USB Key-Sized MP3 Player With LCD Display

nhahmada writes "The Muvo MP3 player/storage device from Creative has been out for awhile, but some have complained of its lack of a display or equalizer. Well, now Innogear has released the 128MB Duex mp302 with a backlit LCD supporting ID3 tags, a "multi-category" equalizer and a timer (Why?). The mp302 also has the ability to record/playback voice via its built-in microphone. It can be used for storing any type of file and plays MP3/WMA/WAV. Both the Muvo and mp302 run on one AAA, giving 12 hours of continuous playback. Running at $179, it's a little more expensive than the $169.99 128MB Muvo, but I am willing to shell out ten bucks for an LCD. Go here for a better look at the display."

Re:to eliminate a hundred comments

[bradkittenbrink]

I believe the holdup was developing an integer only arithmetic implementation. Embedded devices don't usually have that powerful an fpu. Anybody know how much progress has been made in this area?

Re:What I want

[Anonymous Coward]

Archos has just released one and is availavle right now... Even let you record 30 seconds before you press the button.

Re:to eliminate a hundred comments

[Joseph Vigneau]

Yes. [xiph.org]
And I'm not buying a dedicated player until it plays ogg files. I bought a Zaurus 5500 [myzaurus.com] just for this purpose. I'd like to also buy a more purpose-built device for this, though, and I refuse to buy one that does not play Ogg Vorbis I files.

Re:What I want

[Sc00ter]

I do this with an FM card in my linux box. I record Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and a few other shows. Here's the script I use for Car Talk:

---

#! /bin/bash

#Kill off anybody using /dev/dsp
/sbin/fuser -k /dev/dsp

#change to the right freq
/usr/local/bin/fmio -d v4l -f 89.1 -v 7

#set correct mixer settings
/usr/local/bin/smixer -s /root/mixersettings/recordshow.mix

DATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`
/usr/local/bin/mpegrec -b 32 -l 3600 -x "-b 32 --resample 32 -m m" -o /home/travis/radioshows/Car_Talk/Car_Talk_-_$DATE. mp3
/usr/local/bin/smixer -s /root/mixersettings/default.mix
chown -R travis.travis /home/travis/radioshows

---

Hope that helps some, works great. You can use a bitrate of 16, but my portable MP3 player won't play it if it's that low for some stupid reason.

Nice display, but how does it sound?

[bartman1847]

The muvo might not have a display, but it has a great signal to noise ratio of >90dB. Which is far better then any on board soundcard, and bargin bin sound cards... I think that's even better then the older sound blaster cards...

If you want to test your sound card you can get this program [rightmark.org] to see how your sound card stacks up to the muvo. muvo specs here [nomadworld.com] You'll need to run a cable from your speaker out to your stereo input on your soundcard...

But if your headphones suck, it really won't matter will it :D

Re:What I want

[FrenZon]

What I want is an FM radio with MP3 recorder and programmable recording

Archos (makers of the Multimedia Jukebox) make pretty much exactly what you are after (not sure about the programmable recording).

http://www.archos.com/lang=en//products/prw_500326 .html [archos.com]

Re:What I want

[mithras the prophet]

I do this with a combination of streamripper [sourceforge.net] and a crontab. (This only works if you have an always-on connection like a cable modem, of course)

There are a number of NPR stations that broadcast in streaming mp3:

• KCRW Santa Monica [shoutcast.com]
• KPBX Spokane [ksfc.org]
• KUOW Seattle [128.208.34.80]
• WYPR Baltimore [charm.net]

I just set a crontab to run streamripper and record from one of those stations, at the time and for the duration of the program I want. Then tell iTunes to dump the file to the iPod, and poof - several hours of interesting listening, ready and waiting!

All of the stations have program schedules available, or you can just guess for the live programs.

When I have some time, I'll be gussying this up in a Cocoa interface for any fellow Mac OS X users.

Re:Creative Zen

[frunch]

Yep. The iPod has 20 minutes of skip protection [apple.com] say the iPod specs.

They don't list a memory size, but I'm guessing it's 16-32 megs of skip protection.

Re:What I want

[CableModemSniper]

it doesn't. Its always recording to memory. It has the last thiry seconds and when you press the button after realizing you said something important it stores the sound more permanently. ::sits and waits for the karma to roll in, w00t::

Kyocera 7135

[Andy Dodd]

MP3 player + PalmOS PDA + phone.

Coming soon - Rumor has it that "soon" could be Nov. 15. A few people have gotten their hands on beta units and it's schweet.

http://www.kyocera.com/

If you're worried about the phone/PDA integration - I have the 7135's predecessor, the 6035. It rocks. The integration is wonderfully done.

Re:LCD Display

[Cy Guy]

Liquid Crystal Diode Display

thank you! [wristwatch.com].

Can I use it from linux?

[szo]

Does anyone knows? Does it look like as a usd-hdd from the os's point of view?

thx

Szo

Re:Recharge?

[theLOUDroom]

Self powered hubs, those that are plugged into the wall or on the back of a machine give you 5v at up to 500 mA. 2.5 Watts. Bus powered hubs, those that get their power from USB provide 5v at 100 mA. For a grand total of 1 Watt. It could take quite a bit of time to recharge at that rate.
A NiMH AAA rechargeable batt. is about 600 mAh. It would only take a little more than and hour to recharge, and around 6 through a non-powered hub.

Re:to eliminate a hundred comments

[xercist]

No, actually it takes a bit -less- processing power to decode vorbis, but a bit more memory. The real problem here is that most of these players use dedicated mp3-decoding chips. That's all they do, and can't be reprogrammed for other things. Some players use ARM based processors, and this is where a firmware upgrade enabling vorbis-decoding is possible. However, the truth is that right now most of these companies are losing money on portable players - they're just so cheap. To make them play oggs requires engineers, and engineers cost money. Most of these companies have already laid off all their engineers because they can't afford to keep paying them after initially creating the hardware/firmware.

Anyway, you didn't hear it from me, but iRiver [iriver.com] is currently working on implementing vorbis support in their portables.