VisualIT Releases Simple Tunes

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.visualit.co.uk/simpletunes.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.visualit.co.uk/simpletunes.htm</a><br /><br /></div>"Finally, a straight forward MP3 player for your Pocket PC. Simple Tunes has been designed from the outset to be simple to use, leaving you to enjoy your music. No more using the stylus, learning complicated options, or getting confused by play lists. Just browse to your music and play. Or plug in a storage card with your favourite music and away you go."<br /><br />Of course, I think a screenshot speaks volumes:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040415-VisualITSimpleTunes.gif" />

[Vincent M Ferrari]

:soapbox:

You know what really cracks me up? People want an iPod so bad that they disguise their pocketpc to look and function like one to play MP3's.

Come on man, if you want an iPod, buy one! If you want to play MP3's, play MP3's, but this make believe stuff is just so silly already!

Jeez...

[DualShock]

I smell a lawsuit coming... (or at least a cease and desist order from you know who)

[Vincent M Ferrari]

Especially considering that Apple attempted to patent the UI after that last MP3 player came out.

They ain't playin' games no more.

[Stephen Beesley]

Especially considering that Apple attempted to patent the UI after that last MP3 player came out.

They ain't playin' games no more.

On top of which didn't Apple already kill off the very similiar pPod/pBop software by Starbrite Solutions (http://www.starbriteltd.com/) a month or so ago.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

That's exactly the "other MP3 player" I was talking about.

Yep, Apple is protecting it's intellectual property folks. Let's have a pool on how long it takes this one to disappear ;-)

[Zack Mahdavi]

Another cease and desist is coming? I can feel it. That "UI" looks awfully fishy... 8O

[Perry Reed]

Another cease and desist is coming? I can feel it. That "UI" looks awfully fishy... 8O

Yeah, this one doesn't look long for the world.

Not to mention that $19 seems pricey for a basic player, even if it is far less costly than a real iPod... :)

[Stephen Beesley]

Not to mention that $19 seems pricey for a basic player, even if it is far less costly than a real iPod... :)

In general I really quite like the UI and features. I got a copy of pPod before it was closed down and found that very user friendly and this seems to be pretty much the same. The big minus for me is that it can only handle MP3s. Most of my songs I have encoded as either WMA or ogg tracks for the smaller size. If this software could handle either of these formats (and if Apple lets it live :D) then I think I could see myself buying it even at $19.00.

[husky99]

Look at the differences between the two interfaces....
http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040415-VisualITSimpleTunes.gif

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040220-pPod.gif

How many differences can you find?

[David Johnston]

To me (and prolly Apple), the circular pad is the critical part that separates 'copied from' and 'inspired by'.

[Dave Potter]

Hmmm... I didn't realize that Apple has patented the circle.

Note to self - apply for patents for the square and rectangle. I'm gonna be stinkin' rich!

[DarkHelmet]

It's amazing to me (and I am sure that I am not the only one) how many people there are who believe that it is OK to adopt other's property with the goal of becoming enriched by it...

I applaud Apple's efforts to quash this type of theft.

Countless others have said (and I agree) - if you want an iPod - go buy an iPod...

Then you can move on to stealing the work of RIAA members - but that's another story...

[Jonathan1]

HELOOOOOOOOO LAWSUIT!!


Apple legal meet Visualit. Visualit meet Apple legal. Are people critically braindead? Apple will be over this in a hot second. :roll:

[anthonymoody]

It's amazing to me (and I am sure that I am not the only one) how many people there are who believe that it is OK to adopt other's property with the goal of becoming enriched by it...

I applaud Apple's efforts to quash this type of theft...


The problem with your logic is that if taken to the extreme then Apple's own computer OS (not to mention every version of Windows) would either not exist, or would exist only by paying serious royalties to Xerox....

TM

[motbe]

If you look on the back of a Canon 10D, you'll see a wheel that's very similar to the iPod's wheel. No, it's not silver, like an iPod, but it is a wheel, and I'd imagine functions the exact same way that the iPod's one does. And hmm, I think the 10D came out before the iPod did. I'd assume that any patent Apple tried to get for a "wheel" would be easily squashed by prior art.

