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pienipple posted:I had one of these Geoj posted:Since we're revisiting MP3 player chat, my first was a RCA Lyra: Pilsner posted:I had this 20GB brick, the Creative Nomad Zen:  Ah, the quest for the less-terrible MP3 player.
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May 6, 2014 03:17
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Base Emitter posted:
I've posted it here before and I'll post it again: Rio Karma.
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May 6, 2014 03:28
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Base Emitter posted:
My little brother went through three or four warranty replacements of those because the buttons would stop working after about six months' use.
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May 6, 2014 03:39
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Pham Nuwen posted:
My 30Gb still works, but I had to find a WIN 7 workaround.
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May 6, 2014 03:41
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My personal favorite: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-should-pull-the-plug-on-the-iphone
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May 6, 2014 04:00
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Krispy Kareem posted:My personal favorite: Jesus, has this guy ever been right about anything? I remember reading his columns in the mid-early 90s and even as an elementary schooler shaking my head at how stupid his poo poo was. He's like the Tom Friedman of tech writing.
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May 6, 2014 04:13
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Penguissimo posted:Jesus, has this guy ever been right about anything? I remember reading his columns in the mid-early 90s and even as an elementary schooler shaking my head at how stupid his poo poo was. He's like the Tom Friedman of tech writing. I was about to make this exact same post. Dvorak sucks.
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May 6, 2014 04:23
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strangemusic posted:I've posted it here before and I'll post it again: Rio Karma. The best was the Sony one. The one that didn't really even play mp3s, it just transcoded your mp3s to one of Sony's awful proprietary formats and played that instead.
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May 6, 2014 04:30
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If that was written in 2005 just after the Motorola Rokr was released then it would have made some sense.
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May 6, 2014 04:35
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I use two older Sansa mp3 players myself, in the year 2014. My girlfriend uses a Creative Zen Vision M. Clearly we are high tech.
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May 6, 2014 04:52
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Dvorak owns, literally a professional troll.
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May 6, 2014 05:09
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Penguissimo posted:Jesus, has this guy ever been right about anything? I remember reading his columns in the mid-early 90s and even as an elementary schooler shaking my head at how stupid his poo poo was. He's like the Tom Friedman of tech writing. Everyone has 'that friend' who makes (usually) expensive purchasing decisions and will holler til the end of time that they are right and every other product sucks. Keep this friend and do the opposite and your life will be filled with happiness.
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May 6, 2014 05:30
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Phanatic posted:The best was the Sony one. The one that didn't really even play mp3s, it just transcoded your mp3s to one of Sony's awful proprietary formats and played that instead. It's funny how if Sony hadn't fought the MP3 market so hard they could have owned it from the ground floor. I had a number of MP3 players before my smartphone took over, starting with one of the earliest CD MP3 players and ending with a 16GB Sansa I still have around. (It was the second largest actually, after the 20GB Nomad Zen.) The iRiver I had was in there too. Best CD-based player I had before I got the Zen, little and slim with a cool remote and all, convenient for listening to while biking. It was too thin to use AA batteries: it came with a custom set of rechargables, about the same size but shaped like packs of gum. 
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May 6, 2014 06:20
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Base Emitter posted:
this guy:  was my main music device for nearly a decade, until I lost it somewhere and replaced its functionality with my Android tablet still miss it, it was so very tiny
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May 6, 2014 10:06
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Phanatic posted:The best was the Sony one. The one that didn't really even play mp3s, it just transcoded your mp3s to one of Sony's awful proprietary formats and played that instead. Those were ATRAC files right? I had one of those, loaded it up once and then pretty much never changed the files on it as transcoding files to the format was kind of a pain.
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May 6, 2014 11:37
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Mr. Flunchy posted:Those were ATRAC files right? I had one of those, loaded it up once and then pretty much never changed the files on it as transcoding files to the format was kind of a pain. Ah Sonic Stage you piece of poo poo!
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May 6, 2014 12:29
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My first MP3 player was one of these: Ah, the Toshiba Gigabeat F20. 20GB of storage, which I filled with all sorts of low bitrate MP3s downloaded from Limewire. I remember my charging dock never worked properly, but it didn't matter really. It served me excellently until the capacitive touch + thing used to get stuck, so if you wanted to turn the volume up one level it would keep going all the way til max  Fond memories of installing Rockbox on it, it blew my mind when I saw you could play DOOM 
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May 6, 2014 13:00
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So Gizmodo posted a somewhat tongue in cheek article about Sony's new high capacity magnetic tape, cue half my friends list earnestly posting about how cassette tapes are coming back. 
