Comments on: Virgin takes on iPod

Company's new player offers 25 percent bigger hard drive and weighs less than the iPod Mini--for the same price.

Some Concerns...

OK.. i haven't researched this product yet.. but i have owned a Virgin mobile phone before.. and one thing that struck me was how *PROPRIETARY* they are.. there was no way to download your own games or ringers.. you had to buy what Virgin offered (and at several bucks for basically a midi a few seconds long you were totally getting ripped off) The phone even had the capability to support internet browsing... but Virgin had disabled it!

I guess what i'm worried about is that Virgin is going to make you buy songs from their company (or maybe even ones that they have contracts with...) and that consumers won't be able to load their own songs from their own collections...

I don't know that they're going to do this.. i'm just *concerned*

Sincerly,
Christine Margaux

[Greg Sparkman]

Open Standards!?

Since when is WMA an Open Standard?

OGG????

Where's the OGG support???
For that matter.. where's the OGG support in other players? :(

*sigh* now we see the supression of open-source projects inherent in the system! Now we see the supression of open-source projects inherent in the system!

*sigh*... whatever happened to the 1984 Apple commercial.. breaking from the norm and doing somthing completely new and different.. OGG support in iPods? of course not **rolls eyes**

You're right

Thanks for pointing this out. We've fixed the mistake in the story. Microsoft's WMA, like MP3 and Apple Computer's FairPlay DRM, is a proprietary format. Ogg Vorbis is a rare example of an open audio standard, but as others have pointed out, few products support it.

[dreadsword]

Too bad it looks like a typical PC product

I love the wanna-be Apple-destroyers come to market with products that look awful. Have the designers of PC products learned nothing from apple? Aesthetics matter!! The virgin player looks like a portable radio from 1987 - I'd rather take a hit on capacity and have an iPod mini which looks great and no doubt offers a better designed UI. Sheesh - come virgin - outsource design to IDEO or someone if you can't come up with something decent yourself.

Wow! WMA Support!!!

With open standards like WMA files masses will flock to this ugly
piece of sh#t!

The exact opposite of an Open Standard

Seriously, I don't know how anyone can report to the public that WMA is an "open standard." Being a proprietary MS format, it's quite clearly the exact opposite.

And even if it was a Virgin rep saying so, CNet still has a journalistic obligation to point out such obvious falsehoods. Otherwise, they have absolutely no credibility.

There should be a correction.

Corrected

You're right. Thanks to you and other readers for pointing this out. We've fixed the mistake in the story. Microsoft's WMA, like MP3 and Apple Computer's FairPlay DRM, is a proprietary format. Ogg Vorbis is a rare example of an open audio standard, but as others have pointed out, few products support it.

WMA is NOT an open standard

It is microsoft's proprietary format for DRM - they only
have an open license. And we all know how well MS did
after entering the browser arena late, then pounded
Netscape with IE, which created it's own standards and now
hasn't been updated in 2 years... because they have no idea
how to innovate on their own. IE is now the E-ticket to
spyware/viruses and all the stuff no one wants on the PC's.

You're right

Thanks for pointing this out. We've fixed the mistake in the story. Microsoft's WMA, like MP3 and Apple Computer's FairPlay DRM, is a proprietary format. Ogg Vorbis is a rare example of an open audio standard, but as others have pointed out, few products support it.

[Thomas, David]

U've GOT 2 B KIDDING!

Everything about that product, and the article simply generated
one reaction in my brain ... WHAT the !@#$$

A slightly larger number of songs and lighter weight, both of
which aren't really offering anything of value to the consumer.
Where is the form, where is the ease of use, where is the
elegance. Who in the world would choose a product that they
would be ashamed to show?

Oh yeah ... and please make sure that we don't mistake OPEN
with Microsoft again.

The iPOD has to much steam

The ipod has become the standard. It is not inbeatable but it has 3 things going for it
1. User interface by far the easiest
2. iTunes
3. Looks

the only con is it is pricey...

Nice effort but will hardly take on iPod

It takes more than just having good storage capacity and a cheap pricetag to be successful product. It figures that a PC product would completely underestimate design and usability, This thing looks like a garage door opener. The controls look very cheezy and not easy to use.

But that is what PC companies do I guess, make a sub-standard copy of someone elses idea and mass produce it, just look at Microsoft.

who came up with THAT business plan

gimme a break.
why don't they come out with a new dvd player
that plays their own format of dvd...:P

Virgin is basically a 'generic' brand

I read that Virgin mostly puts their name on products designed and offered by large assembly houses from Taiwan. I don't think they do much designing on their own... and it shows!