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Linux-based Internet Radio Appliance 109

Posted by CmdrTaco from the interesting-technology dept.
sysadmn writes "From CMP Media's Winmag Win Letter, A company called Kerbango has built what it bills as the world's first standalone Internet radio, which can play any of the claimed 4,000 audio streams floating around the Net as well as more conventional AM or FM broadcasts. Tuning is accomplished through the Kerbango Tuning Service, which displays the user interface on a half-VGA grayscale LCD monitor. The radio has a built-in computer, with an 80MHz PowerPC chip running Linux with 8MB of DRAM, 8MB of flash memory, and a whole bunch of codecs. It'll be available in the Spring. They're not saying how much. "
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Linux-based Internet Radio Appliance More

Linux-based Internet Radio Appliance

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  • 'Kerbango' was the name of the mind altering dish ate from sauce pans by the Psychlos in the L. Ron Hubbard SF novel 'Battlefield Earth' (excellent book by the way). Chances are the Scientologists might just have copyrighted the name (similar to the way Lucas coprighted 'Droids' back in the 80's) and end up suing the company over the name.

    Lucas filed a similar suit when FASA released the game (now knows as 'BattleTech') under the name 'BattleDroids' back in the eighties.

  • They are looking for Linux programmers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Looks like they are looking for a couple programmers in the Silicon Valley area. Check out the Jobs [kerbango.com] page.

  • The USB stack from 2.3 has been back ported to 2.2. It's not integrated with the kernel, it's a separate patch. The last time I looked into it, there were a couple of device level drivers that wouldn't work with it because they used other 2.3 specific features, but it was otherwise complete. Wish I could find the URL again.

  • I'm a geek. This is great for a non-geek, and maybe many geeks would find it appealing as well.
    But as a geek I'm very happy to use or configure a general purpose computer to do all of this stuff.
    My most likely scenario would be one general-purpose computer _dedicated_ to all of the following, and one general-purpose computer for
    general use (web surfing, word processing, etc).
    The dedicated one would do:
    dvd
    tv/vcr (a-la Tivo if only the software were there!)
    internet radio (preferably using dsp rather than cpu)
    local mp3 storage
    file server(?)

    As a geek I see no need to buy a dedicated device when I can set up an even better dedicated device myself (and have fun doing it).

    The place where I see myself buying a dedicated device where my geekly skills aren't quite up to making my own is a portable device for the car/motorcycle that does (or has modules for) all of the following:
    gps w/uploadable mapping
    packet radio location system (why not!)
    mp3 (using a dsp, not cpu again)
    radar detector -- using dsp algorithms like the valentine one, maybe with multiple antennas, etc so that you can set up and mess with the software settings (hopefully even source code) yourself.
    weatherproof (for the motorcycle)
    low power (yay transmeta!)

    All of these things in a small box that plugs into the car or motorcycle would be ideal.
  • That may be the case, if so it is pretty neat and it is a very cheap device to have a custom drive in it. If that is the case though you should be able to easily do that simply using 2 drives (one reading while the other writes). That might actually end up being more expensive (particularly if you used larger drives, like I would), but that's not really the issue -- the issue is that is fun to mess around. :-)

    I realize that Tivo is also partly selling a service which provides listings of all the shows and playtimes, etc which I would be more than happy to pay for independantly.

    The real thing is being able to set up/mess around with your own hardware and software.

  • Wow (Score:1)

    by crayz ( 1056 )
    An 80MHz PowerPC running Linux can do 4,000 audio streams and my old 5200/75 LC(75MHz PowerPC 603) couldn't even play one RA stream(or an MP3 for that matter).

    5MHz+Linux = 4,000x better. Spiffy.
  • I agree with one big exception. A lot of people want to listen to radio from other countries or in other languages. This is a descent sized market for a device like this.

    The internet rocks for solving distribution problems like this.

  • I'm an avid radio listener when I'm in my car. Any other place I won't listen to the radio and I never watch TV or go to the movies. For the life of me, I can't see why anyone would buy such a device!

