Everything the iPod wished it could be

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.edig.com/news/releases/pr072202.html">http://www.edig.com/news/releases/pr072202.html</a><br /><br />Wow. Consider my rant about PC MP3 players being crappy closed - this looks like quite a sweet device. I think I like the "white knight" look of the iPod more, but this isn't bad looking at all. And talk about killer features: 20 gig hard drive, 13 hour playback time, USB 2.0, PC and Mac compatibility, voice navigation, voice recording, MP3/WAV/WMA support, FM radio tuner, and a lot more. Assuming it comes in around the same price point as the iPod, this is a very competetive device. But I'm still happy with my Pocket PC and my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000067FCS/jasonsego">Sony headphones.</a> [affiliate link]<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/odyssey.jpg" /><br /><br />"It’s sleek, it’s powerful, it has the capacity to download 4,800 songs, or 400 CDs, at lightning-quick speed -- and it’s PC and Mac compatible. e.Digital Corporation (OTC: EDIG) today announced its new Odyssey 1000TM digital jukebox and data storage device, its premier digital audio player. Powered by e.Digital’s MicroOS® 2.0, the Odyssey 1000 combines the best of e.Digital’s digital audio technology into one stellar, feature-packed unit. <br /><br />Jim Collier, President and COO of e.Digital said, "The Odyssey 1000 sets the standard by which all other portable entertainment products will now be judged. It is the result of our first joint project with our strategic development partner Digitalway. It combines an elegant, world class industrial design from Digitalway’s award-winning engineering team with e.Digital’s state-of-the-art, patented audio technology. There is nothing else available that matches its elegant looks, full range of features, and cutting-edge Drag ‘n RipTM technology."

[Smakz]

Bought a Treo 10 player, after MANY months of hype from e.Digital. Sounds quality is terrible, playlist support is non-existent (doesnt even use ID3 tags), and now only 3 months later, the device is basically discontinued w/o any firmware upgrades to fix the issues.

Oh yeah, the device locks up on WMA files randomly.

All in all, horrible experience - im getting an IPOD personally, once the Windows version comes out in Aug and would NEVER buy anything from e.Digital.

Check out the yahoo group for the treo for many more complaints.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/treoplayer-classicxp3/

[klinux]

Sounds great if it isn't vaporwear. And I know this is not a feature that is important to this crowd but I think others will like the calendaring and contact feature of the new iPod that this one does not seem to have.

[sundown]

Well that's cool and all and those are just the kind of features I'd want but since it's hard drive based, it can't be as shock resistant as my memory card based mp3 players. I am impressed with the battery life, given the moving parts.

[Will T Smith]

... No deal.

Beyond that, I think there will face a lawsuit from Apple similar to the iMac Clone suits. This product clearly evokes the iPod "look" as well as the iPod interface.

Firewire is a far more robust solution for high-bandwidth connectivity. It's peer-to-peer capability makes connecting other peripherals far easier. Not to mention, you can charge high voltage batteries from Firewire, you cannot with USB, high speed or otherwise.

[dwprice]

I found a great MP3 player at Wal-Mart of all places. Only CDN$89! Has a jog dial, random play, program play, plays mp3s in subdirectories, comes with headphones. It uses these amazing 650MB memory disks and the best part is you can buy them for less than $1 each! I crammed 14 1/2 albums onto one and it's great. A whole afternoon's rock mix sitting down by the river watching the ducks. I looked at the Nomad Jukebox 3, the iPod, the new Nomad flash USB player, the Sony memory stick flash player but for the money, this was a great buy.

[st63z]

Yeah, I thought a mention of this was already posted on PPCT in the past, where others have pointed out this company's knack for vaporware and questionable marketing/accounting practices?

I could've sworn... but maybe I'm thinking of another company/product?

[CoffeeKid]

Can't you smell it? I sure can.

I can smell in the air the Apple legal team prepping up to unleash yet another cease and desist, design copy violation lawsuit.

Ask eMachines how fun it is :)

Mark
PS. this device looks rad-cool. but it also screams "iPod clone".

[Jonathon Watkins]

Can't you smell it? I sure can.

I can smell in the air the Apple legal team prepping up to unleash yet another cease and desist, design copy violation lawsuit.

Ask eMachines how fun it is :)

Mark
PS. this device looks rad-cool. but it also screams "iPod clone".
Just what I was going to say. I thought at first that this was an updated iPod design. It took a while to realise that this was a differnt companey. Hmmmm dodgy companey by the sounds of things.

[klinux]

Well that's cool and all and those are just the kind of features I'd want but since it's hard drive based, it can't be as shock resistant as my memory card based mp3 players. I am impressed with the battery life, given the moving parts.

The (new) iPods have a 32mb of flash memory cache which buffers 20-30 minutes of audio.

Granted, since the iPod has moving parts so it does have higher risk of mechanical failure.[/quote]

[JMountford]

Personally I am not realy into Portable players. I figure for as much as I payed for my Pocket PC it works great as a PLayer and there is no reason to buy another one.

Additionaly this thing looks, I don't know... cheap. I am not a big fan of the ipods either though. Still if I was going to buy one I would get an ipod.

[ThomasC22]

I'm not so sure how relevant "apple's legal team" is. Even if the device gets pulled it isn't like Apple is going to come to your house and take the device back.

At the same time I wouldn't run out an buy this. As several others have said before "Beware great looking products from no-name manufacturers"