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Data Storage Media Music Software Hardware Linux

Petite MP3 Player Boots PCs Into Linux 215

Posted by timothy from the now-that's-a-good-idea dept.
An anonymous reader submits "A French company has created a teensy MP3 player that also boots PCs into Linux. The 1.7-inch diameter, half-ounce Medaillon (way smaller than an iPod) has been around for a while, but 128MB and 256MB models of the Z2 version are now supplied with Shinux, an embedded Linux distribution that includes lots of cool open source applications." The list of included apps, from AbiWord to Xchat, is pretty impressive for a device intended primarily as a music player.
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Petite MP3 Player Boots PCs Into Linux More

Petite MP3 Player Boots PCs Into Linux

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  • New? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by catbertscousin ( 770186 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:42AM (#10533817)
    So... it's like a jump drive you can boot from?

  • Way smaller? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Richard_at_work ( 517087 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:43AM (#10533820)
    It also stores way less music or data. No comparison.

    • Re:Way smaller? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sc00ter ( 99550 )
      Yah, no kidding.. 128megs vs. 20-30gigs. Yah, that's fair to compair.

      • Re:Way smaller? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by frodo from middle ea ( 602941 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @09:14AM (#10534307) Homepage
        How about this MP3 [jetaudio.com] player.

        It is actully smaller than iPod, comes in 20GB and 40GB versions, and comes with std battery life of 14 hrs and an extended one comes with battery life of 35 HOURs.

        It shows up as a USB mass storage on your PC, so can be used in windows, linux , OSX natively (any OS that supports USB mass storage). Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk.

        And it plays MP3, WMAs, Flac, and most of all Oggs.

        Much more sturdier than iPod. Has FM tuner and can record from FM or buil-in or in-line Microphone.

        The only thing it doesn't have is a interface with an online music store, But that's not a problem for someone like me , who already has more that 400 CDs.

        P.S. I am not a spokesman for the company, just a satisfied customer.

        • Re:Way smaller? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by gilesjuk ( 604902 )
          I own one, it's also aluminium metal not some cheap white plastic like a hypOD.

          I only wish I'd have waited for the M5 with its colour screen.

        • Re:Way smaller? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by clf8 ( 93379 )
          Umm, it's got no screen. If you don't have the remote, I'm sure you can still start and stop music, but how do you navigate what you wanna play? And, given thousands of songs, how do you choose what to listen to?

          "Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk." You must keep your music sorted pretty well; i just let iTunes do it for me. How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player.

          • Re:Way smaller? (Score:3, Informative)

            by meringuoid ( 568297 )
            How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player. Or does it store a database on your computer also? Or, do you just drag over your 20+gig of music and let it recopy every time? It's the stupid software that makes things easy.

            I have an iHP-140; same principle, it's a USB hard disk that just recognises mp3s, oggs, wmas and wavs that you load onto it. It's... not hard, you know. Two simple commands to keep hard-disk collection and p

        • I'll get one and put it next to my Quaassar and General Electric walkmans.

        • Re:Way smaller? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by jlebrech ( 810586 )
          Its the same thing with any iriver multicodec jukebox. i have one its very impressive

        • Re:Way smaller? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Civil_Disobedient ( 261825 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @11:15AM (#10535516)
          Look, I hate the iPod-People as much as the next guy, but let's be honest, here.

          The unit you linked to is only smaller because they've put the entire display on a separate "remote" unit. That sucks. From an engineering point of view, you want to minimize all ways in which to break the thing -- having a dedicated wired-remote doubles these chances. And look at the weakest link in the chain -- the cable from the remote to the unit -- if anything happens to that cable (stretched, yanked, sliced or diced) or the plug on the end, there goes your fancy display.

          Never mind that it's encased in aluminum. The cord isn't.

          If they had put the display in the unit, it would be near-perfect. If they added a 1/8" optical-TOSLINK connection to either the unit itself, or the base, that would be perfect. Who wants a line-audio copy of a CD? Digital, man!

