Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

InnoGear MiniJam: I Quit.

I have had enough! I am a hardcore Mac guy and am used to the frequent second-class treatment handed out by inept technology companies. But InnoGear has just done me in... not that they have EVER had anything other than the most feeble of Mac support -- but now they have informed me that they have no plans to support Macintosh OS X -- nor will they disclose to independent developers the necessary technical information on the MiniJam to allow OS X-compatible software development.
And before any Windows folks get too smug, they have no plans to support Windows XP, either. Here's a direct quote from their support rep's (fractured English) email:

"We are not developing for new OS's like WinXP and MacOSX ... but we are claiming compatibility with those previous OS's.
I will make sure our website is updated to reflect this."

I have decided to ditch my MiniJam and am going to buy a dedicated MP3 player. How much do you think a used 32MB MiniJam is worth? (sorry, I'm keeping my MMC's).



UPDATE 10/22/2001. I have been contacted by several readers interested in purchasing the MiniJam, and I am negotiating its sale. If you have not already contacted me about purchasing, please do not do so. I've got enough email already. Thanks.

Last edited by gayguy on 10-22-2001 at 09:59 PM

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

Re: InnoGear MiniJam: I Quit.

quote:

---

Originally posted by gayguy
I have had enough! I am a hardcore Mac guy and am used to the frequent second-class treatment handed out by inept technology companies. But InnoGear has just done me in... not that they have EVER had anything other than the most feeble of Mac support -- but now they have informed me that they have no plans to support Macintosh OS X -- nor will they disclose to independent developers the necessary technical information on the MiniJam to allow OS X-compatible software development.

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__________________
What do you think, Sirs?

Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 37

That's all I needed to hear. My minijam will be on ebay tonight.

After spending some time with the Nomad II MG (I work in the Apple Store) realizing how easy and fast it is to get MP3s on and off the unit with iTunes, my Minijam was starting to look a lot less convenient than it sounded when I ordered it.

The thing is cool, and all. But without support for OSX, it's going to be useless to me.

So if anyone's interested, do a search on ebay sometime after 8pm Pacific tonight. My unit is Graphite, almost brand new (I've only had it for about three weeks) and will come with the original box and all the goodies therein, plus two 64 meg MMC cards (that I purchased separately). All for a seriously reasonable price (I don't care if I take a loss on this; I just want to get rid of the thing.) I'll probably start the bidding for less than the cost of the MMC cards themselves.

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mrjoec
www.mrjoec.com

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

my first clue came when i saw a friend's nike psa[play connected to a g4 macintosh running itunes x:
+ songs could be downloaded AND uploaded!
+ mmc formatting and song transfers were incredibly! fast
this is *really* subjective, but i think that the minijam has better audio playback quality than that nike... but that (if true) is the minijam's only advantage. i think i sold mine today, and i don't think i'll miss it.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 347

I don't want to start a flame war but here goes:

Why should Innogear code for the Mac (we can leave off XP for a minute)? They can't be selling that many units to begin with and what percentage of those units are purchased by Mac users?

At some point it just doesn't pay to expend time and effort creating something that won't pay off. Maybe Innogear has just decided that they've had enough.

As far as XP goes, well I don't know. I wonder what the install is on OS's right now. It would be interesting to find out what percentage of Windows users have what OS. I would bet that 98 is up around 70-90% of all Windows users. That's something like several hundred million users. Maybe Innogear is betting that XP will be slow to be picked up.

One last thing, I always hear everyone complaining about Innogear and the Minijam...I have never had one bit of trouble with either. My Minijam works like a champ and anytime I've contacted Innogear they've gotten back to me in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe it's just that your expectations are too high?

Registered: Nov 2000
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 201

First thing's first...

quote:

---

Originally posted by creole
I don't want to start a flame war but here goes:

Why should Innogear code for the Mac?

---

I don't want to start a flame war either, but as a loyal Mac user for 13 years, bite me.

But here's the REAL reason I'm posting...something to make any Mac user forget MP3 springboards ever existed...just announced by Apple...its...

The iPod



All the capabilities of the Nomad in the case the size of a deck of cards. 5Gig that can double as a FireWire hard drive. Charges with its own adapter or can draw its charge through the FireWire cable. Autosyncs with iTunes.

Now THAT's what I'm talking about. Innogear can go take a flying leap.

__________________
What do you think, Sirs?

Last edited by critic on 10-23-2001 at 07:19 PM

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

quote:

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Originally posted by creole
Maybe it's just that your expectations are too high?

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 347

quote:

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Originally posted by gayguy
if you like a proprietary-technology mp3 player that features a slow, one-way connection to obsolete host operating systems, then, please, enjoy it.

