It continues to baffle me that computer companies are so incredibly clueless when it comes to making consumer electronics. Actually, it makes perfect sense to me…they simply don’t get it and don’t understand what the consumer wants. There are a few exceptions to the rule but for the most part most companies simply don’t get it.
Despite some of my reservations towards Apple’s iPod (i.e. the battery issue), I have to give them mad props for coming out with such an elegant designs that has essentially stood the passage of time. Imagine that since its inception, not much has changed in terms of the design and how it works. There’s a reason why they’re in the lead in terms of the MP3 player market…they took their time, did the right research and brought out a device that’s simple and elegant.
If you look at their supposed competition, it’s essentially a mess with tons of companies releasing a lot of different products into an already crowded marketplace. Granted, many are trying to snatch the price points (i.e. value market) that Apple has skipped on. There are a few that can be considered Apple competitors but even that is debatable. It’s hilarious because these companies continue to release new models every couple of months with features the previous version should have had to begin with. Then, they introduce new features or use a different interface for the new products. Of course, the consumer gets confused because this one company has 10 different MP3 players with 5 different interfaces and the review they just read has last season’s models which look totally different.
A lot of the companies see the success of the iPod and simply think, “hey, people want MP3 players. we can build one too and make it cheaper than the iPod.” Yeah, it would be that simple if all they were building a similar product with the same features and ease-of-use…but they’re not. The only part they seem to be getting right is the actual playing of MP3s. These “me too” companies as I call them are missing out on the user experience and just want to quickly get something out on the market.
One of the weaknesses of many of the “me too” companies is that they release a bunch of products that have different user interfaces and software interfaces. Many rely on integration with Windows Media Player or other popular media players for their interface and many of those, while decent, are still more complicated than iTunes.
Another weakness (and my biggest complaint) is simply the lack of quality in these devices. It’s a two-fold problem. One is design and the other is build quality. I understand that they are trying to hit certain price points and some customers don’t seem to care. They just want the most capacious and cheapest device they can get. However, I would argue that this is only a minority of buyers. The iPod is generally more expensive than similarly equipped devices and yet it’s the most popular. I think that people will pay more for a nicer “feeling and looking” device.
I’m a Sony MiniDisc fan….yeah, I know…it’s dead technology. Whatever. However, if you’ve ever owned the higher end MiniDisc models, you would know that they are first rate devices. Even though they were incredibly light, they had high quality finishes and were exteremly durable. Also, the regular NiMH batteries lasted something like 14 hours and a single AA battery pod boosted playback well over 50 hours. Sony understands consumer electronics even if they have dropped the ball recently. I think people expect a product to feel that it’s worth its price. Sony MD players and Apple iPods have a refined feel to them. iRiver is getting their with their higher end jukeboxes but most other companies still are missing that feel.
I recently bought a Creative Labs Nomad Muvo2 4GB MP3 player. I actually bought it because I wanted to rip out the 4GB MicroDrive in it but that’s another story. Anyways, the device itself is simple and functional. It connects to a PC without any problems and you can simply drag and drop files to it with ease. The sound quality is excellent and the size and battery life are superb. Now here’s where it falters. First of all, while it may feel solid (when you squeeze it) but it feels cheap in your hard. You can tell that the exterior shell is simply thin cheap plastic. Also, there’s a certain imprecision in the buttons and the ports and even down to the labels. The LCD display is great in bright lighting but the contrast is poor in low lighting with the backlight on. The backlight and contrast controls are essentially useless. The choices are essentially dim backlight or dimmer backlight. Because it’s so dim, the contrast controls do nothing. The navigation is decent considering the tiny size of the LCD display but there are almost too many options on the top level. All in all, the device, while competent, doesn’t stand out and does not feel like a $200 product.
Now that summer is rolling around, some of these companies should go out and get a whole bunch of interns from Industrial Design colleges and let them come up with designs. Many MP3 players on the market now look like they were designed by engineers. It might also help to build actual prototypes and get some feedback on the actual usability of the product. When it comes time to decide on the manufacturing process, spend a little more money and use nicer materials. One would assume that these companies are doing this but given what’s on the market, it’s apparent they aren’t doing it or not doing enough of it.
I think there’s still hope. iRiver is the only other company who seems to have a clue and has a plan to bring out good solid devices that are made well. Of course, there are other players out there as well and we’ll see what they bring to the table over the rest of this year. I know that many are jumping up to the portable media players as they see that as the future. I’m sure many of them will continue to make the same boneheaded mistakes but we’ll probably also see some unique thoughtful products as well…i hope.
Ok, that’s my rant of this for now…next up is Digital Media Players…and don’t get me started on those…I’m even more angry about those! :-p
A few weeks ago, Sony released a supposed iPod killer in their VAIO Pocket unit. I originally intended to put this on the droolworthy list but despite it’s cool design and cool features (like direct connection to digital cameras and the color screen) its proprietary nature turned me off. The fact that the device could not play MP3s without being converted to ATRAC basically made the device useless to most people. The need to transcode already heavily compressed music only makes for bad sounding music.
Oddly enough, Sony has released a new product which i think is the “real” iPod killer. Enter the Sony HMP-A1 Hard Disk Multiplayer. I am baffled by this as it basically competes against their VAIO Pocket device even though it’s considerably more expensive. It’s classic Sony…different companies within the company competing against each other. If it’s not an iPod killer it certainly seems like a VAIO Pocket killer.