        • Re:Way smaller? (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Azar ( 56604 )
          I've never even heard of this unit before so I was suprised to find out about one with so many features I've been looking for. That unit has some pretty impressive specs. The biggest gripe I can see with it is the LCD and controls are not integrated. Too easy to lose or break.

          You seem to be happy with it. Tell me though, what are you biggest complaints? What don't you like about it?
        • Much more sturdier [sic] than iPod.
          Prove it. The Ipod is very sturdy. Other people have already refuted your other claims expertly.

    • Re:Way smaller? (Score:2, Informative)

      by tomstdenis ( 446163 )
      Shhh you!

      128MB .... 20GB they're all the same aren't they?

      Also am I the only one not impressed by their 20Hz-10Khz freq response range? Where does 90dB come from? [isn't 16-bit PCM a range of 96dB?]

      etc, etc, etc.

      It's just another mp3 player with some flash stuck on the back. Nuttin new here.

    • Re:Way smaller? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DigitumDei ( 578031 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:56AM (#10533876) Homepage Journal
      Well I read the article, it doesn't say whether the linux takes up part of that 128/256megs (or my reading is up to shit, quite possible considering how little sleep I've had).

      I'd be pretty pissed off if I bought a 128 meg mp3 player and found half the space gone.

      • Re:Way smaller? (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I'd be pretty pissed off if I bought a 128 meg mp3 player and found half the space gone.

        That happened to Ellen Feiss once. Like, half of the player was gone ... it's kind of ... a bummer.

        She switched to an iPod!

  • Shinux ??? (Score:3, Funny)

    by freedom_india ( 780002 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:44AM (#10533822) Homepage Journal
    Couldn't they have thought of a better, nicer name...?
    Sounds like kleenex...

    Smaller than iPod? Hmmm... maybe France has a future after all..

    • Re:Shinux ??? (Score:5, Funny)

      by swordboy ( 472941 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:56AM (#10533877) Journal
      Its the perfect name for the aspiring geek. As in, "ooh, shiny!"

      They've figured us out. Who forgot to wear their tinfoil hat?

    • Re:Shinux ??? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by biglig2 ( 89374 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:21AM (#10533982) Homepage Journal
      Not to whore for karma, but it is presimably called Shinux because the company that make the Medallion is called Shinco, and it's their own distro.

      Interesting that they made their own distro rather than just installing an existing one, they must have a lot of Linux geeks.

      I guess they'll sell a lot to Linux evangleists. "What's Linux" "Let me plug my jewelery into your PC and show you!"

      Except anyone mad enough for that probably already has a keychain drive.
    • Not so sure, the equivalent in english of shinux in french would be shitnux.

  • So its a USB Key... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:45AM (#10533832) Homepage Journal
    That comes with stuff loaded from the factory....

    This is news? *yawn*

    • Re:So its a USB Key... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That comes with stuff loaded from the factory....
      This is news? *yawn*

      To Timothy the /. editor it is. Next week we're going to show him a LCD monitor. He'll be so excited he'll wet himself.

    • ...So much as that it's bootable - Many of the USB-key based MP3 players keel over dead when formatted(I believe because the player mechanism stores it's player code on the flash, in some crack-tastic fashion), thereby giving you the options of either living with a VFAT/no boot format, or giving up the MP3 playing capability.

      (Disclaimer - I haven't bought one and dug into this problem: I didn't want to waste money on an MP3 drive I couldn't boot from.)

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Unkle ( 586324 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:48AM (#10533844)
    Though it is a neat idea, I don't see the point. The average user is probably not going to use the Linux functionality, and thus probably won't pay the extra money for it. The form factor of the player is neat, though. But not as neat as Oakley's new glasses. http://www.oakley.com/catalog/eyewear/thump/ [oakley.com]

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by theLOUDroom ( 556455 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:55AM (#10533870)
      But not as neat as Oakley's new glasses.

      Those things are silly.
      What if you want to listen to MP3s when it's dark out?

      You've got a damn expensive MP3 player attached to another product in such a way the you can't use is 50% of the time.

  • Strange... (Score:3, Informative)

    by mirko ( 198274 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:49AM (#10533847) Journal
    Looks like the MP3 player from Virgin [engadget.com] that got discussed here [slashdot.org].

