* SlashDevNull <SlashDevNull_at_mac.com> on Tue, 23 Oct 2001
| Sorry, not an apologist.
"Steve Jobs is a god" to me sounds like "Bill Gates is a god." Neither of
them are, and the past has shown them to be equally ruthless, viscious,
underhanded, sneaky, etc. Case in point, look at how badly Jobs reamed his
"partner" 20 years ago.
| I just happen to think that the iPod is a very cool product.
And I happen to know that it is not as cool as Jobs makes it out to be.
"With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music
player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and
listen to it wherever you go," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "With iPod,
listening to music will never be the same again."
The hype here is astounding. Astoundingly wrong, that is. The Nomad
Jukebox (NJB) can do everything that the iPod can do. Maybe not as
seamlessly or as fast or as slick-looking, but everything nonethelss. NJB
plays WAV, MP3, WMA (with firmware update for older units), has potential
for infinite expansion of formats because the "firmware" is stored on the
disk itself. Can be used for data storage, though slower (USB
vs. FireWire) and requires the use of the PlayCenter app (or in the case of
Windows there is a third-party Finder-like app that makes NJB look like a
mounted disk). Battery life is not nearly as good, 4 to 6 hours, but NJB
is designed to be a desktop jukebox. iPod is smaller, but if smaller
really meant better then we'd all be carrying Palmtoys, wouldn't we.
On the other hand, there are things that NJB does that iPod doesn't. For
the same $400 you can get a 20GB NJB from Creative or $500 for a 40GB
conversion from nomadjukebox.net. Asian language support. Two line level
out jacks (in addition to the headphone jack) for driving external
speakers, and with EAX encoded music files it produces full surround. Full
equalizer control, too. It has a line level in jack for recording at up to
48kHz sampling rates, same as DAT. It uses standard AA batteries which are
cheap to replace. It uses a standard power connector, and the spare wall
wart I got at Radio Shack cost me something like $15. It works with both
Windows and Macintosh, and Unix support is being worked on at the hacker
level. Creative Labs *LIKES* support from the hacker community.
Wait, njbfs for the Linux 2.4 kernel series has just been announced. I'll
have to take a look at that tomorow.
Is iPod a cool product? If its your first standalone MP3 player and you
already own a post-iMac G3 or G4 Macintosh then maybe. Is it as cool and
nifty and unique as Jobs claims? Not really.
My prediction for iPod is that it will ultimately fail as a standalone
product, but future Macintoshes will include it in bundle packages, thus
ensuring its proliferation.
As for Steve Jobs personally... Apple ][ Forever, right?
-- Rat <ratinox_at_peorth.gweep.net> \ When not in use, Happy Fun Ball should be Minion of Nathan - Nathan says Hi! \ returned to its special container and PGP Key: at a key server near you! \ kept under refrigeration.-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
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