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May 6, 2014 13:00
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vxskud posted:So Gizmodo posted a somewhat tongue in cheek article about Sony's new high capacity magnetic tape, cue half my friends list earnestly posting about how cassette tapes are coming back. They're just trying to wind you up.
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May 6, 2014 13:59
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Christmas Present posted:this guy:  I used this for a few years. The larger half held a single AAA battery while you just plugged the player part into a computer and it showed up as a flash drive. I wish I could find a picture of the first mp3 player I had, a one-off CD/mp3 player also by Creative I brought while on holiday in Singapore in 2001, and I'm convinced it has never been sold anywhere else. It was purple and white, had piss poor battery life and tiny unresponsive buttons, and after playing 40 mp3s it would lock up and you'd need to pull out the batteries in order to reset the thing. The battery compartment was also under the lid and you'd often have to remove the still spinning disc just to access it. It sucked. edit: This is the only image I could find of it:  It was literally called something like the Creative MP3CD-001. mrkillboy has a new favorite as of 14:13 on May 6, 2014 |
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May 6, 2014 14:08
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Speaking of Smartphones, behold, my first two smartphones: This wasn't the actual phone I had...I can't remember what model that was; but this is very similar. It ran Pocket PC 2002, like this one, but had no camera. The biggest problems were that it didn't run the "phone" version of Pocket PC 2002, so all the telephony and modem software was developed by Samsung and wasn't native to the Windows CE environment, so there were problems with getting "apps" (not called apps back then, but whatever,) to communicate with the cell connection. It also had a regular SD slot, not an SDIO slot. This wouldn't be that big of a problem if the thing had wifi, but it didn't...yes, that's right, a smartphone without wifi. That's how lovely "smartphones" were back in that era. I then thought I could use a wifi SDIO card...except it only had a regular SD card slot, not an SDIO one. So...yeah. I got it in 2004/2005 from eBay (it was already outdated by then, but it was cheap-ish.) It took like three phone calls to finally get it activated on my plan (since I had Verizon, not a GSM carrier where I could just pop out a SIM card.) There were problems with getting the data plan added on and so forth. I initially didn't even want a data plan, but once I found out it had no wifi built in, I had to get one. So I used it as my actual phone for all of two days before I switched back to my old, monochrome screen flip-phone from 2003, and canceled my data plan. I then just tried to use it like an organizer, or to play games on. But other than poo poo like solitaire, there weren't a lot of games. I tried to get a NES emulator to work on it, but it was janky. Ran slow, and it had a weird hardware issue where it only ever recognized ONE button press at a time. So even though it had enough hardware buttons (including a "directional pad" type of area,) I couldn't really play any games on it. So I kept that same old flip phone from 2003 until 2007 when I got this beast:  Samsung SCH-i730. That's right, I didn't learn my lesson from Windows Mobile/Pocket PC before. To my credit, though, this one at least had a Pocket PC version designed for phones (came with Pocket PC 2003 phone Edition, and was up-gradable to Windows Mobile 5.) Still was poo poo. I kept that for less than two years before I got rid of it, and finally got off of the family plan on Verizon I was on through my parents, and went to AT&T and got the iPhone 3G. Then went from that to various kinds of Android phones.
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May 6, 2014 14:29
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mrkillboy posted:
I loved these guys, after my friends moved on to better kit I ended up with about three of the early 128mb models and each one would hold a different playlist. I reckon I came out ahead, because my friends upgraded to these:  Sony NW-HD1, 20GB. A decent enough player, well-built, good controls, massive battery life, but the software was absolute dog shite and it took forever to put any music on it.
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May 6, 2014 14:41
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Oh, boy, MP3 player talk! Intel used to make gadgets and stuff, and among them was this:  The Personal Audio Player 3000. http://www.amazon.com/Intel-IDAP264NA-Personal-Audio-Player/dp/B00005OM4J It is easily the most reliable and durable audio player I've ever owned, and the battery life is pretty good, too. I still have it and it still works just fine! I think my favorite feature was all the faceplates it came with--there were lots of colorful 3D holograms you could swap out, and it came with software that let you design and print your own.