To be fair, it’s marketed more of a video player as it has the following specifications:
- 20GB Hard Disk
- 3.5” Color LCD @ 320x240 resolution
- MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, MP3, WAV, JPEG (Stills)
- 129.6 x 75.6 x 22 mm (L x W x D) or (5.1 x 3 x 0.86 inches)
- 250g (8.8 oz)
The unit can be charged via an AC Adapter (2.5 hours charge time) AND it can be charged via USB bus power (7 hours charge time). The device can also be used as a portable USB storage device. The battery life depends on what type of media your using. The following shows the approximate battery life when viewing different kinds of media:
- MPEG-2 content : 4 hours
- MPEG-4 content : 6 hours
- MP3 (128kbps) : 8 hours
So, it’s actually comparable to the iPod in terms of MP3 playback time but it has the snazzy color screen. It also has AV output so you can share the movies on a TV. The device comes with an AC adapter, a 1.5m AV cable and USB2 cable, headphone, remote control, hand strap, carrying case, manual and software disk.
The device is scheduled to be released June 27th, 2004 in Japan and will retail for 62,790 YEN (~$566).
It’s pricey and much more expensive than the VAIO Pocket unit but at least it supports known standards and it’s a competent video player. The 4-6 hour life for watching video is more than adequate. At half a pound, it is a little on the big side but it’s a decent size for a portable media unit. I’ll be sure to keep my eye on this item on my wishlist and hopefully have a review when I can get my hands on one.
NEC has released a new 12” somewhat sub-notebook called the LaVie N series. I’m pretty excited about this. The reason is that I’m thinking that 12” is the perfect size for sub-notebooks as it’s the perfect trade-off of size and performance. It’s small enough to be portable but big enough to be pretty usable. Of course, there are 12” models already on the market but most of them aren’t widescreen. Let’s face it…widescreen is the future and it’s inherently much more usable than 4:3 based screens. It also makes DVD viewing much more nice.
The new NEC LaVie N LN500/9DW has the following specifications:
- Pentium M 1.5 Ghz
- 256MB DDR PC2700 Memory Standard (2GB maximum capacity)
- 12.1” Widescreen WXGA 1280x768 “SuperShine” technology for brightness and low reflection
- Integrated Graphics using Intel Extreme Graphics 2(855GME) with up to 64MB of shared graphics.
- 802.11b/g built-in wireless
- 60GB hard disk standard
- Slot loading DVD super multi-drive (DVD-RAM, 2.4x DVD+R/RW, 4x DVD-R/RW)
- Triple memory slot (SD/MS/xD)
- 1 x PC Card slot
- 3 x USB 2.0 ports
- 1 x RJ45, 1 x RJ11
- 1 x IEEE1394 Firewire (4-pin)
- 1 x microphone input
- 1 x headphone output (also used as line output and optical minijack/SPDIF)
- 1 x s-video output
- 1 x VGA output
- Includes an optical mouse
- Includes a stand that with a charge function and a bottom cover that hides the screws and lines and makes the bottom almost all smooth and aesthetically pleasing.
- Standard battery life 4.7 hours (3 hours to fully charge battery)
- 4.4lbs (2.0kg)
- 298 x 199-202 x 37.9 (W x D x H) mm
Ok, there’s a lot to like about this notebook. One of the first thing that jumps out is the Quickstart button which allows you to use DVDs and CDs without starting Windows. Yes, that’s no typo. That’s awesome and looks to be a killer feature.
There are 3 buttons on the top that automatically control the power management abilities. So, you can configure them or leave them be with DVD/Game mode, Music Appreciation mode, and Maximum battery mode.
The screen should be pretty nice in outdoors since NEC has developed pretty good transflective properties on their LCDs. It has a 19mm keyboard pitch so it’s almost full sized keys for comfortable typing.
The system is nice and looks a lot like the Sony TR series but it has a nice Frosty Pearl White finish. It also comes in a Misty Blue Black color. So, it really is a beautiful looking system although the very close styling to the Sony TR. It looks like NEC has developed a nice system with their own touches. It should be interesting to see what other companies release in the 12” range. Hitachi has the Prius series already but we’ll have to see what the larger companies come out with…especially Sony.
For people who read Japanese - http://121ware.com/product/pc/200405/lavie/lvn/strongpoint/index.html
And a 3-D look at the system - http://121ware.com/product/pc/3d/lavie/405/l405_n1/ln1h1.html#top
My quest for a PC-based PVR continues. I basically have all of the components and the much needed IR Blaster (actually the MyBlaster RF USB) but I’ve had to reconfigure my system and start from scratch since I had too much going on on that system. It’s hard to troubleshoot when I’m running so much stuff on that system.
So far, my preliminary tests have been going pretty well. I did a few overnight trial runs on the setup and it worked. The IR blaster was able to change the channels on my external cable box and all of the programs were recorded without any problems. The only issue I ran into was the blaster would lose control of the box after long periods of time. The only resolution was to restart the system. I’m not exactly thrilled at this as the system is supposed to be on all the time and be trouble free.
And so the tests continue…I think I’m damn close so I’m pretty excited so far. We’ll see how things go.