    Because most people aren't freaks who never watch TV or go to the movies, and because local radio blows goats.

    Most of us are sedentary couch and mouse potatoes, and the Kerbango Internet radio sounds like a great way to do a little more digital grazing. No longer will I have to sit at my computer and feign productivity while I listen to decent radio stations in other cities. I can sit on my couch and completely dispel any illusions of productivity, and there's even a possibility I can listen from the comfort of my porcelain couch.

    Any technology that lets me listen to more baseball games on the radio is a good one. Is Vin Scully still doing Dodgers games?

  • Most people are not freaks if they choose not to watch TV. My reasons to actually watch TV are decreasing every day.

    Anyone who doesn't watch TV is a demographic freak. Next thing you'll be telling me is that you read books. Shudder.

    > Television and digital video are better for sports if that's what you really want.

    Radio is the command-line interface to baseball. Television puts a nice graphic user interface on the sport, but if you want direct access to the things that make baseball great, you either go to a game or turn on the radio.

  • Seriously...this could be some /cool/ tech, the line fades between radio and streaming audio...when does the car in dash version come out?
  • This is true, I've always had some ideas for a homebrew car MP3 player, has a bonus my friend actually has the LCD displays from some digital phones, and i always thought those would work quite nicely. hmmmm...i think i'm going to go check out that site right now...thanks :)
  • They must have modified RealPlayer G2 to run on an 80 MHz box with only 8MB of RAM. On my machine the X version of G2 spins at 100% CPU and eats about 4 MB.

    -jwb

  • Another three hundred gets you into a cheap set-top DVD player.

    Just wanted to let you know that I got a fairly decent set-top DVD player for $155 USD here in Pennsylvania.

    (slashdot is having problems, sorry if this got submitted more than once)
  • It most likely plays MP3 streams from an Icecast or Shoutcast server (see www.icecast.org).

    I run an Icecast server at www.fatfreeradio.net and it's GREAT software.

    --hunter
  • here is the USB Backport for 2.2.14 [www.suse.cz]

    and here is the USB HOWTO [dynamine.net]

  • Well, if ya head on over to MP3.com and then to there hardware section they say that it will be under 300 dollars, which isn't too bad. They only thing that seems stupid about this thing is that unless the speakers on it are better than my $200 dollar Yamaha's what is the point of buying it? WHo knows, I will probably end up having one, I am a sucker for gadgets like that....

  • This, they say, is where we're headed. (Score:3)

    by foxtrot ( 14140 ) on Monday February 14, 2000 @06:52AM (#1276386)
    A little box that plugs into the Internet and gives me my radio. A little box that plugs into the TV and lets me play games. A little box that plugs into the cable line and watches my TV for me.

    They say the PC is going the way of the dinosaur-- after all, these little boxes are so much cheaper!

    Cool, it runs Linux. Cool, it uncrunches streaming MP3. But I've got a PC that does that.

    And funny, that very same PC plays games, too. And it can watch TV for me. And it keeps track of my finances and my recipes. You know, all those things I'd've had to buy a $200-300 little consumer-grade box to do. But somehow, those little single-purpose boxes sell.

    A hundred bucks gets you into a low-end webtv. Another three hundred gets you into a cheap set-top DVD player. Toss in a hundred for a Playstation, a hundred for a VCR, at least a hundred for this gadget. That's $700-- and we're using last generation's game box, an analog system for watching our TV for us... Switching to a Dreamcast and a Tivo turns that $700 into closer to $1000. And I still can't do my finances, can't do word processing (and I don't have a place to plug a printer in even if I could!) and I can't store my recipes, $1000 later.

    And then what we don't get are HDTV cards for our PCs that already have monitors with sufficient resolution to display HDTV.

    I don't get it. Why is it these little single-use boxes sell? Is the general public really _that_ afraid of a general purpose personal computer?

