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[blindipod] Re: The current status of portable media devices in 2007

From: "Wilson, John" <john.wilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <blindipod@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:40:18 -0000
Steve,

A few questions:

1. Do you have any idea of release timescale and likely ball park pricing for 
the N82?

2. Given your current understanding of the N82 functionality, would you 
recommend waiting for its release rather than purchasing the N95?

Thanks.

John wilson




1. 

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Steve Nutt [SMTP:steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
        Sent:   27 December 2007 21:36
        To:     blindipod@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject:        [blindipod] Re: The current status of portable media 
devices in 2007

        Hi Brian,
         
        My only addition is let's not limit mobile phones to the N95 for good 
music playback.  The N91 came first, then the N91 8GB, now we have the N95, and 
soon to be the N82, which looks very interesting.  The N82 has all the feature 
set of the N95, but is a candy bar phone, so no slide or flip, but a flat phone 
like the N95.  I look forward to seeing it.
         
        Nokia are also opening an online music store in 2008 in the UK, and you 
will be able to purchase tracks directly over the air, download them and go, 
without touching your PC.  The Iphone will also have this ability, but has no 
3G support, so downloads will be very slow.  Not only that, the Iphone is 
currently not accessible, and it doesn't look like Apple are doing much about 
that one.
         
        In short then, I think the Nokia Apple battle is going to be very 
interesting in 2008, and I think Nokia have some interesting ideas that may 
upset the apple cart <Smile>.
         
        All the best
         
        Steve

          _____  
        
        From: blindipod-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:blindipod-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brian Hartgen
        Sent: 27 December 2007 16:28
        To: blindipod@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: [blindipod] The current status of portable media devices in 
2007
        
        
        Hi
         
        As usual at this time of year, I wanted to try and give a summary of 
the current status of our access to portable media devices during 2007, and it 
has been an interesting year.  Clearly these views are my own but some of them 
may give rise to discussion points on the list.
         
        Before getting to that, I just want to say that the Portable Player 
Portal is still a site which is well used and referred to not only through 
discussions on mailing lists but also within on-line resources which is 
tremendous.  I shall continue to update it during 2008 as will be seen below.
         
        I think there were three major milestones during this year and perhaps 
several smaller developments which have had an impact in this area.
         
        First was the launch of the Zen Stone media player - Creative's take on 
the Apple iPod Shuffle you might say.  This is still available for 20 pounds 
and is very accessible.  Officially folders cannot be voice tagged, although a 
clumsy method of such tagging could be achieved by recording an MP3 file within 
each folder voicing its name and ensuring it played first in the sequence.  
         
        I will not document all the advantages and disadvantages of the player 
as they can be read on the Portable Player Portal web site, but it is worth 
saying that from an accessibility and affordability standpoint this is still a 
good quality player for what it does.
         
        Next came the Victor reader Stream.  From the perspective of listening 
to speech, this is such a great product.  Because it is a specialist player, 
you would expect all of its functions to be accessible via speech prompts and 
indeed they are.  The recent firmware update to play Audible books is very 
welcome and it has to be one of the most flexible players which can deliver 
Audible content including its ability to play books at varying speeds.  
         
        I agree with Steve Nutt's recent comments to this list that there are 
no specialist players available right now which deliver high quality music 
playback that are "feature rich" in that area unless you want to move into the 
arena of specialist PDA's.  The Stream lacks many qualities in the music 
playback arena and that includes adequate music reproduction quality and other 
things which I have documented on the Portal site.  But if you had to make a 
choice about a player to purchase which can meet many needs, the stream is 
undoubtedly a very popular choice. 
         
        Neal Ewers has produced an excellent audio review of the Stream and I 
will be writing to ask him whether we can link to it from the Portal site.
         
        The third thing I am glad to note is that mobile (or cell) phones, such 
as the Nokia N95, are being considered more favourably as portable media 
devices.  Such devices are the only current players available which give you, 
(in the area of music reproduction):
        * Very high sound quality,
        * The ability to be able to vary the graphic equalisation,
        *   The delivery of features allowing you to vary the playing order,
        * To be able to copy tracks immediately to the player without the need 
for "voice tagging" folders or individual music tracks, to name but the 
principal aspects.
         
        When you have Talks installed for example on such a device, you are 
well equipped with an excellent music player and it would be difficult to see 
how you could improve upon the flexibility given by such a combination.  
However, such a solution is expensive and I would find it difficult to 
understand a person purchasing this system if he or she was not going to use it 
as a phone in addition to a music player.  Moreover, while there is Audible 
support available, the last time I looked you could not vary the speed of the 
playback which to many of us is a very important factor and this also applies 
very much to the playback of Podcasts.  The manufacturers of the more 
specialist devices do recognise that important requirement and some of them 
such as Humanware give us the ability to vary the speed according to taste 
withthe advantage that normal playback can be resumed at any time to clarify 
some spoken word if needed.
         
        The great thing is that Napster to Go, (Napster Music's facility for 
allowing you to download music directly to a portable device and play it), is 
capable of being used by a Nokia N95 in particular.  Don't forget on the Portal 
site we have a tutorial on getting the most from Napster with a screen-reader 
if anyone would like to download it.  A page devoted to the N95 will also be 
included in the new year.
         
        Moving to other matters, on this list I have not been able to discuss 
the capabilities of the Pac Mate Omni's considerable music management and high 
quality playback capabilities because it has only recently become available, 
but I look forward to doing that in the months ahead.
         
        Finally to iTunes.  Very little progress has been made in this regard, 
except that a recent change ensured that iTunes would once again function with 
later releases of JAWS which helped the J-Tunes product a little.
         
        If anyone else has any particular highlights of 2007 I am sure we would 
all be pleased to read them.  Meanwhile, have a very happy new year and let's 
hope that 2008 gives us even more access to portable audio.
         
        Brian Hartgen
         

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[blindipod] Re: The current status of portable media devices in 2007
From: Steve Nutt
[blindipod] Re: The current status of portable media devices in 2007

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