[Jonathan1]

Hmmm... I didn't realize that Apple has patented the circle.

Note to self - apply for patents for the square and rectangle. I'm gonna be stinkin' rich!

:roll:
They didn't patent the circle. They patented the interface. Big BIG difference. Not only is this a direct ripoff of that interface but hell the GUI menu is identical. Sorry. Sounds like a duck, looks like a duck it's probably a duck.

[mty]

other than the lawsuit, the real story here is that i WOULD like a stylus-free way to navigate and use the PPC.

There are many times when I want to scroll up and down, and the directional pad doesn't do it (calenar entry notes, etc)

There are many times when I would want to select, launch, and use an app (when text entry is not required), one-handed, w/o the stylus, and the ppc doesn't accomodate.
- launch media player and play music
- launch IE and pick a bookmark
...

I always thought a jog-dial on the side or better use of the directional pad would go a long way. Way better than voice control in most situations.

Thoughts?
--MTY

[sullivanpt]

I think the mechanical jog wheel is actually most recently patented by Sony, not Apple.

Or do you mean the shuttle wheel that was so popular amongst VCRs in the 80s?

I have no doubt that Apple will threaten litagation. I have only a little doubt that the company here, having insufficient funds for litigation, will cave in to the threats.

The iPod's genious isn't in it's interface, it's brilliant marketing. It will continue to do well.

[oom]

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100841/103279/cpod4680.gif

would apple be o.k. with this? :wink:

craig

[Jonathan1]

I'm sure Apple and Jobs have probably patented the idea of the bodily function of excreting waste. (e.g. going to the bathroom.) Seriously go to
http://patft.uspto.gov

some time and browse through the number of patents issued to Apple. They get an idea even if its never used it gets patented. I'm sure Apple patented this idea a LONG time ago. There are items that are over a decade old that are only now startig to show up in Apple's products.

I've been wading through it looking for the shuttle wheel but there are too many there to go through

[Zack Mahdavi]

I'm sure Apple and Jobs have probably patented the idea of the bodily function of excreting waste. (e.g. going to the bathroom.) Seriously go to
http://patft.uspto.gov

some time and browse through the number of patents issued to Apple. They get an idea even if its never used it gets patented. I'm sure Apple patented this idea a LONG time ago. There are items that are over a decade old that are only now startig to show up in Apple's products.

I've been wading through it looking for the shuttle wheel but there are too many there to go through

Yeah, I remember about a year ago, Apple patented a mouse with a scroll "pad" that's like the iPod's.

[Zack Mahdavi]

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100841/103279/cpod4680.gif

would apple be o.k. with this?

craig

I seriously doubt they would be okay with that... the User Interface is still there.... Apple's working on patenting that.

[Jacob]

I honestly don't see how original that UI is.

My portable CD player, although with a very different sized screen essentially has the same UI and it was released well before the iPOD was.

[oom]

I was being sarcastic about my last post. :oops:
I have editied it to reflect this.

craig

[Dave Potter]

Hmmm... I didn't realize that Apple has patented the circle.

Note to self - apply for patents for the square and rectangle. I'm gonna be stinkin' rich!

:roll:
They didn't patent the circle. They patented the interface. Big BIG difference. Not only is this a direct ripoff of that interface but hell the GUI menu is identical. Sorry. Sounds like a duck, looks like a duck it's probably a duck.

Relax buddy - IT WAS A JOKE!

[Sedwo]

Wow! 8O
You people are a lynch mob!

I had no idea there are so many iPod zealots here. (or maybe its just the one or two that make a lot of noise)

Personally, the iPod *is* overpriced and if I can make my versatile PPC replace an expensive piece of hardware, (for a heck of a lot less cash!) then so be it. Besides, my pockets are only so big, why carry another box.

That company should not get sued, and deserves a chance at its market share. If it becomes successful then great! Don't lash out just because you get buyers remorse.

Amusing:
(http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-05-28&res=l)

[Gerard]

mmmmm.... love that extra-cheap black font on bluish background... and a vertical scrollbar too! It's all just too yummy. Gotta run right out and buy me an iPOD, spend a pile o' cash I don't have on a device I don't need, just because that interface is oh, so, sexy!

