Microsoft To Release 'iPod Killer' at Christmas? 614
ShellFish writes "According to a report from Engadget, Microsoft is poised to finally take on the Apple iPod this holiday season. Tired of uninspiring offerings from its hardware partners, Microsoft is getting into the ring itself. The new media player from Microsoft will feature a bigger screen than the iPod Video, have built-in WiFi for downloading music without a PC, and Microsoft will work with music and TV content providers to build an iTunes Music Store competitor. In what may be the crucial competitive stroke, Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in."
Re:Woah (Score:4, Informative)
Albeit ostensibly benevolent, keep in mind Microsoft has a habit of trying to dump loads of money to gain initial market share. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
uhh (Score:3, Informative)
Unless Microsoft is providing DRM free files, I will stay far away from this. At least iTunes lets me burn the songs to CD as many times as I wish.
Re:Woah (Score:5, Informative)
Personally I don't see how this will work. I can't imagine Apple being too keen on it.
Re:Ipod killer? Not unless... (Score:3, Informative)
Without being long-winded, the technology just isn't there. The iPaq (with Windows Mobile 5) freezes up constantly (have to take out the battery to restart it). The handheld web browser only supports a small SMALL subset of Java (it basically has no Java support at all). In addition to that, even with the screen turned sideways, browsing the internet (especially the CSS enabled internet) is a nightmare!
Having used an iPaq, I will bet that the rumor of MS releasing a handheld this christmas is exactly that: a rumor. The technology just isn't there yet.
Who wants to run a Vista powered MP3 player (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not only that... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not only that... (Score:5, Informative)
Proud owner of iPod Nano. But when it's time for replacement, I'll give this product a look-see.
Oh and it won't be hard to be better than itunes (Score:3, Informative)
Lots of other general bugginess. The concept is good with the music store and all that, but the Itunes software itself is possibly the worst piece of crap I've ever used.
Re:Woah (Score:5, Informative)
"...But it gets better. To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account....[MS has to pay rights-holders...they'll lose money to win converts] "
From: http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/06/microsoft-plann ing-wifi-enabled-portable-media-player-working-o/ [engadget.com]
Re:Not only that... (Score:3, Informative)
Let's not forget also use music management software that isn't just ported over from the mac. I absolutely HATE iTunes.
As a Windows-savvy user I first found myself using iTunes on Boxing Day. I think the root of the problem is iTunes is a Mac application, ported to the windows platform. As a result, hard-core Windoze user will find a lot of what iTunes does to be counter-intutitive. For example, I put in an audio CD and an icon appears. As a PC user, my instinct is to right-click on that icon and be presented with some options (play, rip, copy to ipod, explore, eject, buy (?) etc.) That doesn't happen in iTunes - I've got to click somewhere else.
Or, *by default*, iTunes starts re-arranging music on people's hard disks. I'm sure this feature is handy - But by default? It's *very* confusing and all day long my wife was saying "Where did my song go!?!!"
I'm sure it's brilliant on the Mac, but on the PC itunes is useless and counter-intuitive.
That's a Samsung cellphone (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not only that... (Score:2, Informative)
Fairplay AAC is Apple specific though. All of my music is in DRM un-encumbered AAC.
Re:Not only that... (Score:2, Informative)
Not so much a mistake, as that when the iPod was first introduced, it only worked with Macs (iTunes being Mac-only at the time), most of which had FireWire and none of which had USB 2.0. Once Windows support came with iTunes for Windows, USB 2.0 was added for PCs which had USB 2.0 but rarely FireWire.
Get in line (Score:3, Informative)
Google "ipod killer" -> 1,160,000 results.
We've seen iPod killers from Sony [theregister.co.uk], iRiver [pcworld.com], Dell [connectedhomemag.com], Nokia [softpedia.com], and of course Creative [arstechnica.com].
Microsoft has been [com.com] killing [engadget.com] the iPod for years now. They need to get their other iPod killers out of the way to give their new device a piece of that tasty iPod flesh that Apple competitors have been feasting on for years.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Informative)
"The problem is, the PC model doesn't work in the consumer electronics industry, where you've got all these companies and some does one thing and another does another thing. It just doesn't work. What's going to happen is that Microsoft is going to have to get into the hardware business of making MP3 players. This year. X-player, or whatever."
The link is here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10853916/site/newswee
Survey of High Schoolers: iPod not built to last (Score:5, Informative)
If you want something that's built to last, get an iPod.
Business Students at a local university surveyed a bunch of local high schools. They found that Apple scored low on reliability. Apple also scored low on features, the kids really thought the lack of AM/FM was a negative(*). However, iPod was the most common player. Apple did win on ease of use. Many iPod owners admitted they traded functionality/reliability for "status symbol"/fashion. The kids were fairly well informed since there was a lot of comparing and contrasting of the various players they had.
(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in.
Already Exists? (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/media/giga
Re:Not only that... (Score:3, Informative)
Apple must love you fanboys.
Re:OK, kudos to that (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not only that... (Score:4, Informative)
And Apple learned from its mistakes, now you can use USB 2.0 or FireWire.
Not anymore, you can't. iPod videos ship with a USB(2.0) cable only and are unsynchable through firewire, even with the proper cabling. I believe the Nanos are the same way, but am fuzzy on the details. And lemme tell ya, coming from a guy with four Macs, being forced to sync with the only one with USB2.0 on it (which ain't where my music lives) is supremely fucking annoying.
Triv
Re:One jailer for another (Score:3, Informative)
Yes and no. With the iPod, you are locked into the iTunes music store, but also the iPod itself. With this, you will be locked into the WMA format, but that is availble from a number of different stores. Also, you won't be locked into the MS player, as other players will play WMA files. So while you may be lcoked into the format, you aren't locked into a particular store or player. Seems like a good idea to me.
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not only that... (Score:3, Informative)
Historical revisionism. The iPod was originally introduced as a Mac only device. Many macs had USB 1.0, which was next to useless, but all macs since around 1999 had Firewire, which is full 400 Mbs, without the complex slave/master thing which can slow stuff down, especially the was it appears to implemented on the Mac. Also firewire daisy chains so there is no need for a hub. At that time USB was slow. Very slow. Beleive me, I had to transfer stuff USB for my old Nomad. It was not fun even for just 64 MB.
Now that nearly all machines less than 3 years old has hi-speed USB 2.0, and Apple is selling to Windows users, the iPods are mostly just USB devices. Sucks for those of us with old Macs, but those are the breaks.
In terms of what we expect from the MS, I suspect it will be the same as what came from Sony, and what Apple tries to do on the shuffle, and perhaps the Nano(I do not have one of these). That is all tracks will probably be converted to play for sure format, unless the user specifically asks not to. Therefore most will have encrypted tracks on the device, even if the originals are not. This then means that it will be harder to hack the device to retrieve the tracks.
Re:Not only that... (Score:3, Informative)
Except for that bit about increasing the number of authorized computers from three to five [apple.com].