In the Market for a New MP3 Player

So my venerable Sony Walkman Mp3 player is on its' last legs.  The fact that it's been on its' last legs for the past three years is neither here nor there...

The fact is I'm worried that it's going to give up in the middle of a file run (carrying files from home to school or vice-versa) and drop me in a pile of the sticky stuff.  The obvious question is 'why don't you just use a pendrive?'  This question can only be answered by looking at my current PC setup.  I've an SD card in the back of my laptop running a flavour of Ubuntu, a pendrive that's essentially keeping all the files not critical for booting the operating system, and a few other pendrives that are burned out or full - lying around the place.  I go through portable storage like meals.

At least, I do when the device is primarily used for storage.

For some reason my MP3 players have always been a reliable way to carry files; at times the fringe benefit has been playing music, rather than the other way around.

There are tons of options on the market, and going through them all would be impossible, so I won't even try.

My criteria for the player are extensive, but could be (somewhat) boiled down to capacity, flexibility, (the range of file formats it supports) and modability.

Since I've been using linux I've found myself modifying things a lot more.  My PS3 and Xbox can run video and music from a media server.  In most cases this means 'Windows Media Centre.'  If you buy a fresh network storage device (like a mybookworld) you can often modify it to run as a media server.  This is possible because they all run some version of linux natively.  You just crack it open (metaphorically) and change the program it runs.

Alas, I couldn't change my own NAS because it would mean wiping the whole thing and starting again (which I'm not prepared to do), but after installing a media server on my baby laptop (just to see if it could be done) I think I'm ready to do something more ambitious.

Being able to play all my media files without converting them would be a boon, and I think it would only be viable with a hacked player.  Which players natively support .ogg for example?

So the challenge has been set, internet.  Go find me a huge, highly modable solid quality Personal/portable Media Player for a decent price.



On an unrelated note: the weather is insane here.  Yesterday I was wearing a t-shirt under my school shirt.  It wasn't particularly cold, warm enough to stay outside at least.

Tomorrow I will be wearing my skiing jacket, and it will be zipped up.

Fastest changing weather in the world?  I think so.

The One MP3 Player

I am sometimes mocked for my technological preferences, namely the companies I choose to purchase various technology from.

While price and performance are primary considerations, there are times when similar products warrant an illogical deciding factor to dictate where cash should be splashed.

In this case, I'm referring to manufacturers.

A few people have a disproportionately advertised (we often hear of how good they are, despite low uptake in several key markets) love of Apple, and the inferior and overpriced products they peddle to ill-informed customers.  Unfortunately, Apple customers are the most vocal, so the fact that half of their ipods explode within six months due to faulty batteries, or they cease functioning for no apparent reason after two years, forcing the owners to purchase the latest model, rarely gets many technology column inches.

The reason I bring this up right now?  My own dad has been through dozens of Iphones, Ipods, I-these and those, through misuse and abuse, and through no fault of his own.  Yet I have recently dropped an MP3 player in a rain soaked road, where it was literally being washed away by the torrents - as cars and lorries were barreling overhead, and upon picking it up, water gushed forth as if it were a minuscule watering can.

An Apple product would have given up many years ago, owing to battery malfunction or outmoded interfaces.  My plucky little Sony Walkman Personal Media Player (/end plug) carried on trucking though, through thirty foot falls and weather that forced its' owner off, before it decided to quit, and now this devastating blow that would destroy all but the most hardy little media devices.

This little guy still works, still holds the five years of pictures I've taken, and still wants to eschew the sounds that beat all others.

I salute you, little media player; for you are a fantastically built, superbly crafted, one in a million device.