But seriously, the only interesting thing about an iPOD is how big is the hard drive. Accurite provides nice big hard drives too. Hmm. Let's see, $500 for a music box, or $450 for an equally capacious hard drive which contains a nice Li-Ion battery in the box, and performs admirably for many years even if dropped a bunch of times while running... difficult decision? Nah. I'll take the Accurite. My old 6GB model still works great after more than 3 years. I hear iPOD batteries die after at mot 18 months, is that right? Can an iPOD run from a Pocket PC? How is an iPOD relevant to the PPC? Seems not to be, at all.

As for this iPOD-like UI on a PPC software, get over it. If and when the company releases a hardware MP3 player with similar interface, then there's a legal battle I'll support. Some trivial bit of software which might earn at most a few thousand dollars for the developer? GET OVER IT APPLE! And anyway, why would any sane person pay for such a software when a fine player is available free in GSPlayer? Plays OGG files too. Playlists are dead simple to construct, skinning is easy, button mapping makes far more sense than using an onscreen interface which just smudges up the screen... it's all too silly.

[jeffmd]

Who CARES if it looks like an ipod. This guy wants you to buy this pos. You want simple straight foward? Pocket MVP baby. Free.. high quality.. play list.. eq. And theres a great ui for it. Wanna take a step up? buy pocket music, you can't get as feature rich while maintaining simplicity as winamps UI.

[Mark Johnson]

Hmmm... I didn't realize that Apple has patented the circle.

Note to self - apply for patents for the square and rectangle. I'm gonna be stinkin' rich!

:rotfl:

How can it be that only Apple (iPod) and Sony (Jog Dial Clie) use such an unbelieveably OBVIOUS navigation method? The speed of navigating my contacts from Adams to Walters would be much faster with the Jog Dial on a Clie than the single up/down button on the PPC's. Also, I hate the push-down once per album on my Archos Jukebox. If you want to get to ZZ Top you'll be awhile. The iPod is much more intelligent, but hardly "patentable."

It's like Apple and Sony have exclusive rights to use the wheel. Kinda thought this idea predated civilization... Maybe I'll get sued for my unlicensed use of fire. I bet SCO has the rights to that too, and maybe Al Gore invented it...

[danmanmayer]

Jeeze i didnt know how republican pocket pc thoughts must be.... Sue this sue that... "i appluad apple for..." Seriously, we all know apple and microsoft stole thier ENTIRE GUI's from XEROX right? Also you simple can't make a patent on a basic idea. Have none of you ever has an old radio that had a big circle you turned to SELECT music... It is evolution to take a past good idea and make it better. Ipod wasn't all that original, and there were other hard disk MP3 players that existed.

as for the "Buy and Ipod camp." Why would i ever want to carry enought device just to listen to music. That is part of what is great about a pocket pc. It does everything. I dont have to carry a phone,pim,musicplayer, and everything else. It is a single device. If you really like the ipod interface and think it is easy to use it is a natural evolution to make it on a software interface. Honestly once wifi is a few more places around my city, I will have a far superior Mp3 player than an IPOD, set up a streamming server and i am not limited to any size of IPOD, I have my entire music collection over wifi.

Come on your tech gadget people... you should be able to see why people don't want to have to have a different device for everything. Let alone the fact that an Ipod costs as much as a good pocket pc and only has one function.

Sorry if this is highly attacting but i have a ruff day and i felt the need to defend my position.

[denivan]

My 5 year old 19" monitor from Relisys has a jog dial that used in the exact same way like the iPod's wheel to navigate through the monitor's OSD Menu. Come on guys, Apple isn't some design god who creates the best things, they 'borrow' ideas like everybody else. It's 2004, there aren't many new idea's left so it seems pretty obvious that 'borrowing' is the way to go ;)

[adamz]

Come on your tech gadget people... you should be able to see why people don't want to have to have a different device for everything. Let alone the fact that an Ipod costs as much as a good pocket pc and only has one function.

