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Toys Media Music Portables Hardware

Jens Of Sweden MP3 Player With OLED, Ogg 349

Posted by timothy from the hand-candy dept.
rune-bare-rune writes "Gadget manufacturer Jens of Sweden launches a nice-looking MP3 player with an unusual OLED display that doubles as a mirror. Supports MP3, WMA and OGG Vorbis. And as a few other really small players it handles the USB connection nicely."
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Jens Of Sweden MP3 Player With OLED, Ogg More

Jens Of Sweden MP3 Player With OLED, Ogg

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  • Now we just need... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) * on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:49PM (#9059700)
    the Tom of Finland MP3 player...

  • Button Size (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jm92956n ( 758515 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:52PM (#9059714) Journal
    Jens of Sweden normally has excellent product design, so it's somewhat unfortunate that the button size appears to be as small as possible. The 4-way rocker doesn't look like it'll be fun to manipulate.

  • Hmm. (Score:5, Funny)

    by modifried ( 605582 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:53PM (#9059724) Homepage
    Ah, great. A mirror. Just what I was looking for in an MP3 player.

    • Re:Hmm. (Score:3, Funny)

      by Audiostar ( 734627 )
      Just when I was getting used to being the only person without the neccesary camera on my cell phone, now I don't have a mirror on my mp3 player. If they come out with a portable DVD player with a hair dryer, or a laptop with a built in Remington shaver I am going to have to get a third job.

  • "doubles as a mirror." (Score:4, Funny)

    by physicsphairy ( 720718 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:54PM (#9059729)
    Good thing, 'cause I think they're gonna need one. ;)

  • Looks like... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ejdmoo ( 193585 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:54PM (#9059730)
    It looks like a rebranded iRiver to me...

  • USB 1.1? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jonman_d ( 465049 ) <nemilar&optonline,net> on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:54PM (#9059731) Homepage Journal
    They're still making devices with USB 1.1? Especially for something like an MP3 player, where you're moving large amounts of data, USB 2 is a must. For low-end devices with only 512M of storage, you're going to be doing a lot of adding/removing of files, which makes having to constantly wait during every session a hastle; for the larger devices, it's insane to have to wait forever for your collection to transfer over the outdated 1.1 spec.

    In a world where modern machines come with USB 2, and it's also backwards compatible with USB 1, there's no excuse to make an mp3 player that only supports USB 1.1.

    • Re:USB 1.1? (Score:5, Funny)

      by mcrbids ( 148650 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:00PM (#9059783) Journal
      there's no excuse to make an mp3 player that only supports USB 1.1.

      At least they are being honest. I mean, they could have called it "USB 2.0 High Speed"!

    • Re:USB 1.1? (Score:3, Informative)

      by Tweaker_Phreaker ( 310297 )
      There's hardly any reason for them to use USB 2.0 because most compact flash cards can't transfer above USB 1.1 speeds. A 12x compact flash card transfers at 14.4 mbps which is just barely over USB 1.1's limit.

      • Re:USB 1.1? (Score:5, Informative)

        by RedWizzard ( 192002 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:39PM (#9060068)
        You are way out of date. I use a Transcend 256MB 30x CF card with my camera and it transfers several times quicker over a USB2 connection than a USB1 connection. I bought it 9 months ago, today Transcend's cards are 45x. Kingston's Elite Pro range transfer at 5.2MB per second, well over 3 times USB1.1's 12Mbps. SanDisk's Ultra II CF cards claim a minimum sustained write speed of 9MBps. That's megabytes not megabits.
        • My short review on the SanDisk Ultra II: I wasn't able to reach anywhere near the claimed speed with my G4 laptop and a PCMCIA adaptor, reading or writing. The 8x lexar that came with my camera (1.2Mbyte/sec) felt faster using the same setup.

          I just did a speed test using 'time cp' - 13372kB in 5 files, transfered in 9.19 seconds = 1445 kB/sec = 10x 9000 kB/sec.

          Of course, that's reading and not writing. And my cache wasn't cleared... but both of those things should have made it faster.