  • This is player is made by Korean EraTech (Score:5, Informative)

    by i4u ( 234028 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:50AM (#10533853) Homepage
    See this Coin-Sized MP3 Player [i4u.com]

    It also has been OEMed by Virgin Electronics [i4u.com] and is available at Target. The only funky thing with this french OEM is that it has a Linux on it.

  • Recursive MP3 player (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:50AM (#10533854)
    The question is: does this Shinux-booting MP3 player comes with xmms installed, so I can play MP3s?

  • My iPod (Score:4, Informative)

    by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:52AM (#10533862) Homepage Journal
    boots Macs into OS-X.

  • The ultimate hacker tool (Score:4, Interesting)

    by spyrochaete ( 707033 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @07:56AM (#10533875) Homepage Journal
    I bet one of the included tools can mount NTFS. Just walk over to a server, discreetly boot up Linux, copy the SAM file, brute force it at home, and you've got superuser access. Any smart net admin would ban this player from their workplace.

    • Re:The ultimate hacker tool (Score:5, Insightful)

      by blowdart ( 31458 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:01AM (#10533903) Homepage

      Err. Right. Any smart admin has disabled access without a password, so you can only shut it down by the pulling the power, any smart admin has passworded the BIOS and told it to boot off the hard drive, and any smart admin has disabled the USB ports on a server anyway.

      Other than that though it's not a hacker tool, there's no blue LED.

    • Re:The ultimate hacker tool (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Crashmarik ( 635988 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:02AM (#10533909)
      Any administrator in a security sensitive environment will ban all removable media. Take a look at the recen Livermore Labs scandals.

    • Re:The ultimate hacker tool (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Errtu76 ( 776778 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:06AM (#10533919) Journal
      Any smart net admin would lock the door to the server room so none of this is possible.
    • Err ... how is this any different from any USB memory stick?
      Any admin worth hir/her salary would have the BIOS password protected and no USB support set.

      • Re:The ultimate hacker tool (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Le_Batleur ( 822375 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:48AM (#10534137)
        BIOS password protected: Mandatory.
        USB Support killed: Doubtful.

        I guess you armchair sysadmins don't actually know what happens when you kill a useful facility like USB? I'm getting tired of seeing this line of reasoning coming up, and not enough being done to have it shot down.

        You throw out support for USB fobs (which have taken over from floppies, mercifully, and must have at least halved support calls planetwide!), cameras, audio recorders (not *just* MP3 players), mobile phone synching - all kinds of stuff which can be used as much in evil as in good.

        Use the sensible approach - approach the task in greater detail. Monitor what is being done with USB, educate what is acceptable, highlight what may be exploited, ban what is only globally unacceptable.

        And encypt the HDD partition if you're really that paranoid about seeing it when booting USB - otherwise it's useful to carry recovery software on a USB removable drive.

        Between USB and the proposed universal drive bay of Intel's (although I can't see many users needing that activeated as much), it's too inflexible to ban at that high a level.

        We don't ban road usage because criminals might drive on them. That's akin to what you're proposing.
        • You really don't think it's appropriate to explicitly ban bootable linux storage devices from a corporate acceptable IT use policy? I agree that disabling USB altogether is a real step backward, but there's a line in the middle. Many companies have banned iPods, not because they are storage devices, but because they are MASS storage devices. There is use, and ACCEPTABLE use. I'm as much in favour of worker rights as anyone, but I must concede that some devices are a combination of potintially dangerous
    • No smart admin would use windows anyway...
    • ....any server you can get to and boot it is 'insecure'..

      the ultimate rehash "hacker!" comment maybe.

      **Any smart net admin would ban this player from their workplace.** are you an IDIOT??? what you're saying is that any smart admin would ban things like usb memory sticks, cd's, floppies, portable harddisks and just about any other means of data storage. sure, that's nice and convinient, if you work in coal mine.