Absolutely agree with you danmanmayer. I've used iPods over and over, but I still see very little reason to be so excited about them. It doesn't play movies, it doesn't show the album art of the music you're listening to, it doesn't even have a color screen. It's like a cell phone from the 20th Century except it doesn't make phone calls. :)

[Jude]

Yeah, the iPod's screen is a real turn-off. Why the heck is Apple still sticking to grayscale when some cellphones and digital cameras that cost only a third as much as an iPod have fairly decent color LCD screens? They should have come out with a color screen iPod by now.

[Trimac20]

WMPs still works the best for me. Anyway, it seems like an interesting app, you could physically touch the screen and operate the jog/scroll wheel like an ipod: really nifty! And pressing the on-screen buttons with your finger would feel just like using an ipod (one of many things I don't live about the touch-sensitive buttons, they just don't feel right). Apple doesn't really have any case against whoever designed this software as this is, of course software and Apple only patented the ipods scroll wheel which I assume protects against other manufacturers making MP3 jukeboxes which use it. I really have no idea.

[Cameron_Talley]

Yeah, the iPod's screen is a real turn-off. Why the heck is Apple still sticking to grayscale when some cellphones and digital cameras that cost only a third as much as an iPod have fairly decent color LCD screens? They should have come out with a color screen iPod by now.

Probably the main reason is battery life. Those digital cameras and cell phones do not have a hard disk to spin every so often.

Plus, I don't understand the need to have EVERY electronic device color. A PPC? sure? But a simple music player? Why does the screen need to be in color?

[Janak Parekh]

Yeah, the iPod's screen is a real turn-off. Why the heck is Apple still sticking to grayscale when some cellphones and digital cameras that cost only a third as much as an iPod have fairly decent color LCD screens? They should have come out with a color screen iPod by now.
Actually, the vast majority of hard-disk music players use a B&W screen right now. Most of the time, it's in your pocket. ;)

Rumor has it that they're working on a "Color iPod", but time will tell...

--janak

[Zack Mahdavi]

I bet SCO has the rights to that too, and maybe Al Gore invented it...

Sco may not have the rights for it, but they'll definitely sue you for it! :)

Oh, and Al Gore is on the board of Apple now.

Sounds like a conspiracy, eh? :mrgreen:

[hollis_f]

It's like Apple and Sony have exclusive rights to use the wheel.
No, that's some Australian dude called John Keogh.

Seriously! He got a patent (No 2001100012) from the Australian Patent Office for the wheel. For this amazing invention he won the 2001 Ig Nobel Prize for Technology.

[hollis_f]

To me (and prolly Apple), the circular pad is the critical part that separates 'copied from' and 'inspired by'.

If the guys at VisualIT would like some evidence of prior art then I suggest they contact CTC Analytics. They make a device called an LC-PAL which has a controller with a UI that looks very much like the iPod's. Here's (http://www.labx.com/v2/spiderdealer2/vistaSearchDetails.cfm?LVid=2062163) a picture.

I wonder how much CTC could sue Apple for?

[Stephen Beesley]

It's like Apple and Sony have exclusive rights to use the wheel.
No, that's some Australian dude called John Keogh.

Seriously! He got a patent (No 2001100012) from the Australian Patent Office for the wheel. For this amazing invention he won the 2001 Ig Nobel Prize for Technology.

Completely off topic but....

John Keogh is a Melbourne he registered the patent to show flaws in an ne Australian intellectual property law allowing for what is called an "innovation patent" that only requires claimants to show "innovation", not "invention". Apparently Keogh has no plans to patent fire or crop rotation at this stage.... :D

[jgrnt1]

What amazes me is that we have 40 posts regarding a new mp3 player for the PPC and not one of them has evaluated the player itself. How does it sound compared to other players? How well does it handle different bit rates? Is it lacking essential features? Does the interface actually work as intended? How does it handle playlists, if at all? Does it have a cache feature to reduce power consumption when using a microdrive?

If I had the time, I'd download it and play with it myself, but I won't have that much free time for a couple of weeks.

The ipod lawsuit was interesting for two or three posts, but I think this thread should be about the player itself.

[theone3]

It's like Apple and Sony have exclusive rights to use the wheel.
No, that's some Australian dude called John Keogh.

