[ojnihs]

Don't know if any of you guys have seen this yet:

http://www.marketwatch.com/tvradio/p...65E760BA6D3%7D

Looks like Microsoft is teaming up with LG, Tatung, and Toshiba to try and see if they can eat at a share of Apple's Video iPod. I laughed out loud when the microsoft group product manager called their device a fruit basket compared to the iPod being just an apple. Could be just because I absolutely hate microsoft... but that's just me.

 

[rhythmicmoose]

I think it's funny that their strategy against the iPod is to fight it with variety. Isn't that exactly why everything else has failed thus far? People don't necessarily want variety when the standard works so perfectly.

Also, I think this is Microsoft's way of playing it safe. Imagine if they had partnered with a single company to put out a single Microsoft-branded music player. If that Microsoft box were to get shellacked by the iPod, it would look really bad. Microsoft is taking the sissy way out here, and that's no way to fight the king of music players.

 

[Taphil]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ojnihs Could be just because I absolutely hate microsoft... but that's just me.

I think that's the only way one can poop-pooh variety, competition, features, choice, and avoiding lock-in with iTunes/iPod.

 

[jumpinjohn1234]

I was about to buy the ipod 5g last week, Now I'm waiting for the toshiba s series. I think its a whole new ball game, this whole video capiblility. Oh wait!!! Ipod isnt even in the game, the 5g ipod isnt focused on video. Too bad I cant watch a movie and listen to an hour or two of music on the 5g ipod going down to vegas.

 

[imported_Echo_]

^^^ have you thought of the creative zen vision m?

its on amazon right now

 

[ojnihs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taphil I think that's the only way one can poop-pooh variety, competition, features, choice, and avoiding lock-in with iTunes/iPod.

Well as a Mac user, I don't really mind being locked into iTunes/iPod, considering that there is pretty much no other music software to use with Mac or is there any other portable device that is really coined for the Mac community. My personal feelings for Microsoft stem mostly from personal experience with the company, so just as some people dislike Apple (some without ever having even used an Apple computer before), I dislike Microsoft. That's just my personal opinion.

 

[blessingx]

Competition is good, but remember last CES was MS pushing iRiver and creating a 'special partnership' with Creative to combat the iPod. It's pretty rare for MS to give up until they conquer (no matter the financial cost), so we'll see what happens. Guess we'll know a lot more of the next years playing field in a few hours.

 

[AdamWill]

yes, the iPod / iTunes system 'just works'...until you want to move your stuff to another computer, or play it back through something other than the iPod / Mac, etc. This applies equally to Microsoft's "PlaysForSure" (har, har, har) and any other DRM based system. DRM is entirely against our interests as consumers and should be resisted at all costs lest it become accepted.

 

[BodiesOfLight]

I don't really need my portable to play movies. The only time I might need to do that is if I'm traveling and I'll have my (soon to have) laptop to do that and I don't travel all that much.

I also don't see the point of watching movies on these super small devices. The only people I might see getting any use out of them are people that travel quite a bit and need to be watching something, even then they'll usually have a laptop that probaably has some of their music on it as well.

 

[jumpinjohn1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Echo_ ^^^ have you thought of the creative zen vision m? its on amazon right now

For some reason I'm not a fan of creative, i've been tramatized by the headphone jack issue with the zen micro, but I'm still interested in the vision m. It also seems as if the toshiba s series is thinner and shorter than than zen vision m. Although size isnt a big issue to me- dont see people complaining about size when there were only cd players.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BodiesOfLight I don't really need my portable to play movies and lug a heavy laptop around. The only time I might need to do that is if I'm traveling and I'll have my (soon to have) laptop to do that and I don't travel all that much.

Keep in mind some laptops only have enough juice for maybe just a movie. But that all depends on personal use. Gosh lapstops cost the same as mp3 players these days now.

 

[mitchjordan]

Its not like other players dont have merit. Creative makes plenty of good players, of similar quality of Apple, but than again, so do lots of companies, samsung included.

But were they fail is, tech sites call them "Ipod Killers", yet they have missed the reason why apple is so far ahead.

Apple has set price points, and a high quality software setup, with itunes, you can buy the music from it, and put it on your ipod, in a easy to use fashion. Simple. Plus its not easy to get confused with the range, there 3 specific models, with 2 sizes each. No overlap. Plus there marketing is very well thought out and implemented.

Creative has so many players on offer, i dont need to go through all of them, but their price points arnt very well thought out. They just seem to be releasing player after player. Sony keeps changing the name of its software, and is really lacking in features. And none of them seem as together in total support.

Its just why i think apple will keep dominating, even if other manufacturers are putting out better quality players. Which truthfully, currently as a total sollution, they don't.

 

[allenf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamWill yes, the iPod / iTunes system 'just works'...until you want to move your stuff to another computer, or play it back through something other than the iPod / Mac, etc.

Quoting you selectively

, this only applies to iTunes DRM'd stuff.
There is nothing stopping anybody from doing what they want with non-DRM'd mp3 files, including copying said mp3s off an iPod onto any PC with Anapod/iPod Backup etc. It is only a player/software combo after all.
But it is the iTunes bit that makes it a killer player/software combo for the general public. MS/Creative/Anyone have to crack the media management side of it - even with a feature-packed player.

 

[donunus]

I don't get the point of portable video DAPs. Until they can beat portable DVD players in performance, why bother?

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by donunus I don't get the point of portable video DAPs. Until they can beat portable DVD players in performance, why bother?

Everyone I know who has a PDVD has a laptop too, so they make even less sense to me as they're much bigger than a DAP and are out performed (screen size and storage capacity) by a laptop.

 

[angler31337]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blessingx Competition is good, but remember last CES was MS pushing iRiver and creating a 'special partnership' with Creative...

Well, that's kind of right. Competition is certainly good for consumers under certain circumstances; for example, consumers enjoy low prices when a large number of firms compete to sell a reasonably homogeneous product. But as you pointed out, that's not really what MS is doing here. If MS plans mainly to merge with large manufacturers and then use its weight to put pressure on the market, I'm entirely sure that the end result will be positive for the consumer. For example, the plan may fail to hurt apple's strong market share, but succeed in killing many of the smaller competitors in the market.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdamWill DRM is entirely against our interests as consumers and should be resisted at all costs lest it become accepted.

That isn't really true. I can think of lots of positive aspects of DRM from the consumer's point of view. For one thing, effective implementation of DRM should dramatically reduce prices for the general public. The people that DRM does hurt are the ones that do a lot with their content (e.g. listen to the CD, rip CD and encode MP3s, transfer MP3s to other computers and listen to them on MP3 player, etc.). So I suppose that while I don't think that DRM is necessarily bad for consumers as a whole, maybe it would be bad for you personally.

-Angler