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Virgin tries to compete with the iPod mini

stoid

stoid

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 17, 2002
4,312
29
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Virgin Electronics unveiled on Tuesday a digital audio player with a 5GB hard disk, in a bid to penetrate the market dominated by Apple Computer's iPod.

The $249 Virgin Player, weighing 3.1 ounces, supports MP3 and WMA music formats and is capable of working with various digital music services, the company said.
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C-Net article

I'm thinking (hoping) Apple is going to be giving the mini a spec boost soon to push it through the roof for the Christmas buying season.
 
From the article:

Virgin said support for open standards such as WMA will let people select the music service of their choice.
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WMA being an open format. :rolleyes:

the choice of music services is overrated. similar libraries, similar prices and in the end, the same song. :rolleyes:

again, the hip factor and the interface will probably keep iPod mini in the lead. 1 more GB won't do much good if it's hard to use.

http://www.virginelectronics.com/is...C8HZVi_tx8o70bJx-4ARfc4Mc=?ProductSku=VM-0500

tuner is a good touch, as is dual headphone jack. (sort of.) but the thing is UGLY.

also, it's gonna feel less "solid" than the iPod mini. the weight is less but the volume is almost 50% more so i'd bet that it will feel airy and "cheap." (in fact, it's not much smaller than the 20 GB iPod - 5.6 cubic inches.)

iPod mini - 3.6 x 2.0 x 0.5 = 3.6 cubic inches, 3.6 oz.
virgin - 3.78 x 2.23 x 0.62 = 5.23 cubic inches (+45%), 3.1 oz.
 
That truly is ugly. I mean really, i would not want to spend over 100 dollars on that thing. Plus as the guy above me said (about the volume), i like a solid feeling player. I want it light, but not feel cheap. The Mini does just that. Plus who can beat the "ipod" name?
 
The Virgin Player 5GB rusn music purchased from: Virgin Digital, Real, MusicMatch and coming soon, any Plays For Sure compatible service. Songs downloaded from iTunes are not supported. Its their choice, not ours.
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they are clearly out to get apple.

also is there anything that virgin doesnt do?

the thing looks as ugly as hell and that scroll wheel thing look quite like the one off the 3g ipod but its square!
 
russed said:
the thing looks as ugly as hell and that scroll wheel thing look quite like the one off the 3g ipod but its square!
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it's not even a scroll wheel. from the description on their webpage, it's just an up/down button - you push harder to make the scroll go faster. :rolleyes:

it's gonna be really, REALLY hard to beat apple's interface. wheel design is just about the best there is, there's ample reason why from the human interface design perspectives. as long as apple got a (rightful) patent on it, it'll take more than just "me-too!" copying to beat it.
 
looks like an ugly brick sony ericsson phone my sister used to have. It almost looks like it could have changeable face-plates with the way the front is designed.
 
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