    -JDF
  • Look, here's the real problem with this thing, not the ugly purple case:
    Tuning is provided by the Kerbango Tuning Service (KTS) with over 4,000 streams to choose from, dynamically updated and graded for quality and reliability.
    [...] you are connected to the Internet, and the available stations are displayed by category: Rock & Roll, Classical, Talk Radio, Country, Jazz, and dozens more. By using the tuning knob in much in the way you use a regular radio, you select a category. Individual stations or streams are then displayed. Tune to the one you want to hear, and press 'Select'. The Kerbango radio connects you to the stream and your broadcast begins.
    Radio That Gets Better Every Time You Turn It On Your Kerbango tuner always stays up to date with the latest stations, newest music, and current events because every time you turn your radio on it communicates with the Kerbango Tuning Service (KTS). KTS is a sophisticated database that stores information about all the stations that Kerbango finds on the Internet. Each stream is carefully screened for broadcast quality. Once it's added to the available stations, special automated programs, called StreamBots[tm], continually check the station's transmission quality and reliability. [...] StreamBots also detect when a station changes its location on the web, updating the KTS database, and ensuring that your tuning experience is always smooth and seamless.
    Get it? One centralized database run by this company is central to the function of this gadget.

    This raises some questions:

    • Can their servers handle the traffic?
    • As someone else here has pointed out: "What if the company goes belly up?"
    • How does the company decide what category a signal will be filed under?
    • What decides the placement? Will they accept payment from the broadcasters?
    • What's their policy on advertising. Will any appear on the display? (Or worse, *in the audio*?)
    • Will they make an effort to carry *all* streams, or will they focus on the most popular?
    • Will they censor any streams that they regard as "inappropriate for a general audience"?
    This is not to say that these aren't *answerable* questions. But they need to be addressed...

    What I'm really interested in seeing is a good "internet transistor radio" (when they finally release palm pilots with both Richochet and an audio jack, I'll be happy... you can squeeze listenable audio over a Richochet modem, high-quality audio can come later). Second to that, I'm sure an "internet car radio" would be of interest to all the people stuck in car commuting. This particular type of gadget is third down the list. Certainly it's a drawback that it's stationary, but a webradio for the bedroom/livingroom that's cheaper than a full PC would still fill a niche. At least it has a quarter-VGA screeen on it that allows for *some* flexibility in what you can do with it.

    The great advantage of a web radio would be to get people out from under the corporate conglomerate blandness that the world seems to be sinking under.

    The great danger is that in the effort to make it simpler to access web radio streams, they'll take away some of your freedom to choose what you hear.

  • I could see this selling very well to places
    which use cable radio for their consumers. Bars, whatnot could have many more stations available using internet radio... And imagine, you could set up your own streams.... "Hey stevie, gimme a lager, and set the kerbango to irqzero radio".
  • If it's half as wide, and half as tall, that makes it 1/4 the area.
  • First, which PowerPC processor is this? What chipsets are we talking about? Any special chips? I want more technical specs.

    Second, what Linux are they running? Is it a modified LinuxPPC? Or is it custom-built? Is it burned onto the ROM? Have they made any changes to the kernel? If so, do they intend to put them back into the code base?

    Third, will I be able to telnet into it? To network it like a regular computer? To replace the OS? In short, what is its hack value?

    Fourth and last (but not least), how would one go about setting up a Beowulf cluster of these things? :)
  • Why are these questions obligatory?

    Because I care about them.

    I don't understand why people on Slashdot expect a device to be super-hackable just because it is based on Linux.

    I don't expect it to be super-hackable. I just wanted to know whether it was super-hackable.

    Sheesh. Calm down, dude.
  • what if you want to use emacs, mom wants to watch the DVD, little johnny wants to play games on the play station, and someone else wants to listen to the Internet Radio, all while grandma wants to watch a good old-fashioned VCR tape without having to login and navigate through a dozen menues or wants to sit on the couch and not have to squint at a 17 monitor, but prefers a big fat TV screen?

    get each one a computer and that's quite expensive...

