Re: Portable MP3 player?
On Sat, Mar 25, 2006 at 05:31:04PM +0200, Nadav Har'El wrote: You can get one of those cheap no-name MP3 players that go for around 250 shekels for the capacity you list (but check the stores and Internet sites for up-to-date prices). They have everything you asked for, and much more (including a built-in radio and an ability to record from the radio or from the builtin mic), except one thing: all these cheap MP3 players use a AAA battery, violating your rule #4. But why do you insist on a AA battery? You can actually buy for around 60 shekels or a charger plus 4 rechargable AAA batteries, and each of those batteries lasts for around 10 hours of music playing for just one battery. Since a 256 MB player only holds about 4 hours of music, 10 hours is not bad. Especially when I consider that the first CD player I bought (around 1989) required 4 AA batteries, and could play just around 2 hours for one charge of the four batteries... It depends upon what you want to listen to and how it is encoded. If you are listenting to music in a quiet place then a 192k bits per second (24.5k bytes per second) and you get three hours in 256 meg. Most likely you assumed 128kbps MP3s, which are 2/3 the size. They would last four and a half hours. If the player takes AAC (MPEG-4) audio encoded files, 96k would do, bringing it up to 6 hours. Since what I really want to listen to is audiobooks, a 16kbps AAC file would do nicely, which would go 36 hours. Since you can buybulk packs of 12 Everyready energizer AA batteries at Office Depot for about the price of an 8 pack of the same batteries in AAA, it quickly becomes a noticable difference. The best AAA rechargable battery holds 800 mah, the equivalent AA battery holds 2200mah or more, about three times. The only problem I see with those numbersis that AFIK, the only cheap MP3 player that plays AAC files is the Apple iPOD shuffle which is ridiculously priced. In the U.S. a 512meg one sells for a competitive $69, here it is about twice that, yet they are only taxed VAT. My first CD portable player used four D batteries. In fact the battery cases were so rare that it took me six months to get one, and I carried it around in a camera case with the batteries in seperate holders, wired together. People laughed when they saw my set up, but when it started to play (take off on an old piano joke). :-) Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Portable MP3 player?
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote: The only problem I see with those numbersis that AFIK, the only "cheap" MP3 player that plays AAC files is the Apple iPOD shuffle which is ridiculously priced. In the U.S. a 512meg one sells for a competitive $69, here it is about twice that, yet they are only taxed VAT. I don't know if any of the following players answer your original specs, but Rockbox (www.rockbox.org) has AAC support on the iriver iHP1x0, H1x0, H3x0 series, and on the iPod 4G, Color/Photo, Nano and Video. I've only used rockbox on Archos hardware but it is great, open-source and feature filled jukebox software and is fully Hebrew-enabled. Gadi -- Gadi Cohen aka Kinslayer [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wastelands.net Freelance admin/coding/design HABONIM DROR linux/fantasy enthusiast KeyID 0x93F26EF5: 256A 1FC7 AA2B 6A8F 1D9B 6A5A 4403 F34B 93F2 6EF5
Re: Portable MP3 player?
On Sun, Mar 26, 2006, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about Re: Portable MP3 player?: Since you can buybulk packs of 12 Everyready energizer AA batteries at Office Depot for about the price of an 8 pack of the same batteries in AAA, it quickly becomes a noticable difference. The best AAA rechargable battery holds 800 mah, the equivalent AA battery holds 2200mah or more, about three times. This is getting way off-topic, but since we started this thread... If you use rechargable batteries (and like I said, I bought 4 AAA batteries and a charger for just 50 shekels), does it really matter that each battery holds less charge? How difficult is it to change the battery every 10 hours of listening, and always keep a few batteries charged for when you need them? Of course, this assumes that you have intermittent access to electricity, to charge your battery collection once in a while. If you can't get access to electricity every week (say, in a month long hike in the jungle) then I guess this can indeed become a problem because indeed alkaline AAA baterries are very expensive, The only problem I see with those numbersis that AFIK, the only cheap MP3 player that plays AAC files is the Apple iPOD shuffle which is ridiculously priced. In the U.S. a 512meg one sells for a competitive $69, here it is about twice that, yet they are only taxed VAT. Hmm, I didn't see in your original list of requirements that you need to play AAC files. I have no idea what these are, and I doubt the cheap mp3 player that I bought a year ago plays that. But maybe the new ones do? Why shouldn't they, when they already do almost anything concievable? My first CD portable player used four D batteries. In fact the battery cases were so rare that it took me six months to get one, and I carried it around in a camera case with the batteries in seperate holders, wired together. People laughed when they saw my set up, but when it started to play (take off on an old piano joke). :-) I also remember in the 80s, a lot of portable electronics used C, D and 9-volt batteries, and I had rechargable batteries (and a charger) for all these sizes. It appears that today, only the AAA and AA sizes survived, with the other batteries priced so ridiculously (e.g., 10 shekels for an alkaline battery) that only a sucker would buy them. I don't think I bought one C or D battery in the last 5 years... -- Nadav Har'El|Sunday, Mar 26 2006, 26 Adar 5766 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |A conscience does not prevent sin. It http://nadav.harel.org.il |only prevents you from enjoying it. = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Portable MP3 player?