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May 6, 2014 14:52
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mrkillboy posted:
edit: That one says 2GB so it must be a much later model.. By that time I had already gotten myself a first gen iPod Mini
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May 6, 2014 15:00
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Just to go on a random tangent... Swatch ".beat time".  quote:Swatch Internet Time (or beat time) is a decimal time concept introduced in 1998 by the Swatch corporation as part of their marketing campaign for their line of "Beat" watches.
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May 6, 2014 15:02
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sirbeefalot posted:Seeing that thread never fails to make me chuckle. That's been Apple's M.O. for pretty much for ever. They release a product that has fewer features than the established market, at a higher cost, and usually with more restrictions. And people line up for it.
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May 6, 2014 15:10
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Killer robot posted:It's funny how if Sony hadn't fought the MP3 market so hard they could have owned it from the ground floor. It's even funnier because the electronic arm of Sony is so much larger than the music arm. But the tail wagged the dog so hard Sony missed out on the biggest consumer electronics revolution of the decade. gently caress Sony.
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May 6, 2014 15:30
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mrkillboy posted:edit: This is the only image I could find of it:  Creative DAP-CD0001. You burnt the MP3s to a CD-ROM, roughly 130 songs to a CD. Trying to find something was pretty woeful as I think it just read everything alphabetically and straight off the filename. The "next album" button meant switching folders through A to Z. There was a "jump by 10" function that sort of got around that hurdle. But if you had 130 unorganized mp3s to dig through it wasn't really that fun. It was at least smart enough to have a buffer that at least kept the song going short of really severe bumps. In the end it was a bit like an Apple Shuffle where you dumped in a pick of your top 40 and worked on by memory.
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May 6, 2014 15:34
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Lowen SoDium posted:That's been Apple's M.O. for pretty much for ever. They release a product that has fewer features than the established market, at a higher cost, and usually with more restrictions. And people line up for it. Except this wasn't the case with their early computers at all, and wasn't the case with the iPod, either. Do you know what feature it had that the other MP3 players didn't? It was actually loving usable. I dislike Apple for a lot of reasons, but trying to pretend that the iPod was them leveraging their brand to sell an inferior product is dumb as hell given that "their brand" as you're describing it only really exists now because of the iPod and iPhone.
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May 6, 2014 15:57
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Inspector_666 posted:Except this wasn't the case with their early computers at all, and wasn't the case with the iPod, either. Do you know what feature it had that the other MP3 players didn't? Before the iPod apple was punchline in the tech world after the iMac hype died down. They succeeded in spite of their brand.
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May 6, 2014 16:12
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Yeah, it's worth remembering how embryonic the MP3 player market was when the iPod came out. Which is probably why the announcement was greeted with such skepticism.
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May 6, 2014 16:23
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DrBouvenstein posted:Speaking of Smartphones, behold, my first two smartphones:  My friends called it the "Guam Phone" and refused to believe it was sold in first-world countries (yes, I know Guam is a US territory.) vxskud posted:So Gizmodo posted a somewhat tongue in cheek article about Sony's new high capacity magnetic tape, cue half my friends list earnestly posting about how cassette tapes are coming back.
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May 6, 2014 16:37
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Inspector_666 posted:Except this wasn't the case with their early computers at all, and wasn't the case with the iPod, either. Do you know what feature it had that the other MP3 players didn't? Forever was a hyperbole, I should have said for the last 14 years. But I stand by my statement. You could argue that the iPod was easier to use than other players or that it's UI was better and you might be right. But I don't think that is what sold them. As you said, they didn't really have that brand power at the time. What they did was launched one of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time to make the iPod look hip and cool. Who can blame people for buying the iPod when it was advertised on TV as much as it was with cool looking silhouettes dancing to popular tunes. No other MP3 player was advertising like that. Combine that with Apple's clean and modern looking physical designs, and it's little wonder that the iPod sold like it did in spite of other players have more features and fewer restrictions. Basically, back then I don't think that Apple sold the iPod on brand recognition or on usability. I think they sold it on marketing and looks.
