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`DOWNTIME; New Ways to Play MP3 Music, Without Plugs or Speakers The New York Times
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`TECHNOLOGY
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` DOWNTIME
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`DOWNTIME; New Ways to Play MP3
`Music, Without Plugs or Speakers
`
`By MICHEL MARRIOTT AUG. 19, 1999
`WHEN the first portable MP3 player appeared on the market last year, it looked like
`some shrewsize mammal living in the shadows of the thundering dinosaurs of
`cassette and compact disk players: humble enough but poised to evolve into the
`planet's dominant species.
`
`Now other companies have joined Rioport, a new sudsidiary of Diamond
`Multimedia Systems, in the market for ultraportable, chipbased music players. They
`are cleverly designed, Walkmanlike devices (minicomputers, really) that are the
`size of pagers, each one slightly different. They download music from a computer
`and store it on a RAM chip, which plays it back through headphones. This year
`Samsung released a series of players in Korea called the Yepp. Major consumer
`electronics companies like Casio and Thomson Multimedia are expected to develop
`players for the North American markets soon.
`
`''They are the hottest new thing in portable audio players,'' said Amy Hill,
`spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association. ''Every
`teenager I know wants one of these things, and older people do, too.'' Forrester
`Research, an Internet consulting firm, projects that sales of the players will reach
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`DOWNTIME; New Ways to Play MP3 Music, Without Plugs or Speakers The New York Times
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`about 1 million units by the end of this year and anticipates a surge to 32 million
`units by 2003.
`
`The rapidly increasing popularity of devices that can capture and replay music
`found on the Internet has often been described as nothing less than a revolution,
`driving a new kind of Ecommerce as well as raising fears of copyright violation.
`Certainly there is enough music, some free and most a creditcard transaction away,
`available for online downloads. More is becoming available every day, much of it in
`the MP3 format. Music CD's can also be used to create MP3 files.
`
`But freeing listeners from the computer has long been considered vital if
`downloadable music is to be embraced by mainstream consumers.
`
`''The players are crucial as a way of getting the music off of the PC,'' said Joe
`Butt, director of consumer technology research at Forrester. ''Sitting at your
`computer and listening to downloaded music was a big yawn.''
`
`The chief advantage of handheld MP3 players is that they do not depend on
`tape cassettes or whirling optical disks to play recorded music. They have no moving
`parts, making them extremely mobile, skipresistant and gentle on batteries.
`
`And while improvements are certain to be made as these portable players
`evolve, the newest offerings are worth a close look. But they do have disadvantages.
`They are relatively expensive, with list prices from $169 to $299.95. Playback time is
`limited, usually no more than an hour. And the sound, while improving, still lacks
`the power and richness of music heard on most CD and minidisk players. Most of
`the players have limited storage; if the memory is full, users must erase what is
`stored there before they can add more music or other audio input.
`
`And to use these new machines, you must be able to link them to a computer.
`Computers get the music, or other recorded sounds like the spoken word, usually by
`downloading it in highly compressed, highfidelity audio formats. Downloading
`music into the computer and transferring it to the player takes far more time and
`effort than popping a CD into a portable player.
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`Just as important, users must know enough about computers to master software
`programs, usually on CDROM's included with the players, that permit the players
`and computers to communicate. Like the players themselves, some of the programs
`work better and more easily than others. The quality of the software can be just as
`important as the model of player.
`
`The Rio PMP500, expected to be on store shelves late this fall, is the only
`secondgeneration player on the market. It is a reengineered update of last year's
`Rio PMP300 (the first MP3 player on the market) and at $269 costs about $100
`more than its parent did when it went to market last November. The new Rio also
`has a 64megabyte internal memory, twice as much as the old Rio. With an
`additional removable flash memory card, the memory can be expanded to 96
`megabytes. A typical fiveminute highquality music selection takes about five
`megabytes of memory.
`
`In terms of design, the Rio 500's hardened plastic case appears more durable
`than its predecessor. Rioport has replaced the old Rio's confusing array of buttons,
`arranged in a circle, with a few wellplaced, recessed buttons. The new player also
`features a slightly larger display screen that is backlit so that the helpful playback
`information, like the lengths and names of tracks, can be read in low light.
