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- Springboard Modules (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/forumdisplay.php?forumid=10)
-- Starting to get worried about MP3 pricing (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=5104)

I'm starting to get worried about the pricing
onthe MP3 modules from innogear. It looks like you're going to have to pay $225 to be about to play an hours worth of songs.

That would be just a bit too high, I think.
It seems quite reasonable to expect them to compete with the CD player market, and aim for more like $129.

I agree. I don't know much about MP3 players, but can't you get a stand alone (Diamond Rio) for less then $200. If so, why do you need a springboard?

Heck, you can get a RIO for well under $100. I have seen them on sale for $69. I think a springboard mp3 player could cost less than that since the player wouldn't need some of the hardware that a stand-alone unit needs like an LCD.

Memory costs aside, it should cost less. Otherwise, what's the benefit?

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osjedi uses
Debian GNU/Linux
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A 64MB (thats a good hour of music) Rio costs $269. I dont think it is realistic to expect the Innogear MP3 player to cost too much less than the Rio, becasue the Rio is its competition, not a CD player. Keep in mind, a CD player reads write once discs, whereas a MP3 player is much more like a tape player... you can write to it as many times as you want (with your choice of the music .). As to the question of why the spirngboard is necessaary, the answer is, that its not. the unit will work in or out of a Visor. The Visor will really only function as a glorified LCD display (correct me if I'm wrong.)

I think you're right.. THinking about it, there aren't too many springboard options I feel REALLY need the visor to work. SOmething like a GPS is one thing I can see, but something like an MP3 player.. not really.

I doubt the processor is fast enough to really handle mp3 decoding, but I don't know that. I can see the module drawing power from the PDA, maybe showing some display.

Pagers? WHY? You can get one for 30 bucks that is a stand alone. Unless they make a $10 springboard pager I see absolutely no point (There are other better expensive ones, but either way they'd be dependent probably of being in the visor, otherwise they wouldn't need the visor at all).

I'm starting to doubt some of the springboard features, but I'm sure I'll be surprised in no time.

I think the point is that you would need to carry around less gadgets....

If the price is right I will sell my rio and buy a MP3 springboard.

But anything over $150 will be a bit expensive. Especially with the prices of the Rio nowadays...
($169.95-$50= $119.95 for the 32Mb version at http://www.diamondmm.com/products/current/rio.asp and $249.95 for the 64Mb version http://www.diamondmm.com/products/current/rio-le.asp )

b.t.w. I'm not sure if the springboards will use the Processor of the Visor or have it's own one... I guess the lather..

Good topic. Yes some of these Mp3 players are looking a bit exspensive, BUT how much are the stand alone mp3 players like the RIO unafordably priced at $149 that alone is as cheap as the visor stand alone. It would be a better investment to buy the Rio Alone If the Upcoming mp3 players for the visor are unafordable (ie. rio mp3 for visor)

Re: pager springboard

The "fewer gadgets" argument also applies to a pager springboard, though I think the real benefit is that you can access and view the pages on the Visor's screen (much nicer than the sucky displays that most pagers have), and store pages in the Visor's memory. The Visor can provide a much more pleasant user interface than the nasty ones found on standalone units.

Also, it's not true that since a pager wouldn't have to live in the slot, that it's useless. For instance, a pager springboard doesn't need a built-in display, buttons, or a lot of memory, since it can depend on the Visor for all this stuff. All it needs to do when unplugged is receive pages, It can rely on the Visor for display, and for long-term storage of messages.

A two-way pager springboard for the Visor would be most excellent, because you could use the Visor's graffiti input to write out pages to send to others.

time to put my $.02 in....

I would hop onto the mp3 player bandwagon except for two things. 1) the companies that make the players insist on using proprietary flash mem for expansion, they should use a standard like compact flash (then you could used the IBM 340 meg mini-HDD ) and 2)now i dont know wherether of not the innogear player does or not, but they connection btw the computer and the player should be USB, i mean, visor has evolved from serial to USB, why have one of it's pirepherals (spelling?) use parrallel instead of the faster easier USB?