  • charging (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ziak ( 807893 ) * on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:01AM (#10533905)
    The Medaillon includes a tiny rechargeable lithium-ion battery, said to provide up to 8 hours of playback time. The battery recharges when the Medaillon is connected to a PC via a supplied USB cable.

    Am i the only one who feels that charging a mp3 player by just a computer is a bad way of doing it?

    • Re:charging (Score:3, Informative)

      by blowdart ( 31458 )

      Am i the only one who feels that charging a mp3 player by just a computer is a bad way of doing it?

      Why? My Zen recharges by USB, as does my phone when it's docked in it's cradle. That saves me 2 power adapters when I'm travelling. Heck, even my digital camera powers up via a cradle which can draw power from USB alone, and my portable hard drive draws power from a USB2 port (unless you're on a Dell Inspirion which complains that the device is sucking too much power from the port. Cheap ass dells!)

      • Totally agree. I see no reason why it shouldn't charge via whatever port is connects to. That is how the iPod works after all (except with Firewire), and that doesn't seem to be causing anybody any problems. Of course, if you're really concerned, there's probably an adapter out there to provide wall power without a computer. With my iPod, I have a power brick with a firewire port on the end. Plug the iPod into it, stick it into a wall, and there's power.
      • Unless your portable hard drive's form factor is 1.8" or smaller, it probably does use too much power at spinup for a single USB port (2.5w IIRC; the lowest-power 2.5" 5400rpm drives normally use a tad more than the max at spinup). Can you blame Dell for following the USB spec rather than designing for out-of-spec power draw?

    • Well, yes.

      My ibead works like that, and it's very convenient... no wires or plugs or anything... it recharges during the time you are copying files to it so you never have to think about it.

    • A few months back, I bought my daughter a Benq Joybee 110 [benq-eu.com].

      When we got the bulky box, and then opened it and this puny 2 inch thing came out, she said: "is that it?".

      It has a built in Li-Ion battery, that can be charged via the USB connection.

      This is a good idea, because I don't have to pay for batteries, the music player needs a PC anyway to copy MP3 files to it anyway.

      Of course, the battery will die after a few years, and replacing it will be expensive, but for 99$Cdn after rebates, that is no

      • My girlfriend had her birthday yesterday, and I bought her a iRiver iFP895 [iriver.com]. The more I play with it, the more I want to keep it for myself. By default it uses a proprietary file system you need "iRiver Music Manager" to access, but an optional firmware can turn it into a mass storage device. Both works on Linux (The prop. file system can be mounted using this [sourceforge.net]).

        And yes, it plays Ogg.

  • Looks are everything (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:04AM (#10533915)
    It looks cute, nice and small.
    I doubt that it will be a big success, but I hope it will be :)

  • Cool I guess... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jmcmunn ( 307798 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:06AM (#10533920)

    But the iPod could probably be used exactly the same way, though I have never personally tried.

    The main point I see here though, is that if Mp3 players that come preinstaled with Linux get popular, then companies will have valid ground to stand on for banning people from bringing them into the work place as a security measure. Some companies already do it with iPods, just imagine if they get wind of this type of player.

    Oh well, when it comes right down to it, 256MB just ain't enough space anyway.
    • Oh well, when it comes right down to it, 256MB just ain't enough space anyway.

      You can install a selfbooting Linux in about 1MB of space and have 255MB to steal stuff. I do think that is enough for just about anything.

  • MP3? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lunadog ( 821751 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:13AM (#10533947)
    With Linux installed, why is it using proprietary mp3 and not ogg?
  • Unless the linux bit is not taking and space from the "general" storage area this is borderline interesting, but, hardly news.

    I have one of these (http://www.milestone-net.co.jp/products/groovox_ s p/index.html) and have done the same thing; although with a different, bigger, distribution.
    Not a big problem as I only use the MP3 playing part when I am on the threadmill, so the 50 MB loss is not a big deal. Wish it were USB2, but other than that I am happy. Best 8.000 yen I spent in a while.
  • The list of included apps, from AbiWord to Xchat, is pretty impressive for a device intended primarily as a music player.

    But wait till you see the impressive list of paper clips, pens, and post-its that fill up half the space in my new moderate-capacity water bottle.