    But modular set-top boxes for each can be cheaper.

    obviously if you have the money, deck your house in a dozen PCs, but if you don't happen to have $10,000 then getting specialized hardware may be the better choice. Also, things like a dreamcast or DVD player may be several hundred now, but they historically come down in price.
  • Was anyone else annoyed by the mouse trail effect with the little "k"'s on their front page?

    I turn that off for the duration when I work on someones laptop and this page bothered me enough that I emailed them asking to reconsider the "feature".

    Oh well, I'm probably a little off-topic, but it does look like a cool box. I don't know if I could get used to paying a subscription service to listen to music.

    Russ
  • Bringing the Internet to the radio.
    Making multi-media single again.
    Bringing you today's technology--yesterday!
    More choices through fewer options.
    You'll never want to spend the same amount on a simple radio tuner card to get the same effect again!

    --
  • According to this comment [flashcommerce.com] it will be less than $300.

  • Re:Nice (Score:1)

    by Wah ( 30840 )
    This little thing has a lot of features...

    almost as many as the computer it tries to replace. Is there *any* gained functionality of one of these things over using my PC, and its "bigger than 2 watt" speakers?

    --
  • If they want a separate box for everything then they will get a separate box for everything.

    They *don't* want a seperate box for everything. Most don't even know what *everything* comprises. I dunno, this whole appliance craze seems to have its foundations in marketing, not in useful products. I wouldn't want one and I think most of this stuff is too confusing to appeal to the public at large ("You mean I can listen to the radio over the Internet with this?" "Yes" "Do I nee it to do that?" "No" "Then why should I use it?" "Convenience" "But I don't listen now, how will this make it more convenient") Too much too soon, the same reason why 90% of the companies that went public last year will fold the moment their employees vest and jump ship.

    --
  • tv/vcr (a-la Tivo if only the software were there!)

    I think the Tivo uses a special drive from Quantum that has the ability to read and write at the same time. Most drives can only read or write at any given time.

  • Where do you think they got it? (Score:3)

    by / ( 33804 ) on Monday February 14, 2000 @07:42AM (#1276400)
    You'd have to be asleep at the corporate wheel not to know by now that the latest fad is making every computing device [kerbango.com] resemble this purple device over here [imac.com]. Look at where the kerbango's knobs correspond to the imac's speakers, and we needn't say more about the silly colors. It'll pass, and on some future day in 20 years, someone will take the shell off a Dell machine (with the trunk in the back this time) and slap a colored one on and consumers will snatch them up in a massive coordinated fit of orgasmic nostalgia. I plan to be very cranky when it happens.
  • The problem that I see is that eventually even if you are wealthy these little fees could start to add up rather rapidly and no one would ever notice until you actually add them up

    This is exactly the pattern I see with my mobile/cell phone. Yes it's nice to use the thing and call your friends all the time, but on the other hand, when the bill arrives, I really wonder if it's worth it.

  • Actually, unless something has changed recently, RealPlayer hasn't been ported to LinuxPPC.
    LinuxPPC.org petitioned Real for a port, they said they would think about it (as of 12/99).

    The petition & info can be found here:

    http://www.linuxppc.org/real.shmtl [linuxppc.org]
  • 320x240 is half of 640x480, which is the standard VGA resolution. Anything above that is purely up to the monitor/video card.
  • For that matter. G2 isn't even available for the NT version running on a DEC/Alpha. Talking about Windows support.

    Don't expect a company that doesn't even support all Windows(MS)(TM)($$) varieties, to easilly support some more 'exotic' platforms..

    Mad.
  • How on earth do i get G2 for linux? I go to real's page, and they give me some bs about not avaliable for my platform....

    ----------------------------------------------
  • He actually had a point. 320x240 is half of VGA in each dimension, so it has a quarter of the total number of pixels.
    --
  • If you are interested in mp3s in your car, you can check out cajun [cajun.nu] for a homebrew version. I was going to go that route at home until I saw this thing. (Though just buying something isn't quite as fun...)

