“Gateway will finally ship its long-awaited own-brand digital music player on 15 November, more than a year after its first move on the market was planned to debut,” Tony Smith reports for The Register. “The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox incorporates a 4GB hard drive and a 1.6in, 128 x 128 TFT colour display in its compact 96.4g, 9.6 x 5.9 x 1.7cm shell.”
“The device is pitched at Microsoft Windows Media 10-based music services – one month’s access to Napster’s Napster To Go offering is included… In addition to WMA and MP3, the unit also supports ACC, for which we think gateway means AAC, the format chosen by Apple for the iPod, though Gateway notes that its machine doesn’t support iTunes Music Store downloads,” Smith reports. “Picture support is limited to JPEG and BMP files, and can grab photos straight from a digital camera, via its USB 2.0 port. The MP3 Photo Player includes enough RAM – 32MB – for 16 minutes’ anti-skip playback and provides up to eight hours’ continuous music play thanks to an 820mAh battery… The MP3 Photo Player is set to ship on 15 November for $250.”
Full article here.
Gateway’s Press Release:
The new Gateway(TM) MP3 Photo Jukebox will give music lovers a new fun, affordable and very convenient way to take their favorite music and photos with them wherever they go.
The new Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox will make anyone currently on a waiting list for other mini-digital music players think twice. The new Gateway jukebox combines 4GB of storage in a small and lightweight 3.4-ounce design, with cool new features including a large color display, digital photo storage, and a removable and rechargeable battery.(1)
“This feature-rich digital music player is very small, sleek, easy to use and offers a combination of features that can’t be found anywhere else in the market,” said Ed Fisher, senior vice president of product planning for Gateway, Inc. “Combine its affordable price, unique features, music service
compatibility and out-of-the box Napster To Go Service, and you’ve got a great holiday gift for music lovers of all ages.”
The new device promotes a new way of enjoying digital music. Right out of the box, the jukebox comes ready to download music content directly from the new Napster To Go service, the world’s first portable subscription service. Available as a plug-in through the new free Windows Media Player 10, Napster To Go gives music lovers unlimited access to more than a million songs for one low monthly price. Rather than having to purchase individual songs a la carte, Gateway customers can use Napster To Go to get unlimited fill-ups of their MP3 Photo Jukebox. For a limited time, a prepaid month of Napster To Go is provided at no cost with the MP3 Photo Jukebox and customers who want to subscribe after the prepaid month pay only the $14.95 monthly fee.(2)
“Napster To Go offers an amazing value to consumers and the new Gateway MP3 Jukebox lets them experience this revolutionary portable subscription service on a smart, simple, affordable device full of features that are important to die-hard music fans and novices alike,” said Laura Goldberg, Napster’s COO. “We are extremely pleased that Gateway has developed a quality device that complements Napster’s service and will enable consumers to make the most of their digital music experience.”
Moving beyond the typical black-and-white displays available on most MP3 players, the Gateway jukebox boasts a large 1.6-inch, vibrant color display. The crisp and bright images give music lovers a better way to navigate their music library and view track information.
Unlike most other digital music players, the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox can store and display digital photos. This unique feature is perfect for people traveling on vacation or business who find they’ve maxed out their camera’s capacity, or who simply want to carry a collection of photos along with their digital music. Transferring photos to the MP3 Photo Jukebox is easy; the jukebox can be connected directly to a digital camera with the included USB 2.0 cable. By simply connecting the two devices and following the prompts, the photos are quickly transferred. The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox can be used to view digital photos one by one or in a slideshow format, giving the customer even more enjoyment out of the large color display.
The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox is simple to use. The large 1.6 inch color display is easy to read, whether viewing photos, playlists or track information. The intuitive scroll navigation makes accessing and managing content quick and easy. Music can be browsed by album, artist, genre, track or playlist, and modes such as shuffle and repeat tailor the music mix. Plus, music lovers can personalize their listening experience with more than 20 different equalizer settings.
After filling their Gateway jukebox with music and other content, Gateway customers have maximum listening time ahead of them, since the battery delivers more than eight hours of play time on a single charge.(3) And unlike most other digital music players, the battery can be removed and recharged.
