G'day
Some jokers have finally come up with a decent mp3 player, if you could call
mp3 decent.. it holds 4.86gigs - 81 hours of music - This not-so-little
beauty looks like its going to have a big impact on the mp3 scene, which may
ripple over into the MD market, and spark another round of fat ladies
singing on MD articles...
At the least, its a fair competitor to MD, *sort of* making up for sound
quality and limited storage space. Size-wise, its pretty crap, its the size
of a mini laptop..
At worst, this could partly kill a developing MD market, if publicity goes
the wrong way..
...if it didn't have the $810 dollar price tag.
nick
http://click.mp3.com/c/c_apac/n_015810464/u_www/news/407.html
Pay Dirt! MP3 Player Holds 81 Hours of Music
by Doug Reece
Oct. 26, 1999
Korean consumer electronics company HanGo announced plans today to release a
portable MP3 player that can hold 4.86GB--or up to 81 hours--of music.
The Personal Jukebox, scheduled for release in November, was designed by
Compaq and uses a 33MHz Motorola digital signal processor. Features include
a rechargeable lithium ion battery with 10 hours of playback, USB
connection, and software provided by Fraunhofer and Thompson. The unit,
which weighs 9.9 ounces, is substantially larger than current portable MP3
players but houses a sizable 128-by-64-mm graphic LCD screen.
John Myers, marketing director for HanGo's U.S. division, Remote Solution,
said the unit could potentially be a category killer in home, car and
personal audio.
"We're saying that the Personal Jukebox can hold 1.1 'kilitunes,' or 1,100
average-length songs," Myers said. "I think that raises the bar on portable
entertainment just as much as it does in your home audio system or car.
"We'll also see capacity increase much quicker with our device. The next
unit will be a 6.4GB device and probably go for about the same price as the
4GB."
Though pricing for the unit has not been set, Myers expects that average
cost per hour of playback will run about $10 on the Personal Jukebox vs. the
$200-$250 consumers spend on CompactFlash and flash-based units that play
one to two hours of music.
Still, the HanGo unit is not entirely solid state, like its competitors.
Every 10 minutes, the player takes a few seconds to load songs into a buffer
designed to isolate mechanical skipping.
Player availability will be less than 10,000 units for the remainder of the
year, but is expected to ramp up in 2000.
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