Introducing the “Medion AG Portable MP3 JukeBox220 MD” which features a 20 GB hard drive, 8 hr. battery life, shock protection, and also serves as mobile media storage unit (via USB 2.0) for documents, pictures (unlike Apple’s iPod photo, direct transfer from digital cameras is possible) & presentations, accoding to Medion. The unit features a mono blue backlit LCD 160×128 pixel display.
This portable music player also features, according to our own rough translation, “a unique navigation touchpad,” which closely resembles Apple’s patent-pending iPod scroll wheel.
The unit measures 107.5 x 65 x 18 mm (4.21 x 2.56 x 0.71 inches) and weighs 170 grams (6 ounces).
This product is currently available from Medion’s German website for €222,00 (approximately US$275) and plays WMA-DRM, WMA, and MP3 according to Medion’s website. Supported operating systems are Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP.
Medion’s German website is here. Naviagte to the product’s page by clicking “Medionshop,” then “TV, Video & HiFi,” and finally “Tragbare CD- und MP3-Player,” then scroll down to the last item.
How do you say garbage. . O yeah, just like that garbage.
Don’t push, don’t shove�there are plenty of these to go around. :^
What a complete Rip-off! It’s the best looking rip-off so far, but still…
Somebody’s about to get themselves some Steve Hammer!
See you in court boys.
If you can’t top the design….copy it.
This design reminds me of something….what do they call that thing?..uh?…oh yeah, an iPod.
Totally shameless. Medion, ich nicht liebe dich.
so, how do you say “Cease and Desist” in German ?
Seems like Apple Legal will have to brush up
five words:
someone is gonna get sued!….
Get your cheque books out guys cause youre gonna be writing some nice big fat cheques made payable to ‘APPLE’
If you can’t beat’em, join’em.
some companies have no shame @ all. it is truly sad!! well if you can’t beat em join dat what i say!
Just emailed Steve Jobs this – prepare for some action!
This item had been on special sale for 199 Euro at one of the large German food discount chains (ALDI).
At that occasion it was tested by “Stiftung Warentest”, Germany’s major consumer goods test institution. These guys have previously been critical of iTMS and of some Apple products, while they gave high marks to the iBook. The take home message of the test (http://service.warentest.de/online/bild_ton/meldung/1225975.html) was: “a weak attempt at copying the iPod”.
While they attributed good sound quality, they claimed that the “scroll wheel” doesn’t really scroll and is too slow, all the other buttons and controls are finicky to operate.
Take home message: even if they try to copy 1:1 they can’t match the original.
One thing though: they are honest with their description. The 20 GB, according to Medion, pack “up to 5000 songs, depending on compression rate”, and the battery life is the 8 hours of the 3G iPod.
The NavWheel looks like it infringes upon Apple’s patent. No an exact copy, but close enough to get sued. Calling Apple Legal.
i like the name. it rolls off the tongue nicely.
There’s a review here: http://www.dapreview.net/content.php?review.140
Apple has a patent pending, so they can’t sue for patent infringement until the patent is granted, and that could be years away.
I could understand all of this if the iPod were not available for PCs; there would be a mad scramble to be the top PC portable player. But, this is not the case.
Copying #1 will never make you #1.
It’s rather funny that Apple, many years ago, openly told their competition how to beat them: “Think Different.”
My personal take is that humans are inherently lazy; physically and mentally. As such, I am surprised only when something new and innovative comes along. The imitators and greedy have become the way of life, and the remainder of the population is too lazy to change it. Sad.
Bit like when Microsoft brought out Windows really…
Not.
Wo shouldn’t forget, there’s only one way to compete against the iPod: price.
The medion-player was sold for EUR 199 in Germany, the iPod (20 GB) is EUR 330. So it’s not the time to rest on past laurels, Apple.
The patent ‘pending’ was quite a while ago. They have their patent on the scroll wheel written in cement.
Can somebody explain to me why all these other MP3 players can manage to transfer picture files from camera directly, but iPods cannot? Is this because of technical issues or non-technical, strategic issues? I think this is one feature that is glaringly absent from iPod photo, but can be found in many newer MP3 players.
rf
As of Friday 12/3/04 at 10:37 PDT Apple’s scroll wheel patent is STILL pending – in other words” JJ “no cement trucks can be seen of felt.
I wonder if Apple can really patent that wheel that is so clearly derived from jog/dial video controls and old videogame potentiometers and joypads.
Juanxer has a good point. The iPod wheel may never get a patent because of “prior art”. But, Apple can sue now for unfair competition and copyright infringement, like they did when eMachines copied the iMac.