          • Re:SanDisk ultra II (Score:4, Informative)

            by GoRK ( 10018 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @12:30AM (#9060351) Homepage Journal
            If you were actually using a PCMCIA 16 bit adaptor then it's likely that you couldn't reach near 9MB/s anyway. PIO 16 bit with no buffering (there probably isn't any in your CF PCMCIA adaptor) is going to be slow as heck. The connection you get is akin to pre-UDMA hard drives. The maximum theoretical speed on 16 bit PCMCIA is 33MB/s (the same as ISA) and using PIO (since you don't get DMA using this for IDE) there is only going to be half of that (16.5MB/s) available to transfer data. Without any ram to buffer the IO you are likely going to drop your performance below what the card is even capable of.

            Try your benchmark again with an IDECF adaptor plugged directly into a drive controller (or IDE/Firewire bridge if you are limited to the laptop) and see if it makes a difference. It ought to!
    • Well I assume it's because some bean counter in accounting saw that a pack of USB 1.1 ports was 10 cents cheaper than USB 2.0.
    • (512MB(*8B to b))/(12mb/sec )=341.33 (comment on HTML: needs a bloody fraction tag!)

      6 minutes, to fully fill it. Do people transfer half a gig of music every time they plug it in? If so, get a hard drive based player. Otherwise: maybe it's annoying the first time, but come on people!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:USB 1.1? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Captain Splendid ( 673276 )
      where you're moving large amounts of data

      Yeah, with a maximum capacity of 512MB, it's gonna take ages...

      Speaking of which, is there even a market for sub-GB mp3 players these days? Even at 128kbps, that's only about a 100 songs.

  • That is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen (Score:3, Funny)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:54PM (#9059733) Homepage
    ... assuming it's real and not vaporware.

    I haven't seen any practical OLED apps, and if this is one of them consider me sold on the technology.

    Also, it's worth mentioning that my agency did a fingerprint analysis on the user in the picture [jensofsweden.com] and our results have conclusively indicated that she is in fact:

    A NATALIE PORTMAN CLONE!!! We knew it was possible!

    Amen brothers!

  • nice unit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bwy ( 726112 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:55PM (#9059737)
    Personally, this form factor (similar to Creative Labs) has some appeal to me. I know everyone says that the HD's in iPods are shock proof and this and that, but for using at the gym or while running, you can't beat this super-mini form factor and solid state construction. Great to see they're offering some value-adds such as ogg support.
    • I think the iPod Mini + arm band should solve the listening while running problem, sure its not quite solid state, but close enough. But, this player does support ogg, which is 'insanely great'.

  • Strange thing I noticed... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by amarodeeps ( 541829 ) <dave@dubitab[ ]com ['le.' in gap]> on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:55PM (#9059739) Homepage
    Isn't that a man's hand holding the mirror to allow lipstick to be applied to a woman's face?? Is that a real mirror picture or a graphic overlaid?

    Need more information. Please help.

  • It has to be said.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dulles ( 86837 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:56PM (#9059745)
    Anybody got a mirror?

  • But.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by taxevader ( 612422 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:57PM (#9059759)
    ..does it play Ogg Vorbis?

    • Are you kidding me? This device's internal specs are so far behind (usb 1.1 etc.) that I am beginning to doubt that it plays MP3 VBRs.....

    • Irony 101... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 )
      It's amazing how many people on Slashdot can't spot irony even when it's smacking them in the face.

      Presumably, the person who modded the parent post as "redundant" and the two ACs who added useless replies fall into this category.

  • Argh Matey! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Garrett Combs ( 699749 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @10:58PM (#9059762) Homepage
    "And now with our included mirror, you can insure that your eye patch is correctly aligned so your other (music) pirate friends don't point and laugh!" Argh!
  • This looks like a great product, as I'm sure anyone who's looking for a solid state Ogg Player will agree, but the website is a joke, and is bound to alienate the customers they are trying to market to. Just hitting the front page, I get an unrecognised "Flash animation" in the middle of the screen and get booted into a plugin download page. Surely most people will want to see pictures of the product, not some silly Flash animation (Has anyone seen the content of this -- is it at all useful?)