  • These things won't be of much use in a car without some sort of wireless connection to the internet. But as you say, it would make radio listening more attractive out of the car. If these become popular, it could end up improving radio in general, as "local" stations find themselves competing nationwide. It is a lot easier to compete as the second "classic rock" station in a medium size city then it is to compete as the 3956th "classic rock" station available over the internet. If a significant percentage of radio listeners start using these devices, they'll be a huge incentive for these stations to differentiate themselves.

  • That probably depends on how likely you are to want to continue listening to the same stuff.

    But anyway, I think one underrealized application for this is to play mp3s off of your own hard drive. The $300 price (if true) is pretty cheap for something of this sort. Though how good the software is will make a big difference.

    I've been looking for something exactly like this. Something that would allow me to store my hundreds of cds, and provide jukebox like access to them. I've been in the process of throwing it together myself, but having it all prebuilt would be nice.

    It helps, obviously, if you've already got a home network setup.
  • I don't get it. Why is it these little single-use boxes sell? Is the general public really _that_ afraid of a general purpose personal computer?

    That's not the point. It's small and quiet and does the one thing I'd want a PC next to my stereo to do today. This thing is a little uglier than I'd like for that particular application, but it's better than an ATX case.

    If someone made small quiet (no fan or disk noise) general purpose machines we could use instead of special purpose boxes like these, I believe people would be using them. I haven't managed to find any. Have you?

  • PenguinRadio will do this from space (Score:3)

    by PenguinRadio ( 69089 ) on Monday February 14, 2000 @07:39AM (#1276411) Homepage
    PenguinRadio [penguinradio.com] is working on a similar device (also LINUX based), along with a car and portable appliance that works with a new constellation of satellites from Ellipso [ellipso.com] that provide broadband access.

    It's a very interesting time to be involved in Internet Radio

  • > I don't get it. Why is it these little
    > single-use boxes sell? Is the general public
    > really _that_ afraid of a general purpose
    > personal computer?

    I have 4 PCs (really 3 1/2, one them isn't done yet) in my house so I don't think that I can be classified as being afraid of them, but for the right price I would proably buy 4 of these puppys (or something like them).

    Because they are single purpose applances they can make trade-offs PC's can't, mostly in size, power, heat, noise, and usablity. I don't want a general PC in my living room or by my bed, general purpose PCs are too noisy for ether and to big form my bedroom. Maybe next year things will be diffrent, but I am not sure market forces are going to drive things that way.

    In fact I am even tempted to put one these next to my computer so I don't lose my tunes when my PC locks-up/crashes or when netscape starts and sucks down all the cycles (ok I won't have this problem if I did not run windows, but for me Quicken is a mission critical app....)

    This day in age computing power is not so precious that it has to be concentrated in one place.
  • While I dig what the Kerbango Radio does, I mean how many of us have hacked together that old PC in the smallest case we could find just so we could have a box dedicated to playing all 30,000 MP3s that we have managed to collect, rip, borrow and 'aquire'. I just have to wonder, who in the world designed the shell for that thing?
    It looks like some bad knock off of the Nickelodeon radio alarm clock. What is so wrong with a nice little brushed aluminum case? While Im sure I will look into this device for its function, can we say bye bye old hacked up PC in the pizza-box, I most definetly wont have it displayed in all its day-glow glory in my living room.
  • Good... quick... cheap... soon...

    Not to be nitpicky, but I think soon is really similar to quick, so "good, quick, cheap, choose two" is about the same as saying "Good, quick, cheap, soon, choose three". The soon is redundant.

    Just thought I would be picky today :)

  • Nice (Score:2)

    by x00 ( 82065 )

    They forget to mention above that this little thing will play your MP3s accross your 10/100 Network (doesn't say how; samba, ftp or what?) and it already has the network card. It also allows external storage devices to be plugged into it.

