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Re: [ProgSoc] Rio Karma (DAP) experiences?



On 6/5/05, jedd <jedd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Sun June 5 2005 05:33 pm, Nathan de Vries wrote:
>  ] OK, as the subject implies I'd like to see if anyone on here has some
>  ] experience with the now-discontinued Rio Karma DAP. And to all you iPod
>  ] zealots:
> 
>  From memory I think the big problem with this device
>  was the lack of ability to drag-n-drop stuff into it without
>  some proprietary software on the host.  There was a GNU/Linux
>  capable client, but it was pretty ugly (some java app ?)
> 
>  Or maybe I'm thinking of the iRiver .. one of them had a
>  bodgy file system (bodgier than FAT, I mean).
> 
>  If it's discontinued, where are you getting it from, how much is
>  it costing, and how much life is left in the battery?  If you have
>  the opportunity to test it, run it with oggs (they chew up the
>  power faster than mp3s).
> 
>  Jedd.

One of the topics that always comes up when people discuss portable
music players like the iPod/Zen/iRiver is the whole drag-n-drop vs.
managing application thing. That is, some devices allow you ato add
and manage music on a filesystem level whilst others require an
interface to manage it like iTunes.. and generally the important bit
of information is left out...

If you have a drag and drop filesystem managed music player, the track
info has to be scavenged from each trackfile's ID3 tag info for almost
every query, which results in a fairly substantial performance hit
through the increased power consumption and delay in time when you're
searching for songs. This is compared to a managed, indexed (generally
flatfile) DB as managed by an application like iTunes or SonicStage
(horrendous app for Sony's new Walkman devices).

I'm just sick of hearing people bitch about needing apps like iTunes
and then never giving a reason as to why they are bad. Besides, its
easy enough to extract your songs from the bodgy logical file
heirarchy by using the stack of apps available out there.

Oh and Nathan, how does the thing respond to a drop test from 1metre
to concrete?
I've seen two shattered iRivers and 3 broken up Zen's from that (not
tested, just people fumbling their players and crying afterwards). I'm
almost wondering why apple doesn't do the whole mag-lite ad campaign
of driving over ipod's with trucks. I saw a 3G 10gb iPod go under a
car a while back and it came out almost ok - with a slightly cracked
screen - although it worked ok. I dropped my 3G iPod about 10times
from waist height - stupid belt clips - and when it broke after a year
and two weeks (I'm glad I had the AppleCare 2yr warranty) I took it in
and  found out the problem was a faulty battery batch, which meant
that most iPods with this batch were being returned much earlier than
their predicted 400-500 charge cycle lifetime. Walked out with a new
iPod too. w00t.

So yeah, drop test durability, filesystem vs. application management,
and considering you ride bikes, motored and otherwise, how about
aerodynamics?

-Andi.

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