Seriously! He got a patent (No 2001100012) from the Australian Patent Office for the wheel. For this amazing invention he won the 2001 Ig Nobel Prize for Technology.
Found a hilarious little article on the A(ustralian)BC with a few words on this one. And the only other one awarded for science.

From the articleDr Len Fisher of Bath, England and Sydney, Australia also won an award for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit.http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s693503.htm

The IG nobel is a prize for "making people laugh, then making them think", not one for intelligence.

[DarkHelmet]

What amazes me is that we have 40 posts regarding a new mp3 player for the PPC and not one of them has evaluated the player itself. How does it sound compared to other players? How well does it handle different bit rates? Is it lacking essential features? Does the interface actually work as intended? How does it handle playlists, if at all? Does it have a cache feature to reduce power consumption when using a microdrive?

If I had the time, I'd download it and play with it myself, but I won't have that much free time for a couple of weeks.

The ipod lawsuit was interesting for two or three posts, but I think this thread should be about the player itself.

I would download, install, configure, and evaluate it - but that would take time away from enjoying my new iPod...

Beside the obvious irony - I don't think I would ever routinely use a product whose name can be distorted to "Simpletons"...

Maybe there's a more subliminal message here. Or maybe the reason I won't use it is that it is a derivative work - and I'm no lawyer...

[jlp]

I'm pretty positive this is the same software -pPod- that its author tries to release thru VisualIT:
same specs (MP3 only, no WMA, etc.),
same 3 day only trial,
exact same interface à la iPod,
both companies are in the UK,
exact same high price for what seems to be not much more than a pretty (inter)face over probably the same freeware MP3 engine, (some name thats starts with an X).

[Kacey Green]

What amazes me is that we have 40 posts regarding a new mp3 player for the PPC and not one of them has evaluated the player itself. How does it sound compared to other players? How well does it handle different bit rates? Is it lacking essential features? Does the interface actually work as intended? How does it handle playlists, if at all? Does it have a cache feature to reduce power consumption when using a microdrive?

If I had the time, I'd download it and play with it myself, but I won't have that much free time for a couple of weeks.

The ipod lawsuit was interesting for two or three posts, but I think this thread should be about the player itself.

if i remember correcty it doesn't support playlists

[Zack Mahdavi]

I'm pretty positive this is the same software -pPod- that its author tries to release thru VisualIT:
same specs (MP3 only, no WMA, etc.),
same 3 day only trial,
exact same interface à la iPod,
both companies are in the UK,
exact same high price for what seems to be not much more than a pretty (inter)face over probably the same freeware MP3 engine, (some name thats starts with an X).

I agree.. I think it's from the same author as well. Things seem so similar, plus this program popped up pretty quickly. I don't think a program like this could be written in 2 weeks.

[kosmos]

Greetings pocket pc comrades!

One of the reasons I got a Pocket PC is for a mp3 player that supports FLASH RAM cartridges. First it was a 2nd hand Jornada 525 and now its a HP2210 and what a useful device that is. I have tried a few mp3 player apps but currently use Pocket Player 2.51. I agree the stylus-pilot thing can get bit tedious.

I have downloaded and installed this Simple Tunes - well it works but I have canned it already, it's tedious and a step backwards in terms of what I am used to with Pocket Player, so what if I have to browse folders with the stylus, all the other functionality can be done w/o the stylus (fwd 10 secs, volume, screen off, pause, play, track fwd, reverse etc)

And as for all this iPod mania, its all down to marketing and 'must have' hype. Its a dumb product with a limited life spanspan, just wait until those hard disks start a-crashing....

[DarkHelmet]

... And as for all this iPod mania, its all down to marketing and 'must have' hype. Its a dumb product with a limited life spanspan, just wait until those hard disks start a-crashing....

Dumb product with a limited life... So are: cars, cell phones, computers, printers (especially ink-jet printers), and many other things we "must have". Notwithstanding the hype, it's hard to argue with hard sales numbers, and in March 807,000 iPods were sold.

All technologies will fail - sooner or later - ever have a flash memory card (SD or CF) fail? I have... How about a battery failure in an iPAQ? Yep - I had that one too...

Bottom line - it's a matter of personal choice - I am glad we have choices!

Cheers!