    This little thing has a lot of features...

    --

  • Re:Nice (Score:2)

    by x00 ( 82065 )
    True enough, but personally I don't want a PC and associated keyboard (and on occasion Mouse too) everywhere, I have enough hiding here and there as it it.

    I'd be quite happy to have this as my alarm clock, and I'm not sure my bedside cabinet would take the strain of a PC..... :)

    And I'd hope this would be better than a PC too..

    --
  • That's more or less what I thought at first, but consider this: Radio stations all over the US are being gobbled up by Radio conglomerates, resulting in bland coast-to-coast crap. Variety is, well, your choice between easy-listening
    pop-40 or "alternative" crap or country music, with an occasional 60s/70s classic rock station thrown in. College radio is the only interesting medium, but quality and signal strength can vary. If I wanted to hear Pantera on the radio...
    I can't. I don;t think internet radio is the answer, but "internet" and "linux" should help their IPO :-)

    So you are willing to buy a dedicated device that needs it's own line to access things via wireless internet connections? Wouldn't buying the CDs be a better option?
  • Because most people aren't freaks who never watch TV or go to the movies, and because local radio blows goats.


    Most people are not freaks if they choose not to watch TV. My reasons to actually watch TV are decreasing every day.

    Most of us are sedentary couch and mouse potatoes, and the Kerbango Internet radio sounds like a great way to do a little more digital grazing. No longer will I have to sit at my computer and feign productivity while I listen to
    decent radio stations in other cities. I can sit on my couch and completely dispel any illusions of productivity, and there's even a possibility I can listen from the comfort of my porcelain couch.


    The problem that I see is that eventually even if you are wealthy these little fees could start to add up rather rapidly and no one would ever notice until you actually add them up. Paying over $300/month for various services could start to be common. Until perhaps internet access via this device is as free as common FM or AM radio I think that most people will shy away from it.

    Any technology that lets me listen to more baseball games on the radio is a good one. Is Vin Scully still doing Dodgers games?

    Television and digital video are better for sports if that's what you really want. Check out something like ESPN or the like.
  • Yes, the general public really is that afraid of a general purpose computer. I prefer a desktop too, as to most other Slashdotters. We prefer the flexibility that it provides. However, there are a vast number of people that wish to benefit
    from the Internet, and yet are completely clueless and fearful of your standard workstation. Being uneducated is one thing, but the number of people who do not wish to educate themselves remains very large.

    I just don't understand it. People have to have a job to eat. I go to college to get a better job. And yet it is theoretically possible to be a compelete fool and get a good job? Please tell me how?

    As a customer service representative for a large software company, I get clueless AOLers calling in everyday blaming us for the problems caused by their cluelessness regarding computers. I consider it a Good Thing that your average
    AOLer will likely be using a set-top box or a web pad in a couple of years. It leaves them with less room to screw things up. You might say that these devices won't encourage them to educate themselves about computers, but the fact
    is that they're not making any attempts to educate themselves as it is.


    This is a bad thing. Let me tell you why. The PC market is run by people usually buying PCs in mass. That means the things that people most want to use a computer for: games, and the internet. Companies come out with small black boxes that do the same things for less but more if you add them together to get the same functionality as a PC. What do you think will happen to general PC prices?

    *BOOM* (rocket shoots towards the stratosphere)

    And guess what happens then? People like me who are having ecconomic trouble just keeping up with technology will be screwed again.

    These are bad things but I guess people who want to learn and get ahead are just usually screwed over anyway.
  • Here's a nice one. [empeg.com]
  • Don't underestimate the power of the consumer. If they want a separate box for everything then they will get a separate box for everything.

    Not many people want to power a computer up, rattle keys, whizz a mouse around and all the attendant house keeping. They want to get home from work, crack open a beer and slob.

    Now, if someone could think up a way for all these household electrics to play nicely with each other...

