Virgin unveils 5GB mini music player

[Mac Reporter]

Virgin will ship an own-brand 5GB HDD-based mini digital music player later this month.

The device, the Virgin Player, comes from the group's US-based Virgin Electronics subsidiary. The unit plays MP3 and WMA files, and includes support for Windows Media 10's 'Janus' DRM technology, branded 'Plays for Sure', by Microsoft. That means not just Virgin's own Virgin Digital service, but Napster and MSN Music.

In addition to digital audio playback, the VP sports an FM radio, and uniquely, we think, it has two earphone sockets, to allow users to "share" their music. But don't tell the RIAA, OK?

The VP weighs 87.9g and measures 9.5 x 5.5 x 1.5cm, so it's roughly the same size as the iPod Mini, Creative Zen Micro and others. The display is a 96 x 80 blue-backlit unit. According to Virgin, the player contains 32MB of RAM for 25 minutes' anti-skip protections

Full Story at The Register

[Mac Reporter]

In a related story, Virgin intruduced the Boomtube.

From MobileMag
To go along with your Virgin Player, Virgin also unveiled the Boomtube speakers, a $99 model is a bit slimmed down, and the $199 will give you more bass then you can handle (probably not that much, but have you heard aluminum enclosed speakers? They are sweeeeeeeeet). The speakers can twist on and off for easy portability.

[Edited on 10-12-2004 by Mac Reporter]

[right_stuff]

looks like a pager to me....:P

[Satoshi]

won't hell trade it for my pod.

[Polar Mac]

yeah so?? :dry:

[Tantantiniiin]

On the OT side,...

Virgin Player

What an oxymoron for product name =)

Maybe its for the virgin users (havent been 'podded yet), but never for current pod players.

Tantin

[piedad]

What keeps the iPod going and going is the tons of 3rd party add ons and peripherals and accessories...so it is cool!
Also, you can now buy the iPod most anywhere...
The only question really is who will be the 2nd most popular music player, as in any maturing product category, there will only be room for 2 players, rarely three (ie. coke vx pepsi, benz vx bmw, ibm vs hp, intel vx amd, visa vx mastercard, windows vs osx vx linux?)

[wari_aktiv]

Also on a side note, the presence of competition is bound to drive the iPod's prices lower in the future; which ultimately means good news for all of us...:roll:

Not that I would give up my mini for anything else of course... :P

And I doubt that anything else will come even close to the iPod on looks, ease of use, and general iconic status; Seems to me that that virgin thingy looks like the bastard child of a Gameboy and a Tamagochi... :roll:

@Tantin: "Virgin Player" hahaha! :lol:

[piedad]

"Despite increasing competition, Apple's iPod still rules the digital-music world, according to new reports from market researchers," David Becker reports for CNET News. "Research company The NPD Group said in a report released Tuesday that various versions of the iPod accounted for 92.1 percent of the market for hard drive-based music players, up from 82.2 percent a year ago. Players from Creative Technology and Digital Networks North America's Rio were a distant second