Check out this MP3 player

[Fritzo]

Here's a video of it:

CNet mini-review

Features website:

http://www.soniqcast.com/details.html

This thing looks way cool, even though it only has 1.5GB of storage (+ an SD slot). Might get me one. Looks like they come out on 7/22.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Looks pretty cool, but not really that practical. Only 1.5 gigs, WiFi isn't that useful on it, and it's a little clunky.

How useful is transferring a song without a cable? You still have to be close to a PC, and transfer speeds won't be as fast as USB2/Firewire. It's more of a gimmick than a useful feature.. get up and walk the 20 feet to a PC.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Looks pretty cool, but not really that practical. Only 1.5 gigs, WiFi isn't that useful on it, and it's a little clunky.

Huh? You can transfer song with no cables, and use it as a hotspot finder as well. How is that not useful? I do agree with the 1.5 gigs, but that's still larger than flash players. The built in FM transmitter allows you to listen over you car radio without any attachments. I might pick one up

 

[JzL]

I read about this in this months "Stuff" magazine... I was thinking of picking on up as well.. Question on it though... can you "stream" your collection wirelessly, or it that just for transfer?

 

[User1001]

heres some cons:

Cons: Cool idea but there seams to be no real need for the wifi. Can't purchase and play music off the web or anything. Also the device get's an ip address but after the firmware upgrade, i couldn't access it as a wireless hard drive. Also, music transfer wired is USB 1.1 and wireless is 802.11b, kind of slow. Radio has no presets making it completely useless. FM Transmitter is kind of weak and it didn't work well in the car. Also, I already have a FM transmitter and use it with my flash based player. I rather carry two tiny things than this. This thing is huge and it's only 1.5 gigs. 40 gig players are the same size and some in the same price range. And finally, it's kind of ugly, but when it comes down to it, the reason for this thing is the wifi and i must say, if you have to plug in the power cable anyway, what's one more cable?

 

[new2AMD]

that does sound pretty good, 1.5gb is good especially when you can transfer wirelessly. No problem changing the songs on it every month or so.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: User1001
heres some cons:

Cons: Cool idea but there seams to be no real need for the wifi. Can't purchase and play music off the web or anything. Also the device get's an ip address but after the firmware upgrade, i couldn't access it as a wireless hard drive. Also, music transfer wired is USB 1.1 and wireless is 802.11b, kind of slow. Radio has no presets making it completely useless. FM Transmitter is kind of weak and it didn't work well in the car. Also, I already have a FM transmitter and use it with my flash based player. I rather carry two tiny things than this. This thing is huge and it's only 1.5 gigs. 40 gig players are the same size and some in the same price range. And finally, it's kind of ugly, but when it comes down to it, the reason for this thing is the wifi and i must say, if you have to plug in the power cable anyway, what's one more cable?

Is that a user review? I never trust those things because most of the problems are due to user errors. I'm going to pick one up. I'll give a full review after I get it. If it sucks, I'll return it

 

[Mallow]

No mention of price, probably for a very good reason

 

[So]

Agreed, seems like a gimmick.

 

[new2AMD]

they are listed at best buy for 199.99...but also listed as sold out

 

[Fritzo]

Not going to be released until July 22nd, so it's obviously not in stock yet.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd buy one if it supported streaming (with good buffering) of FLAC files, so I could play lossless music directly from my music server without needing to convert anything.

Oh well. maybe next year.

 

[Anubis]

id rather have a gigabeat

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

Originally posted by: joshsquall
Looks pretty cool, but not really that practical. Only 1.5 gigs, WiFi isn't that useful on it, and it's a little clunky.

Huh? You can transfer song with no cables, and use it as a hotspot finder as well. How is that not useful? I do agree with the 1.5 gigs, but that's still larger than flash players. The built in FM transmitter allows you to listen over you car radio without any attachments. I might pick one up

I agree WiFi would be very practical in this case.


Sysadmin

 

[DaveSimmons]

Not hot -- they don't support WMA lossless, and have no plans to add FLAC and/or Ogg.

They do answer their email promptly, though it could be because they have nothing better to do in the echoing silence