`
`A key feature, found only on the new Rio, is a speedy Universal Serial Bus line to
`transfer audio files from computers. The player's software comes in Mac and PC
`versions. And the player itself comes in three different finishes conservative silver,
`translucent teal and translucent purple.
`
`Like most of the players, the Rio 500 has a voice recorder and is capable of
`playing multiple audio formats like those used for Audible's books on tape. But while
`the new Rio is capable of playing at much higher volume than the old one, its overall
`sound still tends to be tinny.
`
`The Rave MP ($269) by Sensory Science is a distinctively hourglassshaped
`MP3 player and voice recorder that has 64 megabytes of internal memory. Like the
`Rio 500, it has a slot for additional memory.
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`Like the Rio 500, the Rave MP operates on a single AA battery and has a large
`LCD screen.. Unlike any other player on the market, the Rave doubles as a
`rudimentary personal digital assistant. It includes a clock and can store as many as
`128,000 telephone numbers or more than 13,000 pages of text.
`
`Like most players, the Rave connects to computers by a cable plugged into the
`PC's printer port. Its software is hardly intuitive, but once it is mastered, converting
`compact disk music into MP3 files or downloading audio files from the Internet
`takes only a few minutes on a Pentium class computer with at least a 56K modem
`connection. Transferring the music takes about 30 to 40 seconds for a 5minute
`selection.
`
`The Rave can be clunky to use, especially its horseshoeshaped array of buttons.
`Some of its display icons and indicators for things like battery life and volume
`settings are too small to be of much real use. The overall sound is adequate and best
`when heard through Sennheiser MX4 Audiophile Earbuds that are packaged with
`some of the Rave players. (All the MP3 players come with some kind of
`headphones.)
`
`Half the size of a shirt pocket, the Nomad is Creative Labs' longawaited entry
`into the portable media player arena. The machine has a retroforward look, bearing
`a striking resemblance to the communicator device from the original ''Star Trek''
`television series. The Nomad is finely engineered with a row of tiny buttons along its
`smooth sides. A liquid crystal screen the size of a quarter on the front smartly lets
`listeners know what tracks they are listening to by name and performer.
`
`But it is the sound that really sets the Nomad apart from the competition. Music
`heard on the player is rich, full and detailed. The Nomad is also distinctive in the
`way it links to the computer. It uses a docking station that connects by cable to the
`computer's printer port and doubles as a recharger for the two AAA nickelmetal
`hydride batteries the device uses. The software is fairly simple to use and works
`smoothly.
`
`Unfortunately, the Nomad comes with only 32 megabytes of internal memory.
`But it also comes with a 32megabyte flash memory card for a total of 64 megabytes.
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`DOWNTIME; New Ways to Play MP3 Music, Without Plugs or Speakers The New York Times
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`Like most players it can record up to four hours of speech. Unlike most players,
`however, the Nomad has an FM radio tuner.
`
`IJam by IJam Multimedia, released last week and sold only on the Internet, is
`the newest of the MP3 players. Covered with rubberized skin that comes in 10 colors
`from dark gray to plumlike purple, it is also by far the smallest about three
`quarters the size of a standard computer mouse.
`
`Yet despite its small size, it is capable of a big sound and has lots of features. It
`includes an FM tuner and treble and bass tone controls, and it is compatible with
`both PC's and Macs. It comes with 32 megabytes of storage, on two 16megabyte
`Scandisk memory cards about the size of postage stamps. The IJam can hold only
`one card at a time, meaning that it gives only 16 minutes of playback of near CD
`quality music. The IJam comes in a range of models, priced from $199 to $299.95.
`
`As with all the players, industry experts say, the price is certain to drop as more
`are sold and the cost of flash memory drops.
`
`''These kinds of electronics are deflationary,'' said Ms. Hill of the electronics
`manufacturers association. ''As time goes on the players will offer more and better
`features for less money.''
`
`© 2017 The New York Times Company
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`http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/19/technology/downtimenewwaystoplaymp3musicwithoutplugsorspeakers.html
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