that makes working with my Mac at home a joy to use.
Re:design, design, design (Score:3, Informative)
Quite honestly, there's nothing more useful than reserving 2GB on your iPod for an OS X Server install so you can boot your Xserve in an emergency. Xserve even comes with a front-mounted Firewire port specifically for this purpose.
I pretty much have my server emergency kit on me at all times.
You get what you pay for (Score:4, Interesting)
Battery life (Score:4, Interesting)
Good player (Score:3, Interesting)
Altho not as small as the iPod, it has a more rugged feel to it. More solid, and less fragile. Plus it doesn't look so friggin' girlie.
Sound is great, but those earbuds *are* crap. The thing puts out enough power to push studio headphones - cheap ones, yes, but still. On good phones it sounds great.
The version of MusicMatch included with it sucks. For those (like myself) that hate reading manuals, it is absolutely horrible. But the Windows Media Player access is logical, so I normally use that.
If you do not have USB 2.0, get it. My initial transfer of about 11GB of songs took overnight. I bought a 2.0 card the next day. Transfers are exponentially faster now. Oh, and I run it through an *unpowered* hub when I use the USB1.x connection, and never had any problems with it being detected.
Over all, I like it. Plus it's well padded with the C note I saved by avoiding Apple.
An alternative to iPod - iRiver iHP-1[24]0 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
AAC works great for me, and I have thousands of MP3 and AAC files.
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
patents (Score:2)
Re:patents (Score:3)
Well, now you do, it's called FAAC.
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:3, Insightful)
yeah, it sounds great to you . and that's what everyone else wants?
Why would you need to take a FLAC audio file on a portable device?
because, some portables are capable of playing through a line-out into good speakers and some players even have near audiophile snr to make a difference.
My God man, why do you need OGG and FLAC support? I have thousands of MP3 and AAC files.
because of freedom. freedom to get an encoders that work on different platforms. because people have al
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
Are you a dog or something?
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
Convert them all to mp3 and then delete the flac files to save space. Your entire collection would sounds just as good and take up much less space.
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:2)
Look, there have been a LOT of comparisons about the different formats out there. Why not just encode things to MP3 or AAC at a higher bit rate?
because, some portables are capable of playing through a line-out into good speakers and some players even have near audiophile snr to make a difference.
Could be true I suppose. Have any examples of some "near audiophile" players?
because of freedom. freedom to get an encoders that work on di
Re:ogg? flac? (Score:3, Funny)
The freedom to not own an iPod?
FLAC support? On a portable? (Score:2, Interesting)
This is speaking in general of all portable, small audio solutions, not a dig on any company, just before anyone decides to go on a tangent on me.
With a small device like a iPod or a walkman, you can't bring the type of equipment where a lossless file would show any noticable difference. Hell, even low bitrates probably
Re:FLAC support? On a portable? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:They don't have an Ipod (Score:2, Insightful)
THG was one of the first sites to break open the original 5GB iPod to see what was inside. You ignorant clod!
Re:iPod tunes play on... (Score:2)
Re:Mmmm, gotta disagree (Score:2)
Oh god damn will you troll just shut up with that FUD allready!
Re:Mmmm, gotta disagree (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps, but if that's your basis for countering the original post's assertion that "it seems the iPod is still a superior product overall", then it doesn't really contribute to the argument for the DJ / against the iPod, since the Dell DJ doesn't have a user-replaceable battery, either.
Re:Tom's Hardware Error?? (Score:3, Insightful)
* Songs are 30 seconds each at 32 kbps
Point is, the song is COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS as a unit of measure, since songs can be different lengths and encoded at different bitrates. It hold 20 gigabytes of music, 'nuff said. Or perhaps I should say "Gibabytes" (God that sounds so stupid) to appease SI whiners.
Re:Tom's Hardware Error?? (Score:2)
Depends on what you define as a song (Score:2)