    Something also
    • Surely most people will want to see pictures of the product, not some silly Flash animation

      I hate waiting for flash animations to load, but in this case, the flash animations *are* the pictures you're looking for.
      • My own opinion is that it's a beautiful looking site which I think reflects on the products designed by this company.

        Shame that "flash" has become synonymous with "animated advertising" to some. Maybe they'd feel better if they saw it put to the "other" uses it's known for?
    • Do they really thing that putting one of their best features it in brackets like an afterthought is going to help endear their product to Linux users?

      You think that's bad, the front page doesn't mention that it can has an Ogg Vorbis codec!

      This is huge news for those of us that choose not to use patent-encumbered formats.

  • Dude I bet she couldn't dance on her hands! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ProfessionalCookie ( 673314 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:01PM (#9059789) Journal
    I find the ad disturbing- why two left hands????

    Look at the photo [jensofsweden.com] yourself- that's weird huh?

    +5 Observant

  • Alternative version available? (Score:5, Funny)

    by taxevader ( 612422 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:02PM (#9059811)
    As a true blue slashdotter, I have a bit of an acne problem. Can I get one without the mirror?

  • Likely to be pretty expensive (Score:5, Informative)

    by phatsharpie ( 674132 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:03PM (#9059818)
    Hammacher Schlemmer, the listed reseller of Jens of Sweden's product in the US, has one of the older models - the MP110 - for $249.95 with 256MB of storage.

    http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70549.asp?promo =e l_audio

    I would think this model, the MP130, would be at least as expensive, but likely more.

    -B

  • 256mb of good looks (Score:4, Insightful)

    by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:07PM (#9059856)
    Okay, that's just cool looking [jensofsweden.com] and I give them huge props on the look and feel. Even the USB-port-slide-out-feature is very cool. Not as certain about the "joystick" feature.

    But what is with the 256MB capacity? I am not trying to be an Apple zelot here, but with the iPod Mini, hasn't Apple really drawn a line in the sand where Style and 4GB capacity intersect at a sub $250 price point?

    The way I see it, no one who ever uses a high capacity digital music player (remember back when we called them MP3 players?) will ever go BACK to a low capacity sub 100 song player. Just won't happen. You get hooked on the ability BROWSE.

    But anyway, nice looking toy [jensofsweden.com]

    • Re:256mb of good looks (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 1lus10n ( 586635 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:50PM (#9060128) Journal
      actually there is a reason to use one of these: no moving parts.

      Most of the sub 2G mp3 players availible are solid state flash storage, where the ipods are actual hard drives.

      Hard drives (dont give a damn about how they are mounted) fail when exposed to vibration, such as running or even riding a subway.

      Of course this being slashdot i dont expect many people to be runners ...

      • Re:256mb of good looks (Score:4, Insightful)

        by aussersterne ( 212916 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @02:14AM (#9060845) Homepage
        I take the subway all the time with my 4GB microdrive-based player (Creative Muvo) and I keep it in my front trousers pocket as I walk about the city. The damn thing has been dropped a few times (because it's so light and small it's easy to lose track of it physically). I've had no trouble, the filesystem is intact, there's no trace of unwanted head noise (i.e. click-clickety-click) or worn bearings whine. At some point I wonder if the platters and heads are so tiny and light that the physics are more forgiving to motion of all but the most extreme kinds... of course the hard drives in the iPod and iPod mini are of different sizes, so I'd expect the full-size iPods to suffer more stress.

        There was a smattering of trouble with earlier CF microdrives, but considering the fact that most of the 1GB microdrives were used by pro digital photographers in intense environments (warzones, sports venues, etc.) and are still in use today, I'd say that microdrives aren't nearly as susceptible to trouble as some would think.

  • Me wonders (Score:2, Redundant)

    by Pranjal ( 624521 )
    ..if it's targetted at women?