  • USB? (Score:1)

    by KeithT ( 96949 )
    If Kerbango plans on releasing the radio this Spring, how will they support USB? Will they have to run on a 2.3.x kernel?

  • Assuming the stand-alone box system works for the consumer, why waste all the money for a lot of similar components, while also having a PC that can do all? The logical next step is one server PC (ahem, what OS???) sitting somewhere inconspicuous, and a mini wireless network that provides all the other stuff? Okay, this kind of system isn't going to be the best for, say, a CD player, where you don't really need much processing power at all (even DSP stuff is pretty cheap), and the whole idea is to be able to pop in a new CD when you get tired of the old one and do so very easily. But for something like an MP3 radio, TiVo, Dreamcast, HDTV tuner, etc., this way is almost perfect! Two reasons for the almost: (1) you can't run a remote Dreamcast on a Pentium-120. You have to have a system with some might, and (2) be careful not to saturate your airways. Seriously, good-quality (e.g. HDTV @ even 480p) requires a heck of a lot of bandwidth. Direct connections would be so much better. Yeah, gigabit ethernet will handle HDTV; about ten 1080p streams (Ken is drooling). No need to even have enough RAM or CPU on each box to implement a TCP stack. Just enough for a bare minimum Ethernet frame plus a one-hop route protocol. Easy for the designers. Pressure people to get Linux drivers for stuff, too!

    By the way: don't go shelling out that however-much-it-is for an HDTV tuner card just yet (unless it is totally flashable and has an FFT chip to spare). (Your handy MPEG decoder card will still work nicely.) 8VSB (the current HDTV standard), to put it mildly, might have to be slightly modified. (I'm purposely trying to be vague.)

    Having fun?

    Kenneth

  • 452x340 would be one half the area of 640x480. Not a real video mode tho. I think we can designate half video mode to mean half in one dimension, one quarter the area.
  • A lot of people seem to look at it as a useless device, that they have no need for it because of their Desktops/Latops. Look at it from the view of it being an extension of your PC. You can hook it up to your home network and access MP3s, and those with dedicated/high speed connections can use it for streaming HIGH quality audio... pretty cool. And it saves you from running cable from you pc to your bedroom or where ever...

  • I think such information is best posted in your usual haunt... alt.sex.stories.watersports.cock-jockies.
    ;)

    --

    If I had one euro for every witty sig that I wrote, I would have enough for a small bottle of French beer

  • There are really to many unknowns with this internet radio. Yeah for Linux and its coolness factor but sometimes ideas need more development. How does it play MP3s of of a network? FTP, SAMBA, NFS? ALso how do I really go through 4,000 streams and find what I want. FInally what is the cost. THis would be really sexxy for 100-200 dollars but over that my SB Live and surround sound can probably rock this thing to pieces and I actually know it will work and give me what I want.
  • Why are these questions obligatory?

    I don't understand why people on Slashdot expect a device to be super-hackable just because it is based on Linux. This is a consumer electronics device. Any (moderately easy) access they give for hackers would result in lots of end-users who aren't tech savvy doing Something Bad to their unit and having to return it.

    I'm sure that if they made any internal changes to the kernel, they'd redistribute them to avoid an Open Source backlash. However, I'm equally sure the source changes would be 100% useless for the general Linux population, just like the TIVO modifications are.

  • Their contest says they will give away 10 of them at an approximate total value of $3000.00. So it would seem that $300.00 is what they are hoping for.
  • Perhaps the just GUI part of it is messed. I agree that the graphical G2 is a resource hog. PPC Linux has been trying to get G2 for awhile now these guys come out of nowhere and Realnetworks custom builds it? I guess it is a matter of catching the right person at the right time.
  • ANOTHER attempt to waste our bandwidth for things that already have adequate distribution means. Between regular old AM/FM and all the channels available on DBS satellite and who knows what else, why waste our 2-way bandwidth for a one-way medium??? Use the Net for requesting songs or whatever, but leave the actual content distribution for OTHER mediums designed for one-way distribution!!!

