Mobile Magazine picks Archos GMini 220 over the iPod
updated 11:20 pm EST, Wed March 10, 2004
Archos GMini vs. iPod
Mobile Magazine's review of Archos' $300 20GB GMini 220 ."
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Comments
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03/11, 12:48am |
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Wow!
I can't believe they kudo'd navigation with an interface like that.
Second, they say "and since it is a hard disk player I could never get it to skip". Could someone explain why a hard disk player would mean it won't skip? Shouldn't it read "Even though it is...."?
Third, he says photo display is a plus, but then mentions its only monochrome (so its generally useless). Storage is fine, but display is pointless in black and blue.
Syncing is definitely an issue. A friend of mine has an iPod and used MusicMatch with it, but MusicMatch didn't sync, per se. It just wiped the disk and recopied everything. Here, its hard to tell what it will do (maybe nothing). I guess if you like rummaging through your music directories to find the files to drag to the device, its perfect. Otherwise, they need better software.
I think its really cool that it has built-in FM and voice recording. The FM thing is great for, well, I'm not sure, but I'm sure someone out there finds it important. The voice recorder has some usage. Hey, but you iPod whiners will like the stereo 192Kbps line-in recording for all that "record live performances for some reason" you people want to do.
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03/11, 12:48am |
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Where's the RIPE guy?
Hey, where's the RIPE guy now that we have to log in?
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03/11, 07:10am |
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RIPE
I just didn't think that people were still RIPE enough to read 10-15 RIPE postings ;)
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03/11, 07:17am |
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When will they get it?
Admittedly, this has some compelling features, but come on journalists, when will you get it? The iPod is successful because of its design and interface. The scroll wheel and the easy, automatic syncing are what make the iPod an iPod.
This Archos isn't the first portable music player to try to out-feature the iPod, and it won't be the last. I'd say the market is just RIPE to release 10-15 competing players this year alone! And journalists are just RIPE to write 10-15 laudatory articles about them. Yet, the iPod is still RIPE to remain the market leader for at least 10-15 quarters.
(Sorry, folks, I couldn't resist).
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03/11, 07:44am |
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Good!
Having a bunch of very credible players on the market SHOULD compell the fruit to not sit on it's haunchesd as it frequently does. Like maybe a 64MB buffer?
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03/11, 09:56am |
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iPod needs features
Yep. Great interface or no, apple can't sit back and watch while other players add in features like voice and radio recording. It makes the iPod look bad, being the number 1 MP3 player, yet not having the features some of these newer players have.
The iPod is doing great now, but I keep having this bad feeling that apple's MP3 market share isn't going to last long. The iPod needs more features build into the base model. Navigation and easy of use only get you so far.
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03/11, 12:46pm |
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Hmm...
I have my doubts this thing is that much of an iPod killer--just looks clunkier and with lots of not-particularly-useful features.
That said, pushing Apple to remain competitive is good. I do wonder about feature bloat, though; on one hand, the thing is a digital device with the potential to do lots of cool stuff. On the other, walkmans have seemed to remain plenty popular over the past 20 years without adding any particularly noteworthy features--after all, the main point of the thing is to walk around listening to music.
I have a feeling the iPod's add-on-module method of expansion might be the wisest way to go, so long as they keep the main player light, effective, and with a few extra features to keep 'em coming back.
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03/11, 01:13pm |
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Apple does what is import
All the extra features of sounds spiffy but in the end a portable music player is about music. FM recording is neat but why bother when for $20 you can get most of the music played on most mainstream stations while the cooler alternative stations don't have broadcast power great enough to deliver a high enough quality to record. I do wish the iPod had voice recording built-in but the add-ons for that are fine.
There are a few places where the iPod could be improved the biggest of which is support for more audio formats like WMP, real audio, ogg, flac, and full support for mp3pro. Features like picture and video display will be pretty cheesy on devices like this for a while longer but they look nice on spec sheets I guess.
In the end Apple does what is important with the iPod. It plays music great and syncing it with your computer is very painless... as long as you use iTunes.
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03/11, 05:14pm |
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Please....
That thing looks like a 50 dollar piece of junk next to the iPod. Who in their right mind thinks that everyone needs all those features? It's like comparing a really good and fairly priced double locking blade style knife to an overpriced knock-off swiss army knife. I for one would never purchase such an ugly lump of dung.
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Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
Not too bad...
...but I'd still choose an iPod - the interface on that looks like it'd be hard to navigate through thousands of songs. You can browse through the iPod quickly with one hand. It also doesn't seem to have syncing capabilities. You have to manually drag your music over each time.