On Thu, Mar 23, 2006, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote about Portable MP3 player?: 1.Linux friendly. I want to be able to manage it from a Linux system, a GUI is not needed. 2.No moving parts. 3.An LCD that shows song or file name. 4.Rechargeable or AA batteries (NOT AAA). 5.256meg or more of memory. 6.Relativley cheap. I don't want a 3500 NIS pocket PC. You can get one of those cheap no-name MP3 players that go for around 250 shekels for the capacity you list (but check the stores and Internet sites for up-to-date prices). They have everything you asked for, and much more (including a built-in radio and an ability to record from the radio or from the builtin mic), except one thing: all these cheap MP3 players use a AAA battery, violating your rule #4. But why do you insist on a AA battery? You can actually buy for around 60 shekels or a charger plus 4 rechargable AAA batteries, and each of those batteries lasts for around 10 hours of music playing for just one battery. Since a 256 MB player only holds about 4 hours of music, 10 hours is not bad. Especially when I consider that the first CD player I bought (around 1989) required 4 AA batteries, and could play just around 2 hours for one charge of the four batteries... -- Nadav Har'El| Saturday, Mar 25 2006, 25 Adar 5766 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |- Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |I before E except after C. We live in a http://nadav.harel.org.il |weird society! = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Portable MP3 player?
Hi, I'm looking for a portable MP3 player with the following specs: 1. Linux friendly. I want to be able to manage it from a Linux system, a GUI is not needed. 2. No moving parts. 3. An LCD that shows song or file name. 4. Rechargeable or AA batteries (NOT AAA). 5. 256meg or more of memory. 6. Relativley cheap. I don't want a 3500 NIS pocket PC. Any suggestions? Thanks, Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: PocketPC [Was: Portable MP3 player?]
On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 06:25:08PM +0200, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote: Can you manage a PocketPC from Linux? I have an iPAQ, do you (or anyone) know of a way to sync it with Linux? A relatively painless backup solution for files/notes/phonebook/calendar/tasks is enough, I don't need to actually sync it with a calendaring application. I do want to be sure I can back it up and restore... AFIK the ones that run WinCE aka Win/XP compact edition can not. But I was (mis)using the term to include generic hardware and I know some of them have Linux out of the box. I also think there are Linux ports for some of the WinCE ones, after all they are very well documented and use ARM chips. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel [EMAIL PROTECTED] N3OWJ/4X1GM IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 IL Fax: 972-2-648-1443 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/ = To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: PocketPC [Was: Portable MP3 player?]
On Thursday, 23 בMarch 2006 18:30, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote: On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 06:25:08PM +0200, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote: Can you manage a PocketPC from Linux? I have an iPAQ, do you (or anyone) know of a way to sync it with Linux? A relatively painless backup solution for files/notes/phonebook/calendar/tasks is enough, I don't need to actually sync it with a calendaring application. I do want to be sure I can back it up and restore... there are a few sync utilities from pocketPC to linux. A friend of mine have used synce successfully to sync his WinCE powered phone to his Linux. -- Oded ::.. Q: How many Microsoft vice presidents does it take to change a light bulb? A: Eight. One to work the light bulb, and seven to make sure Microsoft gets US$2 for every light bulb ever changed anywhere in the world. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