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May 6, 2014 17:27
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Aristophanes posted:My first MP3 player was one of these: Someone else who actually had this? This is also almost the exact post i would have made. I still use mine, actually. I have a smartphone but like the 40GB storage. The screen broke on the first one i had so now I just use it for external storage.
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May 6, 2014 17:41
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WebDog posted:I think I had the same thing (posted earlier). Curiously the Internet seems to have forgotten this, as I found it with little issue last time. I had a player that was identical looking to this one called that I think was the Samsung YEPP MCD-SM55. They look physically identical to the point that their different brand names and different logos appear to be placed in the exact same places. I think the Yepp even had an option of the extra headphone remote, too. An image search on Google brings up several decent pictures. I also had an RCA Lyra RD2312 that I bought at Big Lots about 8 years ago for $30 that I always thought was pretty cool. It was just bigger than a pack of gum, had an SD slot, ran on a single AAA battery, USB input, battery cover that could be replaced with a belt clip, a built-in mic, FM radio, ability to record FM radio (IIRC), a line-in jack. Extremely nice for the time. It still works, too.
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May 6, 2014 18:03
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Lowen SoDium posted:Combine that with Apple's clean and modern looking physical designs, and it's little wonder that the iPod sold like it did in spite of other players have more features and fewer restrictions. What really catapulted the iPod was iTunes, which was the most unrestrictive digital music store. Music stores before iTunes had all kinds of weird rules like you could burn this track, but not this track, and only X number of times. Apple managed to cut through all that and put together an usable storefront. Sure there was still DRM, but you could burn an iTunes playlist 10 times and individual tracks until the laser on your Superdrive fell off. I'm still not entirely sure why the record labels agreed on iTunes. Maybe because it was Mac only and easier as a proof of concept test. After iTunes got popular they did everything they could to change those terms, but by that time it was too late. GWBBQ posted:That reminds me of my first smartphone, the Samsung SCH-i760 I remember looking at that phone and this one:  I ended up getting some forgettable HTC Windows 6 phone that needed an adapter to plug in standard headphones. Back then it really was like selecting the lesser of two evils. Nothing worked like it was supposed to. Krispy Wafer has a new favorite as of 19:05 on May 6, 2014 |
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May 6, 2014 18:56
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Krispy Kareem posted:What really catapulted the iPod was iTunes, which was the most unrestrictive digital music store. Music stores before iTunes had all kinds of weird rules like you could burn this track, but not this track, and only X number of times. Apple managed to cut through all that and put together an usable storefront. Sure there was still DRM, but you could burn an iTunes playlist 10 times and individual tracks until the laser on your Superdrive fell off. Probably a lot of truth to this as well. At the time, I was a filthy pirate and so were most of my friends, so I didn't appreciate the advantage of an integrated music store at the time. But Apple probably was the one most responsible for making seamless digital music stores the rule rather than the exception.
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May 6, 2014 19:25
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Killer robot posted:The iRiver I had was in there too. Best CD-based player I had before I got the Zen, little and slim with a cool remote and all, convenient for listening to while biking. It was too thin to use AA batteries: it came with a custom set of rechargables, about the same size but shaped like packs of gum. mystes has a new favorite as of 20:56 on May 6, 2014 |
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May 6, 2014 20:53
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There were some attempts for customized music, pre-Ipod, too. I think Sam Goody's or some other chain tried to market kiosks in stores that would let you select songs and have them burnt to a CD and either you'd pick them up there or have them mailed to you. A major record label was attempting something similar where you'd select songs online and pay for them online and they'd mail you a CD with those already burnt to them. I'm sure there were always some restrictions, though. You might not be able to have an entire catalog to choose from, you might not be allowed to put certain songs from an album on their or put more than x-songs by particular artists on a single CD. As a funny aside to this, I remember when a resale CD shop set up an elaborate plan that went on for a long time. They'd burn whatever songs you want to CD for some flat price or per song plus cost of the service. The example they gave was something like: -Buy 10 CDs from us for $100. -You 'own' those CDs since you bought them and are allowed to copy songs for personal use. -You leave the CDs with us, with a list of the songs you want recorded and give us $15 to do that. -You come back and pick up your mix CD, and sell us back your 10 CDs for $80-90
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May 6, 2014 21:02
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Aristophanes posted:My first MP3 player was one of these: That looks very Star Trek-y.
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May 6, 2014 23:04
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