Comfortable to carry in a pocket or purse, the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox is compact and sleek. It measures only 3.8in x 2.3in x 0.7in (L x W x D) and weighs just 3.4 ounces — less than most cell phones. And while the size is small, the sound quality is big. The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox delivers clean, crisp high-fidelity sound. Its large 4GB of storage capacity can house up to 1,000 MP3 songs — so an entire collection of great music can always be on hand.
The Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox will include the new Windows Media Player 10, offering Gateway customers more music and more choices including built-in access to a broad range of digital music services. It also includes the new Auto Sync feature, which automatically synchronizes customer’s digital music collections and photos from a PC to their new Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox.
Gateway plans to verify the new MP3 Photo Jukebox with the PlaysForSure logo when it ships in November. The PlaysForSure logo offers consumers a symbol of verified support for a broad range of music download services. This will also include support for the state-of-the-art Windows Media DRM 10 for music subscription services. Using a portable subscription service like Napster To Go, Gateway customers can fill their jukebox with enough music to fill hundreds of CDs, at a price of just a single CD.
Priced at just $249.99 the Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox comes with an AC Adapter, soft cover bag and ear bud headphones.
Wentworth has it right. The more inferior units come along, the better the iPod looks. At the low end of the food chain, they consume each other. They don’t take market share from Apple, but keep the whole digital music/player market buzzing along. It’s far short of saturation and can only expand. and Apple is well placed as market leader/dominator to continue in this role. It doesn’t sit back but keeps innovating. The also-rans are left in the dust because none have the “whole widget” approach for which Apple has been so often criticised. The chickens are coming home to roost on why Apple will continue to lead this market – vision, processes, innovation, marketing.
Plays for sure ? Plug it into a Mac and see if it plays for sure. � of pod rivals don’t work on a mac. Well not as easily.
PlaysForSure on 99% of PCs.
It is as cool as what the design of the new WV bug was when it was introduced a few years back. However, as cool as the re-design of the WV Bug was, it is certainly in a different class than the designs of BMW…
BTW…it is worth mentioning that the iPod Photo with the additional/costly Belkin add-on does allow photos to be uploaded to the iPod. However…you cannot view them on it! The only way they can be viewed is if they are then uploaded to the PC and downloaded again. This pretty much cuts the value of the “photo” aspect in half.
I love the color, the improved battery life, and the better screen resolution, but as far as photos go and the $100 price increase, this is disappointing.
It doesn’t seem to allow viewing the pix on a TV, as the iPod Photo does (there didn’t seem to be a video out listed in the specs). I’d also like to know how the photos are managed from a computer. The iPod Photo’s picture management via iPhoto provides the same seamless integration as music with iTunes.
The direct from camera thing is cool if you are on a trip w/o your laptop and want to store photos, but with a 1.6″ screen, I’d rather view them from my camera.
This guy sounds just like a professor I had. He was stuck in a Windows world. He kept trying to become an Apple user without using Apple products. He liked to say, if only Apple had done this or that in the past. Well prof, looks like Apple is leading the pack in every category they compete in. If only Apple’s name was Microsoft I guess.
Gateway has been run over. They are a discount broker. I wouldn’t trust thier products and I doubt people think Gateway is very cool. Dell could be a competitor, but they lack the focus to beat Apple at any particular thing.
Keep the competition coming though. Keep Apple great.
128 x 128 resolution?! That, in and of itself will make this product a complete joke for viewing photos.
My Treo 600 has a 160 x 160 screen and it is, in my opinion, completely unusable for viewing photos.
The iPod Photo as a 220 x 176 screen – over twice the resolution.
Given the price, I’ll take an iPod mini, than you very much.
all animosities aside, this product isn�t that bad:
– changeable batteries
– transfer photos directly from camera (can�t do that with ipod photo)
– “dock”-like connector at the bottom
– this feature set at this pice compared either ipod mini or ipod photo: could be a sweet spot for many,
Sorry folks, all in all, enderle�s review isn�t that far off. (Although he still is not takin into account the momentum ipod has gained)
And before anybody feels the need to start bashing me; thankyou very much, I�m still happy with my 1G ipod 5gb
yours
matt
PS.: A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both and deserve neither.
Thomas Jefferson