  • Interesting idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ajs318 ( 655362 ) <sd_resp2@@@earthshod...co...uk> on Friday October 15, 2004 @08:57AM (#10534191)
    I think this is a great idea. The French have always been a little bit ..... well ..... French. Sometimes it's très chic, sometimes it's downright weird, but you've got to admit, our baguette-munching neighbours across the Channel have a certain je ne sais quoi. Combine an MP3 player with a Live Linux distribution? Pourquoi pas? Sooner or later, somebody is bound to have a go at booting it up, and they might well be pleasantly surprised by what they find. {Bear in mind that the French percieve the USA as bullies, who throw their weight around and fight dirty when they can't get their own way; and resent the idea of their tax money going overseas to buy software when an equivalent or superior product is available locally. Although French youth culture may seem to be very American-influenced, the older and wiser generation classes 'pretending to be American' as a self-destructive behaviour practised mainly for shock value.}

    And it only costs EUR159, which is about £100. Lovely! I might have to get myself one of these. I mean, I've already got Slax, Knoppix and probably even TomsRTBT lying around somewhere; I have my Palm Tungsten E, which plays ogg vorbis files, not to mention various combinations of lame, oggenc, mpg321, mpg123 and ogg123 on my home and work PCs, and my wonderful Philips DVDR70 which plays MP3s from CD-R. But I haven't got a device which gives me music playback and a live Linux distro in one handy little package!

    One thing is stopping me, though. The minute after I've sent off my order for the 256MB version, as sure as eggs are oeufs, they will launch a 512MB version for the same price.

  • wm (Score:2)

    by imr ( 106517 )
    it looks like xfce.
  • Or so it seems... From the website: Compatibilit&#233; OS : Win98/2000/XP/Me/Mac OS ( + 9.X )

    Why, oh why, is this another Linux powered beast that "isn't compatiblilite" with Linux? The Zaurus has this curse, now we have another beast. It boots linux, so you'd think that it would be listed as such.
  • After reading the headline I have to ask, whether we couldn't do this with an iPod? Sure it would mean either running Linux on an HFS file system or partitioning the HD, but since when have minor issues stopped Linux getting in the strangest of places and working?
  • And my kids are all going to HAVE to have one. Anybody see where you can buy these jems?
  • I've never been in the situation where I've had to boot up a machine into Linux using nothing more than a MP3 player and a USB connection. In fact, barring some really geeky reality game show, I can't think of how such a situation could come up.

    I think having combined devices can be cool, but there is a limit people. Whats wrong with having one device used to listen to music and another (like a credit card CD-Rom with a live Linux distro installed) to be used as a rescue disk?

    • Last time I checked you can't write to a CD-ROM, so you'd need a USB key anyway to store your settings. Otherwise you're starting from scratch every time you boot up. Assuming this MP3 thing is writable, it's more like MandrakeMove [mandrakesoft.com] where you can take your settings and your entire OS from one computer to another. It's not just meant to be a rescue disk. It's more like Knoppix plus a USB key. Those of us who need rescue disks can build them ourselves.

      Obviously this device isn't meant for you. That doesn't me

  • We (YDL) did it win an iPOD a while ago (Score:4, Informative)

    by zapp ( 201236 ) on Friday October 15, 2004 @11:02AM (#10535385)
    We at Terra Soft Solutions (Yellow Dog Linux) did this with an ipod a while ago. We had intent to sell ipods partitioned with a 5gb Linux space, and the rest open for music - but Apple informed us that the drive wasn't inteded for frequent read/writes, just burst reads... and that we would probably burn the drive pretty quickly.

    Ah well, it woulda been cool :)
  • Every one of these music devices chould include an app that can repartition the PC drive, install Linux, and set it as the default in the bootloader. A true "Linux virus" in with physical epidimiology that closely mirrors human STD transmission, down to the soundtrack.
  • It's way smaller than an Ipod in more than one way! Its maximum capacity is 256MB while the minimum capacity offered by Apple is 4GB.

  • Now I can build a car computer to boot Linux and play Oggs!

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