    "What song is playing, let me check, oh shoot my hair is all messy. My good old jens of sweden MP3 player, let's me pretty up anytime i want"
    prrrr

  • OLED? What gave you that idea? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ajlitt ( 19055 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:12PM (#9059886)
    Did anyone actually spot anything on their site that mentions that the display is OLED? Looks to me more like the OEL (Organic EL) display that some newer car stereos have (new Pioneers, etc). Last I heard blue OLED had some MTBF troubles...

  • iPods can double as mirrors as well (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gotr00t ( 563828 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:14PM (#9059900) Journal
    Though they don't use OLED technology, the Apple iPod can also double as a "mirror." Its chorme caseback is reflective, with only minimal distortion.

    That is, if you can keep it clean and free of scratches. I know some people who have their caseback so badly scratched up that its pretty much lost its reflective properties.

  • Yeah, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sirReal.83. ( 671912 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:14PM (#9059904) Homepage

    Yes yes, -1 Redundant. But no one's posted about it yet. Does it work with Linux? A friend of mine has an earlier model, and it doesn't seem to get detected as a USB mass storage device under 2.4.2x. He's a captive windows user and this is one of the main reasons he can't drop it completely.

    I'd try it on 2.6.5, but he doesn't want to upgrade (?!) and he uses it too much to lend it to me to hack with. So do any of you fellow linux-only users have one of Jens' recent units working?

    • Re:Yeah, but... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Chmarr ( 18662 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:26PM (#9059989)
      It probably DOES work, but you need to tell linux that a 'vendor 1234, device 2345' (or whatever it is) needs to be activated with the usb-flash driver.

      Dinking around with the ID/Driver database generally solves my 'compatibilty' problems. Even with modern kernels, unless the company, or a fan of the device, decides to submit the mapping to the linux project, it'll remain 'apparently' incompatible.

    • Yes, it will work. (Score:3, Informative)

      by kjoonlee ( 226243 )
      It will work with Linux 2.4+, according to the manufacturer [iops.co.kr].

  • OGG Players' Killer App (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TwinkieStix ( 571736 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:17PM (#9059925) Homepage
    I've been to the vorbis site and listened to the ogg samples [xiph.org] (Scroll down to the bottom and listen to the 45k/sec samples) of low bit rate compression. It sounds really good at really low bit rates. Scroll up a little and listen to the mp3s at 64 and 128, and then listen to the OGG at 64. That's the quality of mp3 at 1/2 the space.

    Couldn't these companies take better advantage of the ability to play OGG files and include the compressor to actually fit more music in less space? They could advertise a player that holds "more music" in a less expensive package. Instead of advertising the storage space, advertise the number of hours of music, and compare to competitors that cost 2x as much.
    • No, I don't think so.
      What is that play time based on ? 128kbit/s ? 64kbit/s ? 32kbit/s mono ?
      Even if they said 'CD quality', style.. it would depends on whichever test said it sounded like the original CD of song X as heard by randomguy Y.

      No. Storage space, in megabytes or so, is much more convenient, as you can determine for yourself how much music you can store on it - based on your actual files.
    • Yeah, but most people don't encode their music to OGG. They download MP3s/WMAs/whatever and put them on their players.

      You do understand that transcoding from MP3 to OGG means absolutely shitty quality regardless on what bitrate you use? The result is always worse than what you started with.

  • Not made in sweden. (Score:4, Informative)

    by shikra ( 751390 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:19PM (#9059939) Journal
    Would be good if the player is actually made and designed in Sweden. Too bad it's not [jensofsweden.com]. Fact is, the flash-based MP3 player market is largely dominated by the koreans.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:23PM (#9059963)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:WOW (Score:2, Funny)

      by wronskyMan ( 676763 )
      its a MP3 player article where I get to yell WHERE IS THE ACC SUPPORT instead of everyone yelling where is the ODD support.

      And I get to yell WHERE IS THE SPELL CHECKER?
    • ACC support? I'm sure it'd hold OGG or MP3 encoded ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) basketball games. That'll really get ya yelling.

  • It Ain't Vapor; It's IOPS (Score:4, Informative)

    by kjoonlee ( 226243 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:26PM (#9059990)
    IOPS [iops.co.kr] players have been on sale in Korea for some time now.