BTW: i am going to get portable mp3 player, but not like the normal ones like the Rio (which uses USB), check it out here: http://www.pineusa.com

[This message has been edited by Chronoso (edited 11-03-1999).]

It seems to me that one of the biggest price factors in an MP3 player is the display, which on the 2nd generation devices is getting bigger and nicer. The RCA one has a backlit 4 line LCD display. It seems that Innogear doesn't have this worry and should be cheaper......

Jake,
I don't agree. I think the biggest price factor is memmory... espcially with the recent earthquake in taiwan...

OK, it will be cheaper because there is no display, but instead it needs the spinboard connector, which probably evens out the score...

I think in the end the price will be simular as the 'standard' MP3 players....
$150 for a 32 meg version and $250 for a 64 meg version.

It's a bit expensive but hopefully the prices will drop soon (like they are doing for the 'standard' MP3 players right now...)

Heck buy a cd burner for 199 and a cd player for 99 and you've got something better then a rio in my opinion. I have a friend that has a rio and i would take my burner/player anytime.

Nutt--

I still prefer the Rio. CD Players can't latch to your belt and skip too much. I also like how I can throw anything I want on in the morning and not have to worry with burning through CD after CD....

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JakeBlues2
"the BAND!"

And size does matter, a Rio you can put in your shirt pocket (if you want to off course..)
try doing that with a cd-player.

Also with a Rio you can make a compilation of songs and artists everytime you upload music...

Third of all writable cd's cost money (OK not a lot but still). MP'3 are about 10-12 times smaller so it takes 10-12 times less money to store them...

JakeBlues2 mentioned the LCD as a prime candidate in the manufacturing cost. He's absolutely right. I had a friend who was the product manager for one of the 2 biggest modem manufacturers. They took out the LCD from their modems since the 33.6 model since it added $12 to the production cost of the modem.

$12 ain't much, but when you factor in everything, the final MSRP is pretty damn high compared to the production cost.

Personally, I love a good LCD. Who cares if it adds a few bucks to what I have pay or sucks up battery power faster. The info that it displays is more than worth what I pay for now.

Ok ok the rio is smaller and doesn't skip. However with that newfangled ESP2 I haven't had 1 skip even when I dropped it. Except the times that the case pops open. But the cd also has something for it.
1) You can buy new media for about a buck a disk compared to what? $126 for another memory card?
2) You can burn a cd in about 20 minutes. (At least thats how long it takes me with my
4x burner)
Battery life is comparable between the Rio and a CD player so I wont mention that.

So the Rio has the advantage of being small and being totally skip free. The cd player has the benifit of having cheap media and being fast to "upload". Even with the USB connection I "Think" (key word: think) it takes at least 40 minutes to transfer 64 megs of data at a 500 kb/s transfer rate. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Although the Estimated Price is $200+, the Visor MP3 Player still has a lot going for it - it's the only player on the market (I think) that has a graphic equalizer and playlist editor, and if the sound quality is on the better side, then it would be a good buy, especially for the advanced user. But also remember that because of the Multimedia cards (that is what it uses, right? some places say Smartmedia, some say MMC) it'll be more expensive. Plus, the price will always drop.

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Signing off,

C. Russell
[email protected]

Does anybody know about the Rio X64? Does it support SmartMedia?

You all talk about CDs and MP3s like they're the only option. I've found the MiniDisc players are a better deal than MP3, and, though a little more expensive and slower on the UL than CDs, are much smaller (see the Sony MZ-R55) and just don't skip. The media is a little more expensive than CD-Rs, but is completely eraseable.
The price is right at about $275 for a recorder/player and its easy as can be to make your own MDs, from your MP3s. All you need is a line out on your sound card.
I'll be ordering my Visor tomorrow morning, but when it comes to music, to heck with CDs, to heck with MP3s, I'll take my MD!

NOTE: The only contender to this supremacy is Pine Technology's new D'Music. Check out this URL!
http://www.wired.com/news/news/tech...tory/21670.html

It looks like I can take my MP3 CDs (I've got 5) on the road. I'll have to see how this one turns out before I buy an MD.