Toshiba launches iPod competitor

[Captain Code]

I didn't see this posted anywhere else, so here it is.

From MacCentral

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0206/18.toshiba.php

"Toshiba Corp. has chosen a removable hard drive for their new portable music player, which means a physically larger player but one with a much greater capacity for your favorite music.

The Gigabeat will playback music stored in the MP3, WMA or WAV digital audio file formats and Toshiba says the bundled 5GB hard disk offers enough space for around 1,000 MP3 files of 5 minutes length recorded at 128Kbps (bits per second). That's 20 or 40 times the capacity of current memory cards.

The hard disk drives are 1.8-inch models developed by Toshiba. They are encased in PC Cards and so can also be used with most notebook PCs or other devices with PC Card slots. Of course, using Apple's iPod, simply connecting the player to your Mac via the FireWire cable mounts the drive on your desktop.

With all this data storage space, transferring files to the player could take some time and here Toshiba has implemented the new USB2.0 interface, which can transfer data at 480M bps -- a much higher speed than the 12M bps supported by USB1.1, which is found on most digital music players today. Using the bundled application software, Toshiba says an entire CD worth of audio can be transferred to the device in 30 seconds.

With its rectangular shape, liquid crystal display and circular control panel, the Gigabeat bears a passing resemblance to Apple Inc.'s iPod, which has a fixed 1.8-inch hard disk drive (produced by Toshiba) buried inside. Apple's current model of the iPod contains a 10GB disk, allowing for approximately 2,000 songs.

Partly because of the hard disk slot and ejection mechanism, the Toshiba player is slightly larger but not by much. It measures 7.2 centimeters (cm) by 2.2 cm by 11.2 cm, which puts it around 1 cm wider and taller than the iPod. At 180 grams with no disk and 235 grams with the drive inserted, it also weighs more than the Apple player, which is 185 grams including its internal hard disk.

Other features include an on-screen menu in English, Japanese, French, Spanish or German. The screen has 160 x 120 pixel resolution and is slightly smaller than the iPod's 2-inch screen.

The Gigabeat MEG50JS will go on sale in Japan on June 22 and is expected to cost around ´50,000 (US$402) bundled with a 5GB hard disk. At the same time, Toshiba will put removable hard drives in 2GB and 5GB sizes on sale for ´20,000 (US$160) and ´40,000 (US$321) respectively.

Toshiba said it has plans to put the Gigabeat on sale in the U.S. and then Europe although the company has not decided on a schedule for an overseas launch. "


It bears a striking resemblence to the iPod, that's for sure.

[voice-]

Well, find a Toshiba-fan and welcome them after

[satanicpoptart]

its like a crappy ipod that cost's the same.

[xaqintosh]

I don't see the use for removable HDs, since you can always switch the songs on an iPod, and you really don't need mor than the 10gig iPod

[fryke]

This might not really appeal to us, as the iPod is a great device - and firewire harddrives are all the rage, too. But Apple missed an opportunity to sell iPods to Windows users. Now, they might see the Toshiba as the better alternative, since it has Windows compatibility included (which the iPod lacks). Also, Joe Average might think he *will* use multiple harddisks (but of course won't).

Thus I think Apple missed the chance to land a big hit among the Windows crowd. The iPod was a killer feature of the Mac user crowd so far, but with the advent of this MP3 player - whether you like its look or not - this killer appliance is gone.

[simX]

While this an impressive competitor to the iPod, it still doesn't stack up for a number of reasons:

1) It uses USB. Yes, it uses USB 2.0 which is faster than FireWire, but USB 2.0 is used even more scarcely than FireWire. This is going to be very bad, because to make this product more effective, you're probably going to have to buy a $50-$100 (this is pure speculation on the price) card to get a USB 2.0 connection.

2) It's 1 cm wider and 1 cm taller. While that's still an impressive size, you'd be surprised how much more that is when you start carrying it everywhere.

3) No 10 GB hard drive.

4) A little more expensive than the iPod (5 GB version) with the same capacity.

5) No scroll wheel like the iPod, which will undoubtedly make scrolling through the thousands of songs you can fit on there very hard, whereas with the iPod it is effortless.

6) I don't know about this, but I would speculate that there is no software as easy as iTunes and the auto-sync features that it offers, and that the software bundled with this product is probably cruder than iTunes.

7) It's late. After the iPod. It's not going to be perceived as being as groundbreaking as the iPod, which was no doubt one of the iPod's selling points.

This product does have two distinct advantages, though:

1) Out-of-the-box Windows compatibility. Even though there is software to allow the iPod to connect to Windows machines, this will be a major selling point to Windows users, unfortunately.

2) Removable hard drives. I think this could be a cool feature given that I could upgrade my iPod to a 10 GB or 20 GB hard drive in the future if I needed it. Although, I haven't used up my 5 GB at all yet, so I suppose this won't be as useful as I put it out to be.


It'll be interesting to see how well this product does in relation to the iPod. I wonder if the sheer number of Windows users will be able to offset the disadvantages of this product and enable it to sell more units than the iPod.

[bigbadbill]

Can the ToshibaPod be used as an external hard drive for data files the way iPod can?

How is it powered?

[Javintosh]

I figured someone would come up with something close to the iPod while at the same time missing the point entirely.

The iPod is *a lot* more than an MP3 player. This thing is not. That, to me, is the biggest drawback.

I'm planning on buying an iPod. I can get all my contacts in there. Now, if I could only get the local movie times (like showtimes and my palm), I'd never use my palm on the weekends.