  • The Mirror Will Make This a Hit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by donnacha ( 161610 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2004 @11:28PM (#9060003) Homepage


    Although most of us will see the mirror display as, at best, a novel cosmetic touch, I've shown these pictures to a girl I happened to have about the place and her response was instant enthusiasm.

    She pointed out that it's always good to have a mirror handy, especially in situations where you aren't carrying your usual bag-of-tricks, such as when you're jogging - with one of these and a tube of lippy in her pocket, a girl would be ready for anything.

    Her one criticism was that that small mic hole, right in the middle of that otherwise unobstructed stretch, would be an irritating distraction for anyone giving their make-up a quick check. I figure that such an infrequently used feature could have been placed elsewhere without affecting its utility. Also, I think they should have extended the right up to or even around the corners, increasing the mirror's ease of use (I presuming that the mirror is just a protective fascia placed over the actual OLED display).

    At the right price point (and I think it is), this could seriously challenge Apple's mostly female targetted Mini ipod.

  • Please explain (Score:3, Insightful)

    by That's Unpossible! ( 722232 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @12:32AM (#9060360)
    As someone ignorant about OLED technology ... how exactly are they creating a mirror finish here. Is it dynamic? One minute it's translucent and not mirror-ish, the next minute it's reflective silver colored? I don't get it, and I don't speak "bork bork bork."

  • Feature or Chrome? (Score:3, Funny)

    by rubberpaw ( 202337 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @12:58AM (#9060496) Homepage Journal
    >>doubles as a mirror.

    Come on, folks. OGG is a nice bell and whistle [catb.org], but a mirror? That's just chrome [catb.org]. :-)

  • Rebranded crap. (Score:3, Informative)

    by nordicfrost ( 118437 ) * on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @03:35AM (#9061059)
    Why is it that the "design labels" of our days have the need for rebranding of far eastern goods? As someone already pointed out in this tread, this is a rebranded Iops [iops.co.kr] player.

    I remember Bang & Olufsen when they launched their failed cellphone series. It was just a rebranded Ericsson phone, in three more colors at twice the price. My guess is that todays consumers are too vary of these things and JoS will fail unless they cooperate and innovate like certain other companies [apple.com].

    The absolutely worst case of rebranding ever was the North Korean government: They bought / stole severeal Huyndai cars and rebranded them (illegaly) as their own brand. Everybody outside NK understood what was going on, but this was a publicity stunt for their own people to convince them that NK had an up to date booming car industry.

  • FM transmitter? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rbb ( 18825 ) <remco@r[ ]org ['c6.' in gap]> on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @03:36AM (#9061061) Homepage
    I bought their MP300 a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely love it [rc6.org].

    One thing that isn't mentioned on the MP300 page (since usage is illegal in Scandinavia), is that the player includes an FM transmitter that can be enabled by running a small program [brink.st].

    Does the MP130 have this functionality as well?

  • More specs from press release (Score:3, Informative)

    by viktor ( 11866 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @06:59AM (#9061750) Homepage

    Specs from the press release (which is only available in nordic languages it seems):

    • File formats: MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG
    • Built in FM radio
    • Entirely graphical 96x64mm OLED screen in red and orange
    • Alarm
    • Clock
    • Customers can import jpeg:s and create their own screen savers
    • 18 hours play time minimum
    • Foldable USB port
    • 13 + 13 mW output
    • SRS, TRUBASS and other sound enhancing effects
    • Line in which records to WMA or MP3
    • Size 79.5 x 31.0 x 14.8mm, weight 43g.
    • 128, 256 and 512 MB models

    The recommended prices are SEK 1795/2495/3295, which translates to very roughly $240/$330/$430.

  • MPIO FL-100 Has A Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by N8F8 ( 4562 ) on Wednesday May 05, 2004 @08:07AM (#9062065)
    The MPIO FL-100 [ibertronica.es] already havea mirrored surface. You can also but the FL-100 [target.com] at your favorite retail outlet. No USB port though. But it does have some Linux support [sourceforge.net]

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