mvalera;254731 Wrote: > The Squeezebox Controller at $299.99 is a great value. > > It's a mini linux computer with an ARM processor, built in WiFi, a > Wolfson DAC (same as the receiver), an IR emitter, a headphone jack, > and a SD slot. > Before the announcements I had actually imagined the price to be reversed so the Squeezebox Controller would go around $149 and the Squeezebox Receiver for $299.
But now when I think about it, it's really the Controller that has the huge potential. The old SqueezeBox 3 got huge potential because it got a big display which resulted in all sorts of third party plugins that used the display for all kinds of information. The SqueezeBox Receiver doesn't have this potential due to the missing display. The SqueezeBox Controller does have this potential and on top of that it allows third party developers to develop stuff that will execute directly on the Controller itself. This opens it up for things like games and other kind of stuff which has never been possible on the SqueezeBox 3. However, the real potential of the SqueezeBox Controller IMHO is the SD slot and the headphone jack. The headphone jack is obviously going to be enabled, it's just a matter of time, when this happens you will have a portable SqueezeBox which can be used to listen to music from anywhere where you have WiFi access. It might sound a bit strange, but what I'm already waiting for is the second edition of the SqueezeBox Controller. I'm imagining this will have a touch screen and the same format as an iPod. For users that don't already own a SqueezeBox3, the SqueezeBox Duet looks like a good deal at $399. For people that already owns a SqueezeBox and just wants a graphical remote, I agree with some people in this thread that thinks it is a bit overpriced as a graphical remote. I think the problem is to get people to think of the Controller as more than a remote control. I think the main alternative for people that just likes a graphical remote is going to be the iPod Touch, which is priced exactly the same (8GB version) and also works as a portable device already now. The hardware of the iPod Touch is IMHO a lot nicer than the hardware of the Jive Hardware Beta prototype, although I obviously haven't had the chance to compare it with the real SqueezeBox Controller yet. The problem with the iPod Touch is that it currently doesn't allow third party development and it will never be open sourced in the same way as the SqueezeBox Controller. -- erland Erland Isaksson 'My homepage' (http://erland.homeip.net) 'My download page' (http://erland.homeip.net/download) (Developer of 'TrackStat, SQLPlayList, DynamicPlayList, Custom Browse, Custom Scan, Custom Skip, Multi Library and Database Query plugins' (http://wiki.erland.homeip.net/index.php/Category:SlimServer)) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=41805 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
