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General discussion

MP3 players rushed into the market

Jul 21, 2005 4:13AM PDT

It seems like more and more mp3 players are rushed out into the market before they are truly completed. More and more of the CNET reviews end with "although brand x's mp3 player does not do that now a promised firmware update will fix that issue".
The Cowan X5 for example. How can they release an mp3 player that does not work with any of the online stores? That should be one of the most basic features in any mp3 player at this point. I also heard the iRiver H10 was buggy out of the box, but a firmware update came out that made a big difference. Does CNET re-test mp3 players after a firmware is released which makes significant improvements? If these companies want to create the "iPod killer" they need to remember a story once told to me as a young lad. You might know it but I will tell you anyways.
A Poppa bull and his son are on the top of a hill looking down at a bunch of cows. The son goes "Dad lets run down there and screw one of those cows". The Poppa bull takes a sigh and says "Son let's walk down there and screw them all."

Discussion is locked

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Jul 21, 2005 8:00AM PDT

Why the hell does not having support for online DRM stores make it rushed?

Online stores are rip offs, You pay about half the price of a cd per a track, yet you only get 1/10 of the bit rate of a wav on a cd.
Not only that, but DRM stops you from doing a lot of things with the file which you can do with a normal mp3 wav, ogg ect.

BTW there are a lot better daps than the ipod, although if you only read Cnet it would be hard to see because cnet is very ipod bias, http://www.dapreview.net/comment.php?comment.news.1817
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=128830

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well
Jul 21, 2005 7:16PM PDT

1st) (testing):
testing is a very expensive and time-consuming thing, cheap & shortlasting devices like mp3-players are simply not worth testing (sad to say it)

2nd) (codecs):
maybe it isn't cowon's fault - those codecs aren't free to use and maybe the didn't get permission from apple & sony to implement their codecs

3rd) (codecs):
you are wrong ... most of the people i know are playing their own cds