Microsofts Answer To The Ipod Revealed?

[Max]

Xbox365

Here's an image of what very may be the "next generation" of portable media devices. Engadget reports that an insider tipped them off to this device dubbed "Project Argo" and its what J Allard's been working on (hence his absence from the Xbox scene). Speculation also states that this thing will support Live Anywhere as well as downloading music wirelessly. Two things the iPod cannot do.

Engadget

Sent to us from an insider working on the project, we're told the device pictured above is indeed a part of "Project Argo," and from what we can tell it definitely jibes from the blurry pics we caught a while back; though if the piece from earlier today is to be believed, this could just be one of numerous Microsoft portables.

We've had to sit on this one for a while, but it's about time we showed you guys at least one possible form Microsoft's Argo / Xbox-branded wireless portable media player could take. Sent to us from an insider working on the project, we're told the device pictured above is indeed a part of "Project Argo," and from what we can tell it definitely jibes from the blurry pics we caught a while back; though if the piece from earlier today is to be believed, this could just be one of numerous Microsoft portables. It's hard to tell just how much larger the screen on this thing actually is, but it does indeed appear to be a 4:3 aspect ratio display, and could be 3, even 3.5-inches wide. Keep your eyes peeled, you know we do our best to have this stuff as early as possible.

Ipod killer? Yay or nay?

Personally I'm not sold on downloading music wirelessly. I'm not sure, but I think the download rate would be slower than just plugging into a USB2.0. My treo can update via bluetooth to my pc, but it's noticeably slower than if I just plug it in to the USB port.

[InnocentBystander]

The large screen is nice

[General Zod]

If the price is comparable,(a huge factor)and the interface is smooth,it might be able to pull it off. It's not like Microsoft will have much trouble marketing it.

[WyrdNyrd]

"Speculation states that this thing will conveniently do two things that the iPod can't!"

That just makes me feel like they're taking stabs in the dark at what features MS might be adding to compete. They don't actually know anything at all...

[Dartzap]

And last week they denied even wanting to compete with Apple and the Ipod... Would one week really make that much of a diffrence?

[weemadando]

I can see this being directly compatible with a XBox360...

[Admiral Valdemar]

I smell a WMA promoting platform. If Sony didn't learn from ATRAC, MS hasn't learned from WMA. I ain't touching anything like that unless it runs opensource formats and not locked in proprietary ones, so my Samsung Ogg Vorbis player will suffice.

[Vendetta]

I smell a WMA promoting platform.

So, how is that post-grad course in The Obvious going for you?

Of course they'll promote WMA on it, and that's what they'll sell on their Urge music store, but it will inevitably play mp3, because that is the market standard (and if you can find three other people within fifty miles of you for whom Ogg Vorbis playback is even a relevant feature they probably all work at a university IT department).

And it won't kill, or even much dent, iPod sales, because it doesn't look sexy, it probably won't work with iTunes (goodbye 82% of the download marketshare), and it's pretty much impossible to beat the iPod adverts for sheer visual differentiation. It will be Just Another mp3 Player fighting over Apple's scraps.

[Dominus Atheos]

Personally I'm not sold on downloading music wirelessly. I'm not sure, but I think the download rate would be slower than just plugging into a USB2.0. My treo can update via bluetooth to my pc, but it's noticeably slower than if I just plug it in to the USB port.

At the speeds we're talking about, the data transfer rate is only going to be limited by how fast it can write to memory. USB 2.0 has transfer rates of 57 megabytes per second, so it should transfer song almost instantly, but it doesn't.

Wireless had rates of 13.5, so it should also be almost instaneous, but it's also not, because it's limited by how fast the information can be written to memory.

[Stark]

Something like wireless seems an interesting funciton to add to an MP3 player: it'll raise cost and suck down power. It'll doubtless have a terrible interface and big windows branding everywhere, so that's enough to turn me off already.

[Admiral Valdemar]

And my money has always been on a Japanese or S. Korean firm producing an iPod killer, and one that doesn't look fugly but has the features, or vice versa. Besides, I don't care if others don't want what I want, so long as I have access to my ideal device. Everyone else I know who has a portable digital music player have iPods and are the type of people who are content listening to shitty MP3 or WMA taking up twice as much as the format I use. I honestly couldn't care less if WAV was the de facto leading format and I was extolling the virtues of the obscure MP3 brand.

MS should just stick to getting their software to not suck, rather than trying to hurt Apple, because they're actually ahead of them in something for once which isn't down to obsessive alternative computing nerds.

[Durandal]

And my money has always been on a Japanese or S. Korean firm producing an iPod killer, and one that doesn't look fugly but has the features, or vice versa.

I'd take that bet if your country didn't use that communist "pound" for currency. You tooted this horn last month, and nothing happened. I can't even remember the name of the last iPod killer.

[Vendetta]

My money's on mp3 phones as the next big thing in personal music playback.

I can already not go on public transport without some little chav or chavette arsebiscuit listening to their shitty chav music loud enough for the entire fucking bus or tram to hear (not with headphones, through the phone speaker.)

One day I will snap, and there will be blood in the streets.

[Lord Pounder]

My money's on mp3 phones as the next big thing in personal music playback.

I can already not go on public transport without some little chav or chavette arsebiscuit listening to their shitty chav music loud enough for the entire fucking bus or tram to hear (not with headphones, through the phone speaker.)

One day I will snap, and there will be blood in the streets.

You shoulda teken part in International Slayer day last month to get them back, i know i did. Pulled the ear phones outta my PSP and let the Metal fly. Made it through Here Comes The Pain and South Of Heaven before i was thrown off the bus.

[RedImperator]

At this point, iPod is virtually synonymous with "portable music player"*, the same way people say Kleenex instead of "facial tissue" or Band-Aid instead of "adhesive bandage". It's not just a matter of a wannabe iPod killer having extra features or doing one or two things better or even having a better price. It's breaking through Apple's brand recognition.

It's certainly not impossible, of course--Apple used to dominate the personal computer market the same way--but I don't see Microsoft pulling it off. Of course, it could turn out this music player does something totally awesome nobody's thought of before, something iPod doesn't do and won't be able to do for a while, and then all bets are off, but I'm not counting on it from MS at this point.

*In the United States, anyway. Outside the country, I'm led to understand it's just another mp3 player.

[Vendetta]

You shoulda teken part in International Slayer day last month to get them back, i know i did. Pulled the ear phones outta my PSP and let the Metal fly. Made it through Here Comes The Pain and South Of Heaven before i was thrown off the bus.

Trouble is these people don't get thrown off.

I should get some metal on my phone and go and stand next to them with it blasting out, but being that close would overcome my resistance to punching them in the face, taking their shitty phone, and stamping on the bastard.