The point about my question was that I know about some products but not recent packaging.
I know that the near competitors such as Noxon, Homepod and Roku didn't come with software but suggested what software would work and where to download it. I believe Philips have their own proprietary software and bundle it. I am not sure about MP3 players but I have an iRiver H320 - it didn't come with software but again it said what s/w could be used. I think the market for these Squeezebox/"Media renderers" devices is changing as a result of popularity of iPod type and MP3 players in phones. The sophistication of the Squeezebox devices has also grown from basic SliMP3 to high quality SB3 - perversely the type of customer is also changing from technical users who enjoy the DIY nature to users who want the MS/Apple approach. So the user's expectation of the product bundle has also changed especillay in the last year. Some parallels could be drawn with digital cameras - initially very technical - now for the masses. The users don't want to read much documentnation (e.g. PC installation changed from a manual to one page with small amount of text), users just want to turn it on, let it go and listen to music ASAP. Many don't really worry about formats or tagging until they get to know and use the product in earnest and then find out the significance of format and tagging. On competitive products forums it looks like most of the user are happy to use iTunes or WMP and their problem are mainly WiFi, DRM related or unsupported formats. One approach in the slimserver context would be as part of installation for absolute beginners (or users who have no ripped files) would be to provide a Wizard and help user create a library of ripped CDs (in an appropriate format and tagged) using WMP on Windows or iTunes on Apple as these are default installations. This could be as simple as providing a one page set of instructions rather than expecting the new user to look for and then find the Beginner's entry in Wiki. -- bpa ------------------------------------------------------------------------ bpa's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1806 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=25462 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