    What's next - DoS attacks with "The Carpenters' Christmas Album"????
  • I have a half dozen computers (and several geek family members) with a 100baseT network. I think we'll get one of these to replace the CD player in the TV/stereo blob (I hesitate to say rack or system). My previous plan was to have our MacOS laptop doing the MP3 playback-over-the-network duty. This sounds like it will be easier and cheaper than the laptop.

    --Now tell me what I'll have to do to let this thing access my MP3 archive!

    Good
    quick
    cheap
    soon.

    choose three!

  • The other thing i hate about desktop computers in a listening environment is noise. Fans, HDs, etc... Gotta make them quieter or make it reasonable to put the computer in the basement and wire the display, keyboard, etc.. to the stereo room. But then, where do you put the CD or DVD? Oh yeah, external SCSI DVD on a 15 foot leash. that would work.

  • Is the general public really _that_ afraid of a general purpose personal computer?
    In a word, yes.
    In lots more words, you have to remember that most of the things you list are sold to familys. My PC can play my CDs, let me play games, show TV etc, BUT only do one of them at a given time.

  • Yes, the general public really is that afraid of a general purpose computer. I prefer a desktop too, as to most other Slashdotters. We prefer the flexibility that it provides. However, there are a vast number of people that wish to benefit from the Internet, and yet are completely clueless and fearful of your standard workstation. Being uneducated is one thing, but the number of people who do not wish to educate themselves remains very large.

    As a customer service representative for a large software company, I get clueless AOLers calling in everyday blaming us for the problems caused by their cluelessness regarding computers. I consider it a Good Thing that your average AOLer will likely be using a set-top box or a web pad in a couple of years. It leaves them with less room to screw things up. You might say that these devices won't encourage them to educate themselves about computers, but the fact is that they're not making any attempts to educate themselves as it is.

  • Except of course with "good, quick, cheap, soon, choose three" you could choose "good, quick, and cheap" which you obviously could not do with "good, quick, cheap, choose two."

    :)

  • http://www.real.com/products/player/linux.html

    It is only available for Intel, but it works fine. It has a few annoying bugs but it is less annoying than the gaudy Windows version!

  • On homepage they talk about a LCD screen of 320*240, this is only quarter-VGA, so were is the other half????????????
  • >I don't know if I could get used to
    >paying a subscription service to listen to music.

    Well, it runs Linux, doesn't it? Last time I checked it was still under the GPL. Couldn't we just hack it so that it gets its streams from yp.icecast.org or something like that????
  • I have been involved with the alpha testing of software for webcams, and there we call 320*240 quarter-vga.
    These kind of things is measured by the total amount of pixels.
    You don't have to be a genius to know that if you cut both sides of a screen in half you get four parts.
  • Whats wrong with you'r hi-fi. Everybody seems obsessed with integrating everything into their computers and linking every piece of electrical equipement to the 'net (in the interests of progress??). Digital Audio Broadcasting is just starting to show its colours in the UK - this should provide enough broadcasting bandwith for everyone. Get a life - buy a radio.
  • Now whats the deal with this Kerbango Audio Operating System... Is this just a custom version of Linux or is it something running on top of Linux... Could be interesting to see if its possible to crack these things somewhat like EMPEGs... -d11
  • Most of us are sedentary couch and mouse potatoes, and the Kerbango Internet radio sounds like a great way to do a little more digital grazing. No longer will I have to sit at my computer and feign productivity while I listen to decent radio stations in other cities. I can sit on my couch and completely dispel any illusions of productivity, and there's even a possibility I can listen from the comfort of my porcelain couch. I don't know about you.. But for that very reason I can't wait till they do it with an internet tv... Then we can reach the peak of nerdiness... Not only being a couch potato, but a computer geek. Actually, that could be an interesting idea though, make a tv that does something similar and uses a service kinda like iCraveTV. Jack Valenti would probably shit a golden brick over that one. -d11

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