---

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

well, like i said previously, if it makes you happy, then i'm happy for you.

like you, apparently, i bought a minijam because i wanted to have my music in a tote-along form without needing yet another device. what i didn't think about at the time were the trade-offs, principally (for me), the cost in battery life and the problem of wanting to bring my music, but not my minijam, into certain visor-hazardous environments like the gym.

i also found the very slow file download speeds to be a real drag that basically, discouraged me from changing my playlists. top all of this with the fact that i had extensive dealings with innogear (i've had 3 minijams replaced under warranty for a variety of defects) and have come to the conclusion that a bigger collective of stupidity cannot exist. i'm basically afraid of any future dealings with innogear, and i believe, based on past experience, that future dealings with innogear are unavoidable so long as i own a minijam.

so in the process of using it, i've become a disenchanted minijammer, needing only one more small push to make me ditch it: innogear's stupidly short-sighted decision not to support xp/os x was that push. i am now quite happy with a nike psa[play: very fast downloads/uploads; a rugged gym-friendly design; excellent software integration into my jukebox / operating system of choice... i never knew it could be like this.

as far as winxp/macosx adoption, here's my take -- now venturing very off-topic:

i think the adoption rate for macosx is very high now that apple has shown a commitment, with os x version 10.1, to addressing user complaints about their new shiny baby. any macintosh dating back to the original imac with 128mb of ram can run os x, it's a very easy upgrade, and because os 9 was so lame under the hood, os x is a *very* compelling upgrade for the stability and memory management features alone.

conversely, i think winxp adoption rate will start very slow and build gradually. first of all, there is less of a compelling reason to upgrade -- winxp has hardware requirements that are beyond all but the most-recent pcs and it doesn't offer a feature set (to the technically disinclined, which, in my experience, most windows users are) that is all that far beyond windows me/2000 -- the very group that most likely has the hardware that is xp-capable. then, there is all the fear-uncertainty-doubt about licensing, the two (actually, three) versions of xp, and product activation (yes, i know that microsoft has changed many of its initially-stated policies, but i think the damage has already been done). in short, i don't see a lot of the existing windows user base buying into an upgrade. but as people buy new pcs, i think that's when xp sales will start to grow -- it's just that right now, i think economic/war fears are stopping people from making new pc purchases.

even though i'm a hardcore mac guy, i want windows xp to succeed because windows is a lot like freeway traffic -- it's unpleasant but it's unavoidable if you work for a living. so if i have to encounter computers running windows, i at least would like them to be running windows xp (or 2000)... they suck less.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 347

Right on...I can totaly feel for you. Heck, that might even happen to me sometime down the road. I'm assuming that you're aware of Apple's anouncement of the iPod?

I must say that looks pretty darn sweet.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

yeah, i saw the ipod. very cool. i just think it's priced about $100 too high, even though it's got a killer feature set. time will tell!

Registered: Mar 2001
Location:
Posts: 347

Take a look at this one. This would pretty much obscure BOTH our arguments:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/electronics/5783.shtml

and it's big brother:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/electronics/5784.shtml

Now if I could only check my daily calendar with that thing I'd be happy.

Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 108

I have heard that the Minijam uses a proprietary MMC format to save it's MP3 files. If it does not (If it just used FAT12 or FAT16), could'nt you just get an MMC card reader and save the MP3's right to that? Any OS should be able to handle an MMC card reader. If it is a proprietary format, Innogear is shooting itself in its virtual foot.

I will Email innogear and ask them the question about the proprietary format, and post the response here.

Doug

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

quote:

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Originally posted by TDS_Computer
I have heard that the Minijam uses a proprietary MMC format to save it's MP3 files. If it does not (If it just used FAT12 or FAT16), could'nt you just get an MMC card reader and save the MP3's right to that? Any OS should be able to handle an MMC card reader. If it is a proprietary format, Innogear is shooting itself in its virtual foot.

I will Email innogear and ask them the question about the proprietary format, and post the response here.

Doug

---

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 10

Okay, I emailed InnoGear to ask about their XP compatibility, since I've got Windows XP on preorder, and I want to still be able to use my MiniJam. Here's what they sent back to me:

We have not tested XP.
Test it for us, and I can get you a reward.


Now, I don't know how to respond to this. This is either rude and sarcastic, in which case I should be insulted and annoyed. Or it could be joking and light-hearted, in which case I should have fun.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: San Antonio
Posts: 23

unfortunately for all of us, i think it's straight-up: they haven't tested it.

there's another thread on XP and SoundsGood which includes the minijam.

please don't let innogear's stupidity insult you.

Registered: Jan 2002
Location:
Posts: 2

Here is how you can read MJFS formatted MMC cards.

How much you want to do is dependent upon your abilities.
Source code is c,c++,& Perl and to be compiled under linux.

-> http://sourceforge.net/projects/mj-tools/ <-

I have compiled the code and used the following readers.
ZIO (MMC Reader)
(not a speedloader ,No Special Firmware required)
PQI TravelFlash (SM,CF,MMC/SD Reader)
(not a speedloader ,No Special Firmware required)
other adapters should work for this software as long as they comply to the UMSDS (USB Mass Storage Device Specifications.)
I can read and write to the mjfilesystem using this software.
I did not write this software, I may decide to re-write this as a Java version that could run on MAC & PC, If I have the time.

-JMP

Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Pembroke,MA
Posts: 307

I'm transferring songs without any problems on my MiniJam using Win XP Pro. I simply installed the Loader software from the Innogear website and it works fine.

I think the only reason they don't tell you this is because they don't want to field a whole new round of questions on a product that they most likely didn't make a whole lot of money on (if any).

Has anybody tried OSX and the recent .sit Mj Loader software? Just wondering if that works too...